//------------------------------//
// Episode 2 - Chaos Stranding (Part 2) 
// Story: Sonic EGX (Book 1) 
// by Will of Radiance 
//------------------------------//

Twilight sat at her desk, reading her book. She couldn’t stop thinking about what happened last night, the night that mysterious object fell from the sky and nearly killed them. She currently had it with her in her bag, because she felt it was too risky to leave it at home. She put Spike in charge of watching it when she wasn’t watching it. She wish she could go back to equestria, where all of her texts on mysterious objects from other worlds are. She could research it over there, but the portal still isn’t opened yet. 

“Oh….I can’t take my mind off of that emerald.” Twilight thought as she slumped forward on her desk. She was completely stumped. She had nothing in her brain about an emerald from space that reacts caustically to equestrian magic. While she doubted that the school’s library had anything, she figured she could check it out anyways. 

“Hey Twilight, everything alright? You’ve been stressing out over that thing a lot recently.” Sunset Shimmer worried about Twilight stressing out so much. Twilight sighed, not knowing how what to think of this whole situation.

“Sorry, what happened last night really scared me.” Twilight explained her feelings to Sunset. 
“I’m just scared that this is something I don’t know how to react to.” Sunset understood how she felt, she had a lot of experience using friendship magic, so finding something that she didn’t understand about it would make her nervous.

“Don’t worry Twilight, we just need some time to- uh...figure things out! That’s all.” Sunset said to her. Twilight looked at her friend, grateful that she was being considerate of her. 

“Thanks Sunset, but this still concerns me a lot. I….just can’t help it.” Twilight replied, still thinking about what happened last night. Sunset sighed, she had been thinking about it too, and it worried her as well. However she knew that they needed to keep a level head, otherwise they will start making bad decisions and worsen the situation. Sunset looked at the clock and noticed it was time for class to begin. 

“Um, why don’t you think about it later, class is beginning.” Sunset told Twilight who hadn’t noticed. Twilight sighed disappointedly.

“Sigh Okay, we’ll inform the others about it after school okay?”  Twilight told her. 

“Right” Sunset quickly agreed. Some of the last of the class’s students entered the classroom. However one particular student caught Sunset attention with his black and red spiked hair. 

Shadow entered his algebra 2 classroom. He immediately noticed people’s eyes dart to him. He scanned the classroom for any prying eyes. He became suspicious of a certain yellow and red haired girl in the class when their eyes met momentarily. Only for her to immediately look away. Shadow thought nothing of it and looked for a place to sit.

“Oh I forgot! Um class!” The teacher rose from his seat when he noticed Shadow in the classroom. 
“Everyone, I forgot to mention that we have a new student here!” Shadow grunted a little under his breath. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself, but the teacher was doing just the opposite. All the student’s eyes were now on him. 
“Why don’t you introduce yourself to the class now.” The teacher smiled.  Some of the students were whispering about him to each other. They waited for him to speak. Shadow figured that he should just introduce himself and take a seat.

“My name is Shadow. Nice to meet you.” Shadow said as politely as possible, though his deep voice certainly didn’t help. The other students continued to look at him and whisper to each other about him. 

“Well, we're happy to have you here at Canterlot high! Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll get started.” The teacher pointed at a seat next to Sunset Shimmer. Shadow said nothing as he walked over to his seat. 

“What’s with that look on his face?” One of the students whispered to another, alluding to his perpetual frown.

“He looks like a delinquent.” Another student whispered. 

Shadow ignored their whispering and took his seat next to Sunset. Once Shadow took his seat, Sunset thought that while she was very suspicious of him, she thought she should at least try and be friendly with him.

“Um...Hi there.” Sunset said, trying to get his attention. Shadow glanced over at her. 

“I’m Sunset Shimmer. It’s um...nice to meet you.” Sunset said cheerfully. Shadow’s expression didn’t change. He thought that he didn’t have any business with someone he doesn’t know at the moment. He proceeded to look away from her.

Sunset felt a little uneasy at his cold demeanor. She thought that maybe he wasn’t much of a talker. She sighed, a little sad that he was the cold type. But just as she turned away from him, she heard him speak. 

