That night Twilight explained the basics and sent a few pics with her own solution to help me get started. Which did help me greatly. However she had to take care of Spike and her own studies so she had to leave the call rather early. But I was more than ready to do my homework.
It took me about an hour to figure things out and be done with them. To which I say I did really well considering I didn't pay attention in class. I recall back then I forced someone to do my homework. Not proud of it though. If anything I'm more ashamed but all I want to say is, figuring stuff out for yourself can be fun. Granted, you might need a hand to get going but still.
The next day I had to walk to school again. But I wasn't in the right mood so I decided to take a bus instead. And thankfully it was not crowded like most of the time. I sat on one of the seats and listened to some music with my headphones on the way. I still hadn't decided what I wanted to do about how I was going to tell the boys about my past and the whole thing about Equestrian magic. It would be very hard to take in all at once but, it would be very incomplete and unclear otherwise. Not that it would come as clear and easy to understand but rather, easier to maintain? I don't know.
Even though I still needed to find a solution for that issue, I had to focus on Steely Armor and whatever he was hiding. Then, it had to be my main concern since I had to deal with it sooner than the other one. After a while, I got to school. The bus stops right in front of the school which is very convenient. There isn't really a station there but since it's Canter lot city's main school, it gets a special treatment.
The school was more crowded this time when I got there. Probably because we had sports that day. I was heading to my locker once again. I came face to face with Rainbow Dash on the way.
"Hey Sunshim!" She put her hand on my shoulder and joined me on the walk.
"Hey Rainbow! How is it going?"
"Nothing special, just enjoying the 'Vroom Vrooms' of my bike every morning and afternoon." She mimicked being behind the motorcycle again. "How about you?"
"Nothing much, I just have a lot in my mind." I sighed. "Have the girls shown up?"
"Not yet. But I know pinkie will be here soon."
"Yeah, kinda surprised she hasn't showed up yet."
"Yeah..."
We stayed silent for a couple of seconds until Rainbow Dash decided to break the silence. "Oh, right! uhm Sunset!"
"yeah?"
"Vice principal Luna wanted to see you. She asked me about you earlier this morning."
"Wait...for what?"
"I don't know. But the kids say one of the lockers near the lab had been blunted badly somehow. She is probably trying to figure out who did it."
"Huh...right..." I said as I went deep in thoughts. I should have known that Vice principal Luna would have probably tried to get to the bottom of the blunted locker the moment she heard about it. Like "duh!" of course she would! "...Wait! What did you mean by the last part?"
"Uhm...nothing!' She rubbed her eyes away from me.
"Riiiiiiight..." I rolled my eyes over.
"FINE!" She gave up on holding back. "I did think that she thought you might be a part of it. But I didn't think that you might be a part of it." She looked me in the eye after that. "I would never think that."
"I know." I smiled. "I was just pulling your leg. Besides It doesn't bother me that much anymore."
"OHHH!" She rolled her eyes, and gave me a nudge. "You got me good!"
After that I left her and went to vice principal Luna's office. I knocked and as soon as she said "come in" I opened the door and entered. The windows were covered with blinds. Sometimes I wonder if she ever let sunlight come in at all. I've been in her office many times, for various reasons. But never have I seen those blinds up.
She herself was sitting behind her desk and working with her computer.
"You wanted to see me?" I said to catch her attention.
Vice principal Luna switched her gaze from the screen of her computer to me. "Sunset Shimmer, yes." She stood up. "Take a seat."
I sat down on one of the chairs and then she continued.
"Yesterday I found a blunted locker. It looked as if someone smacked it with a hammer. And not just once." She came close to me and bended.
"And?" I asked, pulling my face back a little.
"There were some issues with the cameras of that section. They blacked out. However I did see you walking there on one of the cameras." she stepped back.
"So?" I raised my eyebrow. I was not sure if she was suspecting me or not but I wasn't feeling good about the situation.
She sighed, "I know it was not you, it was quite clear to us that you were merely just passing by." She paused and crossed her arms. "At least that is how the camera's show it."
"Right. But I still don't know why I am here." I pointed down.
