UsagiAngelRabbit: That Deviant Art was related to MLP stuff, especially with stuff that I wanted to get into but never had the chance to. I honestly doubt I will ever use it again, seeing as the only kind of work I do that's related to MLP is writing. However, when I hopefully get to my original work in the future, I might make a new DeviantArt for that. Or, I might not need to. We'll see what happens.

Shadow Solaris: Yep. And I feel like I'll be able to put in even more when I hopefully get to work on my original stuff soon.

oshawottlover: That's irony for you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Foreststar of WindClan: Yeah, who knows if we'll ever know what happened behind the scenes. At least with original work, I'd be able to properly decide the lore of the content, so to speak.

Note: This was late due to life stuff, but I think the huge amount of content in this one makes up for it.

---

For some reason, I found myself opening my eyes to a pitch-black room. Glancing towards the window, I noticed that it was obviously still dark outside. This, in turn, caused me to check my phone over at the side of the bed. The bright light I had encountered from turning on the screen blinded me, but once I was able to see the numbers beyond, I was surprised.

What was I doing up at four in the morning?

I didn't feel fully awake, nor did I feel absolutely exhausted. It was also kind of strange to find that I hadn't been woken up by Faith. In fact, I decided to see if maybe she had left the room, which would make waking up this early more sense. However, that wasn't the case when I found her sleeping beside me.

She had been on her side and facing me. As I observed her resting face, I began thinking back and reminiscing over the days we'd camp out together without any worry over school. Those nights we'd stay up and just talk about silly or deep things. We'd even talk about things you wouldn't expect a girl to normally talk about to a friend, especially a boy, but I had to assume the main reason for that was that she really had no one else to turn to. As mentioned before, it didn't really help that her mom worked most of the time, but I was glad that they'd at least spend time with each other during the weekends.

Either way, I was extremely grateful to have Faith in my life, as I know we benefit from each other mutually. I'd have no clue on how I'd be able to stand life on my own while struggling with a girl who hardly seemed to put any effort in communicating with you.

I unexpectedly heard a soft beep coupled with a vibration over on the other side of Faith. I looked around and found that it had come from her phone. I squinted my eyes at her screen and read that her phone had been close to dying. I sighed softly and began patting around her desk for her charger. I could only imagine how Faith would react in the morning if she found out that she had forgotten to charge her phone.

Chase! My phone's dead! There's no way I'll be able charge it enough before we get to school!

Oh, man. Especially if she doesn't realize until right before we're about to take off.

As soon as I found her charger and plugged it in, I was immediately greeted with her home screen. From there, I was able to find the photo we had taken together as her background. Even though I had been the one to suggest and take this photo in the first place, I couldn't help but study it for a while. I could feel certain thoughts passing through my mind, but I hadn't been alert enough to pay much attention to them.

Hm.

I placed her phone on top of her desk and turned the screen off. I felt like I was spending more than enough time being up this early, and I didn't want to wake up super tired. After all, I was probably going to be woken up in a couple of hours anyway.

Just as I was about to let myself fall back onto bed, I suddenly remembered that Faith was still asleep. I shook my head in response to my nearly-made mistake and made sure to slip in as quietly as I could. Taking in one last huge yawn, I closed my eyes and tried getting back to sleep.

---

It literally felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes when I heard Faith's voice waking me up. I especially hated the times when I could be sleeping for eight or more hours, and it turns out feeling like less than half an hour. In this case, I couldn't blame myself for wanting to keep my eyes shut despite how many times Faith called me.

"Come on, Chase. You can sleep in during the weekend, but we can't miss out on today."

I was willing to negotiate in getting up, but all I wanted were a few minutes. However, in order to combat my reluctance, Faith decided to slip the pillow away from underneath my head in hopes to at least get me up enough to take it back. Keeping my eyes closed and head on the bed, I patted around and searched for the pillow she had taken while softly grumbling to myself. Once I had caught ahold of something firm, I tightened my grip so I could take it back.

"Ch-ch-chase!" I heard Faith surprisingly yelp out after slipping out a sharp gasp.

Seeing as I couldn't even win a few minutes, I decided to finally push myself up. "Alright. Alright. I'm getting up." I sighed lightly as I held a hand to my head and opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was Faith in front of me. It appeared that she hadn't gotten dressed into her uniform yet, almost like if she just woke up herself. Nevertheless, there was a significant difference with the expression on her face. From what I could observe, her entire face was completely flushed, and she had been crossing her arms against her chest.

"What's up with you?" I asked. "I know I didn't want to get up right away, but I didn't think you'd be super mad about it."

"I-I-I'm not mad!" She refused, but the tone of her voice seemed to suggest otherwise. "It's nothing. Go do what you need to do back at your house and I'll see you here for breakfast…"

I stared at her for a short moment, extremely curious at her sudden reaction. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm f-f-fine!" She almost exclaimed out.

"Okay. Okay." I immediately disengaged and began walking out of her bedroom. "See you in a bit." I met Faith's mom on the way towards the front door. She had just started getting breakfast ready, and I told her that I'd be back later.

At home, I felt I might have stayed in the shower a little too long since I had been wondering why Faith seemed so upset all of a sudden. Was it that time? Even so, she never really reacted like that before. I decided I could ask Faith about it later.

I was glad that today was the last day of the week that I'd be changing into a fresh Crystal Prep uniform. The thought of having a couple days of freedom motivated me to speed up the process of getting ready a little more. Just as I was about to leave my room, something on my table had caught my eye.

It was my video camera. The one you were able strap to your chest or head and record events in first person. After thinking about it for a short moment, I thought it'd be a neat idea to bring it along. I'd be able to record the events of the Friendship Games, and if we won, it'd especially be something nice to look back to. I believed that Grinch even mentioned something about Crystal Prep always winning every time, so…why not? I gathered all the necessary equipment into my small carrying case and brought it along with me.

Once I got back, I found Faith's mom still hanging around the kitchen, but I noticed that Faith was still missing. Usually, she'd be helping her mom right about now.

"Oh, Faith's not here?" I asked.

"No." She responded as she began to move over the food she had just finished making from the frying pan to a plate. "She did wake up, right?"

"Yeah." I crossed my arms as I gave it some thought. "I'm pretty sure she wasn't falling back to sleep or anything. Maybe's she still getting ready."

She released a light sigh as she placed down the things she held onto the counter and washed her hands. "I'll go see what she's doing. Could you finish setting the table?"

"Sure." I noticed the stack of plates on the dining table and began to separate them as Faith's mom starting walking out the room.

Boy, Faith is really being weird today.

I was surprised when her mom didn't come back into the kitchen by the time I finished setting up the table. Instead, I took a seat and patiently waited for someone to come back. My stray thoughts kept me busy until I suddenly heard a loud laughter coming from up the stairs. With a raised eyebrow, I shifted around and looked over the corner of the kitchen doorway.

To my surprise, it had been Faith's mom who was chuckling to her heart's content as she walked down the stairs. Faith had been trailing after her with a red face and an embarrassed frown. Either way, it looked like she was already dressed up and ready to go after breakfast.

"Mom, stop!" She pleaded. "It's not funny!"

"Oh, honey. You overreact too easily."

"But…"

They finally reached the table, and I was left wondering what in the world that commotion had been about.

"Did I miss something?" I asked.

Faith noticed me sitting at the table and almost immediately adverted her eyes in discomfiture.

"Oh, nothing at all." Her mother continued to chuckle when noticing Faith's reaction. "Go ahead and take a seat, Faith."

Faith looked over the empty seats present, and I found it extremely odd when she switched glances at the seat next to me and across me multiple times. It usually only took her a second to sit, but this time, it was as if she was given one of the most important decisions of her life. Finally, she plopped down on the seat next to me, but she continued to stare down at the table.

She couldn't still be upset about me not waking up, could she?

"You're acting really weird today, Faith." I addressed while we waited for her mom to prepare the food. "What's going on?"

"I told you… I'm fine…" She virtually mumbled back, keeping her eyes downwards.

Breakfast was definitely quieter than usual, and as soon as Faith's mom had expressed her goodbyes and left, things were just dead silent. I didn't like this 'tension' between us, so I decided to invite her to be direct with me.

"If something's bothering you, you know you can tell me, right?" I approached. "Did I seriously make you mad this morning? If I did, I'm sorry."

Faith immediately shook her head. "You didn't make me mad. It's just…" She paused and appeared to think intensively over what to say next. "…you…caught me off-guard."

"'Caught you off-guard'?" I repeated, unable to understand her answer.

"I can't tell you." She responded with a heavy blush circling in her cheeks. "Let's just…get to school, okay? I promise I'm fine. I just need to…distract myself." She stood up and gathered our empty plates to wash them in the sink. "…can you go to my room and get my phone and schoolbag?"

"Yeah, sure." I tucked in the seat after getting up and began to walk up the stairs to her room. I noticed her phone had still been connected to her charger from earlier this morning. I disconnected it and picked up her bag before tending to mine. I dropped in the carrier bag for my camera and began heading back downstairs. Faith was waiting for me by the front door with her hands clasped between her thighs, and I walked over to her to hand her her bag and phone.

"Thanks." She responded a little more calmly.

"'Course. You ready?"

"Mm-hm."

Outside, she appeared to have short bursts of spacing out. As I brought out my bike and waited for her to get on, I decided to just give her a little time. When I really thought about it on the way to school, I eventually came to the conclusion that it was one of those things that only a girl could really understand.

"Hey… Can we make a stop here?" I heard behind me.

I carefully came to a stop on the block we had been on and looked around. We were right in front of the convenience store.

"You need something?" I asked.

"Just in the mood for chocolate. That's all."

"Chocolate?" I wondered as I got closer to the store. "It's still pretty early in the morning."

"Haven't you ever had chocolate or ice cream in the morning?" She responded. I couldn't remember a time I have, but I didn't argue against what she wanted. "You don't have to get off. I'll be in and out really quick." She mentioned as she hopped off her seat.

"Alright." I acknowledged as I watched her walk in.

I didn't know how long Faith was going to keep acting strange for, but apparently her mom didn't seem to see anything wrong with it. I began wondering if it was all because of the Friendship Games, but seeing as I couldn't do much, I hoped that her strange behavior would at least end after we got back home today.

---

When we arrived at school, we were allowed to get on our bus early again. Remembering that the bus had racks to bring a bike on, I took total advantage of it right before we boarded. After we had taken our seats, Faith searched through her bag and pulled out a candy bar. I merely sat there, absorbed in my own thoughts, until I noticed Faith bring something my way.

In front of me, there was a carefully unwrapped chocolate bar. She had already obviously taken a few bites out of it, but much of it still remained. I glanced over to Faith for a few seconds and noticed the expression on her face. I was hoping for a smile, but she appeared to have been sending me an embarrassed neutral frown instead. "…you want some?" She asked.

"I think I'm good." I politely refused.

Nevertheless, she seemed insistent for some reason. "Come on. I'm not sick or anything."

"Yeah, I know that, but…" It wasn't really worth making a big deal out of, so I decided to take her up on her offer. If it'd help undo her sudden behavior, then I would gladly take a bite. Subtly sinking my teeth into a piece of the chocolate, I returned it to her as I consumed whatever was left in my mouth. "Careful not to let your uniform get stained." I warned.

"I know…" She responded as she stared at her snack. She looked like she wanted to bring it to her lips to take another bite, but for some reason, she was hesitating.

"You know I'm not sick either, right?" I responded half-jokingly.

Turning to me as if a red crayon had been scribbled all over her cheeks, her response was rather emotionful. "I-I know!" Afterwards, she almost forcefully took another bite as if she had been trying to prove something to me. The tension in her body seemed to relax after taking a long look at the bitten chocolate she had been holding, and her lips appeared to be frazzled.

"Faith…" I slipped out.

When she heard that, she suddenly shook her head, and her lips formed an embarrassed smile. "S-sorry, Chase! I don't know what's gotten over me today! I'm so weird, right?"

I observed her face closely as she chuckled nervously. Her emotions appeared to be uncontrollable since this morning, and her craving for chocolate so early in the day? No way… Was she really…?

"Hey…" I began with a barrier of hesitation holding me back from being absolutely direct. "…is it that time again for you?"

Her lips soon gave way into a lopsided grin as she stared back at me in silence. I could feel a cold bead of sweat race down the side of my head as I awaited her reaction. Maybe it was a mistake bringing it up?

"I'd be glad if that explained it…" She surprisingly responded vaguely as she leaned back on her seat and searched through her bag.

"Explained what?" I asked, slightly leaning in as I yearned for an answer.

Faith shook lightly when she noticed how attentive I had grown towards her for that moment. "N-nothing. Let's just, um, listen to some music, okay?" She suggested as she pulled the strings of her earbuds out of her bag and connected them to her phone.

It wasn't long before groups of students began piling up at their reserved buses. Faith and I kept to ourselves for the most part until we were unexpectedly greeted.

"Hey, Chase. Hey, Faith."

The two of us turned to find Twilight taking her seat behind us.