“Nice to meet you too.” Shadow finally said with a hint of sincerity in his voice. Sunset was a little surprised by his response. She smiled a little at his reply. 

“Alright class. Since we have gone over a lot of the material in this class, I was thinking that today’s opening problem should be something much more difficult than before.” The teacher started speaking. Nearly the entire class groaned with disappointment at the assignment. 

“Now class! Don’t think for a second that math is useless.” The teacher started furiously writing on the chalkboard.  The problem to be solved spanned nearly the entire board. It consisted of several different segments, sometimes each enclosed in several brackets. Finally the teacher finished writing the problem. Immediately the entire class was baffled at the complexity of the problem.

“Is this a little overboard” One student whispered.

“Our teacher is completely bonkers.” Another said. 

While Twilight was no stranger to advanced equations, the way the professor wrote it made it extremely hard to follow.
“This is a little extreme even for me.” Twilight said to herself, still attempting to figure out the problem in her head, but to no avail.

“Now I’m sure at least a few of you have been paying attention, so I’m sure a few of you can answer this problem.” The teacher confidently spoke. The class remained silent. The teacher sighed disappointedly.
“Sigh Alright, perhaps to incentivise you, whoever answers this equation correctly will get extra credit. “ The teacher attempted to give the class a little more motivation. 

While it didn’t seem to do much, it did manage to get a few students to noticeably start thinking about it. Sunset herself was already thinking about it and in fact had almost come up with the answer in her head. She was about to raise her hand to answer to question, but another voice beat her to it. 

“I’ll do it.” Shadow said quickly. The entire class gasped as he spoke. Sunset and Twilight were particularly surprised. The teacher on the other hand was very pleased.

“Ah yes! Perfect! Can you please come up and give us the answer?” The teacher asked Shadow. Shadow got up from his seat, walked over to the chalkboard, and picked up the chalk. Some of the students continued to whisper to each other, commenting on his appearance, or demeanor. 

“The guy looks like a delinquent, he probably just wanted to show off or something” Some of the other students whispered to each other. 

“Heh, really? The guy with the absurd hairstyle is gonna do this problem?” A few female students giggled a little. 

As Shadow read the problem, he remembered his time with his creator, Dr. Gerald Robotnick. He remembered the doctor teaching him advanced calculus and physics whenever he wasn’t with Maria. It came easily to Shadow, especially in his young age. However, Shadow began to block the memories out, for he didn’t want the following memories to come flooding back. Sunset and Twilight watched Shadow with curious eyes. Sunset in particular was curious as to what Shadow would actually do. 

After analysing the problem for a good few seconds, Shadow started writing on the board. He wrote quickly, but not as furiously as the teacher. He wrote his answer on the board and set the chalk down. 
The class was rather surprised that he was able to answer it. Shadow stood back to let the teacher read his answer. 

“Will that suffice?” Shadow said aloofly. The teacher looked at his answer for a little while. He then double taked at how accurate his answer was. 

“I-um….that...is correct…” The teacher studdered. The entire class was taken aback. Some were impressed with his knowledge, others were skeptical. 

“Whoa, the guy’s real smart for a delinquent.” One student said to another. 

“Pfft...what a show off.” Another student arrogantly said under his breath.  
Sunset and Twilight were rather taken aback that he was able to answer the question correctly. 

“I wonder where he learned advanced algebra from.” Sunset speculated, her interest in Shadow began to rise. Twilight was both impressed and a little concerned. While she certainly didn’t doubt Shadow’s answer, his mysterious and somewhat cold aura made it somewhat uncanny.

“He certainly is a strange person.” Twilight kept her guard up. She knew anything could happen in this world, so she decided that she should tread carefully around things she doesn’t fully understand. 

“What makes you say that Twilight?” Sunset asked her.

“Oh! uh...I don’t really know. It’s just he seems….so…..well….” Twilight struggled to finish her sentence, then she noticed Shadow sit down next to them, his cold aura evermore imposing.

“...uh...cold….” Twilight finally finished her sentence as Shadow’s cold aura washed over her. 
Sunset looked back over at Shadow. His cold demeanor certainly didn’t go over her head. 

