It was in the middle of World History when Sunset got Flash Sentry's message. Her ex-boyfriend had never passed notes in class before as far as she knew, and certainly never to her, so when she received it she knew that it had to be serious.
Ms. Yearling’s lecture was as dry and dull as ever as she droned on about the bloody battles and horrifying atrocities of the War of Two Ponies with all the enthusiasm of a cow chewing its cud. Sunset was already half asleep when a tap on her arm woke her up. She turned to see Rainbow Dash surreptitiously holding out a folded-up piece of paper.
“It's for you,” she whispered.
Sunset took the note and after double checking that Ms. Yearling wasn't about to look her way at the last minute, carefully unfolded it under her desk to read.
I need to talk to you at lunch. -Flash
Sunset turned around to look at Flash, who simply gave her a nod of acknowledgement and turned his attention back to the lesson.
“Sunset Shimmer, is there something in the back of the classroom that is more interesting than my lesson?”
Silently cursing her luck, Sunset turned back to face Ms. Yearling, giving her best winning smile.
“Of course not, Ms. Yearling, I was just stretching my neck. You have my undivided attention.”
Ms. Yearling looked suspicious, but she turned back to the board and continued to make the Imperialists' practice of torturing and mutilating Alliance sympathizers in public before chopping them up and burning them alive sound as riveting as an explanation about a guy's bottle cap collection.
After the end-of-class bell rang, Sunset ran after Flash in the hallway. “Hey, Flash, wait up!”
He turned around. “Yeah?”
“What is it that you want to talk to me about?”
“Sorry, but it’ll take too long to explain right now. Just wait until lunch and I'll explain everything.”
Sunset hated being left in the dark. As Flash turned to walk away, she briefly considered grabbing his arm and using her magic to peek inside his mind and find out what he wanted with her. She decided against it, however, as he almost certainly would not have appreciated the intrusion. Sunset had seen first hand what Flash (who was normally so sweet-to-a-fault that you either wanted to give him a hug or punch him for being such a sissy) could do to the faces of those who truly pissed him off, and she liked the way her own was arranged just fine, thank you very much.
For the next hour Sunset pondered what Flash wanted to talk about to her of all people. It had been well over a year since he had broken up with her after he finally realized that he would never be able to get her to change from the cruel bully she had been at the time. They had barely spoken a word to each other since then. Even when she had finally seen the error of her ways after Twilight Sparkle (the princess, not the one native to Gaia) and her friends used the Magic of Harmony to defeat the she-demon she had become, and she later proved to everyone that she had truly changed by helping to defeat the sirens, Flash would go out of his way to avoid her. It was her own fault really. Stalking a guy's younger brother and sister, taking pictures of them, photo shopping sniper crosshairs over the images and sneaking them into his locker did not make for amicable exes. And after what Flash did to convince her to back off, she was more than happy to leave him alone.
Then, during their stay at Camp Everfree, Flash had actually asked her if she wanted to start over with him as friends. With a sharp pang of guilt, Sunset remembered how she had ran off on him at that very moment without giving him a real answer. Granted, at the time she had been preoccupied with investigating Timber Spruce, but there was no way Flash could have known that, and frankly she should have gotten back to him about it after everything had settled down anyways. Instead, after camp had ended she had simply gone back to her daily life and never gave him a second thought until now.
Could that be what he wanted to her about? Was he finally going to confront her over her insensitivity? If that was the case, what was she going to say to him? “Oh Flash, I am so sorry that I spit on your heartfelt request to be friends, it’s just that I had better things to do at the time. But I’m free now, so let’s get started!”
Yeah, she was going to need to put a lot more thought into her apology.
Finally lunchtime came. Entering the cafeteria, Sunset spotted Flash sitting alone at a table in the far corner. Before going over to meet him, she made a quick detour to the table where she usually sat with her friends. Everyone else had already gotten their trays and had taken a seat.
“Sorry girls, but I'm going to be sitting with Flash Sentry today,” she told them.
