Crystal Sunset

I sighed in relief as I pulled up in the driveway of my home – my sweet, warm home – looking forward to nothing other than my shower and my cosy bed, both waiting for me inside like they normally do every day after school. I pulled my keys out and scratched my head, grabbing my school bag and getting myself out of my stinking hot car. I used the same pair of keys to lock my car, then to open the door, the only objective stopping me from entering heaven…but something was wrong. The door was already unlocked.

I ran inside, dropped my bag near the entrance with a loud thud and then continued to walk through cautiously. If I knew anything about this situation, the guy – or burglar as I liked to put it, no-one else I knew could get in – could still be here. I stepped up the small amount of stairs very slowly when he heard the fridge door shut. He was still here, and not only that, in the kitchen too! I grabbed the closest thing he could find – a stick that was supposed to be used for locking this other door – and inched my way towards the kitchen very slowly.

“Hey, dude, you really have to go shopping more often,” the ‘burglar’ announced and shut the door, walking out of the kitchen. I stood there, holding the stick up for defence, before I recognized the guy in front of him.

“Shining Armour?” I said, confused. What was he doing here? He wasn’t stealing wasn’t he?

“In the flesh.” Shining Armour plonked himself down on the light blue couch, “So, what are you doing with that stick?”

“This stick?” I quickly hid it, “Wait, that’s not what’s important. What are you doing here? How’d you get in?” Shining Armour responded with a laugh, and held up the pair of keys.

“Last year, you gave me these and said I could come in and check on you when I could.” He said simply, and I blinked, trying to remember the time.

“Feel free to drop by my house when you feel like it. I may be working some afternoons, so I’ll give you this set of keys.”

“I did to! And I only forgot because it’s been ages since you’ve been here!” I announced, everything coming back to him.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Ever since Cadence got pregnant, I’ve had to work harder than usual. But now that Twilight’s been granted half days of school because she’s top of the class and finishes all her work in five seconds flat, she offered to help look after her for some days instead of me. So I used this opportunity to visit you.” Shining Armour explained, and I nodded. It all made sense to me now.

“So that’s what she meant when she said busy. I asked her if she wanted to go on a date after school and-”

“Wait,” Shining interrupted, “you two are dating?” I nodded in response, confused.

“Didn’t she tell you?” When Shining shook his head, I just laughed.

“Probably trying to get you back for not telling her that you were engaged to Cadence.”

“Hey, I had a reason.” Shining Armour grabbed the remote.

“So did she,” I smiled, “getting you back.”

“Okay, okay, you have a point.” Shining replied and pointed the remote at the TV.

“You don’t mind?” I shook my head,

“Go ahead. I was just gonna have a shower and hit the hay. Man, I am tired.”

“You do that then.” Shining replied and turned on the TV in front of him, leaning back against the couch, watching closely. I left him to his entertainment and walked up the flight of stairs to my upper floor, which held the bedrooms and bathrooms. And yes, both of those ended with an s. I’d been having very recent visits from my girlfriend, Twilight, and they had being getting very…busy sometimes, something Shining Armour still didn’t know. Since I didn’t like remaking the bed sheets every time we had sex, I just got another bedroom and bathroom, and literally called it the dirty room. At least, we did. No-one else knew about it. Aside from that, I also had a spare room.

So, I brought myself into my own bathroom and turned on the shower to warm, waiting for the water to change to the temperature that I longed for after school. As I did so, I undressed and eventually stepped in. Most of the time, I used my showers to think; thinking about serious stuff such as how I was going to get to work next week, with my car going in service, or simple stuff such as what I was going to eat for dinner. Yeah, dinner sounded good. Maybe I would just go out tonight.

I grabbed the shampoo bottle and poured some over my hair, caressing it in. I thought if I was going out, I might as well look even the slightest bit good. I hoped I wouldn’t wake up with bed head as I normally did. As I washed it off, I figured I’d used enough water now, stepping out and with a disappointed sigh, I turned off the water. Oh well, at least now I could take my nap.

