Summer was always a simple time for Flam. Especially since he’d moved into the small apartment he’d decided to waste his life in. It was air conditioned, he had his apple soda, and most importantly, his computer. That was all he needed, after all. Yet, he wasn’t happy with his life. He started to become lost in thoughts, until a grating, high pitched voice called out.
“Ah, masterrrrrr!”
“...Pinkie…” he groaned.
The pink jacket-wearing pony hopped across his computer screen, laughing as she leaned in. “It’s a nice day outside! 79 degrees and clear skies, perfect park weather! I wanna go, master, I wanna go!”
Flam snorted and looked away. “No. I hate the outdoors.”
He tried his best to tune out the digital pony’s whining, pressing his hooves against his ears. This proved to be futile, as his virtual companion let out a high-pitched squeal, causing him to jump and drop his apple soda...all over his keyboard.
Flam cried out in horror and scoured his messy apartment for a cloth, having to settle for a dirty shirt to try to wipe up the sticky mess, hoping it’d be enough to salvage the keyboard. A few sparks caused him to jump back, and he worriedly tapped a few keys, receiving no response on the screen. “Oh, no, no, no! No, my keyboard! ...Pinkie!”
He snapped at her, pressing his hoof firmly against the screen. “This is your fault! You, look for a replacement online right now!”
Pinkie blinked at him for a moment, then shrugged, calmly smiling. “Eh. Alright, then.”
Sitting herself atop the browser, she hummed in thought while searching Amarezon. Flam recognized the tune, and another flash of anger brewed inside him. “You’ve been snooping in my project files again!”
Another shrug and a laugh. “So what if I have? I live here. Besides, you’re not a very good composer, your chords are too...depressing.”
She pulled up a list of results on the screen and smiled. “Well, here we are, new keyboards.”
Flam picked out the cheapest one, and sighed. “Sign it up for the fastest shipping. How long will it be?”
“Um….”
“Well? Spit it out!”
“Three days.”
That blew it. “THREE DAYS!? Why in the hoof will I have to wait three days?! Isn’t there expedited shipping?”
Pinkie shook her head, lounging back on the top of the window casually. “Nope. It’s the Summer Sun Festival, they won’t ship for three days because of the holiday. Though, there is one way you could get your keyboard sooner….”
Flam stared at her blankly. He already knew what was coming. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no…”
“You’ll have to go...to the mall.”
“NOOOOOO!”
Flam grumbled quietly as he walked down the street, staring at the screen of his phone, where Pinkie was laughing at him through his headphones. "You should see yourself right now! You look like an angry turtle who's been awoken from his shell! I'm surprised nopony's giving you any weird looks!"
Flam self-consciously looked around when she said that, before grumbling, "Enough of that. We're just going to the mall, getting my keyboard, and leaving, understand?"
"Ohhhh but that's where the fun park isssss!" she whined and flailed her hindquarters. "I wanna go to the parrrrrrk!"
"No. I refuse to be out here longer than I need to be."
"Oh, I suppose you don't care about your dumb little songs then, do you?"
Flam nearly halted in the middle of the street when the words registered. He quickly trotted out of the road and hissed, "Don't you dare! You don't understand what those mean!"
"Hmmm, you know...if you take me to the park, I may just forget about those songs, and not delete the files...wouldn't you like that?"
Damn it...she was more cunning that he'd originally taken her for.
Flam arrived at the mall, glancing at the directory to locate the electronics section, before entering the elevator to head there. He pondered his next course of action...should he call her bluff and risk losing those songs? Or would he pander to the digital filly and ensure their survival? Pinkie was getting impatient.
"Welllllllll?"
"...Alright. But only after I get my keyboard."
Pinkie cheered, grating on his eardrums, and hopped around the tiny phone screen. He rolled his eyes and walked onward, focusing on his destination, but not really where he was walking. He left out a gasp and stumbled, bumping into the wall. The unicorn stallion turned his head to see who he bumped into, paralyzed with...fear? anxiety? dumbness? as he realized he'd crashed into a mare.
A pegasus mare, to be precise. Her pastel pink mane flowed from under her lavender hood, and droopy aqua eyes met with his own green. He stared at her awkwardly, mouth gaping open. The light yellow, pink-maned pony was there for but a moment longer, then she vanished into thin air. He could've sworn her eyes flashed crimson before she disappeared.
Flam was too awestruck to realize Pinkie was laughing at him, once again. He snapped back to attention and narrowed his eyes at his phone as Pinkie mocked, "Bahahaha! Goodness, you embarrassed yourself in front of a pretty mare! Didn't even bother to say 'excuse me'! No wonder she looked at you like that, not to mention you're all frumpy!"
Flam frowned and ruffled at his mane, flicking it to either side of his horn. "I am not frumpy!" He flicked his tail in annoyance and trotted onwards. "Besides, I'm not interested in finding a date."
Another chorus of laughter came from the digital mare, and he rolled his eyes. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but didn't pay it any mind until he heard a crash and an alarm, the whole floor going red. He froze up, and felt a sharp pain in the back of his head before he collapsed, the whole world fading to black. He heard Pinkie's voice becoming muffled as he lost consciousness.
"Master? ...What's happening out there? Master?!"
Author's Note
Well my mind decided to nag me into this, even though this just started out as a simple series of drawings. Originally Shining Armor took Flam's role, but I decided to swap it due to not having much to work with with Shining and Cadence. Sure, they're a couple, but they're too perfect. I couldn't really figure out how to write them, so I went with Flam and Flim instead.
