The Magic of Love

Chapters

Chapter 1: A New Friend
Chapter 2: A Welcome and a Memory
Chapter 3: Outburst
Chapter 4: Bad timing
Chapter 5: Returning The Favor

Chapter 1: A New Friend

Author's Note

I asked in my blog, and you all said yes, so I'm going to post my cancelled story "The Magic of Love" in here! It was my first ever SciFlash story written. Keep in mind that I started writing this in 2015, so please go easy on me. If you haven't read this story, I hope you enjoy these five little chapters. Even though there's a plotline that doesn't get resolved, I do think they make up a pretty solid short story on their own.

If you're curious as to why I cancelled it, I advise you to read this explanation I made on DA a few weeks ago: Click here

Chapter 1: A New Friend

House after house, a stop every three minutes or so. It seemed like time was passing by slower and slower. Twilight Sparkle sat at the very last seat of the public bus, watching through her window as she got further from the city and closer to the small neighborhood where Canterlot High School was.

After everything that had happened in the Friendship Games, Principal Celestia thought it was the best thing to give her students a few days off to recover from yet another magical near-fatal experience. Now a week had passed and it was time for everyone to return to regular classes. Everyone was ready –and quite relieved– to at least stop worrying about magical threats and go back to normal.

And so was Twilight. Well, sort of ready.

This was going to be her first day at her new school, and she was everything but at ease. Her mind and thoughts were all over the place. She tapped her fingers against the window and her seat, and was shaking her knees up and down nervously.

Her books and backpack were at her right, and inside the backpack, aside from her notebooks of the day, was her faithful –talking– dog Spike. He popped his head out of the backpack and said to her:

“Calm down, Twilight. You’re shaking like a bowl of jelly!”

Twilight was taken aback by the sudden voice of her animal friend. She looked around to make sure no one was looking at him.

“Spike, be careful!” she said in a whisper, leaning closer to him “We agreed you wouldn’t talk in public, we don’t want to call any attention to ourselves!”

“Come on, look around,” Spike said as he gestured to the seats in front of them, “I’m sure we’re safe.”

Twilight glanced at the almost empty bus. Indeed, the closest passenger to them was four seats away, and he had headphones on. The other five people that were there were either sleeping, looking at their cellphones or too busy minding their own business that they weren’t even paying attention to her and her speaking pet.

Twilight sighed in relief. “I guess you’re right. Sorry if I’m so uneasy. I’m just really, really nervous.”

“I know, but don’t be so nervous.” Spiked comforted. “Just act natural and I’m sure everything will be just fine!”

Twilight gave him a quick fake smile and turned her head back to the window again. She led out a sad sigh. Spike tilted his head a little to look at her reflection on the glass. She seemed sad, worried and somewhat… scared. He had known her long enough to know when something was bothering her. He walked out of the backpack and placed his front paws on her lap.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” he asked with concern.

Twilight looked down at the window pane and rubbed her arm. “Do you think… they’ll get over it?”

Spike was staggered by this response. “Do you mean… the whole Friendship Games incident?”

“The Rainbooms have told me that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but… I was so awful…” she said, more to herself than to Spike, lost in thought. “I got so overwhelmed by all that magic… I nearly destroyed everything and everyone… will they be able to forgive me?”

“Of course!” Spike said in a calming voice. Twilight turned to him with an unbelieving look, lifting an eyebrow. “I mean, maybe not right away… not everyone, but… I’m sure they are much nicer than the people at Crystal Prep, right?”

“They certainly seem so” Twilight agreed. Although she had mostly spoken only to the Rainbooms so far, she could tell that the people at CHS weren’t nearly as snobby and rejecting as most of her Crystal Prep former classmates. At least that was a little reassuring. It’s not like she was transferring from CHS to CPA. That would’ve been a whole different story.

“Just give them time to get to know the real you.” Spike said, laying a paw on her forearm. “They’ll see what an amazing girl you are, and they’ll accept you. Trust me.”

Twilight gave him a warmer, more real smile. She took Spike in her arms and sat him on her lap, as she started scratching his head. “Thank you, buddy.”

Spike let out a happy whimper as he panted and shook his tail. But when the dog could no longer see her face, Twilight’s smile disappeared. Even with his friend’s encouraging words, her concern was still there. She couldn’t get the thought that she still wouldn’t fit in out of her head.

The bus finally stopped in front of the large building. Canterlot High School. Twilight gulped and helped Spike return inside his hiding place. She put her bag on her back and grabbed the four extra books in her arms close to her chest. The door of the bus opened and she got up her seat. Her heart was beating so fast, and she felt as if her whole body was shaking. She had taken this same bus several times before, but it had never seemed so long before.

When she finally reached the door, she looked up at her new school. This was it. No turning backs, no second guesses. She inhaled deeply and got off the bus. The doors closed behind her and the bus left back to the city. She found herself standing there, just staring at the large structure, unable to move due to her nervousness. She then got a hold of herself and shook her head. “Calm down, Twilight” she thought to herself. “It’s just another school day.”

She started to walk the long –or at least, it felt long– path to the front door. She had been to this school a few times before, why did everything feel so new? She was glancing around her as if it was her first time in this territory. Twilight had agreed with her first six friends, the Rainbooms, to arrive early so they could give her a tour and all the information necessary, now that she was a Wondercolt.

Now that she was a Wondercolt.

She had gotten so used to going to Crystal Prep every day, wearing that uniform, being known but ignored by everyone… she still didn’t feel like this was all happening. Yes, she was there, walking to the entrance of her new school… but it felt surreal. As if in any moment she would snap out of her trance and find herself in her CPA uniform, in her private laboratory, getting ready for her Calculus class.

It had felt so weird not putting on her uniform this morning. Instead she wore some of her favorite casual clothing: a light-yellow blouse with a pink shirt in top, buttoned up to her chest and her sleeves rolled at her elbow length. She completed this with dark blue leggings and boots that matched the color of her over-shirt. She wore her hair on a ponytail, unlike the bun she usually ported at Crystal Prep. She didn’t even feel like she was going to school wearing that.

Classes wouldn’t start until another thirty minutes or so, but a lot of people were already there, hanging out outside school before class. Twilight looked at everyone and tried to memorize their faces the best she could. They were her new schoolmates, after all. A group of three girls that looked around thirteen years old caught her attention. One of them was riding her scooter around the campus, as the other two followed her running and laughing.

Theydefinitely would not be her classmates. They were freshmen at best.

Twilight kept looking around and found a group of three girls and two boys that did look around her age. They were sitting in a circle, talking underneath a tree. Should she go talk to them? No, no. She had to meet the six friends she already knew. Besides, she wasn’t precisely the best at socializing and would probably make a fool of herself, nervous as she felt. Maybe it would be the best thing to go nice and slowly and not force any new friendships, rather let them happen.

Besides, she still didn’t know how everyone thought of her…

“Hey, Twilight!” a male voice called her as she reached the porch, just about to pass through the door.

The girl froze in place. Was he talking to her? Maybe there was another Twilight in this school. Why would someone call her? Was it something bad? She didn’t know how to react, and suddenly forgot how to move. She heard some steps behind her, and they became closer and closer. She felt a knot in her throat and her hands and feet felt cold as stone.

She heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. She looked at the glass front door. Her own reflection covered most of the stranger’s, but when she saw some blue spikes of hair come in sight, she suddenly returned to her senses and, in panic, she turned around abruptly, and bumped into the boy.

They both grunted simultaneously, and the impact made Twilight’s glasses fall out of place to her chin. She dropped the books she was carrying to the floor and when she looked down with her very hazy vision, she saw that underneath them was a big brown blur that looked like a guitar case, which most likely belonged to the person in front of her.

“I’m so sorry, my bad! Let me get that” said the blurry young man as he quickly leaned forward and started to pick up the objects.

That voice sounded oddly familiar to Twilight...

She took her glasses and placed them back where they belonged. She looked down and saw the same navy hairdo she had seen reflected on the crystal. When the stranger finished picking up all of Twilight’s books, he took the handle of his guitar case on his right hand and placed the books on his left forearm.

He got up and looked at Twilight to her face, their eyes finally meeting.

She remembered now.

He was the same guy she had bumped into in the hallway, the last time she had been on CHS for the Friendship Games.

It seems like he had some sort of habit of bumping into people… she remembered how he had helped her to get up and find her glasses. Although he had confused her for the other world’s Twilight –Princess Twilight Sparkle, as she had been told–, he seemed very… nice.