"Oh, hey Twilight…" I answered while being in a little shock at Twilight's initiative.

"Hi." Faith returned an unusual half-hearted wave.

Besides the scattered sound of commotion that rose up every now and then on the bus, it was pretty much silent on the way towards Canterlot High School. Yesterday, this was due to Faith and I listening to music together. However, today, it seemed much more than that.

Only twelve of us were actually going to be competing in the Friendship Games. All of the other students from Crystal Prep would be watching instead. When we arrived at CHS, Faith and I were surprised to see us in confrontation with the twelve from the other school.

Before sparks could fly, the faculty from each school gathered together and spoke to us.

"Good morning, students." Canterlot High's principal announced. "I'm sure you're all as excited as we are to see the events of this year's Friendship Games unfold. However, before we officially start, Vice Principal Luna, Principal Cinch, Dean Cadance, and I will go over today's events and make sure each of us are caught up to speed with how they'll be handled."

"Sit tight, you guys." Dean Cadance mentioned next. "The Friendship Games will begin shortly."

After the four staff members walked off in the direction of the school, there was an immediate uneasy silence roaming among us. Just like back in the gym yesterday, our school and Canterlot High locked fiery glares with one another. Unless I was mistaken, it seemed that Faith, Twilight, and I were probably the only ones not caught up with this competitive mess.

Just as I had finished removing my bike from the bus, someone from Canterlot High School suddenly spoke up.

"You guys might think this is just going to be another easy win, but you're on our turf now. We're not going to give up so easily!"

"The location doesn't matter." Sugarcoat returned as bluntly as ever. "What matters is that we have the experience and skills that you don't. That's why we always win."

"Oh, so what you're saying is that you've fought three magical sirens bent on dominating our world?" A girl exclaimed in confidence.

It wasn't a surprise when our school, including me, reacted with puzzled looks. I'm sure none of us had a single clue to what they meant by that.

"Not helping, Pinkie…"

I looked over to find who had said that last. My eyebrows drew together, and my arms folded across my chest when the one responsible came into view. It was Sunset Shimmer. At this point, I'd be lying if I denied that I started feeling the lingering competitive fire ignite within me.

"Ho! We're gonna take you down!" The students from the other side suddenly began chanting together with a few strays joining in a little later.

"Ho! We're gonna take you down!

Take you down! (Ho! We're gonna take you down!)

Take you down! (Down, down, down)"

Eyes from our side squinted, and it was clear that they weren't going to let them get away with that.

"(Oh oh!) We're here to take you out

(Aw aw!) We're here to take you out (Aw aw!)"

I heard a close voice join in behind me. Turning around, I was almost taken aback when I noticed that Faith had been firing herself up for the Friendship Games along with the other students.

"Take you out! (We're here to take you out!)

Take you out!"

It was just as if each school had been participating in an enormous pep-rally, and they were both competing against each other to see who was able to be the loudest one. It was Canterlot High School's turn to take the stand.

"We're not about to let you win, so get out of our way

Think you got us beat, but we're here to stay

United strong, yeah, we'll take you down

You're not so tough, now you're in our town

All of the times we lost before

Not about to give up, we're only bringin' it more

We can smell your fear, we can see your sweat

Hope you didn't spend money 'cause you're losin' this bet!"

The twelve of the opposing team gathered in unison and began to shout out loud at the top of their lungs as they threw their fists in the air.

"You've got nothin' on us

Na, na, na-na-na, na

Let's go, Wondercolts!

You've got nothin' on us

Na, na, na-na-na, na

Let's go, Wondercolts!"

Next was Crystal Prep's time to retaliate, and based on the looks locked onto their faces, they weren't intimidated at all.

"Talk a little too much for a school that never wins

Maybe you should just stop 'fore you even begin

We are Crystal Prep High and we have a reputation

Every little moment is about our education

Put your ear to the ground

Listen to that sound

You're a house of cards

And it's about to fall down (fall down)

About to fall down (fall down), hit the ground"

Unlike Canterlot High, our team didn't necessarily gather together like one would expect them to. Instead, they stuck to their own as if the idea of teamwork was nonexistent to them.

"You've got nothin' on us

Na, na, na-na-na, na

Let's go, Shadowbolts!

You've got nothin' on us

Na, na, na-na-na, na

Let's go, Shadowbolts!"

It was uncanny. Never before have I witnessed such a coordinated event occur between two rivals. Had they been secretly practicing for something like this?

"Pressure's on, now we're gonna beat you

Step aside, it's time that we defeat you

Crystal Prep yourself 'cause you're about to go

Down, down, down, down"

Just like a turn-based role-playing game, Crystal Prep proceeded to strike after Canterlot High's last turn.

"Pressure's on, you know we're gonna take you

Just give up before we have to break you

Canter-not-a-lot, you're about to go

Down, down, down, down"

At this point, I noticed one specific person separate themselves from their group and face towards us in a standoffish manner. It was Sunset Shimmer, and the sight of her determined and unfazed expression began to make my blood boil. She looked like she had something mischievous planned for any of us during the competition. In fact, based on what I've seen for myself from the video online, I was willing to believe that she was capable of going as far as intentionally cheating.

"Take it up to the top

'Cause we know we can win"

From our side, a girl was rather unwillingly pushed to stand before Sunset Shimmer. It was Twilight Sparkle, seeing as she was the top student from our school. However, she didn't look as brave and ready as Sunset Shimmer did. Instead, she didn't even look like she wanted to be out there away from the group.

"Maybe you should just stop

'Cause we've seen you give in"

I locked my eyes onto Sunset Shimmer. She may have been too busy glaring maliciously at Twilight, but I, for one, cared more about bringing Sunset Shimmer down instead of Canterlot High as a whole.

"We believe in ourselves

And we've got what it takes"

"And we're not gonna stop!" Both teams screamed together until the school's intercom system suddenly broke up the feud between us.

"Will the students participating in the Friendship Games please make their way inside the school?" A voice loudly broadcasted.

It was clear that the interruption was enough to bring the chanting spirits to an end. Each side stared daggers at each other for a moment before they decided they would save their energy to settle things officially. Before I could join them inside, I noticed a bicycle stand near the front doors and secured my bike with a lock.

---

"Welcome to the first event, the Academic Decathlon!" Dean Cadance announced when we had gathered inside the entrance of the school. "You'll be scored on chemistry, home-ec, and everything in between. But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number two. Good luck!"

It had been obvious from the very start that Faith and I would be paired up for this competition, so the first thing we did was stick close by each other. Students from each school proceeded to do the same until everyone was ready for the main event to start.

First up was chemistry as Dean Cadance had mentioned. Faith and I didn't hold a strongpoint with science in general. In fact, Faith was absolutely clueless. When Faith had first transferred over to Crystal Prep, she had been doing the worst in science subjects. The only reason I had been able to pick her back up was because I always tended to pay attention strictly to the material as it was being taught. In other words, I only really remembered what I was being taught than truly understanding it. It was no question that Twilight would excel in this category.

In summary, Faith became my absolutely loyal assistant in this case, never once questioning whether I was right or wrong with how I was handling our project. We had been given some sort of instructions, and we needed to find the right mix and match in order to finish the event. Not only did we have to complete our objective, but the amount of time and mistakes it took for us to finish factored into our total score.

At the end, all I could say was that Faith and I couldn't confidently sum up our performance for chemistry, seeing as we pretty much winged it. The two of us agreed that we would ignore whatever we did back there.

Things began to look up for us when we began getting into subjects we were more familiar with. In this case, our next competitive event was home-ec. In other words, we had to cook/bake. I allowed Faith to take the lead on this one since she clearly had more experience.

I was pretty astonished to see Faith taking this event pretty seriously. Usually, whenever I was around while she was baking, she always looked like she was having an especially good time. Thankfully, she wasn't taking this too seriously, but she did seem to act if she was competing for the title of world's best chef.

The other students appeared to have been making cakes for the most part, but Faith decided to take a different route and go for some frosted brownies instead. Once she threw in the liquidized mix into the oven, she carefully set the time and smacked off whatever batter she had on her hands.

"You're really into this, aren't you, Faith?" I asked as we now waited for our dessert to finish.

"I guess I just want to give it all I got." Faith admitted as she crossed her arms and stared towards the sugar we'd be using after the brownies were done.

"Your brownies will be one of the best, if not the best, for this category. You're an awesome baker, after all."

"Thanks, Chase…" She responded with a soft smile at me before she seemed to look past me and immediately turn away towards her oven.

Out of curiosity, I leaned my head over my shoulder to figure out what had caused her to react so jittery. In the next few seconds, I had locked eyes with Sunset Shimmer, and it honestly almost took me a bit to realize it. Before I could react properly, she immediately turned away apprehensively. It was almost as if she was doing something she wasn't supposed to, and she knew it. I reminded myself to keep an eye on her for as long as this competition would last.

Once our joint effort was completed, we presented Faith's delicious and appealing brownies among the rest of the students. There were surprisingly a couple of students from each side that produced a rather sad result. I wondered if I would have been on the same boat with them if it wasn't for Faith.

Concluding the category, I believed every one of us was taken aback when a team of the opposite end provided a literal work of art with their cake. That girl, Pinkie Pie, along with another one of her friends, Fluttershy, I think, cut open a cake to reveal a spitting image of one of history's most famous paintings. Even I would agree that that'd be an instant win right there, but how she managed to recreate a famous work of art, I'll never know.

Despite not winning the event entirely, Faith and I seemed to place among the best aside Suri Polomare's team. Our principal appeared to believe otherwise. She approached us without a word and looked as if she was heavily disappointed in our performance. I couldn't speak for Faith, but I wasn't ready to surrender to her criticizing gaze. The only thing that Grinch cared about was winning, and that didn't factor in how well we performed on our end.

The roles Faith and I took in the previous event were now switched as we had been tasked with building a birdhouse out of wood. As soon as I had glanced over the supplies we were given, I didn't hesitate for a second in giving Faith instructions for a smooth ride.

"Alright, Faith. Here's what we're going to do." I stretched out a piece of the supplied blueprint paper and began drawing out plans for our birdhouse. I didn't want to risk doing anything out of the ordinary, so I decided on a simple two-floor model. "I'll measure and cut the wood, and every piece of wood I finish cutting, you'll paint it."

"Um, what paint should I use?" She asked as she looked over the paints we had available for our use. "What colors?"

"That's up for you to decide." I shot a smirk at her. "You have an eye for these things. Choose whatever you think will look pretty for the birdhouse."

With a small blush, she nodded. "Okay. Be careful. Don't cut yourself…" She warned a little worriedly after noticing the saws at our table.

After carefully using our measuring tape and marking where I needed to cut with a pencil, I cautiously aligned the marks under the saw and brought it down against the wood. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Faith anxiously bite her lip while refusing to take her eyes off my fingers. I sent her an assuring smile before I ran power to the saw and allowed it to rip through the wood.

I made sure to let Faith know what wood would go where, so she would know what paints to use for said wood. It didn't take long to finish putting out the wood needed for the first floor of the birdhouse, and it was just a repetition of steps for the second floor. To tell the truth, I never expected that I would have this kind of experience with woodshop, but I suppose it was all thanks to those times my dad would drag me out to help him with his own projects at home.

Faith was already done with the first floor of the birdhouse by the time I finished chucking out the wood for the second floor. I decided to start nailing the pieces for the first floor together, so we could have the first half ready for whenever we were going to attach the rest. Some people might consider attaching the wood first before painting it, but seeing as we were limited on time, I decided it was most efficient to paint the separate pieces first before bringing them together.

I cleaned up our workspace as Faith finished with the rest of the pieces. Once she was all done, I carefully nailed the necessary parts, and we used the rest of the time we had to make sure it was sturdy and presentable enough.

I was actually surprised to see that the majority of the other students managed to only get a one-floor birdhouse. I wasn't sure if the house itself was hard enough, or if they were just too lazy to put in the extra effort. However, after taking a look at one particular team, I decided to lean more towards the former. Their birdhouse was literally on the verge of breaking apart. When the time came for judging, I felt especially bad when their project fell flat like a house of cards. I couldn't expect for high school students to know about working with wood like I did.

The judges appeared to be heavily surprised when they saw our finished project. It was noticeably clear that we surprisingly won that round, and Faith couldn't help but draw me in for a hug at the end of it. I honestly thought we wouldn't actually come first, especially if it came to a competition with Crystal Prep, but I could only assume that a lot of students, particularly our school, didn't like to get their hands dirty…or full of splinters.

We were finally given somewhat of a break when we gathered inside the gymnasium, but it wasn't for long. We had been guided towards the stage for an apparent spelling bee. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I could understand why a lot of the students from both sides failed, seeing as they had been given quite horridly long words.

Ironically, I had been given the word 'derailleur', and if it wasn't for my experience with riding bikes, I probably would have only gotten the first half of the word right. Other than that, I believed Twilight was the only other one who got her word right, and I had to admit, the difficulty of the word was like absolutely nothing for her.