Everyone looked at her in surprise. Twilight Sparkle, the human counterpart to Princess Twilight, even looked a tad bit upset. Even after everything that had happened at Camp Everfree, Sunset knew that she still felt uncomfortable around Flash.
“Well, this is certainly unexpected,” declared Rarity. “What brought this about?”
“Flash passed her a note earlier in class,” said Rainbow Dash. “Did it say what he wanted to talk about?”
“You pass notes in class?!” gasped Twilight. She looked positively scandalized.
“No, it didn’t,” said Sunset, ignoring Twilight, “and he said he wouldn’t tell me until I met him for lunch.”
“Maybe he wants to make amends for how badly things went after he dumped you,” suggested Fluttershy.
“Wait a minute, you told me that you were the one who dumped him,” said Twilight.
“I wanted him to dump me!” Sunset insisted. “I manipulated him into dumping me. It was a self-dumping by proxy. Shut up!”
She walked away quickly before anything else could be said, although she could heard Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie giggling.
“Hey, so how have you been doing?” Flash asked as Sunset took a seat across from him.
“I've been fine,” Sunset answered. “How about you?”
“I'm doing alright. So anyways, I wanted to…”
“Before you say anything else,” Sunset cut in, “I just want to tell you that I'm sorry for running off on you right after you asked if we could be friends again.”
“Oh, you mean back at Camp Everfree? Don't worry, it's no big deal.”
Sunset had expected Flash to be upset with her. She had hoped that he would be understanding and forgiving once she had explained herself. But instead, he sounded almost INDIFFERENT about the whole thing, and after she had spent nearly an hour worrying about it, that really irritated her.
“What do mean ‘it’s no big deal'?” she demanded.
Flash shrugged. “Well, after the fiasco with Gaea Everfree, I realized that you had probably just been preoccupied with the latest magical crisis at the time, so I decided not to worry about it.”
“But I just left you standing there!” Sunset insisted. “You opened your heart to me and I practically spit on it! How can you not be upset about that?”
“I'll admit, I was a little upset at the at the time, but that was months ago. I'm over it now.”
Sunset felt her eye twitch. How dare Flash act like what she had done was no big deal. Everything she did was a big deal!
“Well what about the fact that I haven't spoken a word to you since then? I treated you like a…”
“Do you want to hear want I have to say, or would you rather spend the next hour talking about what a horrible person you are?” Flash asked flatly.
Sunset grumbled under her breath, but gestured for him to continue.
“So anyways, about a week ago a big apartment complex on Jockey street burned to the ground because of electrical problems.”
“I heard about that,” said Sunset. “It was all over the news last week. Thank goodness no one was hurt.”
“Yeah, but they still lost their homes and all of their stuff,” said Flash. “The worst part is that the owner's insurance isn’t enough to rebuild the place. That's why I'm organizing a fundraiser to help them out, and I was hoping that you and your friends could help me out.”
“Of course,” said Sunset. “I'll have to check with the others, but we would all love to help out. What can we do?”
Flash smiled happily. “Well, for starters I thought that both of our bands could put on a performance together.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Sunset. Their respective bands, the Rainbooms and Flashdrive, were both quite popular within Canterlot City; a joint performance between them would certainly attract a lot of revenue. “What else do you have in mind?”
“Actually, can you come to the public library at six tonight? I’m having a meeting to discuss ideas with some other people who promised to help.”
“I'll clear my schedule. I should go talk to the girls now. I'll see you later.”
“Thanks a lot Sunset, you're a lifesaver.”
“It's no big deal,” said Sunset, although she could feel her cheeks heat up a little.
“I'm serious,” said Flash, “I wasn't sure I’d be able to pull this off, but now that I've got you and the others in my corner, I have nothing to worry about.”
Now Sunset could feel something warming up inside of her chest, although she didn’t understand why. She went back to her own table without another word.