“Well, I do agree he doesn’t exactly strike me as the friendly type.” Sunset replied quietly as to not let Shadow hear her. But despite her attempts to hide her voice, Shadow could still hear her. 

“Hmph….It appears I made quite a stir with that. People are already starting to doubt me.” Shadow thought, knowing that he didn’t expect to make any allies anytime soon. He expected people’s opinions of him to lower now. 

“But I don’t know. He could be a nice person underneath all that.” He heard Twilight say a few seconds later. He was rather caught off guard by this. 

“Yeah I guess so. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover after all.” Sunset replied

After listening in to their conversation, Shadow began to ponder the possibility of them being potential allies. 
“They certainly aren’t hostile or confrontational. And there is something about them that’s different from the others. They may make reliable allies.” However he remembered the weight of their situation.
“But are they capable of handling a conflict of this scale? I have no idea what the inhabitants of this world are capable of.”After pondering for a little bit more he decided to play it safe. 
“Probably best not to involve anybody in this.” Shadow thought. However, he then remembered the two people he was stranded with.
“I better tell those two to not make any relationships here.” Shadow said to himself. 

“Hmm? You say something?” Sunset looked over at him with curious eyes. Shadow was unaware that she was listening to him. 

“Huh?....oh uh….nothing…..” Shadow replied, trying to divert her attention from him. 

“Hmm?” Sunset still was slightly suspicious of him. While she wanted to ask him more questions, the teacher began speaking, interrupting her thoughts. 

“Alright class, with that out of the way let us start the lesson.” The teacher said. Sunset and Twilight got out their pencil’s and notebooks. Shadow did his best to try and look like he’s paying attention, even if it wasn’t a subject he was interested in.


Meanwhile in another Classroom. 

“Now class, if you look in page 152 of your textbook, you’ll find….”	

Sonic was having the most boring time of his life. He was slumped forward over his desk, barely awake. The history teacher was rattling off terms and things that he didn’t even known, let alone interested. He let out a noticeable yawn as the disinterest further pushed him to go to sleep. Silver on the other hand was really into what the teacher was saying. He was writing down everything the teacher put on the board. 
Sonic was just about to fall asleep when Silver tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Hey Sonic, don’t fall asleep man. Aren’t you the least bit interested in this?” Silver whispered to him. Sonic grumbled tiredly as he looked over at Silver, slightly annoyed.

“Silver, were not here to actually go to school, we're supposed to find a way back home.” Sonic complained. Silver was befuddled by his statement. 

“Well at least we can try to blend in!” Silver whispered back while simultaneously writing down notes. Sonic let out another yawn and proceeded to stretch some more. 

“Yeah…..well you do that, I’m just gonna sleep...like him.” Sonic gestured to the student next to him, who was fast asleep on his desk. Sonic then proceed to plump his head on his desk, after which he immediately fell asleep. 

Silver rolled his eyes in annoyance of Sonic’s laziness, letting out a sigh. “I just don’t get you sometimes.” Silver said out loud. 

“You don’t get what Silver?” The teacher suddenly spoke to him. 

“Oh!” Silver jumped in his seat, he looked around and saw the other students looking at him awkwardly (the one’s that were awake anyways. 

“Uhhh….um….it’s nothing..uh..ma’am..” Silver apologized politely. The teacher then looked at Sonic who was asleep on his desk. 

“Mr. Sonic, can you give us the answer to question number 13 please.” The teacher spoke to him. Sonic remained asleep, much to the annoyance of the teacher and the amusement of the classroom.

 “Mr. Sonic!”  She said in a raised voice. 

The Silver’s anxiety rose the longer Sonic didn’t respond. He tried to nudge him gently to wake him up. 
“Sonic….!” Silver said between clenched teeth. He repeatedly nudged him frantically, trying to wake him up. 
“Sonic!!” Silver said slightly louder. 

“Hmm!!” Sonic swatted Silver’s hand away in tired annoyance. Silver having enough of Sonic’s defiance, grabbed him by his blue hair and slammed him on his desk.

“DAHH!! Silver! What the hell is wro-!” 