Even though at the time she hadn’t really paid much attention to this fellow, due to her being more distracted investigating were this strange magic was coming from, the two things that had struck her the most were the kind look on his beautiful sky blue eyes, and the sweet smile on his handsome face.

And now, there they were again. And they had the same effect on her as the last time. She was frozen. Speechless. Her heart went wild and her face felt hot, a blush threatening to show up.

She was not used to this kind of treatment, much less coming from a guy. The guys in her school were never gentlemen to her, and were rather immature and rude. Even at this age, they still occasionally put pins on her seat or stuck gum on her hair –which was the reason she started wearing a bun–. She once again was unsure of how to react, and although she remained still on the outside, she was screaming and freaking out on the inside, struggling to get a hold of herself as soon as she could.

She almost didn’t notice that he had a similar reaction.

He was just as speechless and frozen. As much as he tried, he couldn’t look away from her eyes. He parted his lips, but no words came out. Luckily, he was able to get back on his senses soon enough, shaking his head a little and trying to dissimulate the deep blush on his cheeks. He cleared his throat and recovered his smile, although it clearly was a nervous smile now.

“Here you go, Twilight” he said as he handed her the books she had dropped. This made Twilight finally react. She looked down at the books, reached out both her hands and took them. She looked at the boy’s face again, attempting to control herself. He was just a person, after all. No need to be so nervous.

“Th-thank you, uhm…” she stuttered, trying to remember his name, only to realize that she didn’t know it. He had never told her.

“Oh, right!” he said, slightly hitting his forehead with his now free left hand, struggling to keep his cool. He then moved his hand though his hair, moving it all the way down to his nape. This motion made Twilight shake a little. “I think we haven’t formally introduced ourselves, have we? My name’s Flash. Flash Sentry.”

Flash Sentry, Twilight repeated in her head. She had to start memorizing names. This was a good start. Flash Sentry. Even his name was nice…

“H-hi, Flash,” Twilight said, her voice still shaky. She was trying her best to seem calm. “I’m… Twilight Sparkle… b-but, you probably already know it,” she finished with a nervous chuckle.

Flash chuckled too. “Yeah… uhm, hello, Twilight,” he greeted as he reached out his hand and gave her a more secure, but friendly smile. “It’s… nice to finally meet you properly.”

Twilight felt touched to finally receive some friendliness. It seemed like the students in this school were much nicer than the ones in her former school. But Flash seemed especially nice. For some reason, Twilight felt a quick connection with him. She smiled and shook his hand. “It’s nice to properly meet you too, Flash.” Flash gave her an even warmer look. None of them seemed nervous anymore, but they still couldn’t look away from each other.

They didn’t notice how long they had stared at each other, but they suddenly looked down and noticed they were still holding hands. “Oh!” they both said at unison, taking their hands away, looking down or around, a little awkwardly. They were blushing again.

Flash looked at Twilight and once again cleared his throat, making the girl turn her hear to look at him again. “Listen, I…” Flash started to say, rubbing the back of his neck and looking down at his feet. He was trying to find the right words. “I wanted to apologize… for the other day. You know, mistaking you for… uh…” he took a quick gulp, “... the other Twilight. That must’ve felt so weird for you. I’m sorry…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Twilight said quickly, holding a hand in front of her. “You’re not the only one that did that. And, how were you supposed to know? Don’t worry about it. It’s fine, really.”

“Well… thank you for understanding,” he said with another sweet look. “So, this is your first day here, right?” Twilight nodded. “Well, that’s awesome! How are you feeling so far?”

“Well, you’re the first person I have talked to so far, so… I’d say pretty good!” she answered, and they both giggled at her response. But Twilight stopped giggling and looked down as she made small circles on the ground with her foot. “To be honest, I am a little nervous.”

“I understand that. It’s perfectly normal to be nervous on your first day. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re gonna love it here.”

“You really think so?” Twilight asked, looking up at him again.

“I know so! People here are at CHS great, I’m sure you’ll make a ton of friends!” he said with an optimistic voice.

“Yeah…” Twilight’s voice was off, acquiring a sad tone. She looked down at her books, and Flash looked at her with concern. “I just hope everyone can get over what happened in the Friendship Games.”

This made Flash feel bad for her. He thought for a moment about what he could say to her to make her feel better. He smiled when he found just the right words. “Well, I have.”

Twilight looked at him in surprise. His expression seemed sincere. She honestly hadn’t expected someone to have forgiven her so quickly.

“You really seem like a good person, Twilight,” he told her, sounding just as sincere. “I was hoping we could start over. I’m willing to be your friend and get to know you. If you want to, of course.”

Twilight felt herself blushing again, but she managed to give him a grateful beam. “I would love that.”

“Great then. If you have any questions, or if there’s something you need… you can ask me. I’m always available. And I’m in your same class, too!”

Twilight had suspected it, but she felt great relief and joy to have confirmed that he was indeed going to be her classmate. “That’s wonderful! One more person I know,” she exclaimed, giggling.

Flash gave her another charming “combo” of a kind glance and sweet smile before he put his guitar case on his back. “I’ll see you in class, then. Your friends are waiting for you inside,” he told her, gesturing at the door behind her.

This made Twilight recover her memory. “Oh right! Uh… see you later, then… Flash.”

Flash gave her one last friendly smile before turning around and walking down the stairs. Twilight looked at him as he walked away. He couldn’t get the smile off her face… or the blush. When he got out of sight, Twilight turned around and started to open the door. She stopped when she felt her backpack trembling. She looked back and saw Spike had popped his head out. He looked at her with a smug look on his face.

“What?” Twilight asked, confused by his expression.

“Look at you! First day at new school hasn’t even started yet and we already have a cute boyfriend!” Spike answered teasingly.

Twilight blushed for a moment but then she snorted and said: “Don’t be silly, Spike! He’s… just a friend.”

She paused for a moment, realizing the truth in her words. She looked back at the field and saw Flash from afar, talking with other boys near the street. She saw him turn around for a moment, and he look at her. He waved at her from the distance. She smiled and shyly waved back.

“A friend…”

Chapter 2: A Welcome and a Memory

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Chapter 3: Outburst

It didn’t take Twilight as much as she thought to get adjusted to the classes in CHS. Well, not completely. The education level was alright, although a little bit lower than what she was used to. And thanks to the many hours she had spent investigating, learning by herself, and even inventing, it almost felt like children’s play. The one thing she did miss about Crystal Prep was that she no longer had the option of going to her private study to study at her own pace, and her chemistry teacher, Ms. Harshwhinny, wasn’t really teaching anything that Twilight didn’t know already. But, she was aware that she had to spend more time amongst her fellow students in order to acquire social skills and, in words of Sunset, “learn more about friendship”. This, she still had to get more used to.

Because of how basic these lessons felt for her, she got bored quickly. She began to worry, because lately, when she didn’t keep her mind busy, she began to…

…remember.

As hard as she tried to think about other things, the memory of that fateful day when she unleashed the magic still haunted her. The rush of all the power running through her body and taking over her mind, leaving her in a thoughtless state where all she could envision was this other world of discoveries and how she was willing to eliminate every obstacle that kept her from her goal…

…even if that meant ripping apart her own world.

She tried her best to snap out of it. She looked up and saw her friend, Flash Sentry, in front of the board trying to solve an exercise and finding out the molecular mass of four caffeine ions. He failed horribly, as he got even the formula wrong. Ms. Harshwhinny, whom Twilight’s friends have told her to have a very short temper, snatched the chalk out of Flash’s hand almost violently before he could even begin writing the mass of the first element.

“Mr. Sentry, you are staying behind in my class and your grades are lower each time!” She yelled at him, causing Flash to stare at her in almost horror. “I suggest you to stop playing rock-star like a child and begin focusing in more important issues, young man! Now back to your seat!”

Flash lowered his view and blushed in embarrassment. He did as he was ordered to. Twilight felt sorry for him, noticing the sad look that drew on his face as he sat next to his friend Brawly Beats, who patted his back in an attempt to make him feel better.

Twilight shared seats with Sunset, to whom she whispered: “Well, that was uncalled for!”

Sunset nodded and answered, as she kept looking at what the teacher was writing on the board, “She does that all the time when someone makes even the slightest mistake or does something she just doesn’t like. We told you, she has a bad temper.”