“I would absolutely love to help,” declared Rarity after Sunset had explained the situation. “I was actually going to donate some clothing to those poor people, but if Flash thinks we can do more, then I'm in.”
“Ya’ll can count me in to,” said Applejack. “If we can have ourselves a bake sale, Ah'll be happy to donate mah family's best treats.”
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie agreed to help as well, but Rainbow Dash and Twilight both looked uncertain.
“If we help, does that mean we 'd have to spend time with Flash?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Well, yes, that's kind of how it works,” said Sunset.
Rainbow Dash sighed in annoyance, but said, “Whatever, I'll help to.”
Sunset found her attitude rather perplexing, but she turned to Twilight.
“
What about you, Twilight?”
Twilight bit her lip and squirmed in her seat. “I’m sorry, but I think I'd rather sit this one out.”
“But Twilight, Flash said that he wanted to put on a show with the Rainbooms,” said Rarity. “We simply cannot perform without you.”
“You guys were a band long before I came along, I'm sure you'll be fine.”
“Are you still worried about Flash hitting on you?” asked Sunset. “I told you, he's finally moved on from Princess Twilight.”
“But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's moved on from ME,” Twilight insisted. “What if he still wants to use me as a replacement for her?”
“Flash would never do that,” said Rarity.
“Yeah Twi, give the poor guy some credit,” said Pinkie Pie.
“Look Twilight, if you really don’t want to do this, then you don't have to,” Sunset reassured her. “But I think you should give Flash a chance to show you what kind of person he is when he's not pining for his ex.”
Twilight looked doubtful, but she sighed and nodded.
“Alright, I'm in too."
A few hours later, everyone had gathered at the local library. They found Flash sitting at one of the long tables, along with the other two members of his band, Brawly Beats and Ringo. There was also Ditzy Doo and her little sister Dinky, Sandalewood, Micro Chips, Snips and Snails, Tree Hugger, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops, Photo Finish, Bulk Biceps, and to Sunset's surprise, even the Diamond Dudes, Rover, Fido, and Spot.
“I'm glad all of you could make it,” said Flash as everyone took a seat. Dinky sat in Ditzy's lap. “We just have to wait for a few more people, and then we can begin.”
“Who else is coming?” Sunset asked. There were already more people than she had expected; how many more were going to show up?
“I can't believe that I'm going to a stupid library after school when I could be petitioning the school for a new skiing team,” a familiar voice griped.
Sunset turned to see the top five Shadowbolts from Crystal Prep; there was Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet, and Indigo Zap. They all peeled off layers of winter coats, gloves and hats before approaching the same table as the Canterlot High students.
“If nobody cared about your idea the first three times you pitched it, then I doubt a fourth attempt will make much of a difference,” said Sunny Flare. “Besides, Principal Cadance made it very clear that the school won't fund a team for a sport that no other school participates in, and nothing you do will change that.”
“Whoa, you actually got the Shadowbolts to help?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“He sure did,” said Lemon Zest, slapping Flash on the back. “Me and The Sentry here jammed together a bit after the Friendship Games, and we liked each other’s sweet tunes so much, we exchanged digits to keep in touch. Then he called me yesterday to tell me about what he wanted to do for all those people who lost their homes in that fire, and I got all my girls to pitch in too.”
“That’s awfully nice of you,” said Fluttershy.
“Never let it be said that the Shadowbolts do nothing to help out the community,” said Sunny.
“Say, aren't you the boy who made that yummy looking loaf of bread?” asked Sour Sweet in a syrupy-sweet tone.
“Uh, yes, I am,” said Flash.
“You was supposed to make a cake,” Sour Sweet sneered contemptuously. “What kind of idiot messes up like that?”
Flash cringed while the Diamond Dudes, Snips, Snails, and Indigo Zap all snickered.
“She has a point,” said Sugarcoat. “I doubt if you're actually qualified to lead this project if you are capable of making that big of a mistake.”
Sunset was prepared to speak in Flash’s defense, but Lyra beat her to it.
