“This is such fucking bullshit!” There was a loud SLAM! as Rainbow Dash brought her a textbook down hard onto the lunch-table, jolting Sunset from her own reading on the advanced theories of the interaction between active magic use and leylines. The former unicorn made a shrill sound in her throat in surprise, half out of her chair and her apple rolling down the table with a few bites missing before she could stop herself.

Dash stared at her for a few seconds before her sour face turned into riotous laughter. “Oh holy shit, Sunset! I didn't know you could make a noise like that!”

Fluttershy stopped the runaway fruit from falling to the floor as she pulled out her chair, offering it back to Sunset. “That’s not very nice, Dashie...”

“It's fine,” Sunset took her apple back and eased back into her chair with a hammering heart. “And I’m soooo glad me being startled out of my wits provided you with a momentary reprieve from your bad mood.”

The soccer player had degenerated into snickering. “You sounded like one of AJ’s pigs!”

“I did not,” Sunset grumbled. “I’m a pony, not a pig. Now what’s got you so mad that you're trying to break our table with your trig book?”

The laughter stopped, and her colorful friend glared at the book like it had personally offended her somehow. “I’m failing math—bombed my midterm. Coach says I have to bring my grade up or I'll be suspended from the team.”

Fluttershy gave her a look of sympathy. “Oh, Rainbow, I’m so sorry...”

Rainbow slumped in her chair. “Yeah. I can't help it that I suck at math. When am I ever going to use this stuff?! None of it makes sense!”

Sunset frowned. “What part is giving you trouble?”

“All of it!” the athlete complained. “Numbers and formulas, and this sine/cosine stuff! Even paying attention in class doesn't help, and the notes might as well be horsey hieroglyphs for all I can use them!”

With a sigh, Sunset slid the book over, opening it to the section marked by a piece of paper—the latest quiz Rainbow had failed with a bright red 48 scrawled across the top in ink, along with a note from the teacher. “Okay, I know this. What parts do you already get, Dash?”

“I get it's about triangles, and finding like, angles and stuff. That’s it. I don’t understand anything else.”

Sunset skimmed it, looking over the quiz too, to see if the athlete had gotten anything right. Her eyes flicked up to watch her friend playing absently with a small rubber ball, rolling it around her hands, tossing it up and catching it, or bouncing it off the nearby wall only to snatch it out of the air. An idea began to percolate in the back of her mind. “I can try tutoring you if you want?” she offered. “Math is something I’m good at, but I learned it all for applications and not theoretics. I’m wondering if you might learn it better my way.”

“I dunno...”

“I’d take her up on it, Dash,” Flash’s voice broke through the background noise of the cafeteria. “Sunset’s the only reason I passed Algebra II last year.” He was standing there with a tray, two girls just behind him, and he winked at Sunset.

She laughed, tossing her head. “Probably the only good thing that came of dating me, right?”

“Oof. I wasn't going to say that,” Flash said with a wince.

“No big deal. I know it's the truth,” Sunset shrugged.

The blue haired young man shook his head. “Mind if we join you guys?”

Rainbow squinted at Sunset. “Alright you can try but I’m no egghead. Don't expect much.” Then she turned back to Flash. “Well, don't just stand there, sit down!”

All three took seats at the table. “Hey, Lyra, hey, Bon-bon.”

“We were actually coming over to ask kinda the same thing,” Flash said sheepishly. “Lyra and I aren't doing so hot in math either, and you're the best math tutor I know...”

Sunset rolled her eyes but the smile never left her face. “What class?”

Lyra made a face. “Trig. The same as Rainbow Dash. I am sooo not a math person.”

Bon-bon rubbed her back. “I tried helping her, but we learned that I...don't really have the patience for it,” she told Sunset.

“We got talking after class,” Flash chimed in again, “and I was talking about asking you if you’d tutor me again, so...”

The pieces came together neatly. “So you figured you’d both come ask me, and I’m guessing you're in the same class as Dash too, since you're not surprised by her wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

“Hey!” the athlete protested.