“Mr. Sonic!!”  The teacher said loudly.  Sonic fell silent, and looked around, the entire class was looking at him.  He remained silent as he didn’t know what to say. 

“Can you tell us the answer to question 13?” The teacher told him, with a stern look on her face. Sonic’s heart sank as he realized that he didn’t know any of the material. 

“Uhhhhh…..” However he eventually gave in.
“Sigh…..I’m sorry I don’t know.” Sonic admitted regretfully. The teacher sighed disappointedly.

“Sigh Well at least your honest about it. Just try and stay awake, otherwise it’s detention for you.” The teacher said firmly. Sonic gave a sigh of relief, that could have gone a whole lot worse. But his relief was short lived when he realized that he still had to sit through this boring class. 

“Hey Silver…..” Sonic said drowsily, his eyelids getting heavy once again. 
“How much longer do we have to sit here?” 

“You serious? It’s only been thirty minutes and there’s still two hours left of this class.” Silver replied. Sonic just sat there with a blank expression on his face before he plopped his head on his desk from the frustration of being in this situation. 

2 Hours Later

BRRRRRRNNNNNNGGGGGGG

The hallways of Canterlot High sprung to life with students pouring out of their classrooms, each chatting with one another. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer stepped out of their Alegbra 2 class. They were now talking about their next move regarding the mysterious emerald they found. 

“You wonder why it hurts us when we touch it Twilight?” Sunset asked, remembering the emerald’s volatile reaction to their touch. Twilight herself was juggling a bunch of ideas in her head as well.

“I don’t know much about that either. I’ll probably run some tests on it to see if I can get an idea of how it works.” Twilight told Sunset. She gave out a concerned sigh.

“I’m just concerned if we run into any trouble because of this.” Sunset began to catch on to how stressed Twilight seemed to be. 

“You really seem to be on edge as of late. ” Sunset asked her. Twilight noticed Sunset’s concern for her.
“I mean, you’ve been like this even before this. You sure you're alright?” Sunset continued. Twilight sighed in defeat and decided to explain her feeling to Sunset.

“I’m sorry, guess I’m still a little homesick. I shouldn’t worry you.” Twilight explained. Sunset gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t worry Twilight, no matter what happens, we’ll get you home safely.” Sunset said with a sincere and determined smile. Twilight gave her a heartfelt smile back.

“Thanks, I don’t know what I would do without you guys.” Twilight told her. 

Sunset gave her a reassuring smile, however she noticed Shadow exit the classroom. Shadow scanned to the hallway for a while, deciding what his next move should be. He recalled that he had lunch after class. So he proceeded to head for the mess hall.

“Hey look, it’s the new guy.” Sunset pointed at him. Twilight looked at him and got a strange feeling. Ever since he arrived in class, her magic senses have been going off, similar to how they went off when she was near the emerald. 

“Did you feel it Sunset?” Twilight asked if her magic senses felt the same thing. Sunset recalled her magic senses going off a little, but they weren't as acute as Twilight’s. 

“Yeah…” Sunset’s curiosity rose along with Twilight’s. 

“I’m gonna go talk to him.” Sunset began to follow him. 

“Wha-!? Hold up!” Twilight stopped her. 

“You sure about this? We don’t want to reveal our secret to him.” Twilight explained worryingly. Sunset gave her another reassuring smile.  

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell him anything. I got this!” Sunset confidently flipped her hair and went off to go talk to Shadow. 

Twilight sighed hoping Sunset is able to handle herself. 

“Sigh…...maybe this stress is getting to me, maybe everything will be fine.” Twilight told herself. Spike popped out of her backpack. 

“Yeah….as long as anything doesn’t happen to the mirror, we should be fine.” Spike reassured her. Twilight smiled at Spike’s cheerful reassurance. 

“Right! Now how about we head over to the library.  We’ve got some studying to do!” Twilight said. “You said it!” Spike agreed, and they both headed to the library, to try and find anything on the mysterious object.

Sonic stretched as he and Silver stepped out of class. He felt so relieved to get out of that desk he was confined to for two hours. 

“Ahhh! Finally! I thought my head was going to explode!” Sonic said full of relief. 