“That wasn’t entirely his fault. He mistook Twilight for his long-distance girlfriend that he never gets to see or talk to, because she looks exactly like her, and when she blew him off, he was so heartbroken and confused that he couldn’t pay attention to what he was doing and used all of the wrong ingredients, that’s all.”
Flash and Twilight both groaned and slid under the table in unison, completely mortified.
“Lyra, were you even paying attention during our talk about things we should keep to ourselves?” asked Sweetie Drops.
“Well, I was, but then I got distracted by the way your eyes always glimmer whenever you lecture me,” said Lyra.
“Aw, that’s so sweet,” cooed Sweetie Drops.
The two of them gazed lovingly into each other’s eyes.
Sour Sweet started to gag, but Sugarcoat put her hand over her mouth.
“If you do that right now, people will probably take it in the wrong context,” she said. “Also, none of this supports Flash's qualification to lead.”
Flash got back in his chair. “I’ll tell you what,” he said to Sugarcoat, “if I can't convince you that I can lead this project by the time this meeting is over, then you can be in charge.”
That suggestion did not sit well with Sunset. For some reason, she was pretty sure there was some unwritten rule that SHE was supposed to be the one to take charge if Flash was not up to the task. But Sugarcoat spoke before she could say anything.
“Alright, that sounds acceptable.”
“Great,” said Flash. “Then take a seat so we can get started.”
They had to gather some extra chairs and squeeze together to make room for the Shadowbolts.
“Alright then,” said Flash once everyone was seated. “As you all know, we are here to raise money to repair the apartment complex that was damaged by a fire. They have insurance, but not nearly enough for all the repairs they need.”
“How much do they still need?” asked Sunset.
Flash gave them a number. Many jaws dropped.
“How are we going to raise that kind of money?” asked Sunny Flare. “It’s not like we can simply ask our parents to donate out of the blue.”
“Which is why we are going to put on a fundraiser,” said Flash. “I’ve already arranged for a time and place: we'll be holding it at Big Blue's Private Community Center in about three weeks.”
“Hold on, you actually got a reservation at Big Blue's?” asked Indigo Zap. “That place is one of the hottest spots in the whole city!”
“Luckily for us, my mom helped the owner out a few years ago, so he was more than happy to let me use it, for free no less.”
“What did she do for him?”
“She got the guy who murdered his niece sent to the gas chamber,” Flash answered matter-of-factly.
Indigo Zap looked a bit disturbed.
“Oh. That's…great, I guess.”
“Now let’s discuss the services we’ll be providing,” Flash continued. “I’ve already arranged for Flashdrive and the Rainbooms to perform a concert together.”
“Excuse me, but why did you ask them first?” asked Trixie. “Everyone knows that Trixie and the Illusions is the best band in the city.”
“Oh really?” Rainbow Dash drawled. “Did you forget who won the Battle of the Bands?”
“You and your band of second-rate hacks would have been eliminated for your antics if the sirens hadn't rigged everything,” Trixie declared. “In fact, you were disqualified when you failed to show up for the final round. Trixie should have won everything, but then you butted in and stole it all!”
“Before you get too comfortable on your high horse, let me remind you that the only reason we were late was because you trapped us underneath the stage.”
“You did what?” asked Flash. “No, never mind, we all said and did things we regret while under the sirens' power.”
“Yes, Trixie regrets absolutely everything she did,” Trixie grumbled.
“Excuse me, but who are these sirens you speak of?” asked Sunny Flare.
“It's a long story,” said Flash. “And Trixie, I didn't ask you because I had something else in mind. I was thinking that you could put on a magic show.”
Trixie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, yes, that does make sense. After all, magic is the greatest of Trixie's many talents.”
“Wait, I thought magic was their thing,” said Indigo Zap, jabbing her thumb at the Rainbooms.
“She means stage magic,” Sunset explained. “It's not real magic, just smoke and mirrors.”
“Excuse me?” gasped Trixie, offended. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is capable of feats that put the measly parlor tricks of the Rainbooms to shame!”