After the spelling bee, there seemed to be one last event for our time in the gym. It was an absolutely insane math problem, and only one member from each school would participate. For us, it was a no-brainer to pick Twilight, but at the same time, I worried that she might have felt more than enough pressure in representing Crystal Prep. On the other hand, for Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer would be taking the stand.

The rest of us sat in front of the stage as if we were about to witness some kind of play or performance. I couldn't even fathom the idea of standing up there in front of the whole school while working on a horrendously difficult math problem that really just translated as a mishmash of numbers for me.

"Do you think Twilight's going to win?" Faith whispered into my ear as the rest of the students, including the judges, quietly observed both students clacking away at the chalk board.

"Of course, she's going to win." I answered with confidence. "If she spends every minute of her life doing research and studying, this should be a walk in a park for her. Besides…" My eyes wandered over to her opponent. Already having an idea of what kind of a person Sunset Shimmer was like, I was sure she didn't stand a chance unless she managed to cheat somehow. But being in front of everyone like this, I assumed that that was nearly impossible. "There's no way that she can last against Twilight." I gestured my head in her direction.

We continued watching until both of the competitors placed down their chalks and time ran out. In this case, Principal Grinch took matters into her own hands and studied each answer they provided for an unnerving moment. Finally, she pointed a cold finger towards Sunset Shimmer's side and voiced her decision to everyone boldly.

"Incorrect!"

There was a random flash and a click coming from Canterlot High's side, and I could only assume someone, for some reason, took a photo of Sunset Shimmer's humiliated and defeated face. I suppose that was some kind of karma.

"That means the winner of the Friendship Games' first event is Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Prep!" Their vice principal announced energetically.

It appeared Twilight had been expecting a loud appreciation for all of the hard endeavors she had to endure through so far, but she only seemed to receive forced applause and a bunch of groaning. What nerve, I swear.

I began to clap as loudly as I could while Faith joined shortly after me. Fortunately, it seemed Twilight noticed, but as for everyone else, they appeared to just give us disgruntled and annoyed looks. Afterwards, as Dean Cadance made her way to the stage, she pointed out certain students, including us, and gestured us to come up with her. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving on to the Friendship Games' second event."

"Impressive." Sunny Flare, who turned out to be standing on the other side of me when we arrived on top of the stage, mentioned as she watched me. "Hey. Maybe you and I can be together for the next event."

"In your dreams…" I heard Faith mutter.

"Sorry, Sunny Flare." I apologized. "I'm sticking with Faith all the way."

Sunny Flare sighed as she turned towards the crowd. "It was worth asking."

Besides her, I found Sugar Sweet and Lemon Zest to be the last of the students that had also joined us. I almost wanted to chuckle in accomplishment when I realized that Sugarcoat hadn't made it up, but I figured that she might have not cared about it in the first place.

Once we were off the stage, I spotted Twilight and approached her to congratulate her personally. "Hey, Twilight. Great job on working out that insane problem. I couldn't even solve something like that in my dreams."

Seeing as the rest of the students from Crystal Prep didn't bother complimenting her efforts at all, she seemed fairly surprised when I tried to make up for their absence. "Thanks, Chase." She mentioned with a sweet smile. "I, uh…" There was a sudden soft beeping coming from what appeared to be the mechanism she wore around her neck. She picked it up to analyze the front, and her body began twisting towards a certain direction. "Um, sorry, I need to check this out really quick."

Without another word, she walked off and followed whatever scent she apparently picked up. Figures.

"Come on." I heard as I felt my wrist being grabbed. "Let's get some lunch."

"Yeah, okay." I agreed with Faith and followed her out of the gymnasium.

---

It was nice to actually have a real break afterwards. To put it simply, it was like we had our very own lunch period as if we were following a school schedule. Crystal Prep was allowed to use this school's cafeteria, but as expected, each school kept to their own side. Some students looked like they couldn't even stand the sight of the opposite school, so they didn't stay. Nevertheless, just like back at Crystal Prep, Faith and I sat at a table on our own.

"You know…I honestly wasn't expecting that we'd make it to the top six." Faith mentioned as she looked over the food we had been given.

"Me either, I guess." I responded as I picked up my bag and searched through it. "I sort of just want this week to be over. What about you? How have you been doing?"

"I'm fine." She answered as she glanced downwards at her swinging legs. "I guess you were right after all. I was overreacting before. No one really seems to be noticing me. I guess they really did forget about me, or maybe everything from freshman year just blew over. I wonder if there was even bigger drama after I left."

"Yeah, probably." I assumed as I picked out my camera equipment. "I doubt Sunset Shimmer only had beef with you. She probably caused all sorts of drama. I can't even comprehend how she has friends."

"You know cliques." Faith poked a piece of her lunch with her fork. "It doesn't matter if you're bad. That just means you'll get together with bad people."

I thought about the girls Sunset Shimmer had been associating herself with. "I wonder if they're her victims…or if they're just weird."

As much as I wanted to get more into it, I began to shake those thoughts off. They were none of my business. We were only going to be here for the rest of these Friendship Games, and that would be it. No point in getting involved.

"What's that?" Faith noticed the equipment I had begun setting up. "A camera?"

"Yeah." I answered. "I brought this along thinking I could record some stuff during the competition. Although, we haven't really done anything that interesting so far. I'm not sure if it was worth bringing this along in the first place."

"Maybe the next event has something to do with sports. It'd be kind of boring if we just stick to classrooms." She wondered.

"Probably." I responded as I finished putting the equipment together and strapped it to my chest for a test run. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Faith noticed me power on the camera and hit the record button, so she stopped eating her food to form a V with her index and middle finger while poking her tongue out at the camera.

"You know it's recording, right? Not taking pictures?" I pointed out.

"Duh. I'm not that dumb, Chase." Faith smirked. "I'm just giving you something worthwhile to look back on."

"Oh, gee. Thanks." I lightly chuckled and observed the HUD to find that the battery was still pretty full. "This can probably stay on for the rest of the day. If there aren't any interesting events left for the Friendship Games, at least we can make a good vlog out of it, right?"

"Exactly." She leaned forward slightly as she agreed. "I think we should try to make as many good memories as we can." After, she sat back with a fist to her pursed lips. "…but, if you get any embarrassing shots of me…um…cut them out, please?"

"Uh, sure." I acknowledged, but I couldn't really think of what kind of embarrassing shots she was talking about.

Faith and I remained lingering inside the cafeteria after finishing our lunch, seeing as we had been expecting to be called on the intercom. Instead, Principal Grinch surprised us when she approached our table with her usual strict and professional posture. "Faith Meadows. Star Chaser. Come with me."

The two of us got up and began following her out of the cafeteria and in the school hallways. Around our principal, we usually had to keep our mouths shut as if masking tape had been applied on them, so it was pretty much heavily silent until she looked over her shoulder at me.

"What is that?" She gestured towards my chest.

I had almost completely forgotten that I had still been wearing the camera.

"Oh this?" I responded as politely as I could. "It's a video camera. I was hoping I could get some footage of the Friendship Games, ma'am. After all, seeing as Crystal Prep has a record of winning every one of them, it wouldn't hurt to have something to look back on, right?"

She turned her head back in the direction she was walking in and didn't respond immediately. Faith and I turned towards each other, and I was afraid she might have me remove it right then and there. That's if she didn't decide to confiscate it herself for some reason.

"I suppose it's not a bad idea." Principal Grinch appeared to agree with me for once, shocking us with a sharp surprise. I had to keep myself from asking for confirmation over her decision. "As you should already know, Crystal Prep is known for its excellence when it comes to student performance. I don't know what Canterlot High has done to gain a noticeable increase on their reputation, but if you happen to catch any sign of cheating or exploitation on that camera of yours, be sure to let me know."

Hold on. Cheating? Is she letting me keep the camera in case the other school cheats? Whatever, I'll take it.

"Um, of course, Principal Cinch." I accepted.

At the end of the hallway we had been on, we were led to these gray double doors. Once they were open, we were attacked with a slightly blinding light. Once my eyes adjusted, my jaw almost automatically hung open.

It wasn't necessarily the paved track and obstacle course at the center, but around those things were huge mountains of dirt and ramps that came together as some kind of track of its own. If I wasn't mistaken, it looked like a freaking motocross track.

"Motocross?! Really?!" I couldn't keep myself from exclaiming out loud.

"That is what I brought you two out here for." Grinch responded and turned towards a group of girls standing by the outside bleachers. "I will be assigning your roles for this next, and I expect to be last, event of the Friendship Games."

The girls that had been seemingly waiting turned to see us approaching them with Principal Grinch. It was the other four that had made it forward out of the original twelve: Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Twilight…

"Now that you're all here, this is how Crystal Prep is going to compete for this event. You will race in pairs." She turned particularly towards Faith and me. "Faith Meadows and Star Chaser will handle the motocross."

"Wait, what?!" Faith unintentionally blurted out from disbelief.

"You two are always riding a bike to school, are you not?" Grinch attempted to provide a reason for her choice. Although, it wasn't exactly a good one, seeing as riding a bike and dirt bike was almost completely different. I suppose someone had to do it in this case… "I expect that you two won't have a problem with this part of the race."

"I ride us to school on a bike." I corrected. "Faith doesn't know how to drive a dirt bike. Can she just ride with me?"

At this moment, Grinch lifted up her spectacles with her index finger and thumb and massaged the area between her eyes in silent frustration. "Aside from the archery portion, only one contestant must pass the finish line in order for us to advance and win. If you are confident in your ability to do just that, I will allow the both of you to ride one bike. However, you must realize that this puts us at a disadvantage as we will have one less contestant on the motocross. If this is the case, I expect you to win." She made sure to emphasize.

"Hey, Principal Cinch." Sunny Flare's hand suddenly shot up. "I'll be with Chase on the motocross." She offered with a mischievous smirk.

"N-no!" Faith immediately refused.

"You and Lemon Zest have already requested the short track. I assumed that you two have confidence in this area, so I will not jeopardize our win by making an unnecessary mismatch." Principal Grinch was pretty clear in keeping total control of who did what. "If Chase believes that he can make up for two in the motocross, then I trust that he will do so." She glanced over to me from the corner of her eyes, and that was all I really needed to know that she wasn't expecting any kind of failure from my part. "This leaves Sour Sweet and Twilight. Since archery is a standard requirement at our school, I'll leave you two to do it."

"Well, that's just marvelous!" Sour Sweet feigned a sweet tone before she muttered sourly under her breath afterwards. "If you wanna lose before we even start!"

"Given that Twilight won the last event single-handedly, I have every confidence that she will be able to pull her weight here." Grinch leaned forward to intimidatingly catch Twilight's eyes. "Won't you?"

Twilight returned a nod, but I felt a strong sense of uncertainty behind it.

"Hold on." Sunny Flare spoke up once more, noticing Sour Sweet's reaction. "Why don't you just put Faith with Twilight? I can be with Chase on the motocross and Sour Sweet can be with Lemon Zest for the short track."

"That's a swell idea!" Sour Sweet repeated her manner of speaking, but then closed in on Sunny Flare for her next sour statement. "But if you switch like that, we're sure to lose before we even start. I can hit the bullseye the first chance I get, but don't screw up everything for us because of your stupid crush on him!"

"I agree with Sour Sweet!" Faith immediately rose her hand and mentioned loudly. "I suck at archery, and she says that she'll hit the bullseye right off the bat. If you put me on the bike with Chase, I won't get in anyone's way of winning! Plus, get this!" She excitedly began pushing her point. "If I ride on the back of the bike with Chase, it won't necessarily put us at a disadvantage. In fact, while he's driving the bike, I can keep a lookout for him, you know? That's super useful if you ask me! A lot more useful than if you just put me on a bike I don't even know how to drive!"

Sunny Flare didn't appear to be too fond or amused with Faith's reasoning, no matter how much she actually made sense with it. Sour Sweet didn't particularly care for what she had to say; she just wanted to stick to the plan and get things over with.

"We are sticking to the plan." Principal Grinch declared after hearing everyone out. "If Faith Meadows cannot participate efficiently on a separate vehicle in the motocross, then we have no choice. I find it much more reasonable to put her on with Star Chaser. It's as she said; she can watch over Star Chaser as he focuses on winning the race. Understand?"

There was somewhat of a collection of dissatisfied murmurs before Lemon Zest cried out loud in excitement. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Before the race could actually start, Faith and I had to separate momentarily in order to get changed in our given uniforms for the part of the event we would be partaking in. In our case, we had been given motocross outfits, and their design was sure to stick with Crystal Prep's colors.

Faith and I reconvened with each other after changing and made our way to the top of the ramp where we'd start in motocross. We only noticed three dirt bikes, one clearly being for Crystal Prep. I assumed that Grinch already made notice of our change in roles, so it didn't seem like it was going to be a problem at all.

"Hey, Chase…" Faith called me as I closely analyzed the bike in front of me. "I know you can obviously ride a bicycle, but have you ever driven…" She poked the vehicle next to me. "Well…this before?"

