"You really didn't need to buy me these clothes. I still have the recite. I cant get your money back to you," orange Anonymous said as she inspect her metal spiked, leather wrist-band. 

Using her magic, Rave move her headphones on her neck. Nearly inaudible but sharp music escaped her headphones, "I got something to tell you. Something that you won't like. Something that you won't like."

"Don't you like them?" Rave asked and pulled out a bar of bubblegum. 

"No. I do. They are... Rad," Anon said as she inspected the print on her black T-shirt as if she was deciphering hieroglyphs.

 Rave looked unconvinced. 

"Well, it was a gift. No strings attached. Besides, you had no money and I couldn't have you just sit there while I shop. That's not nice." 

Rave moved in close and pulled the headphones so far apart that the two could share it if they put their cheeks together. And that's what Rave did. 

Anon blushed but Rave seem unbothered.

But assaulted her right ear was electronic music with haunting vocals and pumping bass, like pulse going through the track. 

Rave swayed with each step, as if dancing. She bobbed her head and Anon just had to follow along with it, or the headset they shared would either snap off or fall off. 

Rave seemed lost to the music. The feeling of having their cheeks rub together was new to a filly who had only known desolate darkness for so long that she forgot what was before. 

It felt nice but a bit too much. 

Also, every pony was looking at the pair as they walked down the streets of the Crystal Empire after school. Anon wasn't used to attention. Actually, scratch that, she wasn't used to ponies. Actually, let's take it one step further back, she wasn't used to life beside... Herself? Had she even been alive in that cell or was it just a dream all of it? 

Regardless, she finally lightly tapped Rave.

Rave's eyes rolled over to the side to view her but then realized that it didn't give the best view so she pulled the headset off them. She turned fully towards her.

"What?" Rave asked.

Anon looked down at the ground. She imitated a fish'es lips as she open her mouth a tiny bit before closing again, over and over again. Her eyes darted from one side toward a crystal stallion, and then back over to the other side as two crystal fillies watching them. 

"Ponies are watching. This doesn't seem normal," Anon said. 

Rave puffed out her chest-fluff and stood tall. Then she turned to the stallion. There was no anger in her eyes, just an unflinching gaze, and the stallion returned to his hay-pizza. Then she threw her gaze over her shoulder as if she was an owl. The fillies froze up as if God's face had appeared between the clouds above. They quickly clopped off on their tiny cutie patootie hoofsies.

Rave returned her gaze to Anon. On her features was smile more jagged than a key to a safe.

"Where? I don't see anypony," Rave said, then stepped in closer as if she just stepped up on the cat-walk. 

She pushed in next to Anon. Their barrels stroke each other and the small difference of height was felt as Rave's frame was slightly eclipsing Anon's.
 
Anon continue to walk beside the other adolescent filly. It felt like there was energy tucked away in the nocks and crannies in her limbs that both demanded she run now but also stilted her gait. At the same time, however, her heart was like bird a ready to soar.

Without asking for permission, Rave put her head next to Anon's and put the headset on the two of them. Though, with a zap of her magic, the music changed to calm, techno metal? It was theatrical and kind of dour in tone. 

"Hey, soooo... Where are you staying?" Rave asked. 

Those words made Anon's heart plummet back to earth and inhale arctic air from the sunbathed streets. 

She was kind of happy now that they shared the headset as it made it impossible for Rave to see her face at the moment. 

"Uhh... I have a place," Anon said.

"Yeahh, but where? I grew up here, remember? I can help you find the place," Rave said.  

Anon felt her heart sink. 

"No!" Anon said hastily before adding, "I can know where it is. I'll find my way there."

"Are you sure? You didn't know where the school was earlier." Rave added quickly, "Not that I blame you. The Crystal Empire is huge."

"But this one I know. I just didn't... Uhh... Memorize the school address since I thought it be easier to find than just an normal street address?" Anon hadn't meant for it to sound like a question at the end.  