““You seriously think you can do better than growing wings and ripping holes in space and time?” asked Sour Sweet.
“BEHOLD!” cried Trixie, waving her hands.
There was a sound of a small explosion, and then the entire table and everyone at it was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. It filled Sunset's throat, making her and everyone else hack and cough.
When the smoke cleared, Trixie's seat was empty.
“She's gone!” cried Pinkie Pie, only to then shriek and leap out of her seat, perching on the back of the chair like an oversized pink cat. “Something just bumped against my leg!”
Something bumped against Sunset's own legs, startling her as well. All the way down the table, everyone jumped and complained one after another, until Trixie emerged from underneath at the very end, knocking over Sunny Flare and landing on top of her.
“Yeah, you're cute and I do technically swing that way, but you're really not my type, so could you please get off of me?” asked the short haired girl.
Blushing furiously, Trixie scrambled to her feet.
“On second thought, maybe a magic act isn't such a good idea after all,” Flash admitted.
“Wait just a second, I still have more tricks up my sleeve,” Trixie insisted, but before she could do anything the massive paw of the world's beefiest librarian clamped down on her shoulder.
“Did you forget what we talked about the last time this happened, Miss Lulamoon?” the older woman growled.
“But Miss Hard Case…”
“It's Hard Cover!”
“…it was just a smoke bomb this time, I swear! I learned my lesson about bringing fireworks into the library!”
“Yes, well, I'm not taking any chances,” declared Hard Cover. She grabbed Trixie by the back of her hoodie, slung the poor girl over her shoulder and carried her out of the library.
“Come on, this isn't fair!” Trixie complained. “You guys already replaced the non-fiction section!”
The library door slammed shut, cutting off any further protests.
“Well, that happened,” said Rainbow Dash.
“You should just hand over control of this project over to me right now,” Surgarcoat told Flash imperiously. “You’re obviously not qualified to lead.”
Flash began to rub his arm fretfully. Sunset recognized it as an old habit for whenever he was feeling seriously doubtful.
“You know, you're displaying a lot of confirmation bias for someone who thinks she would make a good leader,” she told the other girl, mimicking her dry and condescending tone.
Surgarcoat looked taken aback by that. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Isn't it obvious?” Sunset switched back to her regular tone. “I know you're desperate to be the leader of this group, but your argument so far is based solely on one mistake that wasn't even Flash's fault, and another that has nothing to do with our current project.”
“I'm not desperate,” Sugarcoat said defensively, yet she was unable to look Sunset in the eyes. “I just honestly think I'm more qualified to be in charge than he is.”
“I know for a fact that a real leader doesn't put others down," said Sunset. "If you want us to give you a chance, than you should probably close your mouth and give Flash a chance.”
“She's right you know,” said Lemon Zest. “You need to learn to chill, girl.”
Sighing in defeat, Sugarcoat made a “go ahead” motion with her hand to Flash. “Proceed.”
The blue haired boy took a deep breath, and let it out in a whoosh. “Well, the magic act may be a bust, but I’ve also planned for an auction. The Diamond Dudes have already agreed to donate their own merchandise.”
“That’s right,” said Rover, “for a cut of the profit, of course.”
Flash glared at the three boys.
“Is what we would say if it weren’t for charity,” Rover amended quickly.
“What kind of merchandise do you three have?” asked Applejack. “Don’ tell me ya’ll actually found some diamonds.”
“No, unfortunately we had to give that up,” said Fido. “After Vice-principal Luna gave us our sixteenth detention for this year, we talked it over and we realized that the school grounds might not be the best place to look for gems.”
“Yeah, so we decided to try things from a different angle,” added Spot.
“What kind of angle?” asked Sunset.
Opening his backpack, Rover reached in and pulled out a ring with a glittering diamond the size of a large thumb embedded in it. Nearly everyone at the table gasped in amazement.
“Now THAT'S a lump of ice,” quipped Ringo.
