Flash Sentry wasn't stupid. He knew that Twilight was gone for the moment, but he also knew that she would be back sooner or later to visit her friends or to save the school and probably the city, and to do so she had to pass through the portal in the statue pedestal. That was the exact reason why he had taken as a habit to go study, practice with his guitar, or simply chill out in that same exact place.
Granted, it wasn't terribly comfortable, but the possibility to be the first to welcome back his Twily was such a great pro that he didn't mind.
Of course, he was very surprised to see the portal open so soon.
He immediately jumped up to welcome his still-not-technically-girlfriend, only to have his hopes crushed by the arrival of a white-skinned, blue-haired guy some years older than himself with an heavy built; he wore a cerulean shirt over a pair of dark blue jeans and white sneakers.

"Uhm, you aren't another weirdo from Equestria who wants to conquer the school, right?" he asked the newcomer helping him on his feet.

"What? No, my name is Shining Armor, and I have an important mission here. And you are one of Twilight's friends I suppose, since you know of Equestria."

"More or less anyone around here knows of your magical pony world, but yes, we're pretty close. The name is Flash Sentry, nice to meet you dude. So, has Twilight ever said anything about me?"

"Ah, so you are that Flash Sentry who tried to make a move on my Twily uh?"

"Your Twily? Who are you?"

"Her big brother."

At those words the poor Flash realized he might not have been in the best of situations and paled a bit.

"Hey, calm down, I'm not going to skin you alive. Unless you've done something to Twilight. You didn't do anything, did you?" asked Shining in a tone that made it clear that lies were out of question.

"N-no sir, of course not."

"Good, then it's your lucky day: I told I have an important mission right? Well, help me out and you'll have my blessing. What do you say?"

"Sir yes sir!" was Flash's enthusiastic response "Uhm, what exactly is this mission about?"

"I need to find the me from this word, can you help me?"

"Never seen him, I'm sorry, but maybe... Follow me, my friend Mac knows lots of people in and out the city."

The two of them headed to the cafeteria, even if a bit wobbly on Shining's part before he got used to walking on two legs. There, they found Big Macintosh helping out Granny Smith cleaning before the students arrived for lunch.

"Hey Mac!" called Flash waving to him "Got a moment to talk?"

"Eeyup," answered the man stopping in mopping the floor.

"Meet Shining Armor, Twilight's brother from Equestria. Shining, this giant here is Big Macintosh."

"Nice to meet you Big Macintosh," saluted the king with a nod.

"Just Mac is fine, and the pleasure is mine: yer sis is great friends with mine."

"So, the thing is, Shining here is searching for the himself from this world. Do you know him?" interjected the youngest boy.

"Eenope, dunno him, but Ah've seen him pretty often by the market were I sell mah apples. He's a police officer Ah reckon."

"Thanks a bunch Mac, I really owe you one!" said Flash patting him on a shoulder.

"You really helped a lot, you have my thanks Mac," said Shining armor already projecting his next move.

"Ah really did nothing," said the red man shrugging, before addressing his friend "Shouldn't ya be in class now Flash? Ya won't hear the end of it from vice principal Luna if she discovers yer skipping."

"Arg, you're right! Gotta go! Shining, I'll see you after school, meet me here in the cafeteria!" cried out the boy running away.

"Well, I'm stumped till school's out it seems. Anything I can help you with Mac?"

"Well, Ah reckon trash cans need to be emptied..."

"What do you mean 'he's not returned' ? Of course he has, he's nowhere around here so he must have returned. He even said he was going to leave!" said Twilight showing the first signs of panic.

"Calm down Twily, deep breaths," offered Cadence "We're just trying to find him, nothing more."

"I told you she had gone mad, deploying the search squad would have been faster," harrumphed Chrysalis watching his sister-in-law fight a panic attack.

The three of them were seated in the council room in Twilight's castle, three fuming cups of tea placed on a nearby coffee table with some pastries.
Useless to say, those amenities had been forgotten in the heat of the moment.

"Your search squad was thousands of drones strong, it would have caused panic even here in Ponyville!" retorted her fellow queen.

"I'm not that sure... I mean, us changelings are nothing like parasprites..."

"That's beside the point," said Twilight having regained her cool "If Shining is not here, nor in the empire, where is he? Still traveling?"

"Don't forget that the guards did not see him leave the palace," reminded the changeling.

"Wait, what?"

"His escort assures that he did not leave your palace."

"That's impossible... Where could he... No, this isn't good..."

"What? What isn't good?" asked Cadence preoccupied.

"There's only one explanation: the portal to Canterlot High School."

"And what exactly would be Shining doing in that world?" asked Chrysalis crooking an eyebrow.

"That, I have no idea, I'm sorry, nor I know how he could have got there by chance... He must have wanted to go there."

"But why?" asked Cadence still not believing the implications of the fact.

"There’s only one way to know…"

Some might know that awkward moment when a cell phone rings during the lesson and, even if it’s only vibrating, it’s clearly audible and you realize it’s yours?
Well, Sunset Shimmer wasn’t familiar with the feeling. Sure, she might have been queen bitch of the school, but having no friends she had little uses for keeping her cell phone on during lessons.
That’s why, when she heard what she believed to be mobile phone vibrating, she did not care particularly and kept staring at the chalkboard. It was only when she noticed that every pair of eyes in the room was pointed on her that she got what was really happening.

"Miss Shimmer, would you kindly turn off you phone? It’s disturbing the lesson," asked the math teacher stroking his goatee, displeasure clear on his face.

"Uhm, it’s not my phone… It’s my book…"

"Well, then you and your vibrating book can go spend some quality time outside the classroom. Math is difficult enough without your stimulating reading distracting the class."

With that, Sunset swiftly left the room before professor Cord decided to make other jokes about her.
Finally alone in the hallway, she opened the book and found what had caused all that ruckus: six simple words.

I’m coming, I need help.

Author's Note

Here we are with chapter 2

I want to thank you all who read this little story of mine: your support makes me happy

On a side note, I've recently revised Armor for Two. Nothing major, mainly some grammar or typing errrors here and there.