They walked in silence after that, well not really, the singer in their shared headset moaned about, "Infinite sadness," but excluding that.

Rave was the first one to break it.

"Well, could you still tell me where it is, at least? I would like to come visit," Rave said. 

Anon stopped again and Rave had to turn quickly to the side, following Anon's head, as not to let the headset fall off. This made Rave pulled the headset off them before setting them down around her neck. Now they were face to face but Anon looked down. She sneaked peeks at Rave.   

Anon stepped in place. She looked from side to side. She chewed on her underlip. She faced Rave.

"The truth is..." she began but stopped in the middle of the sentence and brought a hoof up to her scarf, or rather her new scarf. 

At Plot Topic, (Maybe, I should had that Rave was told about Flurry's shenanigans by the manager there if he knew they are old pals? Hmm.) while Rave was essentially forcing on Anon new clothes, she had told Anon her scarf had to lose it. Rave thought it clashed against the rest of her new look, which was true as her look was mostly black, some white, and shiny metal spikes and skulls. Her brown scarf that hid the bomb-collar on her neck simply didn't fit neither the color scheme or the edgy theme of her new style. Luckily, Anon had managed to both insist on a new scarf, claiming she loved the feel of scarfs, and had been alone in the dressing room when she exchanged it.  

Her new scarf was black, obviously, and had white skulls decorating it. It was also torn in places. If one looked closer one could see the tears were intentional. They were even partly mended as to make sure the scarf didn't break further when in use. 

Anon felt with her hoof through the fabric of the scarf. She felt the bomb-collar with one hoof.  

Anon's head slumped and she turned her gaze away. She let out a sigh.

"My... Aunt... Uhh, doesn't like visitors," Anon forced out. 

Anon had told Rave that she'd be staying with her Aunt while studying in the Crystal Empire. The truth was, of course, that she had no place to stay and would probably sleep on the street that night.

Anon's curiosity overcame her fear of looking at her new friend after lying to their face. She looked at Rave and saw what she expected: Narrowed eyes, a raised upper lip, a pumping vein on the edge of her forehead, and crinkle between her eyebrows. 

She was angry. She was disgusted. 

Anon turned away again. She shrunk away from the other filly's gaze. She shut her eyes hard.

Anon felt a hoof on her cheek. But surprisingly, it was soft. It gently guide her towards Rave and Anon carefully opened her eyes, locking gazes with a concerned Rave. 

"Anon, be honest. Does you Aunt, or your anyone in your family for that matter, hurt you?" Rave asked with a sharp voice. 

Anon blinked. The questioned at stunned her. At first, because the question came out of left-field, she didn't understand it. When she did, she felt unsure how to proceed. 

She didn't like lying. Just talking with other ponies was hard enough. She figured that her time alone in darkness hadn't exactly improved her social skills. 

But even she realized that she should take any excuse that was just handed to her on a silver-platter. Though, it was still hard to lie. It was like her tongue was numb when she did.

"Uhh..." Anon said and looked anywhere but in the eyes of Rave. "Ehh, kind of but not exactly."

Realizing she was stumbling over her words, she quickly added. 

"They are just--" Then the image of the deep underground cell she hailed from came to her mind. "--very protective of me. My family that is. They don't allow certain things."

She had managed to lie by basing it on some truth. For all she know the bureau was her family. Though, if they were protective, in retrospect fit only for keeping her alive in a cell, not threatening to blow her up if she failed the mission.

Anon felt like she had just dived right into pool mud on her own accord for the lies she had told. She just wanted to put her head under a tap and pour cold water over it as if to erase this conversation from her memory. As if cold water had this magical property.

She faced Rave again. She wanted to know her reaction. 

Rave had sucked in her lower lips and looked at her with sharp eyes. 

"What? You can't have friends over? That is not okay," Rave said with finality to her voice,[ then because she probably enjoyed the sound of her own voice, she added, "Everypony should be allowed to choose who they want to spend time with." || Maybe.]