"I'm not going to lie…" I started saying as I stood up from kneeling down. "I think I've only driven something like this once or twice before in my life. I'm no expert, but it seemed simple enough. I can't guarantee a win though." I took extra notice at the handle bars. There was only one folding bar, and that was on top of the throttle. "Thankfully, it looks like this is automatic, otherwise, there would be another bar over here." I pointed at the left handlebar. "With manual, a vehicle would have a clutch, and you would need to have that in order to shift gears. Unless you were super familiar with shifting gears manually, it's a pain in the butt to drive like that. I guess they're not totally expecting the impossible from students. I ride a bicycle for frick's sake."

After my short little explanation/rant, Faith stared at me with a puzzled look. "Um…"

I decided to lay it out as clearly as I could for her. "With manual, I would have to pretty much change how fast I go on my own. Since this is automatic, it does it all for me. There's perks and cons to each, but for the sake of this event, it's better to have automatic."

"Well…you're the one who's driving." Faith mentioned with a bright grin. "I'm counting on you to bring us straight to victory!"

"Yeah, like I said, no guarantee I'll win this for us…" I reminded and adverted my gaze to the side in thought.

I could feel Faith's gaze linger on me until I was suddenly slightly pushed with a light amount of force. I had to snap out of my thoughts to realize that Faith had been embracing me, and it wasn't just for a few seconds. She was hanging on longer than usual.

"Faith?" I questioned.

"I know Principal Cinch wants us to win…" I heard Faith's voice right by my ear. "But I don't care what happens as long as I'm with you. I know that you'll do your best, and even if we don't win, I'll cheer for you no matter what. After all, I only want what's best for you…"

I couldn't help but smile softly. "What are you? My mom?" I joked.

"I'm the best thing you've got, dummy." She seemed to jest as well as she tightened her grip on me a little more.

"You got it." I promised. "I'll do my best. Not just for me, but for both of us."

She slowly pulled away and gazed at me for a while longer with a beaming smile. A radiant glow seemed to form inside her cheeks until we suddenly heard another voice besides us.

"Hey, you two are missing a bike!"

With the help of her hair, I believed the person that spoke to us was one of Sunset Shimmer's friends: Rainbow Dash. Speaking of the devil, Sunset Shimmer herself stood behind her.

"We're going to be racing on one." I answered.

"I kind of…can't really drive…" Faith rubbed the back of her head embarrassingly.

"Oh, that's cool, I guess." Rainbow Dash began messing with the functions of her own bike. "You'll just be short of a player."

"Faith can still be pretty helpful." I assured with my arms crossed. "She'll be my second set of eyes, so to speak. Having moral support right behind me is pretty cool too."

"If you say so." Rainbow Dash smirked at me. "Just don't complain if we happen to cross the finish line first."

"Got it." I acknowledged.

I glanced over to Sunset Shimmer, and it seemed she subtly had her eyes on Faith for a while now. I, of course, couldn't help but put a defensive look on my face.

"Hey, uh, Faith, right?" Sunset Shimmer asked Faith.

It wasn't unreasonable when Faith began rubbing her arm a little uncomfortably. "…yeah?"

"Listen. There's something I need to tell you, but I don't know how to put it. You see…"

"Save it for after the race." Rainbow Dash intervened. "You guys will have all the time to talk then, but right now, we have to concentrate!"

"Right… Okay."

Pulling my leg over the seat and adjusting my strapped video camera, I called over Faith. "Come on. See if it's comfortable enough for you."

I felt her hands press against me as she climbed on. She shuffled a little bit on her seat until her hands ran across my waist and secured themselves. She peeked over my shoulders a bit until she gave her answer. "Yeah, I'm good."

It was only a matter of time before the bleachers were filled with students from both schools. The scoreboard at the top lit up with each of our points at zero. On the left side was Canterlot High School, and on the right, was Crystal Prep. With the kind of view we had up on top of the ramp, we were able to notice that the majority of students either had flags, snacks, or both.

A judging station had been set up high enough to where the same four judges could get a good look of the play area. As the spectators eagerly waited for the event to begin, I noticed our principal enter the judging station and take her seat between Principal Celestia and Dean Cadance. It was at this point where Dean Cadence stood up and spoke into the microphone.

"Welcome, everyone to the Friendship Games Tricross Relay!" She paused to receive booming applause from the bleachers. "In this event, our qualifying competitors will face off in archery, speed skating, and finally, motocross." Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer glanced at us for a few seconds. "So if the competitors are ready..."

"Here we go…" I softly directed towards Faith.

A loud blast of an airhorn.

"Each competitor must hit a bullseye before their teammates can start the next leg of the relay."

I immediately turned to the center of the area and found Sour Sweet already making a run for it. I usually always considered Sour Sweet as one of those 'All bark. No bite' kind of girls, but I had to admit that seeing her pass through all the obstacles that had been set up began to prove me wrong. It was almost like she was intentionally trying to impress someone that had been currently watching. She reached the end where her bow had been placed several seconds before her opponent and hardly spent any time aiming. Firing three arrows at once, she made true to her promise and hit the bullseye with one of them.

"Wow… I didn't think she had it in her." Faith commented beside me.

I watched Twilight go in second. Her opponent was still in the process of firing her bow, and it appeared she was having trouble shooting an arrow to begin with. I didn't know how good Twilight was with archery, but she definitely had a lot of time to make do with.

It hurt to see how Twilight clumsily passed through each obstacle in comparison to Sour Sweet, and it didn't help that Sour Sweet was visibly getting more annoyed the longer she took. For a second, I decided to see how their opponent had been doing. For some reason, she closed her eyes and held her breath before taking another shot. With a sudden stroke of luck, she hit the bullseye without even aiming. How does that work? She gave the go ahead to her partner, which angered Sour Sweet even more.

By the time Twilight finally and comfortably made it onto the last platform, the opposition was already right on her tail. In fact, she had already taken a shot by the time Twilight had picked up her bow and started aiming, all while Sour Sweet judgmentally observed her performance. Twilight missed her first shot, just like her opponent, and I could see Sour Sweet shake in frustration. A few tense seconds later, the opposition managed to strike the bullseye within the second shot. This gave the greenlight to their team at the short track, and they didn't hesitate to start.

"And Canterlot is off to an early lead!"

My heart began racing, and it wasn't entirely because we were off at a bad start. It was more due to the fact that I couldn't even fathom how Twilight was feeling with all this new pressure constantly building up on her. It was clear when Twilight was constantly missing every shot she took, some not even being close to the target.

"Well, that's just fantastic!" Sour Sweet sarcastically yelled out loud enough for us to hear.

"And you think that's going to help?!" I felt the need to curse under my breath.

"Whee!" Pinkie Pie, one of the competitors on the short track, screamed out in joy as they passed their second lap.

"If CPA can't hit another bullseye soon, they'll be out of this race." Dean Cadence continued to provide commentary over the stressful situation.

I wanted to help Twilight, but I obviously couldn't just run down there in the middle of the race. Come on Sour Sweet… If you want to win so badly, then help her!

"You're really bad at this!" A voice shouted from the bleachers, and it sounded like none other than Sugarcoat.

To my surprise, one of their opponents unexpectedly crossed sides and approached Twilight. Sour Sweet's reaction was more than unwelcoming. However, after their opponents seemed to provide guidance, Twilight appeared to take a breath and steady herself. She stretched out the string of bow her with an arrow and held it for several seconds before taking one last shot at her target.

I was hit with a sudden wave of relief when I observed that arrow hit the bullseye, and it felt like I could breathe properly again.

"Nice one, Applejack." I heard from another bike.

"As much as I appreciate what she did…" I mentioned as I turned to our opponents. "She didn't have to do that. You guys could have easily won, so why?"

"It's Applejack, that's why." Rainbow Dash answered simply. "Besides, it's no fun if someone on your team is having trouble like that. Someone honest like her won't stand for that."

"Hm…" I turned back to the playing field. These students weren't like the ones here at Crystal Prep. At the very least, most of them seemed to care for others, and what I just witnessed surely proved it.

I moved towards the short track, and our team was surely making up for the hiccup. Canterlot High had been laps ahead by the time Crystal Prep started, but Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest were on fire right now.

"Canterlot only has two laps to go! But it looks like Crystal Prep is making up for lost time!"

"Put on your helmet, Faith." I advised, seeing as we'd be starting really soon. "You better hold on tight as soon as our number hits seven. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll try not to." She responded with a soft smirk before placing on her protective gear.

After fixing mine, I took a look at the scoreboard to notice that it was only a matter of seconds before we were to roll out.

"GLHF!" Rainbow Dash shouted out towards us.

"Huh?" I returned in confusion.

"Good luck, have fun." Faith explained over my shoulder.

"What a finish!" Dean Cadence exclaimed when both scores hit eight.

I felt an immediate explosion of butterflies explode in my stomach as I stared at our light until it turned green. Ready or not, here we go!

I hit the throttle, and I had to admit that I wasn't ready for the kick. We got a few seconds of air before bouncing on the dirt path and racing towards the top of the mound that would take us to the next part.

"You've got this, Chase!" I managed to hear by my ear, despite the resistance of the wind. "Just imagine it's the road you always take to school!" She shared as she squeezed her arms around me like never before.

"Kind of hard when you're bumping all over the place at an insane speed!" I shouted back.

"We've got a ramp incoming!" Faith pointed out. "There's an open space on the way, so make sure you're fast enough to make the jump!"

I revved up the bike a little more and made sure I didn't fail at the jump. I hated the feeling I got every time we were on nothing but air, but all I could do was keep pushing through. It almost reminded me of going to the dentist. Knowing the dentist was practically drilling into your teeth was a major pain, but you just had to lie there and take it.

I believed I slowly began to become accustomed to racing on the track, but it definitely wasn't enough, and wouldn't be enough, to ride comfortably at ease. At the moment, I only focused on getting closer to the finish line. As hard as I tried to keep up, it seemed like the other two were able to stay in front of me.

"Chase, see if you can get a little closer to this side!" She pointed towards the inner barrier of the track. "There's a bunch of bumps on their side, so you might be able to move on ahead here!"

Taking her advice, I began to steer a little to the left as slowly as I could, hoping that I wouldn't jerk our direction, cause us to crash, and ultimately lose us the event while possibly getting insanely hurt in the process. As I began avoiding those bumps Faith had been talking about, I noticed I was considerably getting closer and eventually passing them.

"There's another ramp there!" Faith reminded. "After that ramp, there's going to be a row of tires you need to get over. After that is the finish line! You got this, Chase! Keep going!"

You got it, Faith.

As much as I wanted to go full speed ahead and hope that we jump far enough to skip the tires, the risk of causing harm to each of us shook that idea off. I slowed down just a tad bit for us to pass the ramp with ease, and I was soon able to see those tires Faith had mentioned.

"They're behind us, but they're not too far back!" My companion noted.

"Hang on!" I reminded as I grew closer to the tire row. With the helping mound of dirt beforehand, I pulled back the handles of the dirt bike and prepared one last jump.

"The finish line! We're so close!" Faith observed as we bounced back on the dirt. However, before I could pull back the throttle with everything I had, I suddenly heard a scream from behind me. "Aaah!"

Taking a quick glance over my shoulder, I immediately panicked when Faith was nowhere in sight.

"Faith!" I called out as I drifted into a quick stop without thinking.

I turned behind me and immediately spotted her body face down on the dirt. I was somewhat relieved when I noticed her arms moving, but it was clear that she was struggling to get up. They immensely shook as she pushed herself up. In the next second, I was completely shocked when she pulled her head up, removed her helmet, took in a gasping breath, and made eye contact with me.

Thankfully, due to her helmet, her face seemed to be untouched. However, I could tell she was struggling with a great deal of pain. Her eyes had been holding back tears, and she was biting her lips considerably. I especially took note on how she held her right arm with her left hand.

"…go! You can…still win this!"

I took a look in the other direction and noticed that there was a clear shot towards the finish line. In fact, I found our other two opponents in a pickle of their own. It appeared Sunset Shimmer had somehow fallen from her bike as well, and Rainbow Dash stopped to come to her aid.

Faith was right. I could shoot straight for the finish line and end this competition once and for all.

But if I did that…

I turned back towards Faith who had remained on the ground struggling with whatever kind of pain she had been currently feeling on her own.

"Both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep have stopped right before the finish line!" I heard Dean Cadance announce from her station. "Only Crystal Prep still has a competitor on their bike! Is he going to go for the finish line?!"

"Hurry!" I heard Faith shout as she closed her eyes. At this point, she could no longer hold back her tears. They were leaking down her cheeks from her eyes.

My heart was racing even faster than our bikes had been. Before me, I had two solid choices, and in no doubt, did I had a limited amount of time to make a decision.

I could easily take Faith's advice and finish this race. It's definitely what Principal Grinch is screaming internally for me to do. It's what Faith wants. It's what everyone watching from our school wants. My head constantly shrieked to me that it was the most logical choice. So, why couldn't I move on? My head wanted to pull the throttle and make it to the finishing line, but my heart absolutely denied this action.