Flash had the decency to at least look guilty. “...yeah...basically.”

Sunset shook her head. “I’ll help...but not at lunch. I think we can all agree that we enjoy being able to eat.” She mulled her schedule over in her head, and compared it to Rainbow’s. “How about Wednesdays, right after school, in the library? I’m sure I can catch you guys up pretty quick and keep you up to speed with about an hour a week.”

Rainbow scowled. “Awww man...that'll cut into my practice time...”.

The former unicorn arched one brow. “Do you want to pass math, or not?” she asked. “You've got to put effort into it.”

“Can’t I just talk you into doing my homework for me? You're a math nerd, Sunset.” Leaning back in her chair, the soccer player waved a hand. “It's not like it would even be work for you, since you do your own math without a calculator!”

A tanned skin hand swatted Rainbow with a stetson, catching her by surprise and making her tumble out of her chair with a yelp and a loud smacking sound of her hitting the floor. “Do yer own work, lazy ass. ‘S not Sunset’s responsibility ta pass yer classes.”

Dash dragged herself back into her chair after giving Applejack a one finger salute. Sunset shook her head with a laugh. “I do it in my head and without a calculator because Equestria doesn't have calculators, Dash. Not to mention I spent four years of concentrated effort studying high level math at CSGU so I could do it on the fly. I have to run massive equations through my head very quickly to calculate a teleport. After that kind of study, high school math is barely a warm up.”

A finger pointed at her triumphantly “See?! She could totally do it!”

Sunset arched a brow, before letting her down with a point she hadn't considered. “Sure, I could do your homework, but I can't take your tests for you. You still need math for that.”

Rainbow wilted. “Aaaaawwwwwww man...I forgot about that.” Then she perked up a little. “Wait...can't you just...I dunno...do some fancy unicorn magic shit? Make everyone think you're me and take the test?”

"Fancy unicorn shit?" Sunset repeated in a voice as dry as the dunes of Saddle Arabia. Down the table, Flash slowly brought his palm up to meet his face, and Applejack looked like she was about to use more than her hat on the back of her friend’s skull. “Rainbow...we’ve established that I can barely use my magic safely here...and also, that's cheating, and we all know you're not a cheater.”

Her friend’s expression fell, and she looked away. Sunset reached out and laid a hand on her wrist. “Dash, why are you so against even trying? This isn't like you.”

She shrugged. “I’m not an egghead. I just don't get this stuff. You’re going to be wasting your time. My parents have tried to get me a tutor before.”

The redhead frowned. “Dash, look at me.” When the soccer player met her eyes, she continued. “It's my time to ‘waste’ how I choose, and I think I can help you. Let me try.”

“...fine...but don't expect much.”

“Then...Wednesdays after school? Meet me in the library.” She looked at Flash and Lyra. “That work for you guys?”

“Yeah, I can do Wednesdays. I’ll just let my boss know I can only do closings on that day.” Flash shrugged, before biting into a chicken sandwich.

Lyra followed his assent with a nod of her own. “Oh yeah, totally. Thanks, Sunset. My mom would be furious if I failed math.”

“And then she’d try to make you participate in whatever chakra balancing juice cleanse or whatever she’s into this month,” Bon Bon added with a chuckle.

The pale haired girl groaned. “Bonny...please don't remind me. I still can't look at a pineapple.” She draped herself over her companion’s shoulders with some over dramatic whining. “Especially because you don't want to know what the latest fad from her favorite celebrity is....”

Sunset arched an eyebrow. “That sounds...”

“Terrifying? Interesting? Like Lyra’s mom is a few pineapples short of a fruit salad?” Pinkie plopped into a chair, ignoring the pained groan Lyra gave. “Hi Lyra! Hi Bon Bon! Hi Flash!” She tilted her head. “This is the fourth time in a week you’ve had lunch with us, Flash!”

He laughed awkwardly. “Yeah I guess it is. Do I...need to sign a guest register or something?” he joked.

“Nope!” Pinkie grinned. “But if you're gonna keep joining us, we should have a party to make you officially part of the group!”