Sunset looked down at her notebook and continued to do the next exercise. These basic chemistry was piece of cake for her too, since the magical principles she learned back in the day in Equestria required much more complicated scientific knowledge, but she had spent so much time at Canterlot High School that she had grown used to working at the other’s pace, mostly to dissimulate, partly due to the fear Ms. Harshwhinny inspired her and everyone else.

But Twilight certainly hadn’t acquired this habit yet, and had already finished all of the exercises assigned for today’s class, and even half of the ones due tomorrow. She looked back at Flash again and saw he was still upset. But then he looked up at her, and she gave him a comforting smile. He smiled back at her in thanks, although his gaze remained sad. She grabbed a marker and a sheet from her notebook and wrote a quick note, which she held up for him to see, without the teacher noticing.

“U ok?” read the message.

He answered in the same matter, writing the response on the last page of his own pad and holding it only to Twilight’s view.

“I’ll be fine. Not the 1st time” and next to the last word, he drew a little wink face.

Both of them snickered quietly at this, but got cut by Harshwhinny’s sudden roar. “Sentry! Sparkle! Speaking in class is forbidden, especially when it’s behind the Teacher’s back!”

“Sorry, Miss” both of them said in unison, lowering their voices and looking down at their calculators.

Harshwhinny glared at Twilight before she called her. “You, newbie! To the board!” She held the chalk up. “Exercise 11. Calculate the mass of 3.64 moles of sodium nitrate.”

Twilight was a little taken aback by this. She gave Sunset a quick look, and she smiled and nodded encouragingly at her friend. She got up and walked forward to the board, taking the chalk from the teacher’s had a little nervously, since she was beginning to understand why everyone talked about Ms. Harshwhinny which such devoted fear. She quickly wrote down the formula of sodium nitrate and applied the conversion factor, calculating a total of 309.40 grams.

Although Twilight was certain this answered was correct, the educator was not amused at all. “What, you did not utilize your calculator? Nor your periodic table?”

The girl was not expecting to get this question, so she took a few seconds to answer. “I… no, I actually don’t need them… I can do it mentally…” she said nervously, giggling a bit.

“Don’t you dare even think just because you’re new you can make fun of me, young lady!” said Harshwhinny bluntly and a little loudly, wiping off Twilight’s smile. “I know you younglings and your devil’s technology, able to find the answer to any formula in a second!” She lowered her voice a bit, without toning down her anger. “Yes, the calculator wasn’t all that good news itself, but the internet…!”

“Miss, are you implying I cheated?” Twilight asked, a little surprised and offended.

“I won’t allow you to speak to me in that tone, Sparkle!” Harshwhinny shouted in Twilight’s face, taking a step forward and making the young girl take a step back. The whole classed looked at the scene, unsure of what to do. She kept shouting and Twilight closed her eyes tight in fear. “Just because you come from a fancy private school doesn’t make you any better than anyone else in this muddy group of teenagers, and I will not allow you try to outsmart me!”

Flash got up from his seat and decided to speak up. “With all due respect, Miss, she did the exercises previously, all by hand, on her own!” Everyone else was impressed by this act of courage.

Sunset stood up as well and grabbed Twilight’s notebook, holding up the solved formulas her friend had written. “Flash is right, I saw her doing all of them in ten minutes!”

“SILENCE!” the woman shouted yet again, making both of the students sit down almost immediately. “This is none of your business! One more word and you will get a detention!” She turned to Twilight again, who still had her eyes tensely closed, obscured by her bangs, and was looking down, tightening her teeth. “As for you, I’ll repeat myself again, to make sure your, said, brilliant brain remembers this: NO ONE MAKES FUN O—”

“SHUT UP!”

The whole class gasped and then a funeral silence grew as well as a tense atmosphere.

“What… did… you… SAY TO ME!?” Harshwhinny uttered as shocked as she was angered.

Twilight looked up and opened her eyes, making everyone shake in fear. Her gentle and warm purple eyes had disappeared and been replaced by small, magenta irises with no pupil. Her sclerosis was a cyan color and a fire-like aura of that same color glowed around the corners of her eyes, replacing her glasses. Her voice was louder than usual and slightly deeper. An enraged look drew on her face.

“Are you deaf, Harshwhinny?” She asked her in a menacing tone, looking straight to her eyes, successfully frightening the older woman and making her walk back as she slowly advanced forward. “I said shut up, you miserable spinster! You may be the teacher here, but even you should think twice before messing with me!” As she spoke, a holed, translucent horn materialized on her forehead and dark-purple eagle-like wings sprouted from her back. “I AM THE ONE IN CONTROL!”

She used her wings to hover above the ground and let out of her hands and horn a burst of mint-green magic that expanded from around her, making everyone scream and run out in fear.

Everyone but the Rainbooms and Flash Sentry.

Although Flash did run to the door, he stopped before coming out of the class and turned around, seeing the six girls lining up, ready to jump into action. He looked up at Twilight, who almost didn’t seem like the same girl that was messaging him through notes less than three minutes ago. She laughed maniacally as she contemplated the magic she summoned, ready to start opening portals to Equestria.

Sunset moved forward and called for her. “Twilight, you have to snap out of this!”

Twilight looked at Sunset with an angered expression. “YOU! You will not defeat me this time!” She formed a ball of magic and was about to fire it at Sunset, and Flash took notice of this. He ran across the classroom and placed himself between the Rainbooms and the possessed girl.

“Twilight, stop! Don’t do this again!”

The magic from Twilight’s hands slowly turned off and her eyes grew wide as she started at Flash, not expecting an intervention from him.

“This isn’t you.” Flash said almost too softly to Twilight, but loud enough so that she was able to hear it.

The mint-green light around her began to shut down as Twilight’s eyes slowly returned to her normal state, not before the girl passed out and fell on the floor as her horn and wings evaporated into thin air.

Her backpack was hanging on the side of her seat, and inside of it was Spike, who managed to open the zipper and hop out of the bag, running next to his owner and friend. He felt worried at the lifeless look on her face, but when he started to lick her eyes, she began to moan, to his and everyone else’s relief. She leaned on her right forearm and rubbed her eyes with her left hand, as she slowly opened her eyes and moaned in slight pain.

“Ow, my head… why does it hurt so bad?” she looked to her right and met Spike’s worried and frightened look. She then looked around and saw that not only the classroom was empty, it was a true mess, all the papers were on the floor and several windows and even lightbulbs were broken. “What happened here?” she asked aloud, clearly confused and staggered. She looked up and saw her seven friends, who all were in tense positions, looking at her in the same matter Spike was: worried and frightened. Twilight had no idea of what was going on.

“Guys, what happened?”

Flash, the Rainbooms and Spike sat outside Principal Celestia’s office, as if they were witnesses in a judgement, waiting for the judge to allow them to come in and testify. They were not able to hear the Principal or Twilight from inside, but Ms. Harshwhinny screamed from the bottom of her lungs with a passionate rage, and although they weren’t able to see Twilight, the teacher’s piercing yells could only make them imagine the look on their friend’s face.

“THIS YOUNG LADY IS A MENACE! WE SHOULD EXPEL HER AT ONCE BEFORE SHE CAUSES A CATASTROPHE! I FEEL UNEASY ONLY STANDING NEXT TO HER, WHO KNOWS WHEN SHE’S GOING TO SNAP NEXT…!

They all looked at each other awkwardly and petrified in tension. Flash exhaled heavily and Fluttershy, who sat next to him, took notice of this and saw him frowning at the ground.

“Are you okay?” she asked him in her usual kind manner.

Flash awoke from his thoughts and softened his expression as he turned his head to look at Fluttershy. “I’m fine. It’s just…” the rest of the girls turned around to look at him as well. He looked back at the ground and sighed. “It just seems so unfair to her. That they won’t let her be herself. Both Harshwhinny and this… this magic she still has. Is she going to crack every time someone stresses her out? How long will this keep going?”

“Those are very good questions” said Sunset, putting her hand under her chin, mentally connecting the dots. “My theory is that the magic didn’t abandon her system completely. And because of how pressured and uneasy she felt the first time she used the Equestrian magic and transformed, similar feelings may evoke this memory and allow the magic to take over her mind once again. So when she screamed at the teacher and almost attacked us, it wasn’t her acting, it’s the power combined with negative emotions, which according to my experiences, is never a good mix.”

“So basically, the answer to your first question is yes” Rainbow Dash said to Flash.

“What ‘bout the second one, though?” Applejack asked. “How long will this keep going? Is there a way to wipe off the magic she has left?”