What kind of friend would I be if I just left Faith alone like that?! Ever since we officially met each other, she's been there for me, offering any kind of comfort she could every time I needed it. Seeing her there in pain…no matter how much she wanted me to, I couldn't leave her. Not like that.

Your name really suits you, you know?

So does yours. You told me. After all, you always seem to chase the stars.

So, Faith…what star am I going to chase now?

The win?

Or you?

Unless you don't think I'm a star…

I felt my teeth grit against each other as my fists tightened on the handlebars of our dirt bike.

"Faith!" I shouted and ripped the helmet off my head.

I threw it against the dirt as I tore myself from the bike and began racing towards her. She opened her eyes to notice me heading her way. At that point, her eyes widened, almost if she had been internally begging me to get back on my bike and finish the race.

When I reached her, I heard a rev of an engine, and it definitely wasn't mine. I knew what was happening behind me, but I didn't bother to look back. My eyes were on Faith.

"C-Chase?! What are you doing?! Y-y-you're going to lose!" She stated as I placed my right arm behind her back and my left arm behind her thighs. I proceeded to pick her up and carry her off the field as fast as I could.

"Canterlot wins!" Dean Cadance announced.

"C-Chase… We…"

"Shut up!" I told her as I looked directly at her eyes. "I don't give a crap about that! I care about you!"

She stared back at me in silence after I told her that, and I resumed paying attention with where I was running off to.

"Attention, students, please proceed to the gym."

As all of the students began escaping through the doors back into the school, I decided to catch my breath and tend to Faith for a while.

"Faith." I managed to calmly but concerningly say. "Are you hurt bad? Where?"

"My arm…" Faith slipped out painfully as she shut her eyes with every moan. "I don't know…if I hurt myself anywhere else."

"What happened?" I almost demanded to know. "How did you fall off like that?"

"Ugh." She attempted to respond. "I felt…something grab me…and pull me off."

"Faith! Chase! Are you okay?!" I heard a frantic voice cry out. I turned to my side to find Twilight jogging towards us.

"We need to get Faith checked out!" I responded.

"Don't worry!" We heard another voice approach us. I noticed Rainbow Dash stopping in front of us and sparing a look at Faith. "I can you take you guys to the nurse!"

"But…" Twilight tried to say something before Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"I don't care if you guys are on the other team! We look after each other no matter what!"

In a sudden and unexpected surprise, a glow radiated around Rainbow Dash's entire body. Before I knew it, she had grown long ears and wings. I had been caught staring at this evolution in disbelief, and it wasn't until she began groaning from pain when I was able to snap out of it.

"Oh, no! Oh, no no no! Not again!" Twilight cried out, causing me to turn towards her. The device she had been wearing suddenly opened up, and it appeared that it had been sucking out some kind of energy from Rainbow Dash. "I'm sorry! It just started absorbing energy on its own! But I'm not sure how!"

"What do you mean you don't know how?!" Sunset Shimmer appeared before her as Twilight struggled to close her device.

A shard of what looked like electricity escaped from this glowing ball inside the device and struck the space above us. Something I could only describe as a portal opened up, and I was able to see some kind of completely new area through it.

"It also causes these corresponding rifts to appear! I don't know how that works either." Twilight explained.

"Is there anything you do know?! Like how to get our magic back?! Or how to fix the portal to Equestria?!" Sunset Shimmer demanded.

"Equestria?" Twilight questioned, neither of us clearly having a clue to what that was.

"You're supposed to be so smart, but did you ever think that you shouldn't be messing around with things you don't understand?!" Sunset Shimmer pointed a sharp finger at Twilight before managing to finally close her device completely.

"But I want to understand!" Twilight argued.

"But you don't! And worst of all, you put the lives of my friends in danger!"

As Sunset Shimmer continued to instill the blame on Twilight for everything that had happened, I suddenly had flashbacks to the video I watched on Faith's laptop. She was trying to point out Twilight as the bad person here, but I knew Twilight would never do anything to intentionally hurt anyone. At that moment, I started formulating a theory with what happened to Faith that I began to instantly believe without any evidence whatsoever.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Twilight apologized with a breaking voice before she eventually ran off sobbing.

"Twilight, wait!" I heard as her dog, Spike, ran after her.

I wanted to go after Twilight, but at the time, my heart had been taken over with rage.

"You think you're the one to talk?!" I shouted out loud, catching the attention of everyone in the vicinity, but most importantly, I caused Sunset Shimmer to look at me. "You see this girl here?" I presented my companion who laid in my arms. "You know her, don't you?!" I offered a few seconds for a response from her, but I didn't bother waiting after those few seconds. "You do, and you just tried to pull the same trick like you did freshman year!"

"Chase…" I heard a quivering voice below me, but I had no intention of stopping.

"She thought you were her friend, but you ended up stabbing her in back at the Freshman Fair! She had to switch schools because of you! And you think you have the right to blame other people for your friends being hurt just right now?! You're a freaking liar! And that's not the worst part! I know what you did back in the motocross race! I didn't understand it at first, but now I get why you fell off your bike as soon as Faith did! You grabbed her leg and pulled her off, so you two could move on ahead and win, but you didn't count on losing control of your own bike, did you!? You did all that, and you have the nerve to blame Twilight for hurting your friends?!"

"Wait a minute!" Sunset Shimmer tried to defend herself. "I—"

"You're so freaking heartless!" I continued. "Someone like you doesn't deserve to have any kinds of friends." I growled before I finally decided to stomp on ahead, aggressively brushing my shoulder against Sunset Shimmer's.

Inside the school, I only continued to storm through the hallways in search of a nurse. Thankfully, I managed to come across Dean Cadance, and she quickly rushed over to us when she spotted us.

"How's Faith?! Is she alright?"

I didn't know how to answer that. Faith wasn't exactly 'fine', but I wasn't sure if I could say that she was in any life-threatening danger.

"Where's the nurse?" I asked.

"This way." Dean Cadance placed a hand behind my back and led us through the halls until we came to a certain room.

Observing the décor of the room, it was pretty obvious that we had reached the right place.

---

Dean Cadance and I had to step out of the room for a bit, seeing as the nurse had to look over any damage Faith may have had without her motocross uniform. In the meanwhile, we were asked if we could get her school uniform. I had accepted the task without thinking about it until I was outside.

"I have no idea how I'm going to get her clothes back…" I mentioned.

"What's wrong?" Dean Cadance asked.

"We had to go change before the race." I explained. "Her clothes are probably still in the locker room. Girl's locker room…" I felt the need to repeat and specify.

However, Dean Cadance placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll go get them."

"You know what her bag looks like, right?" I asked. "Just look for the locker with her bag inside."

"I got it." Dean Cadance acknowledged before walking off.

When I was left alone, I continued anxiously waiting and tapping my foot. Throughout the entire time, I not only thought about Faith's condition, but thoughts of the Friendship Games began to plague my mind. I began wondering if the whole school hated me now. I don't regret my decision. It's just a pain if that's what I'm going to have to deal with starting now.

I was lightly caught off guard when Dean Cadance returned and revealed Faith's bag in front of me. "I couldn't find anything else besides her bag, so I'm assuming her clothes are in there. I didn't want to look inside to make sure, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you doing it, would she?" I shook my head. "I'd really love to stay, but I need to get going. Principal Cinch is really upset right now, and I have to go help get the tiebreaker ready. Let me know how Faith is as soon as possible, okay?"

I nodded before she looked back and sent a short wave. Afterwards, she left.

I turned my eyes towards the bag and opened it to reveal the contents within. The first thing I saw were her clothes. They were all stuffed and crumpled up inside, and this caused me to chuckle lightly in turn. "Just like you, Faith…"

I knocked on the door to gain the nurse's attention, and shortly after, the door opened.

"I've got her clothes here." I held out the bag. "How's she doing?" I asked as the nurse took the bag into her hands.

"There's nothing to worry about." She assured. "She suffered a few bruises, and she cut up her arm a bit. All I needed to do was clean out her cuts and bandage them. She's just resting at the moment."

"Can I see her?" I asked.

For some reason, this caused the nurse to chuckle a bit. "Let me just give these to her first."

I realized what I unintentionally might have implied and responded with a slight heat in my cheeks. "Oh, right…"

It didn't take as long as before for the nurse to come back. It was only a minute or two before the door opened.

"She said you can come in."

"Thank you." I expressed as I walked in. My eyes were immediately drawn over to a side of the room that had been covered with a curtain. I assumed that that was where Faith was.

"Can you excuse me for just a moment?" The nurse mentioned to me. "I'll be right back. I just need to let your school officials know how your friend is doing."

"Yeah, sure." I responded with a nod.

The nurse smiled back before her shoes clacked on the floor and slightly echoed after she left the room. Afterwards, I was able to hear what sounded like ruffling and movement of fabric from the area the curtains had been separating me from. I approached the area and began to call out her name.

"Faith?"

At that moment, I had been too eager to see Faith for myself. I didn't bother to think before acting yet again, and I found myself opening the curtain prematurely. On the other side, Faith had been slipping on her socks, and let's just say that her socks were the first thing she had begun putting on from the clothes in her bag.

"C-Chase?!" She looked back from over her shoulder and stared at me in bewilderment.

When I actually realized what I had been looking at, I immediately backed away from the curtain and pulled it over to the way it was. "Sorry." I apologized as I covered my mouth with my hands and felt heat flashing and surging through my body.

I was surprised to hear a rather calm response come from the other side of the curtain.

"It's okay. It's not like that's all you've seen…right?" She stated half-jokingly.

It was weird that I was the one who was getting all flustered this time. Whenever I brought up those times she had been referring to as a joke to her, she was quick to start blushing like crazy. Now, it was me.

"Mm…" I sounded out, tempted to start unnecessarily fanning myself.

For the next few minutes, I had no choice but to stand with my back facing the curtain as I waited for her to finish.

"I'm done now." I heard and cautiously turned around. I slowly placed my hand on the curtain and began moving it aside. When I was able to get a look inside, Faith had been closing her bag, and she had everything but her blazer on. I observed her quietly for a short while before she lifted her eyes up and looked at me. For some reason, I had a hard time spitting out words, and my heart was kind of pounding. Was this still from just a few minutes ago? "Aren't you going to ask how I'm doing?" She joked.

"Y-yeah…" I rubbed the back of my head. "How are you? Everything okay?"

She began walking towards me, causing me to jump slightly. "Mm-hm." She nodded. "Thanks, Chase…" I glanced over to her arm and found a part of her bandage sticking out from underneath her sleeve. "You didn't have to go do what you did…but you did anyway. I almost don't even get it." I quickly turned my eyes back to her. She had been facing towards the floor. "You could have easily won the Friendship Games. Heck, we might have been going home right about now. But, you went back for me instead. Why?" She lifted her head up and linked her eyes directly with mine.

I thought over my answer and chuckled a bit when I came up with the easiest way to describe it. "Think about it. If the roles were switched, you would have done the same thing, wouldn't you? Sure, it would have been awesome to win and get these stupid games over with, but knowing you were in pain and trouble? There's no way I could have left you there like that while I chased after the finish line. Was it a stupid thing to do? I don't know. Maybe. But I don't have any regrets. I really care about you after all. You're so much more important to me than a stupid race."

Her eyes appeared to glimmer under the ceiling lights inside the room. She continued to gaze at me before she began to both chuckle and tear up. "You're right. I would have gone straight for you. I just don't think I would have been able to pick you up though… Hehe." She wiped any tears lingering at the corners of her eyes.

There was something different about her that tried pulling me in. It almost felt as if there was a magnet inside her, and it was slowly bringing me closer to her. At the same time, the two of us didn't say a word. Instead, each of us unintentionally began having a staring contest, but blinking didn't end the game whatsoever. We stood there and waited for any one of us to make a move.

"I'm back."

We were suddenly snapped back to reality, and we quickly turned to find the nurse walking in as she closed the door behind her. She spotted Faith by my side and began asking about her condition.

"How are you feeling? Good?"

Faith nodded. "Yeah. I'm feeling a lot better now. Thank you."

"That's good." The nurse returned a proud smile. "Your officials wanted to know if you'd still be able to perform in the Friendship Games."

Faith turned to me and presented the question mark she had on her face.

"Tiebreaker." I explained. "Since we lost the race, we're at a tie."

"Oh, right…" Faith remembered and turned back to the nurse. "I feel fine. I can keep going."

"Go on ahead." The nurse allowed. "I believe you'll find them at the front of the school. If you have any concerns, feel free to come back."

"Thank you!" Faith happily expressed before she gathered her things and began leaving the room.

I made sure to thank the nurse as well before we left.

---

After I stopped by the locker rooms to change out of my own motocross outfit and recover my items, I felt much more at ease walking in the hallway with Faith knowing that she was alright.

"I was so worried…" I couldn't help but mention. "No, I was like…terrified. I thought, I don't know, maybe you broke something."

"Oh, come on, Chase." Faith reassured her health by grinning brightly. "It wasn't that bad."

