There were some things that were fortunate about being sent to detention at the particular time in which I was. For one thing, it was close to both the day and class’s end, which meant that I wouldn’t be spending much time locked up. For another, as this was just a misdemeanor, and because I had patiently argued with Miss Bearskin about it, this incident wouldn’t go on my record, just on Omni’s. And that’s where the good ends.

All of this was outweighed by the massive humiliation, the fact that I was stuck with that winged twerp, and by the wall of boredom that detention heaped onto me.

We, yes we, as in, two of us, were in a grey-walled room in some forgotten part of the school. No windows, no light save that of an electric bulb above, and only the sound of Omni’s incessant talking to fill the void silence.

Oh God, kill me now.

It was a whole five minutes into his spew about the application of patterns in predictions that I interrupted him. “Okay, Omni, shut up for a minute.” He complied, rubbing a hoof under his tired eyes.

“What’s wrong, Tight Wedge?”

“You barged in there to tell me something, right?” I asked, leaning back into the hard seat they had given me. “What was so important that you’d mess the rest of my day up for it?”

At this point, it had better be important.

“Yes, well, I am sorry about that. I didn’t expect your teacher to be so... radical. Nonetheless, my reasoning was sound and I do have information that you might hold at the highest of regards!”

I ran a hoof along the chair’s edge, biting my lower lip against a sharply biting remark. “All right, fine. What’s the gossip?”

“It’s not gossip,” he began, pushing back a lock of his unruly mane. “Last night and this morning I was helping the city’s accounting committee with some minor problems. It’s a hobby of mine, plus I have to do it for community service. Anyhow. I was following a trail of investments made by the city when I saw something that bugged me. A fallacy in the numbers. A tiny, fragmented pattern that kept repeating itself. Money was being diverted, on purpose.”

“Into what?”

“Into various things. Always maintenance projects that were, in fact, real. But the quantities were too large to be justified, or nearly so. I wouldn’t have noticed it if it were not for the regularity of it. Once every two weeks. The same day you’d expect payments to go out. I delved deeper and found a few other things that were amiss. Materials not arriving at destination and nopony questioning it, trucks that entered the city empty, or apparently empty, despite coming from far, far away.”

I leaned back, letting the chair climb onto its two rear legs. “You think it’s Protagonist’s doing?” I mused.

He shook his head. “No, I don’t. It’s covered up, but from above. Seems like there're orders to not go snooping in there. And if he were ordered in such a fashion he wouldn’t be stirring up trouble against the very thing feeding him. Doesn’t make sense.”

“All right then, who’s taking the bits?”

“Dunno.”

I rubbed a hoof against my eyes, trying to work away at my rising levels of stress. Did you know that sarcasm is a great stress reliever? “So, I got into detention, into trouble, with you, to be told that somepony, or someponies, is taking money. Now, this fact may or may not be important in the grand scheme of things, you don’t know that. Also, you have no clue whatsoever as to who it is that stole all those bits, or why for that matter.”

He looked at me weird, blinking a few times before tilting his head to one side. “I have the impression that you’re slightly angry with me.”

“No, you don’t say?” I snapped back. “Omni, all of that could easily have been written down on a bit of paper. Or explained over recess, or, heck, told over the phone. You didn’t have to go all crazy to explain it all.”

Omni actually looked sad as he opened and closed his mouth, trying to work out a few words. I, for my part, did the gentlecoltly thing and pouted for the next few minutes of quiet before he finally spoke, “I’m sorry. That was rude of me. If you don’t want to be my friend anymore I’ll understand that,” he said, practically whispering it.

Bloody hell. I hate guilt trips.

“You can still be my friend.” We were friends? This fellow had low standards, but I wasn’t about to ask; after all, he probably had a table and some mathematical explanation of the principles of friendship. “But just be... mindful, of the things you do, okay?”

His stupid grin could have given a three-legged kitten a run for its bits.

For the first time that day something really good happened. The door to the room clicked open and a guard trotted in who quickly narrated our sins to us before leading the way out of the room and into one of the school’s more nondescript corridors.

“You two head on off, the bell’s about to ring. Oh, and you,” the guard said, looking right at me in a way that made my flesh tingle. “Your teacher told me to give you this.” Reaching into one of the many pockets of his uniform, the officer grabbed a note and placed it at my hooves, neatly folded in half. “Have a good day, kids, and stay out of trouble. Or else.”

He trotted away after locking the door, leaving me and Omni alone in the coridor, save for the constantly glowing electric bulbs hanging above us and the occasional sound of ponies somewhere else in the school chatting away.

“What’s in the letter?” Omni finally asked, leaning over me on those gangly and too-long limbs of his.

“None of your business is what,” I said, but without the previous levels of venom. For once he caught on to the joke and just smiled at me.

The pegasus turned. “Fair enough then. Perhaps we will see each other at Oh-Eight hundred tomorrow, when school starts once more? Next time I’ll show you my new project: it’s a refinement of the duodecimal system using new keys that are easy to understand.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I called back as I watched him trot away. When the reverberating thump of his hooves on the ground faded enough I turned back to the folded sheet, opening it up with a protesting crinkle of the new paper. I read,

Dear Mister Tight Wedge

This letter is addressed to you in concern of your lack of organization. It was clearly stipulated, on multiple occasions, that all students in your grade level and type join two (2) clubs before the week’s end. You have until tomorrow evening to enroll in one more of the school’s many clubs, else we will be forced to deduct a portion of your total grade and enroll you in a club with low membership.

--The Administration

I gulped, then read on.

P.S. If you don’t get that sorry hide of yours fixed up, you’re joining the crocheting club, and I’ll make you crochet granny panties in front of the whole damned class.

With love,

Miss Bearskin.

Crap.

Author's Notes:

Edited by:
The Misfits

Oh noes! A short chapter!

More Omni, that guy needs a personality.

Refused from EqD again, much sad. Don't know if I'll bother trying again since one of the complaints is that Tight's got no personality. Pain.

Also, anypony feel like dying? Er-- I mwan, editing? Actually, it's more like... beta-readg(?) for a novel that I'm writing. It's getting longish, and I need somepony to look at it and point out the places that feel off or that need more work, no actual editing. Please, only apply if you're really, really serious.

Bah, that's it for now. Only got one more chapter ready in the pipes,
Ravens D. Dagger