“I have no idea,” answered Sunset, concerned. “This has never happened before, that I know of. Like I’ve said before, the way magic works in this world is as much of a mystery to me as it is for the rest of you. All I can assume from now is that trying to verbally calm her down can help, but I don’t think it can be just anyone. It didn’t go exactly well when I tried to reason with her.”

“When Flash stepped in, on the other hand…” said Rarity, gesturing at him with her hand. He looked up at her in surprise.

Spike, who sat on Fluttershy’s lap, nodded in agreement. “Yeah, when you spoke to her, she turned back even faster than when I gave her the puppy-dog-eyes last time!”

“That was super-duper brave of you!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, throwing her arms in the air.

Flash couldn’t help but blush slightly at these remarks. “Well, I did offer her my friendship when she got here, y’know? Friends have to look out for each other, like you guys do. It also seemed really important to her for everyone else to get over what happened in the Friendship Games, and since it happened again, well…”

The girls saw the truly concerned look on Flash’s eyes and felt moved by this. Applejack knelt next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “We get it, sugarcube. You worry about her, so do we.”

“The important thing is that we all help her through this. Together” said Sunset determined and positive. Everyone smiled at her.

Suddenly, the door to Principal Celestia’s office opened. Vice Principal Luna gestured the group to come in, and as they did, she closed the door. They all stood in a line, in front of Principal Celestia, who was sitting behind her desk. Ms. Harshwhinny stood next to the desk with her hands behind her back and a condescending look on her face. Twilight was sitting in front of the Principal. She looked down and had her arms crossed. She wouldn’t look up to either her teachers or her friends. She obviously felt terrible about all of this, which worried all of her friends, especially Flash.

“Well, students” the Principal spoke, in a serious yet passive tone, very contrasting with Harshwhinny’s loud fury. “Could you offer us your perspective about this incident?”

One by one, taking turns, the group retold everything that happened in the Chemistry classroom, trying to remain as detailed and neutral as they could, because although they clearly came in Twilight’s defense, they preferred to avoid any more confrontation with Harshwhinny.

Principal Celestia listened to them carefully and attentively, and when they finished narrating, she nodded and took a few moments to meditate her verdict. She stood up and spoke to Twilight: “Are you sure you don’t remember any of this, Twilight?”

“No, Principal Celestia” answered Twilight, with a quiet and quivering voice, barely looking up at her. “One moment, Miss Harshwhinny was screaming at me, I had a blackout before she finished, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the floor with a terrible headache, my friends were looking at me worriedly, and the classroom was a complete mess!” The more she spoke, the more fear and desperation filled her voice, alarming the friends that stood behind her, although the teachers tried to keep their composure.

The Principal fixed a pile of papers that was on top of her desk and finally said: “It appears to me that Twilight is not at fault of this.”

“WHAT?” Harshwhinny exclaimed, indignant. “You are simply going to let this slide!? After she almost murdered me!?”

Twilight gasped in shock and hugged her knees close to her body as she began to quietly hyperventilate. Instinctively, Flash stepped forward and put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Easy, Twilight, it’s ok…” he said softly, attempting to calm her down.

“Miss Harshwhinny, please” Principal Celestia scolded the teacher. “I don’t think putting Twilight under any more pressure will do any good right now!”

“Oh, now you’re taking her side!?” Harshwhinny reclaimed to her boss, gesturing at Twilight, who hid her face with her hands. Flash and the Rainbooms looked at their teacher angrily. She continued ranting: “Whatever happened to the discipline in this institute!? The respect towards the teacher! The protection to what’s NORMAL!” She angrily stomped to the door and opened it before her last shout: “I won’t stand this sort of treatment for another minute, I QUIT!!” She finished, exiting the room and slamming the door closed behind her. An atmosphere of almost relief filled the air as her footsteps sounded further and further away.

Twilight, still looking down, was covering her mouth with one hand, and clutched the other one close to her side, as silent tears started dripping from the corners of her eyes. Flash, who still stood next to her, took notice of this, not knowing what to do. He thought fast, knelt to her side and spoke to her gently again: “Uhhh…well, look at the bright side… you… you won’t have to deal with her anymore…” he giggled nervously, but his forced smile faded when Twilight turned her head to him, her eyes drowned in tears and pain. She quickly stood up and ran out of the room sobbing.

It was exit time and everyone headed home. Twilight sat on the ground in front of the newly-restored Wondercolts statue. Although the bus that would take her back to the city wouldn’t be arriving for another half hour, she had her earbuds on, shutting the world out, not feeling like talking to anyone. She was not crying anymore, but a saddened expression was drawn on her face. Spike was next to her, laying his head on her lap. His several attempts of consoling her had been unfruitful and, as a dog who only recently had learned how to speak, he failed to find the right words, so he limited himself to physically be there for his owner, keeping her company.

Flash watched her from the distance and a feeling of impotence overwhelmed him again. However, an idea crossed his mind, and although his head hesitated, he decided to follow his gut and his heart before he had time to regret it. He began to walk to Twilight, but he got cut halfway by a sudden human wall in front of him, formed by his four best friends.

“Woah, there! We’re gonna have to stop you, man” said Brawly Beats, the drummer of Flash’s band, Flash Drive. Brawly had big muscles, but an even bigger heart, and he always looked out for his friends like an older brother.

Flash crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Guys, let me pass.”

“No good, dude” said Sandalwood, deep and slowly, half-closing his eyes. He was not on Flash’s band, but hanged out with them often. He was the naturalist of the group. “There’s a toxic aura coming from this situation. It could really affect your chakras for the worse…”

“Translation?” Flash asked, deadpan.

“Don’t do it, bro” said Ringo Starr, the bassist of his band, just as bluntly. He was a man of few words.

Micro Chips, the tech-man behind his band and the intellectual of the group, stepped forward with a calculator on his hand. He spoke with his eyes closed and his chin up. “According to my calculations, the chances of this ending up in a bad outcome are…”

But when he opened his eyes, Flash had already walked around them and directed himself back to Twilight.

“WAIT!” Micro yelled, running as fast as his weak legs allowed him and blocking Flash’s way once more. “Don’t do this, Flash!” he pleaded. “This is insane! You could get hurt! She is DANGEROUS!”

“She’s just scared and confused, guys!” Flash exclaimed, directing to all of his buds, who surrounded him. “This is just like what happened to Sunset: everyone felt resentment towards her, but in the end, she turned out to be truly repented and became a great friend to all of us!”

“Yeah, but Sunset didn’t turn into a demon ever again. She does” Ringo said, tilting his head towards Twilight.

“She’ll control it. I know she’ll learn how to!” Flash affirmed. “Sunset said this is leagued to her emotions.” He gave another look at the girl ahead, and said, more to himself than to the others: “I just want to make sure she feels well her. Keep her from those negative emotions…”

The gang shared some worried looks. Brawly put a hand on Flash’s shoulder, making his friend look back at him. “Dude, you know she’s not your Twilight. Don’t feel responsible for her.”

Flash led out a sad sigh. Although he had already discarded his romantic feelings towards the Equestrian princess, the memory of her –particularly their last meeting– still brought bittersweet emotions to him.

“I’m very aware she’s not Princess Twilight. But that doesn’t matter right now, she doesn’t have to be someone I already know for me to want to make her feel better”, Flash glanced at the saddened girl one more time. “She comes from a school where she was alone and rejected. The thought of the same thing happening here must be… awful to her. Or anyone, for that matter…”

Everyone looked at Flash a little confused. What he was saying sounded… almost too personal and sincere. As is if he sort of… related to what Twilight was feeling?

Flash snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head. He glanced at his friends with a determined frown on his face. “If you guys are afraid of her, that’s your problem. The more she keeps thinking about it, the most likely she’s to transform again. It’s better for someone to keep her mind off that.

He turned around and before he started walking, Sandalwood spoke. “That’s… radical, man, but… can’t it wait until like, tomorrow?”

“Yeah, she seems to want to be alone right now” Brawly agreed.

Flash spoke quietly, without looking back. “Trust me. No one wants to be alone.” Then he took a firm step forward and made his way to the statue.

Flash’s four friends stood there, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, they heard someone near going “Psst!” They looked around and saw no one, until Micro Chips pointed at a bush behind them. Out of that bush, a head with poofy pink hair popped out.

“Pinkie Pie?” the four of them said in unison, surprised.