"You looked like you were in so much pain! How was I supposed to know?!"

"I was at the time…but it helped when the nurse took care of everything. I still feel a little soreness, but nothing I can't handle."

"In that case, let's get this tiebreaker done with and go home." I suggested. "We'll have the whole weekend to just take a breather."

"Sounds so good to me." Faith agreed expressively.

By the time we returned back to our school team, Dean Cadance was pretty much given the confidence to carry on with the tiebreaker for the Friendship Games. Other than her, it was appalling to see how none of the other students approached Faith to find out how she had been doing. I assumed that they either didn't care, like Sour Sweet or Sugarcoat, or they thought it wasn't anything worth asking about.

As for the weather, the wind had picked up, and the skies were filled with dark clouds. I was surprised to see that we were going to go on with these games. After all, thunderstorms didn't appear to be too unlikely with the given forecast.

I had noticed Twilight keeping to herself in the back, and I was just about to confront her regarding what happened earlier. However, Principal Grinch stepped in front of my path and approached Faith and me. I automatically expected that she was going to grill us for losing the race.

"Star Chaser. I'll have you know that you had the perfect opportunity to win that race. Yet, you let it easily slip out of your fingers."

"…I know." I acknowledged. "You're right. I could have easily won that race, but I'm sorry, ma'am. There's no way I was going to leave someone important to me in the dust like that."

"I'm afraid the students here at Canterlot High School have brushed off on you." She sternly mentioned. "I wouldn't be surprised if you begin slacking in your assignments and eventually failing in your subjects. This is not good. With the kind of actions and behavior you've shown us, I don't see you graduating anytime soon."

My eyebrows furrowed as she stated this. She wasn't mentioning this directly, but I started feeling as if there was some kind of threat hidden between the lines. In turn, this began to anger me, but I tried my best to quell that anger before responding to her.

"I don't know what you expect me to say. I already apologized."

"You did, but apologies will get you nowhere in the world, Star Chaser." She replied bluntly. "However, you do have an opportunity to redeem yourself." She turned over to Faith. "Both of you."

I picked up my head with brows still drawn together. "You want us to win the tiebreaker, right?"

"Precisely." Grinch answered. "However, I want the two of you to show me that you're willing to go above and beyond for Crystal Prep. I want you two to prove to me that you're capable of winning this tiebreaker for all of us here."

"And how do we do that?"

Grinch grabbed a hold of her spectacles and wiped them with a handkerchief as she answered. "That vehicle you raced with in the previous event." She paused and fixed her glasses upon her nose. "I want you to bring it here and place it among the bushes nearby."

"What? Why?" I asked, feeling a sense of dread coming from her request.

"For this tiebreaker, you'll be searching for your school's flag. When the time comes, I want you ride that vehicle outside the school and scout out for our flag. With this, the rest of us will only have to concern ourselves with the interior of the building."

"But isn't that cheating?!" Faith immediately questioned.

"I have my beliefs that the competition is using some kind of unfair advantage." Grinch calmly explained herself. "Wasn't it you, Star Chaser, who believed that one of the girls from the other team caused Faith Meadows to fall off the bike and in turn cost you the race?"

My fist clenched at the thought. Did she overhear us? Did she also see how Rainbow Dash magically grew wings? Did she even see what Twilight's device was doing to the space around us?

"Yes."

"Then surely, it'd be justified to fight fire with fire. That is the most logical thing to do, after all. To level the playing field with an exploiter, you must become one yourself."

I didn't like the way she said that. Not at all. But at this point, I didn't really care anymore. She gave us a chance to regain our 'guaranteed graduation' plan, and at the very least, I wanted to make sure Faith wouldn't lose it.

"Sure… Whatever you say, ma'am…" I forced out through clenched teeth and began making my way back to where we had last competed.

"Since the score's tied, the final event will determine the winner of the Friendship Games." I heard Dean Cadance announce.

"Somewhere on campus, a pennant from each school has been hidden. The first team to find their school's flag and bring it back wins."

"And as soon as our teams are ready, we'll begin…"

I heard the sound of grass being quickly crunched as Faith caught up to me. "No way. Are you really going to do what she tells you to do?"

"I don't care at this point, Faith." I admitted frankly. "I don't care about these stupid Friendship Games at all. If it's what she wants, then it's what she'll get. Whatever brings this day closer to an end."

I heard a soft sigh come from Faith's end.

"I guess we'll be partners in crime then…"

I didn't want to directly involve Faith with my 'misdeed', but she insisted. After recovering the dirt bike from the motocross race, I made sure to do just as Grinch demanded and brought it over to the bushes near the school wall. However, when I took another look at where the teams had been lined up, I noticed some kind of commotion going on with Twilight. Because of this sight, I began to head straight for it.

"Chase?" I heard Faith question.

"Imagine all I'll learn by setting it free…" I heard Twilight sing as she oddly walked to the center of the field with her device in hand.

Something inside me immediately began twisting and turning, and the sense that something absolutely horrid was going to happen flicked on.

"Twilight…" I called out, but it was obviously too soft.

"Unleash the magic, free the magic now"

"If both teams are ready..." A voice announced in the microphone.

"Unleash the magic, free the magic now"

"And now winning these games depends on me…" Twilight stopped and pressed a finger on the top of her device.

"What are you doing?" I raised my voice and began working into a jog.

"Unleash the magic, free the magic now"

"And what doors might open if I try to use it…" She furrowed her eyebrows as the glow of her device reflected off her glasses.

"...the last event of the Friendship Games begins..."

"Unleash the magic, free the magic now"

"Twilight!" I shouted as I began reaching out.

"But the magic's what I really want to see!"

"Unleash the magic, free the magic. Unleash the magic, free the magic."

"Stop!" I barked.

"Now!"

Immediately, as soon as the last event was set to begin, Twilight's hands pulled away from each other and opened the device in her hands. The ball of energy I had seen glowing inside exploded and sent a strong burst of wind in every direction, ceasing my movement for a short moment.

When I had fully recovered from the burst of energy, I noticed Twilight had no longer been on the ground. She was slowly being lifted up in the air, and that ball of energy that her device had contained was steadily growing in size. When it had reached her hands, she helplessly turned back towards the other competitors from our school. Nevertheless, no one seemed to move a muscle.

"Twilight!" I called out loudly and tried to reach out my hand towards her.

"Chase!" She noticed me below her and struggled to free out one of her hands from inside the expanding sphere in front of her. "Help…! Me…!" By the time she had been able to successfully free her hand and hold it out, she had already been sucked in for the most part, and there was no possible way I could grab ahold of her hand, despite how much I stretched mine.

I was stuck with helplessly watching as she screamed and continued to be lifted away from me. The orb she had been trapped in blinked heavily before sending out an extremely blinding light. When it faded away, the orb of energy was gone, but in its place stood a new creature. It was something I was unable to completely comprehend inside my head. The easiest way to explain everything that had happened was to believe I was having a nightmare, and it was only a matter of time when I'd wake up.

The creature cackled and turned towards a particular person on Canterlot High's side.

"You were right! I didn't understand magic before, but I do now!"

Her voice was extremely familiar, but it had been corrupted by a villainous tone. Taking a better look at this creature before us, I began to believe that this had to be Twilight, but for some reason, that 'magic' changed her.

Before I could spectate any further, a beam shot out from her hands and struck something behind me. I turned to find that the statue of Canterlot High's mascot had been crumbling to pieces. From where the mascot once stood, some kind of a rift cut through and opened to reveal another unfamiliar place like last time.

From this rift, a large crack began spreading across the ground until this creature opened another portal in its way besides the former statue. However, what alarmed me more was the puppy that had been too close by this opening. I realized it had been Spike, and it appeared he had been slipping in. He desperately tried to hold any kind of ground he could still see. I didn't have time to think of a way on how to approach this. Instead, I dove straight for him. He had just started falling in before I reached out an arm towards him and grabbed him by his collar. I began having a little of a hard time trying to pull him out, and with all the possible new portals opening up behind me, I felt my heart race as my body panicked.

Fortunately, I felt someone grab my shoulder and pull me out as I held onto Spike. As soon as I had him safely in my arms, I looked behind me to find Faith worriedly tugging at me.

"Chase! We have to get out of here!"

I turned my head and searched for the being responsible for this mess. She continued to shoot out whatever magic she apparently had and carelessly caused more rifts to open up. I quickly stood up and held out Spike towards Faith.

"Hold on to Spike and get somewhere safe, Faith. I think whatever that thing is supposed to be is actually Twilight. I have to try to stop her!"

I began moving after giving my request to Faith, but she instantly grabbed ahold of my hand. "Are you crazy?! Do you see what's she doing!? You'll get hurt!"

"What else do you expect me to do?" I asked, attempting to pull myself out from her grip. "She's going to tear reality apart before we know it! If Twilight is still in that monster, then at the very least I can try reaching out to her!"

"I can't let you go!" I heard Faith's voice crumble as her grip on me tightened. I focused on trying to slip my hand out, but my eyes were immediately drawn to her face. She had started to tear up, and soon she was beginning to sob more than she had been holding back during the motocross race. "You're important to me too, Chase. I know you want to help, but…if I were to lose you…" She shut her eyes and vigorously shook her head. "I can't imagine being able to live afterwards!" She lifted her eyelids and allowed the stream of tears that had quickly built up inside to fall out. "I…I love you, Chase!"

I continued staring at her as I tried to take in everything she had just said. As much as I was itching to engage in a heart-to-heart conversation with her, it was nearly impossible to ignore the feud around us. However, with her display of intimate feelings, I was able to easily respond with a solution that we'd most likely be able to agree on.

"You said we're partners in crime, right?" I reminded. "Then, how about this? Let's do something to stop this together!"

She nodded fervently and attempted to shake off her lingering tears. "Whatever it is, I don't want you to do it alone."

A bright blue beam volleyed onto the front of the school past us. In an instant, the solid ground there shattered like a broken mirror, and its pieces began falling inwards towards the portal inside. Students began slipping in, but the others around them courageously caught ahold of them and began to pull them up. Throughout this turmoil, my eyes caught something dangerously close towards the edge of the continuously shattering ground.

"The device that Twilight was wearing!" I pointed out. "If we can get that, then maybe we fix this!"

Faith observed where I had been pointing. "If you go straight for it, you'll fall in, Chase! The ground over there is breaking by the second, and I don't know if I'll be able to help you out of there."

I understood what Faith was getting at. In other words, the ground was practically thin ice. The moment I step towards the object of interest, I might end up breaking the ground underneath me and fall in. Even with Faith there to pull me out, it was possible that she'd end up falling in herself as well. The only way I could think of getting that device with little problem was by getting in and out quick.

I thought to myself for a few short seconds before something immediately clicked inside me. I glanced over to the nearby bushes and then turned to Faith. "Faith, you trust me, right?"

"Of course, I do." She responded with concern as she held Spike close.

I grabbed a hold of her hand this time and led her towards those bushes. "Come on!"

I stuck my hands through, spent a short moment searching, and pulled out the handlebars when I found them.

"What are you going to do?" Faith asked as she observed me pull out the dirt bike we had hidden earlier.

"We're going to get that device." I told her. "Sit behind me, and I'll drive the bike. Can I count on you to pick it up when I pass by it?"

She nodded firmly. "I'll do whatever it takes!"

"Alright." I pulled my leg over the seat and settled down. "Get on." She followed my instructions loyally and nestled Spike near her stomach.

"Hang on, Spike." She advised as she kept her left hand on my waist.

"The hole is spreading." I notified as I started up the bike. "Get ready, Faith, because I'm going for it!" Remembering how I gained the lead back in the motocross race, I began following the same example as I grew close to the invisible edge the device had been lying on. Making sure not to cross that edge, I called over Faith. "It's all yours, Faith!"

She noticed the device and began leaning to the right as quickly yet safely as she could. The more she leaned in that direction, the more her nails practically dug into my stomach. I couldn't tell how much Faith had been able to stretch out in order to grab it, but I had every confidence that she would succeed.

"G-Got it!" Her body flung back against me.

When we were at a safe enough distance, I skidded into a stop. This caused for the device to slip out Faith's hands, and she juggled with it a bit until Spike hopped and caught it with his teeth.

"Nice catch, Spike!" Faith praised and petted him as she recovered it. Afterwards, she hovered it over me and looked forward for our next move. "What now?"

I grabbed this device of chaos and studied it for a moment. "I-I'm not completely sure." I almost frantically analyzed it all over, ridiculously hoping for some kind of switch that would somehow destroy and break the energy that had been released. "This is crazy thinking, Faith, but I'm thinking we should break it into pieces. Maybe then it'll somehow end everything."

"Are you sure?" She asked, leaning over her face enough to take a look at mine.

"Believe me, Faith." I honestly shared. "There's no freaking way I can even logically comprehend what's happening to us right now, so I can't give you proof that breaking this apart will fix everything. It's the only thing I can think of!"