“Seriously could you be anymore stereotypical?” Silver rolled his eyes at Sonic’s lack of patience. The two headed towards the mess hall where they were to meet up with Shadow to discuss their next course of action, pushing their way through students. As they made their way to the mess hall, Sonic became curious about Silver’s time in the future.

“So Silver..” Sonic began talking to him. 

“Yeah?” Silver replied.

“So….uh…..what was it like in the future? Ya know….before all this?” Sonic asked him. Silver was slightly surprised that Sonic expressed interest in the future. 

“Well...things are certainly better. We are starting to rebuild what’s left, and it looks like people have hope for the future.” Silver explained, with hope in his eyes. Sonic felt happy that Silver’s home was doing good. 

“Heh, that’s great man.” Sonic complimented him. Silver smiled, heart warmed by Sonic’s compliment.

 “Um….did Blaze ever come back?” Sonic asked. 

The smile faded from Silver’s face, as the memory of Blaze sacrificing herself to seal Iblis came back. He sighed, trying to hold back his strong emotions. 

“No…...she’s still gone…..” Silver stopped in his tracks, his emotions rising, as the memory of blaze played in his head. Sonic stopped walking, noticing Silver’s sadness. Then Sonic began feeling sadness in his heart. He also considered Blaze a friend, and it saddened him to know that she wasn’t revived after Solaris’s defeat. But he knew Silver hurt the most from this loss. He went over and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Silver looked up at Sonic.

“I miss her too. But I’m sure she’s proud of how far you’ve come.” Sonic told him confidently. 

“Sonic I…..” Silver was so heartfelt by Sonic’s compassion that he didn’t know what to say. But he then took Sonic’s words to heart. He gave Sonic a determined smile.

“Thanks!” Silver said proudly to him, happy that Sonic was at his side. 

“Heh! That’s the Silver I know!” Sonic patted him on the arm.  Silver chuckled cheerfully at Sonic. But then they both heard growling, and it was coming from their stomachs. 

“Yeeesh, I’m hungry..” Silver rubbed his stomach. 

“You tell me, I don’t think we’ve eaten since we got here. Come on let’s go!” Sonic ran ahead of Silver towards the mess hall.

“Heh Yeah!” Silver smiled and ran off after him. However as he ran through the hallway, he accidentally bumps past a green haired boy.

“Oof! Uh Sorry!” Silver apologized. The boy didn’t say anything at first, but then he turned and glared at Silver, which made him incredibly uneasy. Silver backed away slowly, afraid of what he was going to do. The boy growled under his breath for a few seconds, before he turned and continued on his way. Silver let a sigh of relief, he thought the person was going to slug him. 

“Who was that guy?” Silver asked, still a little nervous. 

“Hey Silver! Come on ya slowpoke!” Sonic called from down the hall. With that, Silver turned and ran down the hall to join up with Sonic.  

Meanwhile, in another part of the school, Shadow was walking towards the mess hall, making his way through the crowds of students. As he walked, he decided to see if his powers came back. He quickly tensed his muscles, expecting his arm to crackle with electrical energy. But nothing happened. He sighed and continued on his way.

“I hope those two haven’t caused any trouble yet.” Shadow said to himself, reminding himself of Sonic’s capacity to cause trouble. 

Sunset peeked around the corner as she tailed Shadow. She sees him walking down the hallway, thinking he is oblivious to her presence. With that she came out from behind the corner and proceeded to walk down the hallway, walking at a slightly swift pace to catch up with him. As she approached, her magic senses began fluctuating.

“There’s obviously something up with this guy.  Never seen him before, so I should probably try and be on good terms with him first. “ Sunset thought to herself. She cleared her throat and prepared to speak to him.

“Um, hi there!” Sunset called out from across the hallway. Shadow paused and looked to see the yellow and red haired girl from earlier wave to him. He stayed on guard, wondering what this girl wants with him. 

“I couldn’t help but notice that you’re new here.” Sunset walked up to him, remaining friendly and sincere. Shadow still kept his guard up, but decided to respond to diffuse any unnecessary tension. 	

“Yes…...what of it?” Shadow replied. 