“Hi guys! Wanna spy with us?” she asked cheerfully, pointing with her thumb at the five bushes next to her. Some grunts were heard coming from them. Rainbow Dash, who was next to Pinkie, popped her head out as well and said: “Still lousy spy work, Pinkie.” The pink-headed girl just smiled widely and shrug. Dash face-palmed and groaned in response, before she looked up at the guys and asked them bluntly: “Well, you guys in or not?”

The four of them hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to get inside the fake greenery. With four more people in a space thought for six, everyone had to tighten up and try to make room for the newcomers. “So why are you guys doing this?” Brawly Beats asked as he tried to accommodate himself. He turned, with difficulty, to see Sunset Shimmer, next to him. “Wasn’t she your friend or something?”

“Yeah, but she wouldn’t talk to us, no matter how hard we tried. And this is just… for precaution…” Sunset answered pronouncing the last words between her teeth and blushing in embarrassment.

“Look!” Rarity exclaimed, pointing at Flash ahead.

He was nearly two meters away from Twilight, when he suddenly stumbled with a stone on the ground that he didn’t see, making him trip and bump, yet again, into Twilight. All of the ten spectators gasped at this, afraid of how Twilight might unintentionally react. Pinkie Pie even stood up in fear, and Sunset quickly pulled her back inside the shrub.

Flash quickly composed himself and began to stammer in panic: “Ah-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—I wasn’t—There was a—uhm… are you okay?” he asked, grinning nervously at Twilight and scratching the back of his neck.

“I’m fine” Twilight answered almost inaudibly, readjusting her glasses and looking down at her earbuds, folding them and putting them away inside one of her backpack’s pockets.

Flash sat there awkwardly for a few seconds, until he quietly cleared his throat. “It’s gonna be ok”, he said to her softly.

“How could you possibly know that?” Twilight asked, as she opened her backpack for Spike to get inside.

“I… I don’t. But what I do know is… you’re not alone anymore” Flash answered, making the girl turn to look at him curiously. Taking her hands, and looking into her amethyst eyes, he insinuated with a reassuring tone, “You have myself, and the Rainbooms. We’ll help you through this. I don’t know if we’ll be able to find a solution, but we’ll make sure everyone forgets about this. Like I promised you early today, they’ll get to know the real you”. He gave her a sincere and comforting smile. Although Twilight didn’t feel completely alright yet, she smiled back at him in thanks. She hadn’t really noticed until now, but Flash had the quality of making her feel well and safe whenever he was around. Like she was around an old friend, someone she could trust.

Flash took a notebook and a calculator out of his backpack. “Uh, off-topic, but… I was wondering if you could help me with some of these chemistry exercises. I kind of stink at it…” he chuckled, showing his notes to her.

Twilight could tell that he was trying to distract her from thinking about the recent incident, but she felt grateful for it, because that was just what she needed right now. She examined the proceedings in Flash’s notebook, and she couldn’t help but snort. “Flash, this is all wrong!” she exclaimed.

Flash felt relieved when he saw her distracted and smiling more naturally. “I told you, Chemistry class and I have… no chemistry!”

Twilight snickered and rolled her eyes. “Pun intended?”

Flash laughed a little. “Not really, no”.

“You are in serious need of a tutor.” Twilight said, rising an eyebrow. From inside her backpack, Spike handed her a pen and she took out a periodic table. “Why don’t we start with disodium sulphide?”

“Whatever you say, teacher” Flash teased, leaning close to Twilight, who chuckled a little at this. She handed him the periodic table and began explaining. “Okay, first of all, how do we form this formula?”

Twilight and Flash’s friends, still inside the fake bushes, watched the scene in surprise and disbelief.

“Well, I did not take this outcome in consideration…” said Micro Chips, typing into his calculator, readjusting his previous calculations.

“She opened up to him… and he even made her smile!” Applejack exclaimed.

“That’s more than what any of us accomplished” said Fluttershy.

“Radical…” Sandalwood approved, closing his eyes and slowly nodding.

“Guess we shouldn’t have doubted Sentry, after all!” Brawly admitted.

“Word” Ringo agreed.

“Well, he seems to have a very positive effect on her, if you ask me” said Rarity.

Sunset smiled at the scene in front of them. “I think they both have a really good influence on each other.”

Author's Note

When I first started writing the story, I didn't plan on having Midnight Sparkle come back. But two things made me take that decision: one, I figured the excitement was taking TOO long to happen, and to save it till the very end would've felt too out of the blue; and two, it was around the time "Legend of Everfree" came out, and I saw a lot of people complaining about how in the movie, Twilight was freaking out over nothing and that Midnight Sparkle turned out to be easy to control, so it gave me the idea of giving her something to really fight against in my story.

Looking back to it, I think I made Harshwhinny WAY too mean and OOC. Back then I used the excuse that "she was from another universe, so she didn't have to be a carbon copy of the pony", but now... yeah, I think it would've been better to create an OC. Excuse 2017 Ro. She's learned a lot since.

Chapter 4: Bad timing

The next morning, Flash arrived at school on his car, like every other day. He parked it in his reserved slot, removed his keys from the ignition, activated the power lock, and got off with his backpack hanging from his shoulder and his guitar case on his back. He was looking at the ground, walking to the front door in an almost auto-pilot state. His way got suddenly cut off by some feet and a very familiar-looking mulberry puppy who was gnawing on a bone. This made Flash stop and look up to find a cheerful look in Twilight’s face.

“Good morning! Ready for today’s lesson?” she asked, holding up a Chemistry book in front of her.

Flash was left dumbfounded by this. He had barely woken up and now he had to put up with a class even before the day started…

This thought made him look at the clock on top of the school building. “It’s 7:30. Classes won’t start for another thirty minutes…” he said, rubbing his eyelids, which at this time, still felt a little heavy.

“That’s fine, I can finish explaining yesterday’s topic in twenty!” Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically, taking Flash by the arm and almost dragging him to the Wondercolts statue, where they had left the explanation unfinished the day before.

They both sat down and Flash was left with no choice but to roll with it. He yawned one final time and took off the bags he carried. He moved closer to Twilight as she opened the book on the page she had left off, which she marked with her periodic table. Flash took out his notebook and a pencil. He turned to see Twilight and she handed him a traveling mug. He curiously took it and felt it was warm. He removed the lid to smell its content and caught a delightful smell of hot coffee with a touch of vanilla and milk.

“I hope you like cappuccinos…” said Twilight as she drew circles on the lid of her own traveling mug with her finger. “If you don’t, I can give you my espresso… and if you don’t like coffee, I think I’ve got some orange juice in my lunch bag…”

“No, no, thank you, it’s alright… cappuccinos are my favorite hot drink, actually” Flash said with a smile. He took a sip off his cup and swallowed slowly, closing his eyes and embracing the taste of his drink. His eyes suddenly widened as well as his smile. “Oh my god… this is SO GOOD!” he said excitedly, taking another sip and sighing afterwards. “Did you make this?” Twilight nodded and smiled bashfully. “This is the best coffee I’ve ever had!” Flash declared. “What’d you put in it?”

“Well, some cinnamon, vanilla, brown sugar, ¼ of milk… the secret is to heat it just the right amount of time…” she cut off when she turned to see Flash again and saw how he kept enjoying the cappuccino as if it was the first time he ever drank something warm. He clearly loved it and enjoyed every taste of it with a smile and his eyes closed. She smiled. It felt really nice to see him happy like this…

“I’m glad you like it” she said tenderly.

Flash leaned against the statue and let out another pleasant warm sigh. “I love it! Have you considered selling these? You would make a fortune!”

“Actually, I already sell them. Well, kind of. In the weekends, I prepare the coffee and hot drinks at my parents’ cafeteria. The cappuccinos are, indeed, some of our best sellers.”

“Your parents have a cafeteria?” Flash asked her, interested, after sipping from his mug again.

“It’s actually just my dad’s, but the whole family helps with it. Have you ever visited it? It’s called The Royal Cheval”

“No, I have never been there.” Flash said almost shamefully, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t actually go to the city that much, and when I do, it’s mostly to some malls. But I’m definitely gonna check it out the next time I go!” he said as he continued drinking.

“Well you’re more than welcome to go whenever you want! All the recipes are by my mom. Her lasagna is just the best!” Twilight said with delight and remembrance in her tone.

“If she cooks lasagna as well as you make coffee, I’m all in!” Flash said, pointing a finger at Twilight, who giggled in response. “So you like Italian food?”

“It’s my favorite!” Twilight said, resting her chin on her knees.

“In that case, you should try my mom’s Chicken Carbonara Linguini. I have literally tasted nothing more delicious so far.”