Before I could make any rash decision, we heard a voice desperately crying out to us. I pulled my attention away from the device and noticed Sunset Shimmer running in our direction.

"I need that device!" She immediately held out her hand when she reached us.

"Are you kidding?!" I pulled it further away from her. "You're the last person I'd ever give something as important as this to!"

"Listen, I know you don't trust me!" She pressed her fingers against her chest as if she had been ready to speak from the heart. "I get it! I did some absolutely horrible things in the past, and I understand if you hate me for it. That's not who I am anymore! You don't have to like me, but I'm begging you, if you want to see Twilight again, I need you to hand that device over to me! Please trust me!"

I couldn't deny her earnest look, but there was still a decent amount of disdain and doubt I had left for her. How could she be so sure that she knew what to do to make things right? At the same time, what kind of bad could she do with having this device in the first place? There were so many things running through my head, and considering the pressuring situation we were in, I couldn't think clearly.

I wasn't ready to give up the object that Faith and I had worked together to retrieve.

"Chase…" I heard beside me, causing me to turn and notice Faith. "I know you don't trust her, but you trust me, right? I don't know how, but I have a feeling that Sunset Shimmer knows what she's doing. So, please, trust me and give it to her."

There was still a sense of doubt that was causing me to grip the device with all I had, but it was inevitable that it would be broken, at least for the time being.

"Fine!" I held it out towards Sunset Shimmer. "Take it!"

For some reason, Sunset Shimmer continued staring at us even though I held out the device for her to take. I was on the verge of throwing it towards her, but I unexpectedly noticed something shimmer in her eyes. It looked like she had received some kind of great epiphany and was struck with awe by it.

Something on the device glowed and hummed between us. She quickly turned her eyes to it and finally grabbed ahold it. "Thank you!" She expressed.

"You better end this and bring Twilight back!" I somewhat threatened.

"I will." She answered with a nod of confidence and immediately left to confront the creature of destruction. "This isn't the way!" She shouted towards the captor of Twilight's heart. "I know you feel powerful right now, like you can have everything you want! I've been where you are, I've made the same mistake you're making! I put on a crown and, just like you, I was overwhelmed by the magic it contained! I thought it could get me everything I wanted!"

"Oh, you're wrong." The evil being shook her head easily as if Sunset Shimmer's words had no effect whatsoever. "Unlike you, I can have everything I want!"

"No, you can't." Sunset Shimmer argued. "Even with all that magic and power, you'll still be alone! True magic comes from honesty!" She held the device upwards, and beams of light immediately shot out from each of those friends of hers. "Loyalty! Laughter! Generosity! Kindness!" She paused and glanced towards us for a brief second. "…purity." Each beam of light that appeared within her friends gathered together and stopped inside the device she held up. She furrowed her eyebrows once more and faced the demon ahead of her as she began to be lifted up off the ground. "I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all..." She clasped the device shut like the compacts girls used for vanity purposes and threw it towards the ground with all her might. As it broke apart, another ball of energy spontaneously formed. This time, Sunset Shimmer willingly succumbed to its growth. With another repeat of a bright flash, we were allowed to witness a completely different person in front of us. It was obviously still Sunset Shimmer, but there were major differences about her. She still looked like she was easily in control of herself, and she had, in fact, grew literal wings made up of shimmering light. Her hair lifted upwards like the horn that formed on her head just above her eyes. All in all, she looked exactly like a goddess straight out of a mythical fantasy video game. "...the Magic of Friendship!" She declared.

With one swift movement of her hands, a ray of her magic struck the rifts that had been opened by her opponent, and they were immediately patched up in that instant. Clearly stricken with fear, Twilight's demon raced towards Sunset Shimmer to put an end to her good. Sunset Shimmer immediately retaliated, and the two clashed together exactly how a hero and villain would in a movie. This ultimately led to the both of them releasing their beams of magic at the same time, and these beams grinded against each other. For a moment, they were at a standstill, but it was only a matter of time before Sunset Shimmer was being overtaken by the opposition. A loud cackle erupted from the side of evil due to this struggling circumstance.

In hopes to somehow help our hero, I prepared my voice to call out for Twilight, but it appeared someone beat me to it.

"Twilight!"

I looked downwards and noticed Spike giving her the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen. Hold on a second… Was it Spike who said that?!

Twilight noticeably turned in our direction, and, for a second there, it looked as he had caught the real Twilight's attention. When she was distracted with us, Sunset Shimmer took the opportunity and gave her power a final push. Her beam of magic quickly advanced and was on the brim of overtaking her as a whole.

"Noooo!" Her enemy cried out before everything was drowned in a silencing light once more.

In the next moment, we witnessed the two back on the restored pavement, and they looked as if they had been reverted back to normal, back before all this 'magical' business had erupted into pure chaos.

"I am so sorry..." Twilight pulled away from Sunset Shimmer and adverted her tear-ridden eyes to the side. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen..."

"I know." Sunset Shimmer understood. "And going by my own experiences, they'll forgive you."

Spike immediately hopped off from my lap and barked happily as he dashed over to Twilight. He had somehow found her pair of glasses and returned them to her when he jumped onto her arms. At the sight of her own loving companion, she giggled cheerfully.

"Haah…" I sighed in utter relief. "It's finally over…"

I was sort of expecting Faith to say something behind me, but she surprised me when she just wrapped her arms around my chest and squeezed tightly instead. Nevertheless, that touching moment was cut short when we heard a bitter voice angrily yell out.

"Principal Celestia, on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games!" Principal Grinch, whom I realized had been missing for the past several minutes, suddenly appeared before Principal Celestia. "Clearly, CHS has had unfair advantage for quite some time! And it's certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!"

Seriously?! After everything that just happened, you're still obsessed over winning those stupid games?!

"I'd like to think that saving the world benefits us all." Principal Celestia wittily responded, her vice principal and even Dean Cadance joining together at her side.

"At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game." I heard a familiar voice stretch out quickly into a single second.

By the sound of her almost deadpan, utterly frank, and uncaring voice, it was easily none other than Sugarcoat. After instilling a short moment of silence from everybody watching, Pinkie Pie was the first one to speak up. "Wow! That's a lot to take in when you say it all at once."

"That's ridiculous!" Grinch denied.

"Nope, that's pretty much what happened." The puppy in Twilight's arms actually spoke out loud, striking shock to those, like Faith and me, that were witnessing this for the first time. I was sure, had this happened earlier, we would have been completely freaking out over a freaking talking dog, but considering everything that just happened, I think we were sort of desensitized to the idea of the impossible happening.

"Actually, we're all to blame." Sour Sweet sadly chimed in, but she quickly burnt her voice of honey with what was to come next. "Mostly it was her." She scowled bitterly towards our principal.

"Obviously my students have been infected with your magic, but I plan on taking all of this up with the school board!" Grinch rebutted.

"Good." Principal Celestia encouraged. "I'm sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings."

"Oh, and the portals to different dimensions." The vice principal chirped at.

"And don't forget to tell them about the talking dog." Dean Cadance surprisingly added in with a jubilant giggle.

"Because that would never ruin your reputation." Spike reminded.

For the first time since I've attended Crystal Prep, I don't believe I've ever seen the Grinch in the kind of state she was now in. She was at a loss of words, and it wasn't because she was annoyed, angry, or disappointed. It was more because she honestly didn't know what else to say. It was checkmate for her, yet, her eyes roamed among the students who now turned against her. Just as we had reached the group that united together, her eyes stopped on Faith and me. However, she particularly eyed me, and she shifted her sight down to a particular part of my chest.

"Star Chaser!" She frightfully singled me out as she pointed a sharp finger at me. She turned over her shaking hand and gestured me over with that same finger. I slowly stepped forward, but I didn't feel too comfortable in fully approaching her. Nevertheless, it didn't seem like this mattered much with her next order. "Give me your video camera."

It took a second to realize her intent and connected the dots. When she saw the video camera I had actually been unaware of wearing for some time now, due to all the drama that unfolded earlier, she realized that I had recorded everything since the second event. She didn't have anything but her word against ours, but if she got ahold of the footage on here, I was sure that she'd be able to manipulate it to her favor.

"Star Chaser, I order you to give me your video camera at once!" She commanded impatiently after I had been too busy thinking to myself. I wanted to so desperately refuse her order, but there was something about where this conversation was leading to that struck me with fear. "If you do not obey me this instant, I will have you expelled!"

My heart skipped a beat at that last word. Crystal Prep wasn't important to me. It never was. However, my parents had been expecting me to graduate from this academy. They made sure of that when they bragged about it to all their co-workers and friends. If they found out that I wasn't going to be attending Crystal Prep anymore, they were sure to be steamed.

"No!" A girl shouted and came to my aid. "Even if he wanted to give you the camera, I won't let him!" Faith positioned herself with an arm in front of me and appeared to root herself to the ground we stood on. "If you're going to expel someone, then it has to be me, because there's no way I'm going to let you have his camera!"

Principal Grinch's fingers balled up into a fist. "I'll have the both of you expelled for disrespecting and disobeying your principal! You two have no place in Crystal Prep!"

"What are you talking about?" Faith argued. "I'm the only one who's disobeying you. You have nothing against Chase!"

"You heard her, Grinch…" I unexpectedly slipped past my lips softly, shocking our despicable principal. "I know why you want this video camera, and you have no right to take it. Go ahead. Try expelling us." I lifted my head towards her and felt myself staring down my fears. "In case you forgot, there's a lot of things in here you probably don't want the school board seeing…"

I was referring to the times where Principal Grinch had exposed herself as a dishonest official, such as wanting us to cheat during this last event. I didn't know if she forgot about that, or if she was counting on getting the camera by using the threat of expulsion before I would be able to catch on, but I wasn't letting any of us down without a fight.

The two of us stared daggers at each other until it appeared she finally surrendered.

"We'll see about that." She fixed her suit and heatedly walked off.

I felt like I was finally able to breathe and lifted my face up to the sky. The dark clouds that had once filled the space above us now started to dissipate. In fact, as if there was yet another addition to the collection of unbelievable events from today, it almost appeared as if a ray of light had been shining down on Faith and me.

"Well, I know these Friendship Games haven't been what any of us expected…" Principal Celestia thawed out the ice that Grinch had left behind. "…but given what we've all just been through, I think it's fair to declare us all winners."

With that said, everybody grouped together for a bombardment of cheers.

---

As Crystal Prep Academy waited for their buses to return, they surprisingly hung around students from Canterlot High. It seemed as if the reason for the whole drama dropping out of nowhere lately was to actually bring everyone together. That's what I wanted to believe anyway.

We had all been given gold medals, but that honestly felt too cheesy for me. I felt that I, at the very least, didn't really win or do anything worthy of a gold medal. As everyone from both our schools talked, I spent the majority of the time sitting on Canterlot High's steps and thinking intently over my future. Faith wasn't with me since she decided to talk with Sunset Shimmer about certain things. I could have gone with her, but I decided to give them their space. It was mostly between the two of them after all.

"You're not going to get expelled, if that's what you're worried about."

Dean Cadance had accompanied me by my side on the school steps.

"Heh." I chuckled at the irony I found with that statement. "I know I won't get expelled, but that's kind of the thing…" I turned my head to face her directly. "I don't…really want to go to Crystal Prep anymore, Dean Cadance."

"Why?" She asked with a great deal of concern. "Are the courses too hard for you? Is it Principal Cinch?"

"Hm. It's not really any of those. I mean, I don't like Principal Grinch, and I'd hate to stay if she's going to do everything in her power to make me fail or something. But, to be honest, I've never really been happy there. In fact, the only person that has kept me going is Faith." My mouth curved into a smile at the thought of her, and I found my eyes wandering for her figure among the school grounds. "I had no friends when I first started Crystal Prep, and I found myself hanging on to the idea of having Twilight as a potential friend since she obviously had no friends either. But, everything changed when Faith and I met, and speaking for her, I don't think she likes being at Crystal Prep either. I think she'd rather be someplace like…"

"Here?" Dean Cadance finished.

"Yeah." I began wondering if the incident during freshman year would still be a big deal.

"You could always transfer here, you know?" Dead Cadance mentioned. "Those credits that you earn for university? You keep whatever you've already earned and finished. Your classes this school year are actually close to coming to an end, aren't they?"

"Yeah…" I responded, but something was obviously still keeping me in the dark. "…but I don't think I could transfer out so easily."

"What's holding you back?"

"My parents." I stated bluntly. "Ever since I got invited to attend Crystal Prep, they've been egging me to stay and finish. I know they'll be so angry and disappointed if I leave. They'll probably think it's because I was too lazy and wanted to quit."

"You should talk to them." Dean Cadance suggested. "Give them the real reason you want to leave, and show it to them if you have to." She noticed the camera still hooked onto my chest and tapped it lightly. "I think you have all you need."

Hearing that, I felt a small glimmer of hope. I had to try. If what happened here today wouldn't convince them to allow me to leave, then nothing else would. "Yeah, okay." I accepted.