“Well, I just thought that you maybe would want some help knowing the place.” Sunset said sincerely. 

“I don’t need any help. Mind your own business” Shadow wasn’t ready to put his trust in a stranger just yet. He turned and started walking again. Sunset was befuddled at Shadow’s skepticism, and she wasn’t going to have any of it. 

“Wh....? Now hold on a second!” Sunset called out to him. She ran up in front of him and stood firmly in his path. Shadow stopped walking, as Sunset was standing in his way grumbling under his breath in annoyance. 

“You don’t have to be so cynical.” Sunset said to him sternly, not willing to back down. Shadow didn’t back down either.

“Who said I was being cynical? I just said I didn’t want any help.” Shadow replied calmly. 

“Well- still, I don’t see as a reason to push people away like that.” Sunset argued back. Shadow began to get slightly annoyed with her. 

“Sigh….look, I already established that I’m new here. And I’m not ready to put my trust in a stranger just yet.” Shadow’s tone got slightly more fierce. 
“Now if you’ll excuse me.” He walked around Sunset and continued on his way. 

But Sunset wasn’t about to give up yet. 
“Let me ask you….” Sunset questioned him. Shadow decided to stop momentarily to hear her out. 
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Sunset asked decisively. 

Shadow doubletaked. Then he realized that he didn’t even know where the cafeteria was. He grunted under his breath in slight embarrassment. Sunset smirked at his little blunder. 
Shadow slowly turned around to speak to her. 

“Okay ...maybe I don’t know this place as much as I thought.” Shadow begrudgingly admitted to her. He honestly had no idea where he was going. Sunset giggled a little at how he got flustered. 

“Well, that’s all you had to say if you didn’t know where to go.” Sunset dropped her stern tone for a more friendly one. 
“So how ‘bout it? I give you a tour of the school, and you won’t get lost again. Plain and simple!” Sunset said cheerfully, hoping that her optimism would win him over. 

Shadow took a moment to weigh his options. 
“I still don’t trust her, for all I know she could be trying to pry into our secret.” Shadow thought to himself, still looking at Sunset, who still had a sincere smile on her face. 
“But then again…...I don’t know that much about this world, so maybe I could get some valuable information about this place. But I’ve got to stay on guard.” After thinking for a few more seconds, he finally had his answer.

“Sigh Alright you win. Show me around this place.” Shadow answered her. 

“Great!” Sunset cheered, happy that Shadow came around. 
“Just follow me then. I’ll give you the grand tour!” She gestured for him to follow her as she walked down the hall. Shadow reluctantly began following her. 

"Be quick. I’m not here to be a social butterfly.” Shadow commented cynically. 

“Don’t worry! We’ll be done and at the mess hall in no time.” Sunset said, still miffed at how cynical he was being. 
“What is his deal anyways? I get that he’s anti-social, but he takes the cake for that stereotype!” Sunset thought to herself. 

“She’s a nice girl I’ll admit.” 

Sonic and Silver opened the doors to the mess hall, where they saw dozens of students sitting at tables eating their lunch, chatting amongst each other, and doing various other things like doing their homework. 

Sonic and Silver smelled the food that was being prepared, and it only made their stomachs growl harder. 

“Oh man, It’s about time I got my hands on a Chili dog. I’m starving.” Sonic said after smelling the food in the air. 

“I wonder what kind of food they have here?” Silver said curiously. However, he noticed some of the other students turn their eyes to them.

“Uh I think we better move, people are looking at us.” Silver said to Sonic, trying to push him along. 

“Yeah but what about Shadow? He was supposed to meet us here.” Sonic stated, remembering that they would meet Shadow later at the cafeteria. 

“We’ll just have to wait for him, come on!” Silver pushed Sonic towards the line of students over by the buffet. 

They both grabbed a tray and waited in line. The line was considerably long so they couldn’t exactly see what was up on the menu. Sonic quickly grew impatient.

“Ugh! I never signed up for this!” Sonic complained. 

While Silver was irritated with Sonic’s complaining, he couldn’t help but agree with him, for he was starving. However his attention was diverted when he heard a female voice pass by. He turned to look out of curiosity. He saw a girl with white skin, Curled Purple hair, and diamond blue eyes. She wore a white dress shirt, a purple skirt with a three diamond pattern on it, and purple boots. 