Twilight snorted softly and smirked at Flash. “It must be delicious but… I don’t know. The Velvet Lasagna is kind of life changing…”

“Trust me on this” Flash said, smirking as well. “Once you tried the Linguini ala Sentry, there is no turning back.”

“We should put our moms’ dishes to the test, don’t you think?” said Twilight, cunningly inclining herself closer to Flash. As she said that, the bell that announced that only ten minutes were left before classes started rang. “Woah, 20 minutes have passed already? We didn’t even study anything!” said Twilight, beginning to put her stuff away.

“Sorry, it’s kind of my bad, for starting rambling about your delicious… delicious cappuccino.” Flash said as he handed her the now empty traveling cup with a longing look on his face.

Twilight smiled as she took the cup and put it away inside her backpack. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll have more time to explain you later.”

She got up and began walking to the school, when she stopped and turned at the sound of Flash’s voice. “Uh, Twilight… no pets allowed in school, remember?” he said, pointing down at Spike, who was standing next to him and had an unamused look on his face.

“Oops! Sorry, buddy” Twilight said to Spike with an awkward smile as she knelt down and opened her bag for the dog to get in. “I was kind of waiting for you to come walking behind me, hehe…” Spike rolled his eyes and smiled as he got into his owner’s bag. She then directed herself to the building again, as Flash followed her.

“So, uh…” Flash began, “thanks a lot for the coffee, but… why the kind gesture?”

“Are you kidding? You were so nice and helpful to me yesterday. It’s the least I could do, don’t you think?” Twilight replied smiling and raising an eyebrow at Flash.

“I didn’t do it to gain anything in return, you know?” Flash said, feeling a little embarrassed.

Twilight smiled at him sincerely. “I know that. That’s why I felt like thanking you.”

Flash looked down and a coy smile drew on his face, his cheeks turning slightly pink. “Well… you’re welcome then.”

Twilight kept looking at her friend tenderly, and she didn’t notice the school’s front steps in front of her. She stumbled with one of them and let out a gasp as she started to trip over, but luckily for her, Flash had good reflexes and took notice of this in time to grab her by the shoulders and stopping her from hitting her face on the ground.

“Whoa! Careful there!” Flash said when he caught her. She turned to see him as he helped her stand straight and recover her balance. “Gotta watch where your step!”

Twilight blushed, half because of embarrassment, and half because Flash wouldn’t let go of her shoulder and back, even now that she was steady. “Sorry, my bad!” she chuckled nervously. “I’m not very coordinated.”

“That’s alright, just…” Flash then took notice that he was still holding on to Twilight, so he rapidly got his hands off her and put them behind his back awkwardly, chuckling nervously as well and stammering a bit. “…just, be on the lookout for… stairs, and stuff… they’re… there’s plenty of them… here.”

“Yeah…” Twilight said just as awkwardly and nervously. Flash walked up the stairs, leaving Twilight behind. She didn’t notice when the young man slapped his own forehead and called himself stupid under his breath.

Meanwhile, Twilight herself also slapped her own forehead and called herself dumb in a low voice, as her face turned even more red than before. Spike unzipped the bag he was in and talked to Twilight in an almost scolding whisper.

“What are you waiting for?”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked as she began to walk up the steps.

“You were about to ask him out, do it before the moment passes!”

“What? I was not about to do that!”

Flash, who had stopped for a moment waiting for Twilight, turned to see her once she was already inside the building. “Did you say something?”

Twilight let out a fake giggle that accompanied her fake smile. “No, not at all! It’s just that Spike was asking me for a treat and right now it’s not the time!” she finished her sentence angrily and almost between her teeth, giving Spike a scolding look. The puppy dog frowned and got inside the backpack again.

Twilight and Flash walked side by side, quietly and a bit awkwardly, direct to their class. When they were about to enter, Twilight heard a voice coming from her backpack. “Just ask him already!”

She rolled her eyes angrily and whispered: “I’m not gonna do it!”

Flash opened the door for Twilight. She thanked him and got inside the classroom. “Now’s your chance!” Spike insisted from Twilight’s back. “Ask him!”

“There’s nothing to ask!” Twilight grunted.

“Just do it, Twilight!”

“No!”

“Do you want me to do it, then?”

Twilight growled under her breath and turned to see Flash almost too abruptly, quickly putting a forced smile on her face. “Do you have any plans for the evening?”

Flash stood there silent, not expecting this question. He looked around to see that only three more people had arrived at the class and were staring at them. He swallowed before answering: “No, not really… why?”

“We must at least conclude the Chemistry lesson, so… could we stay here after classes finish? It will only take an hour, tops.” Twilight said, maintaining her smile, although it gradually became more natural.

Flash blinked a few times and at last reacted. “Sure… great! That’s… perfect!”

“Cool, so I’ll see you at the statue at three!” Twilight chirped, beginning to walk outside the classroom.

“It’s a date!” Flash exclaimed, making both of them automatically blush. “I… I mean… not that kind of…”

“I know what you mean” Twilight said, holding her hand in front of her. “I forgot my book in my locker, so… be right back!”

Flash nodded with a tense smile as Twilight turned around and walked outside the classroom. In the hall, Spike popped his head out of the backpack. “Well, not what I was expecting…”

Twilight puffed. “Well, don’t ask for more. He offered to be my friend, and I offered to be his tutor. That’s all. There doesn’t have to be anything more between us.”

“But you like him, don’t you?” Spike teased her.

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head to see him. “No! I just met him, Spike!”

“Come on, Twilight! Have you noticed how you act around him? You blush, you get all nervous, you don’t stop smiling… and admit it! We should put our mom's’ dishes to the test? You were about to ask him to dinner at your family’s restaurant!”

“First of all,” began Twilight, as she arrived to her new locker, “all of those reactions are merely because he’s been so nice to me since I got here, and I’m… not really used to it. Second, I was just teasing him and not really thinking what I was saying, that phrase was purely hypothetical. And third…”

Twilight took her Math book from her locker and closed it softly. She led out a sad sigh. “It wouldn’t be smart to go out with him anyways.”

Spike lowered his ears. “Why not?”

Twilight counted with her fingers as she spoke: “He most likely just sees me as Twilight #2, our interests are clearly different, I’m only beginning to learn about friendship, and… it could be… dangerous for him.”

“Dangerous?” Spike asked, tilting his head.

Twilight looked down. “You saw what happened yesterday. Right now, I’m a danger to the people I care for. So I’d rather not develop any bonds that are deeper than friendship until I figure out how to fix this.”

Spike felt bad for pushing Twilight, so like usual, instead of apologizing with words, he stretched to rub his head against Twilight’s cheek. She caught the message and scratched him behind his ears. She turned to see his apologetic smile, and she gave him a forgiving one. He returned inside and zipped the backpack just as Twilight walked in the pre-calculus classroom. While she was gone, a few more people had arrived, including her six friends, the Rainbooms. She greeted them and sat next to Sunset.

“Twilight…” whispered Rarity from the seat behind Sunset, “excuse me if I ask you this but, is it true that you arranged a date with Flash?”

“Rarity!” Sunset scolded her.

“Sorry, I just wanted to verify the information before it spreads any further!” said Rarity with a shrug.

Twilight turned to see Flash, surprised. He was talking to his friend Brawly, who was already in the class when the two of them arrived. She then turned to see Rarity and asked her: “Did he tell you that?”

“Oh no, no, darling” Rarity said, shaking her hand in front of her. “It was Bonbon. She says she saw the whole thing. And since she does love gossip, I wanted to clear things up with you.”

Twilight felt relieved. Having Flash making up fake rumors about them going on a date would’ve made her have a very bad impression of him.

“No, Rarity, it’s not true” Twilight declared, finally. “We’re just going to study for a little while after class.”

“Well…” said Rarity, tilting her head a little. “That is kind of a date… it is a study date…”

This made Twilight’s cheeks turn a bit red. She hadn’t thought of it that way…

“Still, I’m sure that’s not the kind of date Bonbon was referring to” said Sunset, taking out her book and notebook from her backpack.

“Well, in that you’re right! And it’s certainly not the kind of juicy news I expected…”

“RARITY!” Sunset and Twilight said in unison, scolding their friend.

“Sorry, sorry, it slipped!” Rarity exclaimed with a chuckle, flipping her hair and smiling nervously. “I’m not telling anyone, whatsoever!” She then quickly moved beside Twilight and spoke in her ear. “But girl to girl, darling: he’s Sunset’s ex-boyfriend… so you might not want to cross that line, for the sake of your friendship…”

“You’re a terrible whisperer, Rarity” said Sunset Shimmer, deadpan, crossing her arms.