She looked me in the eyes once again. "We believe that you might have been able to identify the suspect..." She stepped closer, "...have you?"
Now the question was whether I sell Steely Armor or not? On one hand that way I might have gained some insight to what exactly he is doing but on the other hand, I was technically back stabbing someone I am trying to break the ice with.
"Sunset Shimmer?"
"YES!"
"We are still awaiting your answer."
"Well...." I rubbed the back of my head. "You see, I don't really have an Idea of who did that, maybe if I think a bit more I might figure it out but I don't think I can name someone with certainty now."
Vice principal Luna glared at me. "Fine, you may leave. But keep us informed."
"Of course!" I stood up and left her office at once.
Sadly there was not much time to catch up with the girls, I had to head to class. Chemistry of all things! Not saying I don't like it. Just that it's not very entertaining.
After class, I met up with Twilight first and foremost.
"Hi Twilight!"
"Oh, Hi Sunset! Didn't see you this morning with the girls. Rainbow Dash said you had to visit vice principal Luna." She tightened her eyes before continuing. "You didn't just...tell the whole thing to her did you?"
"If by the whole thing you mean selling Steely Armor, then no. But there is something else."
Twilight's eyes widened. "What!?"
"Vice principal Luna has noticed what has happened to the locker. Though she can not find who did it because the camera's in that section were not working properly. For...some reason." It started to feel very suspicious that the camera's just conveniently stopped working in that exact area that Steely Armor was.
"Then what were you doing in her office?"
"Apparently she spotted me nearby by the cameras and thought maybe I would know something." I shrugged, "Or at least that is how she made it sound like."
"Huh." She rubbed her chin. "Wait!" She looked me in the eyes before continuing. "Do you even plan on telling her about Steely Armor, even if...he doesn't budge?"
I sighed before answering. "Of course not."
"NO?" Twilight's head went back.
"Yeah, I'm not gonna sell him! It's just not cool. Besides, he is a new entry and ever since the things that had happened in the school, principal Celestia and vice principal Luna rather not take the chances and will straight out expel him."
Twilight's eyes widened in shock, "Really?"
"Temporary expel at best." I bit my lip.
"That is just....not fair."
"I mean..." I moved my hand around in the air, "...That happens if they are doing something weird, and not necessarily just breaking the rules or damaging stuff. Though In Steely Armor's case..." I rubbed the back of my head, "well it's just, very shady."
"I see," Twilight said as she looked down and rubbed his hand.
I wondered if she felt she was responsible for the current situation with the new entries. She seemed very down when I mentioned how the staff watches the new entries now. But even if she had a part in it, she was only a victim.
"Hey." I nudged her with my elbow. "Where is Spike?"
Twilight adjusted her back pack, "OH!" She then sighed. ``he was very tired so I let him stay at home. I sort of forgot that he wasn't in the bag today."
"I doubt I will ever feel the same with Ray. Half the time he just sneaks up on my cheek without me noticing and the other times he is just doing his own thing."
Twilight smiled, "Don't you ever lose him? Like, he is small."
"Sometimes I think I have..." I nodded, "...But then I check in the mirror and see he has been sitting on my head the whole time."
Twilight's smile turned into laughter and gave me a little push. "You should have seen Spike's face that time I busted him eating a snack at night."
"Let me guess, he was probably like..." I widened my eyes, brought my lower jaw back and looked at Twilight from the side.
The moment Twilight saw me with that face she chuckled loudly. "Pretty much!"
We both slowly let out the rest of the laughter we were holding on after that. I dare say I managed to cheer Twilight up so much that she probably lost her train of thoughts.
"Hey, uhm," Twilight said.
"yes?"
"So...what are we going to do about Steely Armor now?"
"I'll talk to him. I might have to threaten him by saying that I will snitch on him and what might happen, but it's for the better." I shook my head.
Twilight took a second to gather her thoughts again by looking away. "But, what if that doesn't work too?"
I sighed and looked her in the eye before answering, "Then I officially have the privilege to use my magic."
"Sounds...sensible." Twilight nodded. "Are we going to do that now?"