She was walking by the line with a tray of food with another girl. For some reason Silver couldn’t take his eyes off her. He thought she was beautiful. When she smiled, she was even more angelic. Her beauty caused him to not pay attention to his surroundings. 

“Silver?” He heard a voice say to him, but he didn’t respond to it. 
“Silver!!” The same voice yelled at him. He suddenly snapped back to reality. He stood with a blank look on his face as he saw that the line had moved, and Sonic was further up. 
“You’re holding up the line.” Sonic said casually. Silver looked back to see the line of students looking slightly irritated or raising an eyebrow at him. He suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed. He let out a nervous chuckle.

“Heh Heh...uh sorry.” Silver apologized nervously before moving up the line. 

After ten minutes, they finally managed to get to the food. There was a moderate variety of food, like mac n cheese, chips, cereal, etc. What you would usually find at a school cafeteria. However Sonic didn’t care about most of that because he was busy looking for the Chili dogs. He was not pleased

“Grrrrr…. come on where are you?” Sonic said eagerly, his stomach growling more as he looked. 

Silver on the other hand had grabbed a sizable portion of mac n cheese, along with some chips and a drink. He noticed that Sonic had not grabbed anything yet. 

“What’s up, aren’t you hungry Sonic?” Silver asked, grabbing a cupcake. Sonic continued to look frantically for any chilidogs. 

“Aw come on!” Sonic complained as he couldn’t see any sign of a chilidog, or a regular hot dog for that matter. However he saw the cafeteria lady on the other side of the buffet. He figured that maybe he could ask her. 

“Uh excuse me?” Sonic called to her. The cafeteria looked over in his direction as she was refilling one of the trays in the buffet. 

“You don’t happen to have chilidogs do ya?” Sonic asked her. The lady gave him a confused look. 

“What?” She answered. 

“I said do you have any chilidogs?” Sonic repeated, getting slightly annoyed. The lunch lady just continued to give him a confused look. 
“..........................Never heard of em’” She finally replied. Sonic’s mind went blank for a second, his brain trying to process what she just said. 

WHAAAT!!??” Sonic blurted out loudly. 

“Wah!- Sonic what the-?” Silver was startled by Sonic’s outburst.

“You’re kidding me right!? Please don’t tell me you just said that!” Sonic was up in the lunch lady’s face, unable to take in what she just said. 

“Oi kid what’s your deal!?” The lunch lady demanded that he backed off.

“You don’t understand! I can’t possibly live without-”

 Silver panicked as he looked to see the other students giving him  and Sonic suspicious and weird looks. Silver bolted forward and grabbed Sonic by the hair.

“OW Hey! Silver! What are you-!?” Silver pulled him back. The lunch lady had an incredibly irritated look on her face. 

“What’s his problem?” She asked as she scowled at the two of them. 

“Uhhhhh..he’s just having a rough day alright” Silver chuckled nervously as Sonic fought against the grip on his hair. 

“Is he now?” The lunch lady raised a suspicious eyebrow. 
“Well he better behave or otherwise he’s out of the messhall. Got it?” 

“Heh heh yes ma’am.”  Silver laughed nervously and proceeded to drag Sonic by the hair down the line. 

“Grr hey Silver knock it off will ya!” Sonic got Silver to let go of his hair. 

“Geez you didn’t need to be so rough!” Sonic complained. Silver rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Did you forget that we are in unknown territory? Last thing we need is to attract unwanted attention. “ Silver said, grabbing a hot dog. 

Sonic eyed Silver’s hot dog, and he immediately envisioned steaming hot and delicious Chili slathered all over it. His mouth began salivating and stomach began growling.

“B-But my Chili Dog…” Sonic whimpered, distressed at the fact that he probably won’t be seeing another chili dog for some time. Silver rolled his eyes and put a hot dog on his tray. 

“Oh quit being such a baby.” Silver replied, and went off to go find a table. Sonic sighed frustratedly and followed suit. 
Nearby a certain Rainbow haired girl was eyeing the two. She raised an eyebrow, wondering exactly who those two were. 