Rarity blushed and grinned apologetically, returning to her seat.

“Just so you know,” Sunset spoke to Twilight, “Flash and I are in really good terms now. Sure, we didn’t have the best breakup, but I’ve changed my perspective ever since, and not so long ago, we agreed to remain friends. So… don’t feel like that should stop you, if you felt worried about that.”

“Trust me” said Twilight, with a mixture of sadness and a hint of irritation, looking down at her notes. “That’s not what I had in mind. My relationship with him isn’t going any further than friends. That’s just it between us.”

Sunset and Rarity looked at each other in slight surprise.

“Well… if that’s what you want, that’s good” said Sunset with a small smile. “Surrounding yourself with friends will do you good. The more you have, the more about friendship you’ll learn!”

Twilight forced a quick smile and nodded at Sunset before looking back down to her open notebook and writing down the date in a corner. Before Sunset could say anything else, Mr. Cranky Doodle, the Math teacher, entered the classroom.

“Ok class, good morning, I’m a little late, but I’m already here, so back to your seats!” he said in a low flat voice as he laid his things on his desk and turned around to write on the chalkboard.

Everyone who was standing, speaking to others, sat back on their desks and quickly took out their material. Twilight turned her head around to look at Flash again, and a thought invaded her mind.

Yes, she certainly felt some level of attraction toward him. But in quite frankly, that was most likely work of her teenage hormones combined with the gratitude the girl felt for both his support and for the fact that he had stopped her from magically blasting off the school the day before.

However, she was an intellectual, educated person. She couldn’t, and shouldn’t allow her mere instincts to blur her reasoning. She had already explained it to Spike, and she was convinced of the reasons why she shouldn’t start a relationship at this moment.

But that was fine, actually. She could use as many friends as possible at this moment, and so far, Flash had certainly done a great job at it.

She still felt as if he saw her as some sort of replacement for the Twilight from the pony world, for whom she knew he had a thing for, as Sunset said to her a few days ago. But she remembered the words that he had told her himself: let them know the real you. He could get to know her for who she was, and not for who her magical counterpart was. And maybe, just maybe, he was beginning to see beyond that as well.

Their gazes met for an instant and they interchanged smiles. Twilight then turned back to look at the board.

Meanwhile, Flash’s head was filled with thoughts as well.

He had received the question of whether he had a date with this girl or not, which he had denied, a bit embarrassed.

He knew she wasn’t in the place for a relationship. She clearly had enough troubles with herself, both adapting to this new environment, getting to know others, and… figuring out how she could control those dangerous outbursts.

And even though he was aware that this Twilight was different from the one he had talked with a few days ago before she walked through the portal yet again, were very different, he couldn’t help but find a memory of Princess Twilight every time he looked at her. She had her same joyful face, her same beautiful aubergine eyes, navy hair with the iconic magenta and amethyst highlights, lavender skin, same melodic voice…

But she wasn’t her. For starters, this Twilight seemed a lot more into science than into magic. In fact, magic hadn’t exactly settled well for her… To avoid getting confused, he would start mentally calling her “Science Twilight”... or maybe just “Sci-Twi”. That was shorter and sort of clever.

But the differences didn’t limit to her likes and interests. Unlike the Twilight he had knew, Sci-Twi wasn’t a secure leader. She was actually well placed in this world. Besides, Princess Twilight was fairly more outgoing and chipper than Sci-Twi, and he could see why. From what he knew, back in her home world, the other Twilight was not only royalty, but also had a wide and varied circle of friends. Sci-Twi, on the other hand, had never had any friends. Flash himself was one of her first friends ever, and he was pretty sure, her very first guy friend.

That was sure to have an impact on both her personality and the way she interacted with others. Sure, everyone enjoys some alone time every now and then, but being by yourself all the time was anything but pleasant. He should know. After all…

“Hey, dude” Brawly Beats whispered at Flash, awakening the guitarist from the trance he was in. “Do you have an extra pencil?”

Flash blinked a few times and found himself back in reality, sitting on his desk with his Math book in front of him, his classmates around him, and Mr. Cranky writing equations on the board. He sighed and handed a pencil to his friend sitting on his left, only to give a blank stare at his notebook and continue daydreaming, thinking of how much he wished Princess Twilight could be here once more.

A whole day of class passed by slowly for our two protagonists. After Math was over, it was gym, then History, English, Art class, and then Chemistry. The last bell of the day rang and everyone grabbed their things and began to walk out of the building.

Twilight bid her friends goodbye quickly and stood next to the school’s front door. Flash was the last one to exit the door, he kept walking forward, looking at the ground. He seemed to be almost in an auto-pilot state, so to speak. Twilight noticed this and walked to him quickly before he got any further. “Hey” she said, laying a hand on Flash’s shoulder, which took him aback and made him gasp. He turned his head to see her.

“Sorry, I got a little lost in thought…” he apologized, rubbing his own forehead with his thumb, coming back to reality. “But I’m ready for our lesson.” He gave her a smile.

Twilight looked up to his eyes and saw a hint of sadness in them. “Are you sure?” she asked him, a little concerned.

“Yeah…” said Flash with a quick shrug, attempting to shake off the thought, “let’s go”. He grabbed Twilight by the hand and walked to the statue. Twilight was taken aback by this and a pale heliotrope blush painted her cheeks. Flash suddenly stopped when he realized how tightly he was holding Twilight’s hand, and blushed himself, in embarrassment. “Sorry…” he apologized bashfully, as he let go of her and rubbed the back of his neck. “Please, go ahead” he said, gesturing for her to walk ahead. Twilight took a good at Flash as she moved in front of him.

“What’s going on, Flash?” Twilight asked him, worried. “You can tell me.”

Flash sighed and looked at Twilight in the eyes. He was about to tell her what was on his mind, but he realized it probably was better not to tell her that he was pondering about her equine doppelgänger. It wouldn’t be prudent and Twilight most likely wouldn’t like it to feel compared.

He looked away from the girl in front of him. “I’m just… worried about the exam. Exams start in three weeks and I need to start to get ready.” He then walked and sat in front of the statue, leaving a spot for Twilight to sit next to him.

Twi may not be the best at reading the emotions of others, but it was too easy to tell that there was more going on inside Flash’s head. But what she could also tell, and more so because she knew perfectly how that was, was that he didn’t want to talk about it. She was all too familiar with the feeling of impotence when something got stuck in your mind and you aren’t able to wipe it off. The last thing you want to do when this happens is to dwell on it, so you try your best to pretend everything’s fine. To pretend the thought isn’t there at all. To distract yourself with any other small or insignificant thing.

She herself had experienced this just yesterday. When she began to sulk in her sorrow, Flash had come to help her clear her mind and concentrate on something else.

So she figured, it was time to return the favor.

Twilight gave him a sympathetic smile and sat beside him. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re working on this now, and not leaving stuff for the last minute” she said, unzipping her backpack.

Spike walked out of it and stretched his front and hind legs, letting out a soft wheeze. He then turned around to look at Flash. “What’s up?” the pup said, pretty chill, scratching his ear with his hind paw.

Flash couldn’t help but get goosebumps, but he immediately cleared his throat and forced a smile. “H-hey, Spike?” he said, attempting to sound as casual as possible, but clearly failing. Twilight giggled a little. “Sorry,” said Flash, turning to see Twilight, “I still need to get used to a…”

“Talking dog?” Spike finished, cuddling next to his owner and finding a cozy position to fall asleep. “We’ve all been there, even me.” He closed his eyes and Twilight smiled, gently scratching his head.

“It’s not so bad. I bet you’ve seen weirder things” Twilight said, turning to see Flash. Although she still smiled, she looked down and Flash saw her eyes turning sad.

Once again, he had to think quickly, so he opened his Chemistry book and pointed at the first random page that came out. “So… how do you do this?” he asked, his words coming out rushed and shaky.

Twilight glanced at the page on Flash’s book. “Antoine Lavoisier Biography?” she read aloud. “I think you just read it and try to memorize a couple dates” she said teasingly, looking at Flash and raising an eyebrow.

Flash smiled nervously. “Wrong page, sorry.” He then turned a few pages considerably slower, until he got to the one he was looking for. “I’m having trouble with this: Precipitation reactions. I never got Mrs. Harshwhinny’s explanation. I mean, Miss Moondancer is doing a much better job so far, but I doubt she’ll come back to this topic.”