"No, let's put it on for the second break. We get more time that way. Besides, I wanted to talk to you about something else."
"I hope you don't want to come to my house for the weekend so that I can tutor you more on physics," she sighed.
"What? No!' I shook my head, "Hold on. I thought you said you were fine with torturing me. Was I...bothering you last night?"
"Oh, No!" Twilight closed her eyes and held her head for a second. "It's just that, the schedule will change from next week and I still haven't finished my day-to-day task list. Version 2.0 that is!"
"Oh! Right. Anyway, I wanted to talk about something else," I said and I stopped walking.
Twilight too stopped and responded. "Sure."
I gathered my thoughts before starting. "I've been wondering about how we are going to tell the boys about all the things that have happened here. Should we even tell them to begin with?"
"Oh! So you were wondering about it too." She played with her hands.
"Not until recently but, you were?"
Twilight adjusted her glasses and bit her lip. "It came up a couple of times when Steely Armor and I were trying to make sense of our theories. He also asked about it before but I avoided answering.
"But we can't avoid answering forever," I sighed.
Twilight said nothing and just nodded.
I took a deep breath to help me think better, but it did not make the cut. "I uh, I have to go, sorry see you in next class."
"See you."
I walked to the bathroom and washed my face in hopes of feeling a bit refreshed but it was not helping. I was just standing there staring at my own reflection in the mirror. It seemed that the issue I thought was so little was apparently way bigger. But should I have focused on that or Steely Armor and whatever he was hiding? In my mind at that point, one was simply something we just had to explain eventually and the other was having the risk repeating what happened in the friendship games. And It was obvious what I went for.
After the Geology class Twilight and I asked for Steely Armor to stop for a second. We decided to cut to the topic right away. Or should I say, I decided to do so.
"Look Steely Armor, I know you were the one who shot that tennis ball from the lab yesterday. And don't even try to convince me that was normal! Because It was not!"
Steely Armor stared at me, without any sort of emotion in his face. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, so you want to deny it! Well that's not going to work since I am one hundred percent sure that I saw you!" I pointed my finger at him and kept my eye contact.
Twilight held my arm and tried to calm me down. "Sunset! This is not what I pictured when you said 'talking'."
Steely Armor stared at my finger and blinked twice. His face still lacked any emotions. "I do not understand what you two are referring to. Please provide more context," He said with the least amount of mouth movement possible. His jaw was awkwardly moving.
I made twilight let go of my arm, "Look, just tell me one thing!" I stood tall and stared at his dead eyes. "What was that blueprint that I saw in your garage about? What are you doing? And you better not try to say 'It's not important!' because if you don't give a proper answer right now, I will have to tell vice principal Luna that you are responsible fo-"
"I'm afraid I must leave. Please excuse me!" he interrupted me and started to walk away instantly.
He was on my nerves at that point. I literally wanted to shout but I decided to play it smart and hold his hand real quick. I stepped forward and took hold of his wrist. It felt cold and not...normal. Steely Armor stopped and turned to see why I held his hand.
Seconds passed and I was in anticipation of seeing him through his memories...but nothing. Nothing at all! It was as if my magic was not working.
"Why are you holding my left hand?" Steely Armor asked.
I stared at the hand for a second and let go. "Nothing..."
He then continued walking as if nothing happened at all.
Twilight walked up to me slowly, "Sunset? Are you...alright?"
I was still lost by why I didn't see his memories. All I was paying attention to was how Steely Armor was walking away. Suddenly before noticing, I was running after him down the hallway. He took a left turn at the end, towards the janitor's closet? For a second I was like: why?
However, the moment I turned left at the end of the hallway, he was gone. That hallway is just a dead-end that only leads to the janitor's closet. And only he himself was walking there. Only him and his mop.
I didn't even look back to face Twilight. "Where did he go?"
Twilight leaned forward and looked down the hallway. "I...don't know." she turned me around to face her. "What was that all about?"
I shook her off and set a little distance between ourselves. "It...doesn't make sense..."
Twilight raised an eyebrow and held my shoulder. "What doesn't make sense?"
I looker in the eye before responding, "I did not see his memories..."