“Who the heck are those two?” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. However another thought entered her head.
“.....and where the heck is Sunset?”



“.....And right here is the library. CHS has quite the collection of books, so I’m sure you won’t get bored.” Sunset introduced the library to Shadow. Shadow took a brief look at CHS’s library, it had two levels, both with tall bookshelves, at the top was a glass dome which allowed light to pass through. He took a few moments to survey the library’s layout. 

Sunset still maintained an air of cautiousness around Shadow. She was keeping an eye out for any suspicious behavior from him. “He seems to be acting normal. Though that doesn’t explain my magic senses going off.” Sunset thought to herself. 

“Hmph, looks nice I guess.” Shadow commented. He then turned to head to the next place. Sunset ran up in front of him. She thought for a moment about what she should say to him next. She wanted to know more about him, but didn’t want to probe too much to make him uncomfortable.

“So are you from nearby or did you just move into town?” Sunset asked him. Shadow didn’t want to answer her question, but he didn’t want to make her any more suspicious so he decided to make up a story.

“I’m from out of town.” Shadow said half truthfully, hoping that it was enough to stop her asking questions. 

“Really? Where are you from?” Sunset asked further, turning to face him, walking backwards as they went through the hall. Shadow grunted under his breath. He decided to make up another backstory. 

“Well, I’m from a small town on the coast. The town isn’t even on the map so you wouldn’t know it.” Shadow explained. Sunset smiled at him, happy that he at least gave an answer. 

“So what’s it like back home?” Sunset further asked. 

“I don’t want to talk about it” Shadow decided that he had lied enough. Sunset assumed that he had a troubled past.


“Oh…...okay…..sorry” Sunset apologized, worried that she may have triggered some unhappy memories. Speaking of unhappy memories, her mind flashed back to the time when she was a much more cruel and manipulative person. She stopped walking for a moment as the memories came back, rubbing her arms nervously. Shadow noticed her change in behavior.

“Is something wrong?” Shadow asked her. Sunset heard him, but didn’t respond at first. Her heart cringed as she remembered how badly she treated everyone back then. But she got back control and shook off the bad feelings.

“Sorry, just had some bad memories.” Sunset replied. She walked ahead of him. Shadow wondered what she was thinking about. “Bad memories huh?” Shadow thought, relating to her on a certain level. However he remembered what he was supposed to do and continued following her. 

The two came up on the mess hall. Sunset knew that this was the last place to show him. 

“And last but not least we have the mess hall. It opens at 11:30 am and closes at 1:30 pm. And since it is the end of our tour, we have about….” Sunset checked her phone to look at the time. “an hour and a half left for lunch.” Sunset finished explaining.
Shadow could hear the students behind the door. He knew it was crowded. Of course it wouldn’t impede him from finding Sonic and Silver since he could spot them from a mile away.

“And I assume that’s it right?” Shadow asked Sunset. 

“Yep, that's pretty much the whole school.” Sunset nodded at him. Shadow went over what he learned in his mind. While he hadn’t completely memorized it, he still had a good idea of the schools layout, and he had Sunset to thank for that.

“I learned alot about this place. Thanks.” Shadow thanked her, trying to sound as polite as he can be. Sunset giggled cheerfully at his compliment. 
“You’re welcome!” Sunset replied sincerely, happy that she helped out someone. Shadow was taken aback by her sincerity.

“What’s with this girl? I came here expecting everyone to be on my case. But she was willing to help me, a total stranger, on a whim.” Shadow thought. 

“Well anyways. I should get going.” Shadow told her. 

“Right! Also if you have any other questions feel free to ask me!” Sunset replied, closing her eyes excitedly. Shadow was certainly endeared by her sincerity, he remembered that he had a mission to do. 

“Hmph. I guess so. See you around.” Shadow said discreetly.

“Yep! No probl- Huh!?” Sunset opened her eyes to see that he had completely vanished. She looked around, but she didn’t see him anywhere. 

“.......Weird guy.” Sunset said to herself, pondering on how he managed to slip away undetected, and who he was exactly