I wrapped the towel around myself as I walked out of the bathroom and then pulled on a comfy pair of pants before laying down to greet the softness of my bed. I suddenly felt content again as I lay on his side, hugging the nearest pillow.

I barely had five minutes before I was interrupted by Shining bursting into my room.

“Ugh. What the hell man?” I asked as I shot up, seeing Shining looking frantic. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Cadence. I got a message from Twilight that she’s in labour. I need to get to the hospital now.” He summed up quickly and I jumped up out of the bed and pulled on the nearest shirt.

“We can take my car.”

Soon, we were out on the road, and I had giving Shining control of the car, as he was more experienced in driving. We arrived in under 10 minutes, and Shining Armour raced inside first. When I entered, all I heard was “she’s in room 3”. While Shining went in, as he was allowed to, I stayed back. Then I thought of something. If Cadence was here, then wouldn’t that mean Twilight was too? I looked around and to his delight, she was.

“Twilight!” I heard, and peered up from the book I was reading –the Vampire Diaries, and saw him.

“Flash! What are you doing here?” I asked and Flash walked over and sat down next to me.

“I drove Shining Armour here from my house.” He explained simply and leaned back, “You excited?”

“Very. Of course, we’re in a hospital, so I’m not going to Pinkie squeal in here.” I said with a smile and turned to the next page of my book.

Flash smiled back. “What you reading?”

“Oh, this?” I looked up happily, “It’s called Vampire Diaries. It’s about this girl named Lena Duchannes, who’s a new girl in the small, Southern town of Gaitlin, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. And then there’s this guy named Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gaitlin, you know, to see the world, and suddenly, he’s haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. See, he thinks Lena is the one and…”

“…and then Ethan’s mate, Link, starts pestering him to admit he likes Lena and he starts talking about the previous event with Lena and the window and that’s as far as I’ve gotten right now. What do you think?” I looked over at Flash and snapped out of storyland when I heard his snoring. I smiled and turned back to my book.

“I wonder what happens…” I whispered to myself.

“This way please,” the Nurse said to us as she led us down the hallway, passing by many empty hospital rooms. Twilight held her book under her arm as she constantly turned her head to stare into each room. I noticed this and frowned in confusion.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and Twilight jumped lightly and turned to me.

“Oh, I’m just thinking.” She answered simply.

“About what?” I asked, intending to start a conversation with her for the time being. I loved hearing her voice.

Twilight thought again, for a little bit. “When I was young, I kept telling my parents that’d it be cool to be a doctor. This was after the time when I sprained my ankle during preschool and had to be taken care of by the Nurse- Mrs Goodwell. I kept the thought in my head for a very long time- always reading books about healthcare and the like. I didn’t even care much about surgery, though I wasn’t a fan.”

“So…why aren’t you aiming to be one anymore?” I questioned as we turned the corner.

“Well…things just change when you grow up. I just decided not to when I started Middle school. I went from politician to Prime Minister to Principal or school teacher to now. I really want to be a librarian.” Twilight said with a grin.

“I see. Well, I’ll be cheering for you,” I said truthfully, “just don’t take too long to get a job, okay?”

“Gees, I’m not that indecisive!” Twilight exclaimed, and the Nurse turned to us with a finger over her lips.

“I must ask you to be very quiet now. There are babies and tired mothers past this point.” Twilight and I nodded in response, and followed the Nurse through a door to a room with a glass wall. Behind the glass wall were a least a hundred babies- some crying, some sleeping and some, very little, seemed calm. Twilight and I walked forward to get a closer look, scanning their eyes before they spotted it- Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard. Long titles guys. I ignored that, and decided to check the actual baby's name, but not before getting a good look at her. She had pale orangey sort of skin and a thin layer of red and yellow. Why does that sound so familar? Anyway, below was the name of the baby and-

…

WHAT?!