"Wait but, you were holding his wrist!"
"Yes. But I saw nothing. Is my magic...'' Before I completed that train of thought, I held Twilight's hand in my own. I sensed her warm soft hands and instantly, My sight turned into a vision of her memories. I let go of her and soon afterwards. "...It's working..." I was lost. I couldn't understand what was happening. Why couldn't I see Steely Armors memories? Was I not touching him? No, I was clearly holding his wrist. Then why didn't my magic work on him? He wasn't wearing a long sleeved shirt either. His shirt didn't even cover his elbows. Why did his hands feel very unnatural?
Before I could drown myself any further, Twilight pulled me out of my thoughts. "SUNSET! ARE YOU LISTENING?"
"Y-yeah. I'm here."
"What has gotten into you?"
"...I...I don't know." I was still dazed.
Twilight looked at me silently.
"What is going on?" I asked.
Twilight sighed, "let's go drink some water."
I said nothing, I just nodded and continued walking with her to the nearest water fountain. But the thoughts didn't let go of me. It was getting more and more weird. I drank some water from the fountain. I could feel my brain overheating over trying to figure out what happened but thankfully the cold water helped to calm me down. After that I took a really deep breath. I leaned on the wall and kept my head up, looking at the ceiling, still wondering.
Twilight came closer to me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Are you feeling better?"
"I...think?"
She looked at me nervously, "Are you going to tell me what happened and why you were so aggressive towards Steely Armor?"
I dragged my hands on my face. "It.." I sighed and decided to try my best at explaining what happened, "First off, I felt being a bit more forward can be helpful in order to get him to tell us what he is doing."
"What made you think that way?" Twilight raised her shoulders and hands in the air.
"Because all the other times that either you or me talked to him, he didn't budge," I said furiously!
Twilight stepped back, and looked away, "Did that same approach work with me?"
I turned my head and looked at her, "I..." I was speechless. "You're right...that was a bad Idea." I held my head with my hands, "Sorry."
Twilight sighed and turned back to face me, "It's...fine." She then picked her glasses from her face and took out a cloth from her pocket and started cleaning the glasses. "So, what did you see in his memories and why did you start running after him?"
"...Nothing..."
Twilight put her glasses back on, "What?"
"I saw nothing..." I repeated as I shook my head in disbelief. "...like my magic just...didn't work."
Twilight stood in silence. I believe she too was trying to make sense as to why my magic didn't work. "So, that's why you held my hand-"
"-To see if my magic was working or not, yeah." I completed her sentence. "And...he just...I don't know made me irritated and I was just so puzzled by the fact that my magic didn't work that I ran after him to continue my words or whatever with him." I sighed before I continued, "And guess what, he magically disappeared."
Twilight just shook her head in loss. It seemed even she couldn't make sense of the situation.
Before we could continue our discussion, we had to head to our next class. I shook my head in loss and continued walking to my class with Twilight
I don't think I need to say I was not in the mood to listen to the subject. I was continuing my thoughts on why Steely Armor was acting oddly that day. He usually keeps quiet and doesn't say much. This time however, he seemed confident? Not sure if that is the right word but, he did not feel like always. Not to mention that he had barely any expressions on his face. Actually let me correct myself, he had no expressions on his face. And to top it all, both my magic didn't work on him and he somehow vanished in a dead-end hallway. This whole thing was getting more and more complicated and I barely had any clue as to what Steely Armor was doing. But I bet that his bestie could grant some information.
After class I walked around in the halls looking for Flaming Star. It was launch time so most of the students head to the cafeteria right away. I could have simply waited around for him to show up there but, he always sits next to Steely Armor and I wanted to talk to him alone. Therefore I started venturing through the hallways, looking in every corner to find him and eventually I caught him at his locker.
I took a deep breath and walked forward. "Hi."
"Oh, Hi!" he turned his head to me.
"I wanted to say sorry for yesterday, I sort of remembered I had to do something important."
Flaming Star closed his locker and locked it real quick before responding. "It's alright, I understand." He then looked away for a second. "Besides, I mainly wanted to make sure you were not mad about that other day.