"In the end, it should be your choice, Chase. Whatever happens, if you and Faith decide to transfer out, all you need to do is come talk to me and I'll take care of everything." She noticed someone standing nearby and gestured her into our conversation. "After all, if it helps make your decision, I know a certain someone who's looking forward in moving to Canterlot High."

I found Twilight shyly waving at me with a sheepish grin.

"Wait. Twilight?!" I looked over to Dean Cadance for a confirmation. "You mean she's—?!" Receiving a nod from our dean, I turned back to Twilight to hear it come straight from the horse's mouth. "Twilight, aren't you always studying and doing research and stuff? Why would you want to come to Canterlot High? Crystal Prep is definitely more your type of school!"

"That's just it." She explained. "All I ever do is keep myself held up in a room and study, and I learned that there's something much more that I was missing at Crystal Prep. Friendship." She paused for a moment to reveal a guilt-ridden frown and looked at me. "You were always trying to invite me along with you and Faith whenever you went out to do things. I'm sorry I always turned you down. If it's okay with you, I'd like to spend more time with you, along with every student here at Canterlot High."

I shook my head. "I understand, Twilight. And yeah, I'm sure Faith would love to have you around whenever we make plans. That is, if you aren't already hanging around your new friends over there." I looked in the direction of the girls Sunset Shimmer had been friends with and mentioned that last remark half-jokingly. "I still don't know for sure if I'm going to transfer to Canterlot High. I still need to talk to my parents about everything. But, whatever happens," I faced Dean Cadance. "I'll be sure to let you know. As for Faith, I know she's always going to keep herself glued to me wherever I go." I mentioned with one last chuckle.

"My office is always open." Dean Cadance reminded as she stood up. "Even though you're still thinking about it, I'll let Principal Celestia know about the possibility of a few extra students."

She was about to leave until I called out her attention for one last thing. "Oh, Dean Cadance? I don't think I'll be riding the bus back to Crystal Prep. I'm not exactly in the mood to be around Principal Grinch." I informed her a little humorously.

"Are you…going to walk back home?" She asked a little worriedly.

"Nope. I brought my bike. It's a nice afternoon. I think Faith will love riding home from here."

Dean Cadance chuckled. "Yes, I think so too. Alright, then." She proceeded to continue heading along with her business.

"Well…I guess I better go with her." Twilight mentioned a little nervously.

"Yeah, um." I rubbed the back of my head a little uncomfortably as well. "I'll see you later."

She returned one last smile before she walked off, and I decided to go find Faith.

It surprised me when I found Faith giggling in what appeared to be an engaging conversation with Sunset Shimmer. Just as if she had immediately sniffed out my scent, she turned towards me and waved me in. "Chase, over here!" I somewhat hesitantly stepped in, remembering the last few harsh words I had told the person she had been speaking to. "Sunset said that she met another girl who almost looks just like me! Isn't that weird? How have I not seen her before?!"

"Another girl?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow and placing a hand on my hip.

"It's a long story." Sunset Shimmer answered. When she placed her hand on my shoulder all of a sudden, I almost jumped out of my skin. "About before… I'm sorry. Freshman year, when Faith was still here, I was a horrible person. I'm sure it's no surprise when I tell you it all came from my own problems and insecurities, right? But, then I met a couple of friends that turned my life around. It wasn't easy at first. After how I acted to every student here at CHS, I had to earn their trust back, but with the help of so many of my amazing friends…" She glanced back at the five girls Faith and I would see her hang around with the entire time. "I've been able to be myself without many problems, and now that I've met with Faith here again…" She took a second to glance towards Faith. "…I think I can finally check off the list of people I need to apologize to."

I drew out a heavy sigh. "As long as Faith is cool, I'm cool too."

"I'm so cool." Faith giddily joked.

Still, I wasn't so eager to start skipping in joy. "But there's still that video…"

"What video?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

"There's this video online." I told her. "During the Freshman Fair at your school, when the whole…'incident' happened. Anyone who watched and continues to watch that video might think Faith is some kind of thief."

Sunset Shimmer's eyes drew back in thought, and after a few seconds, they appeared to widen in realization. "Oh, that? I'm glad you reminded me. You leave that to me, and I'll make sure everyone knows that truth on what happened."

"Seriously?" I asked with a reasonable amount of skepticism. "How are you going to do that?"

"Back in the day…" She began explaining as she pulled out her phone and tapped it a bit. "I was the queen of social media when it came to doing the horrible stuff I used to do. Just leave it to me. I promise I'll make things right." Her eyes drew over to Faith. "You still have my number? I'm going to need your help later."

"I…" Faith began rubbing the back of her head embarrassingly. "…I kind of deleted it…after…"

"No biggie." Sunset Shimmer shook both her hands and head. "I understand. If you don't mind, I'll read it out to you."

"Okay, sure!" Faith drew out her phone and made a few swipes.

I felt a few pokes on my arm and found Sunset Shimmer elbowing me with a smirk. "You too."

"S-sure…" I reached for the phone in my pocket to follow Faith's movements.

Faith and I were formally introduced to Sunset Shimmer's friends, and especially remembering their actions from the Friendship Games, I noted that they were quite a unique bunch. Sunset Shimmer also explained what had happened back in the motocross race when Faith and her fell over. She had said that some kinds of tentacle-like vines had appeared out of nowhere and pulled Faith off of our bike with her leg. Sunset Shimmer was also a victim of this, having Rainbow Dash come to her aid. Of course, if I hadn't seen what I saw today, I probably would have had a hard time believing her. Either way, I decided to leave it in the dust, especially when Twilight later joined our group and confirmed Sunset Shimmer's story by referring to those rifts that had opened up. That's where the vines apparently came from. Nevertheless, I didn't really stay much for conversation as I was called out by another student from Crystal Prep. It was Sunny Flare who called me over, and she stood by a crossed-arm Sour Sweet and a rocking Lemon Zest.

"Come on, Chase. The buses are here." She pointed the charter buses out with a flick of her hand. "Why don't you sit next to me on the ride home?"

Sour Sweet clearly narrowed her eyes, and it wasn't a surprise since they were the ones who were usually together.

"Heh. Sorry, Sunny." I apologized with a sort of lop-sided grin. "I'm not getting on the bus."

"What? Why not?" Hey eyebrows furrowed as she placed both hands on her hips.

"I just thought I might ride home on my bike instead." I answered her, taking a long glance at the sky before shifting my eyes back onto hers. "I know you're apparently 'interested' in dating me or whatever, but just to let you know, I might be leaving Crystal Prep."

"Wait, what?" In a jolt, she leaned in towards me. "Are you serious? Is this about that expulsion thing Principal Cinch was talking about? It'll never happen." She brushed off the idea with her hand.

"No." I crossed my arms in response. "I just feel like leaving."

Sunny Flare's eyes widened as a reaction. "Huh? No way. For real? You can't be serious."

"Why are you so surprised?" I couldn't help but laugh as I asked. "It's not like we were good friends or anything. After all, you kind of ignored me most of the time until you decided to 'warm' up to me all of a sudden."

"I was waiting for you to talk to me, jerk!" She unexpectedly snapped, causing me to flinch slightly. Sunny Flare appeared to catch herself and immediately cleared her throat as she unnecessarily brushed her skirt. "I don't do first approaches. I wait for them to come to me, in case you haven't noticed. But, sometimes you can be so clueless, you know? I can't believe you actually made me come to you first."

"I didn't make you do anything! You didn't have to come to me first." I returned with a slight raise in my voice. "I heard about how you only wanted to date me just because of my eyes. You think I want to be somebody who's only with you, so you could attract more attention to yourself?"

Sunny Flare began revealing a side of herself that I didn't believe I had ever seen until just now. A glow radiated within her cheeks as she adverted her gaze away from me in embarrassment. "I know I said some…not nice things…but, I don't know. Your eyes are unique and…cute…and, I kind of wanted to get to know you more. But this whole time, ever since we started at Crystal Prep, you were always the one who looked like you could care less about me! That just…just ticked me off! And even when I tried to obviously get you interested in me, you always paid more attention to Faith! Like, seriously, what did she do to make you care about her so much?"

"She's just…someone I really click with, Sunny." I was sure that I possibly would have entered into a fiery debate with her had it not been for her sudden confession. In fact, I was still trying to process it in the back of my mind. "You might get other guys to fawn all over you like nothing, but I'm just different, I guess."

Sunny Flare sighed heavily. "Obviously." She paused and looked away for a moment. "I know how Faith thinks I'm a bad person, and I wouldn't be surprised if you believe her without a doubt. But, to tell you the truth, I don't want to take advantage of you, Chase." She admitted with a frown before she turned to me with a deep kind of sadness in her eyes. "Like I said, I said some pretty stupid stuff, but now you've got me hooked. I went for the bait that you apparently didn't even know you put out. I want to get to know you more, and it hurts my pride to say that, but it's true. If you hate me and don't want to bother with me after you leave Crystal Prep…" She took a moment to shrug and look away. "Then, whatever. I'll probably just get over you anyway."

I couldn't tell whether she really meant that last part, or if she was just trying to keep whatever pride she still had left. Either way, I kind of found it amusing to see this side of her that she had been hiding for so long from me.

"Geez, you don't have to be so dramatic, you know?" I joked and softly laughed. "I don't hate you at all. It's not like we can't be friends or anything."

"Just friends, huh? You are such a jerk…" Sunny Flare wondered to herself before she suddenly held her hand out to me. "Give me your phone."

"What? Why?" I questioned.

"Just do it."

I didn't think she had any bad intentions, or at least, I was hoping she didn't, so I pulled it out and handed it to her. She nearly swiped it from me as if she had been frustrated enough and began working her fingers over the screen. After a moment, she stopped to look at something.

"Wow. She's even your wallpaper on your phone?"

With a heavy blush growing in my cheeks, I quickly swiped my phone back. "Did you want my phone just so you could look through it or something?"

"Chill out." The frustration in her face seemed to disappear once we switched places with our vulnerabilities. "I left you something special. You better not delete it, or I swear I'll find you and hurt you."

"This chick…" I muttered under my breath as I stared back at her in bewilderment.

"You've really put a dent on my pride, you know that?" She crossed her arms and glared softly at me. "I'm not leaving until I take something from you."

"Let me guess. A date?" I instantly assumed.

She only rolled her eyes and shook her head with a disapproving frown. She unexpectedly embraced me for a moment before pulling up her phone and taking a photo of the both of us. She pulled away and looked at her phone before scrunching her face at the screen. "Yuck. Could you at least pretend you're happy?"

I sighed and found my eyes rolling in their sockets as well. I did say we could be friends, and after her wave of pride-hurting confession, I supposed I could at least her give that.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's take another one."

After our reshoot, Sunny Flare began boarding the bus as she waved back with her fingers. "I'll see you around. You know how to reach me. Let's go, Sour Sweet."

I was about to release a sigh of relief before my phone slipped out of my hand.

"Yeah. I got it." Sour Sweet responded somewhat unenthusiastically as she fumbled around with my phone.

"You too?!" I nearly shouted before she gave me back my phone a few seconds later.

"There." Her usual feigned smile popped onto her face. "You're welcome. I even added a special surprise, just for you." She mentioned that sweetly as if she had been speaking to a child. She waved and returned a cheery grin as she boarded the bus. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again!" She revealed the sour side of her as soon as her back was to me. "Not…" She muttered.

"Why do you have to be such a—"

"A what, huh?!" She immediately dashed towards me and nearly bashed me with her head.

I had to admit that she honestly almost instilled a great deal of fear in me with that sudden fiery reaction. "…grouch?" I responded while slightly flinching.

"Sunny Flare wasn't the only one you thought you were too good for." Sour Sweet answered as she gave me her back and crossed her arms.

Wait, what?!

"You were always so nasty to me!" I defended myself. "You think I never heard your little cranky comments whenever you'd see me? Umph-!"

Sour Sweet suddenly attacked me, not with her fists, but with an unexpected hug instead. Afterwards, she pulled away as she looked at me in an entirely different manner. She held her hands together in front of her skirt and pulled out a genuine smile for me. "It's good seeing you, Chase." Just as I was on the verge of believing her, the kindness in her face was ripped off as she was soon starting to board the bus. "There, you happy?" She looked over her shoulder at me and asked. "Bye, now."

With a slightly agape jaw, I only shook my head in disbelief before I was greeted with yet another warm embrace. It was Lemon Zest, and she was ironically the only one who seemed to be the normal one here. However, I stopped her just before she was about to get on the bus, causing her to remove her headphones and hang them around her neck.

"Hold on. You had your headphones on the entire time." I pointed out. "How did you know I wasn't getting on the bus?"

"Wait, you're not getting on the bus?" She returned a puzzled look on her face.

"…yeah? I thought you were hugging me goodbye." I mentioned.

"Dude, Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare did it, so I did too. I dunno." She shrugged cluelessly.

I guess that's Lemon Zest for you. She was always kind of…out there.

In fact, after going over what just happened with Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare, I began wondering if the 'magic' from here started affecting them too… Or maybe this was all still a dream?