“We’re a group now?” Sunset commented.

“Of course we are, silly filly!” Pinkie poked her in the nose, which made Sunset want to bite. “Twilight got us all back together, and then you joined us, which made the group even better, and now Flash is here more which is super neat and fun, and he’s bringing his friends too! Which calls for a celebration!”

Sunset stared. Mostly at the party hats Pinkie had pulled from somewhere and was putting on everyone at the table, despite any protests being made. She reached up to her own head, finding one of the conical cardboard hats already in place, trying to decide if she should wonder where the cake sitting on the table had come from.

It must have shown on her face, because from her other side, Rarity patted her shoulder. “Don't think too deeply about it, Sunset. Pinkie Pie has a way of challenging sanity and rationale on a good day. Its probably best to label what she does as a form of Pinkie Pie magic and move on.”

“I’m beginning to realize that,” she agreed. “It makes me wonder if this world has an equivalent to Discord or if it's just a manifestation of human magic—which I seem to be mostly blind to until it's actually happening.” That conclusion, which she had reached after both the journal that had been left in their care, and the incident with Shining Armor, was unsettling. The idea of a magic whose energy she couldn't pick out of the background until right before it activated was dangerous, and difficult to study or even find. It meant there might very well be extremely powerful magic here, and she would never know it unless the user decided to reveal themselves.

“Hey, Sunset,” Rainbow laughed, “I think Flash is trying to get your attention! Dude, come on, that’s not gonna work if you don't know what a unicorn’s mating call sounds like!”

“Mating—what?” Sunset shook herself out of her thoughts to stare at Dash first, then slowly pan her gaze to Flash. “What in the—really, Flash?”

Flash had adjusted his party hat so it sat on his forehead in a parody of a unicorn horn, and added a set of the Wondercolt ears. “What? I don't want to be left out! Whaddya think, pony-girl? Would I pass as a Rainboom? Or as a pretty unicorn?”

Lyra leaned forward, staring at Sunset intently. “Actually, that's a good question—are there even boy unicorns? Or do you have to use other magical equines for reproduction?”

Her face heated, and from the way Rainbow Dash started laughing, Sunset decided she must be as red as the red in her hair. “There are unicorn colts and stallions,” she responded a little stiffly. “But they are a lot fewer in number than fillies and mares.”

“So unicorns are mostly female! Is it because of their purity?”

She stared blankly at Lyra for a long moment, trying to decide if the bubbly girl was on some form of illicit substance. “...no. It's because ponies' natural birth rates as a species skew heavily in favor of female offspring,” she explained, her voice giving away how uncomfortable the subject of discussing her species’ reproductive statistics was.

“What about the idea that unicorns are only interested in vir—” Lyra was cut off by Bon Bon’s hand over her mouth.

“Lyra, sweetie, love of my life, manic pixie that haunts my nightmares,” she deadpanned, “we’ve talked about this. Time to put your feet back on the ground and stop using intensely personal questions about our friends and classmates to further your conspiracies or monster theories.”

The green-skinned girl mumbled something that might’ve been an apology underneath the hand. Bon Bon nodded. “I’m going to let go, and try to keep to normal conversation that doesn't include other people’s sex lives, please?”

Rainbow laughed again. “Aw c’mon! We didn't even get the part where she asks if unicorn horns double as a—WHOOOOAAA!!”

The table—Sunset included—fell apart in uproarious laughter when Applejack calmly upended her friend’s chair and dumped her unceremoniously onto the floor.

Short chapter this week, but hopefully a fun one after some of the Sunset angst and Sparkle Family Magical Drama.

Also bringing in a few more of the minor characters that will feature in the background a bit--Everyone's favorite canon lesbian couple: Lyra and Bon-bon.

...You know, there's a joke somewhere about the fact that the women Flash tends to gravitate towards are, at present, two different horse ladies, and then a couple of lesbians.

Flash needs a wingman.

He needs like...the wingman of wingmen.

Or something. Poor guy.