"I was." I smiled, "But I let go of it when I heard you sorted things out with your father."
Flaming Star raised his eyebrow, "You mean, it wasn't because of the flowers?" He smirked.
I rolled my eyes, "Maybe..."
Flaming Star chuckled a little. "So...are you heading to the cafeteria?"
That was what I've been waiting for. "Yeah...I just wanted to drop by and apologize for yesterday and all of that." I nodded. As I started walking away, he too started walking next to me. Now I have to be wise. I only had a brief moment to try my best and get something out of him.
"So, what do you think about the schools so far?" I asked.
"Well, It certainly has a more friendly atmosphere than Falcon Stone. The kids there were..." He took a pause, "...very frustrating."
"How so?"
Flaming Star sighed before responding, "They all were...arrogant and a bunch of jerks. Some bragged about their status and their marks and some leeched to them. Every single exam, question or something always turned into a pointless competition."
"What about you and Steely Armor?"
He looked at me for a second, "We...well we minded our own business most of the time. Just me and him." He scratched his hair and continued, "But I am glad we moved, even if it was mostly because of our Magic " He made air quotes. "Steely was quite under pressure in Falcon Stone. And the tuition was not easy for his family anyway."
"Wait, then why was he there? Why didn't he go to a cheaper school like...here?" I raised my eyebrow as I pointed around the school.
Flaming Star shook his head, "His parents...I...I should not get into this. Sorry." After that, Flaming Star speeded up his walking.
I was losing my opportunity, I had to take things a bit more straight. "Hey" I ran up to him real quick. "Have you heard about the blunted locker?"
Flaming Star stayed silent for a second and then responded. "Yeah."
"Ok, listen, I was there when it happened. I even saw who did it..."
"Uh huh," Flaming Star raised his eyebrow.
I sighed before revealing his friend's name, "I am one hundred percent sure it was Steely Armor."
Flaming Star stayed in silence and looked away. As if he didn't want to respond.
I sighed and continued, "Weird things have been happening with Steely Armor. And we are worried. So if you know what he is doing I would be very tha-"
"-Ask him, if he feels that you should know, he'll tell you." He then tried to make some distance between us. "I don't know what he is doing but-"
"-We did, but he is just turning the whole subject around every time."
"That means he doesn't feel like telling you." He was almost running at that point.
I had to maintain the same speed so I started running too, "You don't understand. we know something that you don't!"
"And what is it?"
"It's complicated!"
We were in front of the cafeteria door when he stopped running and stood still. "And so is what Steely is doing." He pointed his finger to me. “I’m sorry but I can’t help you with that. It’s Steely’s boundary, and I will not cross it.”
I stopped too. Looking at his finger and then switching my sight to his frowning blue eyes.
"Steely will tell you when he thinks it's appropriate," Flaming Star continued, "Don't skip his red line." He turned away and started walking away.
"Flaming Star!" I called him.
He stood still but did not turn back. "what?"
I raised my voice, "You are not telling me that I should just wait around for the guy who somehow blasted a tennis ball so hard from the lab that it blunted the locker that was on the other side of the hallway? Or should I ignore how he managed to work around in a restricted area? Or the weird blueprint that was written in shapes? And don't even get me started on how he just vanished in a hallway!"
Flaming Star looked at me from the corner of his eye. "It may look odd at first but, as I said before, he will explain it all...when the time comes." He then started walking towards the cafeteria door.
My opportunity was gone. Even Flaming Star was not telling me anything. But I had to get to the bottom of whatever Steely Armor has been up to lately. Maybe I could have shook it off at first but now, with what I'd seen, there was no going back. I had to make sure Steely Armor would not repeat the same fate as our Twilight. And for doing so, there was only one option.
I walked up to Flaming Star and held his shoulder. I forced him to turn back and the moment I could see his face, I brought my hand up to touch it. But before my hand could reach his face, he caught it in the air.
"what are you doing?" He pushed me back before I could do anything else. "Were you...trying to..." He narrowed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. "You just crossed the line that you shouldn't have crossed." He frowned and went into the cafeteria.