Squealing in delight, Rarity crawled across the table and snatched the ring out of Rover's hand. Placing it on her finger, she admired its gleam.
“My goodness, this is exquisite!” she gushed. “It’s flawless! It's…”
“It’s fake,” Flash said in amusement.
Rarity's face paled like someone who had just been told that the delicious steak they had been enjoying had been carved from the buttocks of a cow that had a serious diarrhea problem. “W-what do mean it's fake?”
“We made it ourselves from paste,” Rover explained proudly.
Rarity gingerly removed the ring and, holding it between her fingers like it was a dead rat, handed it back to Rover before crawling backwards back into her chair.
“So what else do you have in there?” asked Flash.
Rover turned his bag upside down and several more pieces of jewelry fell into the table. There were more rings, as well as some necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and even a tiara, and they all had some allegedly fake yet ridiculously real looking diamonds on them. They were passed around so everyone could admire them. Rarity refused to even touch another piece. Sweetie Drops used another ring to play-propose to Lyra, who squealed and gushed for a whole minute before realizing that they weren't actually getting engaged.
Twilight placed the tiara on her head. “Look at me, I'm the Princess of Science,” she declared.
Sunset chuckled. “Actually, that title belonged to Academia after being crowned such in the year three-hundred and sixty B.N.M.” Bulk Biceps gave her a bewildered look. “Don't ask.”
“How did you make all of this?” Fluttershy asked the Diamond Dudes.
“My uncle is a professional sculptor with his own shop,” Spot explained. “He lets us use it in exchange for doing chores for him.”
“But how did you manage to make them look so real?” Sunny Flare asked as she admired the necklace she was wearing with a pocket mirror. “Seriously, this is practically counterfeit level quality.”
Rover shrugged his shoulders. “Well, we spend a lot of time in the jewelry store examining real gems, so we know what they look like.”
“Congratulations, you guys just raised the bar on pathetic looser hobbies,” Sour Sweet sneered even as she admired the three bracelets she wore on her wrist along with a ring on each finger.
“So can we all agree that the auction is in good hands?” asked Flash.
Everyone gave an “aye.”
“So what else do you have for us?” asked Sugarcoat as everyone returned the fake jewelry.
“Well, with so many excellent chefs here, we’re obviously need to have a bake sale,” answered Flash.
“Ah thought you'd never ask,” said Applejack. “Ah'll talk to mah folks, and we'll whip you up some of our best apple pies and apple fritters.”
“And I'll make you my super-special chocolate cupcakes!” promised Pinkie Pie. “And my strawberry cupcakes, and my blueberry cupcakes, and my raspberry cupcakes, and my vanilla cupcakes, and my banana cupcakes, and my peach cupcakes, and my watermelon cupcakes, and my grape cupcakes, and my tomato cupcakes, and my apricot cupcakes, and my carrot cupcakes, and my…”
“Actually, just the first five of those should suffice,” Flash said quickly.
“And my mommy and I can make the muffins,” declared Dinky.
“Holy sharks, you're the kid's mother?!” a shocked Indigo Zap asked. “Are you like one of those teen moms we see on TV?”
“No, of course not!” Ditzy insisted, her voice cracking. “She’s my little sister. Calling me her mother is just a little game she plays.”
“It’s not a game, she’s really my…”
Dinky was cut off when Ditzy clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Yeah, she’s really into it,” Ditzy cried with an extremely fake laugh. She leaned down to hiss in Dinky's ear, “We’ve talked about this, you little brat.”
Dinky folded her arms and pouted.
“Right then, does anyone else have any culinary skills that they would like to offer?” asked Flash.
“I make some mean vegan bars,” said Sandalwood.
“Absolutely no one will buy those. Any other suggestions?”
“I could totally make some of my special brownies,” offered Tree Hugger.
“No!” everyone else from Canterlot High cried.
“What's wrong?” asked Sour Sweet. “Brownies sound like a great idea.”
“You should take a good look at her before you say that,” Sunset instructed her.
Sour Sweet watched as Tree Hugger stared intently at her fingers.
“Dude, fingertips are so weird. They can just, like, touch each other!”
Comprehension dawned on Sour Sweet's face.
“Oh, you meant those kind of brownies. Yeah, no brownies.”
“Does anybody else want to volunteer?” asked Flash. “Anyone at all?”
“I could talk to Cadance,” offered Twilight. “She's an amazing cook. I'm sure we can come up with something good.”
“You do that,” said Flash. “So those are all of my ideas. Does anyone have any other suggestions for how we can raise money?”
“We could set up a makeover booth!” Rarity exclaimed.
“I can help with that,” said Sunny.
“Excellent,” said Flash. “Anybody else?”
“I have a sweet karaoke machine,” said Lemon Zest. “We could set it up and charge people to use it.”
Her idea was quickly approved of as well.
“Maybe we could have a sort of petting zoo?” suggested Fluttershy. “I could see if the animal shelter would let us borrow some critters, and it would be a great way to raise awareness of the need for pet adoption.”
“I don't think that's a good idea,” said Flash. “Even if none of our guests have allergies, we can't risk one of the animals having an…accident.”
“Okay, good point,” said Fluttershy, disappointed.
“Can’t we just put them all in diapers?” asked Indigo Zap.
“We can't put diapers on a bunch of animals,” Fluttershy objected.
“Why not? If you think about it animals are just like little kids, cuz you know, they poop everywhere, so…”
“No diapers!” Fluttershy snapped.
“Okay, sorry,” said Indigo Zap, holding her hands up defensively.
“I have a suggestion,” Sunset announced. “I think we should set up an interactive corner.”
“You mean like in a kindergarten classroom?” asked Flash.
“Not exactly. We have lot of people here who are very talented in a variety of fields: sports, cooking, fashion, knitting, and so much more. We would use the corner to demonstrate these talents to our customers, who could then pay to receive tips and quick lessons to improve their own skills.”
Flash nodded thoughtfully. “I like it. All in favor?”
The “aye” was unanimous.
“Alright then. But no cooking lessons; the ingredients we’d need would cost more than we'd be able to charge. Does anyone have any more ideas?”
Nobody said anything.
“Then I guess we’re done for the day.” Flash turned to face Surgarcoat. “Well Surgarcoat, have I earned your approval, or should I turn things over to you?”
Everyone waited as Surgarcoat considered the question. After a long minute she finally nodded.
“You’ve proven yourself to be an adequate leader, so I guess I can follow your lead. However, I insist on being vice-president.”
Sunset opened her mouth, but before she could object Flash said, “Alright, all in favor of Surgarcoat as vice-president?”
There was a majority “aye” and only four “nays”. Sunset didn't even bother and settled for fuming silently.
“Then I call this meeting to a close. We'll meet back here same time tomorrow to discuss plans.”
He made a motion with his hand like he was banging something against the table before he realized what he was doing. “Sorry, I thought I was holding a gavel,” he admitted sheepishly.
As everyone was making their way out of the library, Flash caught up to Rainbow Dash and grabbed her hand.
“Hey Rainbow Dash, since we're both here, I thought we should take this chance to talk.”
Rainbow Dash yanked her hand out of Flash's. “Yeah, now’s not a good time. Maybe later.”
“That's what you said the last time I wanted to talk,” said Flash. “And the time before that, and the time before THAT.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should take the hint already,” Rainbow Dash snapped.
Flash groaned as he ran his hand through his hair. “Come on Rainbow Dash, this is happening whether we like it or not, so we need to figure out where we both stand.”
“I'll tell you where I stand,” Rainbow Dash growled angrily. “I'm not talking about this with you, so leave me alone!”
She turned around and stormed out of the library.
“What was that about?” Sunset asked Flash.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” he told her before walking away, leaving Sunset to stew in her own ignorance for the second time that day.