“Ah, I see” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. She took a pencil out of her bag. “Let’s see your notebook, I’ll show you an easier method than the one you guys were using.”

Flash did as he was told and opened his Chemistry notebook on the first blank page he found. Twilight began explaining to him a few key tips to determine which compound was soluble and which ones were insoluble. Flash felt relieved when he learned that every time he saw an alkaline metal, it would not precipitate. Since most formulas included one of these, it would make it much easier and faster to write down the ionic equation and net ionic equation. Since this topic was mostly practical, they took a few exercises from the book and solved them together. After Twilight felt that Flash was getting the hang of it, she wrote down a new exercise for him to solve by himself. He took a few moments to solve it, erasing and changing his answer a couple times. He then showed it to Twilight, and she noted that although he got the concept, he had to write down his answer in the proper way, and make sure to be careful with the symbology. He wrote another exercise for him to solve, and this time he got it right.

To reinforce his learning, she decided to test him. She wrote down ten brand new exercises and left space for him to solve them. She even made a space for him to write down his name and the date, as if it were a real test, so that he would start getting an idea for the actual evaluation day.

After a few minutes, Flash gave his quiz back to Twilight and she grabbed a red pen to score the test. Flash tried to peak at the page, but she moved it so he wouldn’t see. Once she finished, she turned around and stared at Flash with a neutral expression on her face. She didn’t say anything for a while, which made Flash get intrigued.

“Well?” Flash asked, with concern. “What is it?”

Twilight adjusted her glasses and maintained her serious expression when she answered. “Well, Flash Sentry” she said, making her voice sound as monotone as she could. “I’m afraid you got…” she turned around the notebook for Flash to see the result written on the page, and he was shocked at the result. “An A-!”

“I DID??” Flash exclaimed, his face light up, his eyes wide open and a big, unbelieving smile on his face. “You mean I only got ONE wrong?”

Twilight nodded and handed Flash the notebook so he could check it himself. “And it was just a small mistake” she said. “You forgot to write the balanced net ionic equation on number 5. I personally would’ve let it slide, but I had to score it as a teacher would.”

Flash looked at her and smiled. “You’re a great teacher, Twilight.”

Twilight looked down and smiled. “Thank you, you’re not a bad student yourself! You’ll see chemistry isn’t as difficult as you think.”

“It probably isn’t, it’s just that…” he said, exhaling and putting his chemistry notebook away. He then snickered softly. "I mean, I've seen pine trees, peach trees, and apple trees, but I've yet to come across a geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, or even a stoichiometry!"

Twilight couldn’t help but facepalm. She contained her laughter and then turned to Flash with a frown and smiled. She softly punched him in the arm. “I should change your grade to D- just for that!”

Flash let out a laugh. “What? I’m just trying to lighten the mood!”

Twilight snorted and rolled her eyes. She turned around to pick up some of her pens, which she had left on the ground. Flash moved and knelt in front of her. “I believe the play’s over, Miss Sparkle. You can stop playing sour teacher now” he teased her.

Twilight giggled at this and grabbed her Chemistry book. “Why, sour you say??” Twilight exclaimed, jokingly imitating Ms. Harshwhinny’s voice. “Well I have never been more offended in my longer-than-I’d-admit life!”

This impression, and how spot-on it was for someone who had only heard Harshwhinny for one day, made Flash burst out in laughter. “But Miss!” Flash exclaimed in stitches, playing along. “That’s not what I meant to-!”

“Not another word, Sentry!” Twilight continued her imitation, attempting not to laugh as she did. “Or you’ll go to Principal Celestia’s office!”

“Uh, I may be wrong, Ms. Harshwhinny” said Flash, shrugging and raising an eyebrow, “but didn’t you quit just yesterday?”

“I may have,” responded Twilight as Harshwhinny, pointing strongly at Flash, “but I’ve still got the authority to yell at little punks like you!”

Both of them starting to laugh so hard that they soon couldn’t breath and their guts began to hurt, but that didn’t stop them from continuing impersonating their bitter ex-teacher and a frightened student for a good amount of time. After several minutes, they let out their last giggles and a couple of calming sighs, until only silence was heard. They looked at each other and smiled. Although they didn’t say it out loud, they were both glad that they could now laugh at something that had made them have such a bad time just yesterday, even though both of them, secretly, had good reasons not to laugh. This made Twilight remember how gloomy and distracted Flash had been when they had exited school and how he wanted to change the topic and avoid conversation as fast as possible.

She thought that, maybe now that she had taught him the lesson he was having trouble with and they had clear heads, she could ask him what had been on his mind. Sure, some things you want to keep to yourself for a while. But deep down she knew that, sooner or later, talking about what bothers you will ultimately make it better.

And if by asking she would eventually have to talk out her own problems too… well, that would be alright. Flash seemed like a good listener and someone who could keep a secret. She felt comfortable speaking to him. And the truth is, she wanted to keep seeing him smiling. His smile made it feel as if, for just a moment, everything was alright and not falling apart. It was reassuring and contagious, so she wanted to do all that was in her might to keep seeing it.

“Hey, Flash…” she began, and the boy by her side turned his head to look at her. She saw him and the smile that was drawn on his face. If she asked this question now, that smile would probably erase for the moment; but if she didn’t, it would only appear sporadically the next days and it probably wouldn’t be authentic, so she took a quick breath and kept on talking. “I wanted to ask you… when classes ended and we came here earlier, were you really-?”

She was interrupted by the sound of a claxon in the distance. Both of them turned to the left, where the sound came from, and saw the bus that would take Twilight back to the city approaching from about a quarter of a mile. Twilight let out a sight and a disappointed look drew on her face, as she grabbed her backpack.

“Uh, wanna finish the question now, or…?” Flash asked hesitantly, pointing back at the incoming bus with his thumb.

“No, no” said Twilight, pulling off a fake smile as she took the half-asleep Spike in her arms and got up. “I… really should get going, before my parents get worried and call me.”

“Oh, okay….” said Flash, scratching the back of his head and standing up next to Twilight. She had taken out her cellphone to check if her parents hadn’t called her already without her hearing it, and the sight of the phone gave Flash an idea that he expressed immediately. “Is it ok if I… give you my number? And you give me yours?” He then took out his own phone out of the pocket of his jacket.

Twilight took a few seconds to take in the sudden answer before answering it. “Uhm… Sure”

They then interchanged their cell phones and typed in their respective phone numbers and saved them as a new contact with their names. Flash was about to give Twilight her phone back when he was blinded by a sudden –literal– flash. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. When his sight recovered, he saw Twilight holding up her phone in front of her face.

She smiled nervously. “Sorry” she said. “I wanted a contact photo, it’s just that I know another guy called Flash and I wouldn’t want to confuse…”

“That’s ok, but, you aren’t Photo Finish, you could at least give me a heads up” Flash said, smiling and raising and eyebrow. He handed Twilight her phone once again. “And maybe, take it from your own phone?”

Twilight realized she had taken the picture with Flash’s phone and felt a bit embarrassed. She grinned awkwardly and blushed. “Right, sorry…”

She finally took her own phone and gave Flash his. She went to her camera feature and held it up. Flash made a natural pose, with one of his hands in the pocket of his jacket. After Twilight had taken the picture and put her phone back in her bag, Flash held his phone like a camera as well. “I don’t suppose you mind?”

Twilight was a bit surprised by this, but figured it was fair for momentarily blinding Flash. She held Spike closer to her with both of her arms and smiled for the camera. Flash looked at the picture he had taken and couldn’t help but smile. “That’s pretty cute…”

He showed the photography to Twilight. She liked it too, especially how adorable Spike looked when he was asleep and how happy she looked holding him. She noticed that her cheeks were particularly roseate, as they still were right now. The bus then stopped in front of them and the driver opened the doors.

“Well,” said Twilight, walking to her transportation, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Twi” Flash said softly, but loud enough for her to hear it.

She gave him a last smile and got inside the bus. The doors closed behind her and she walked to the last seat of the almost empty bus, where she usually sat. She laid Spike on the seat beside her. All the motion began to wake up Spike, but Twilight knew he wanted to rest, so she scratched his head and his back, indicating to him that it was alright for him to keep sleeping, which he did in no time.

A few minutes passed when Twilight received a message. When she saw the name it had, she was surprised to see it was from Flash.

Flash, 5:07 pm: Thanks again for all your help w/chemistry. Would it be ok if I asked you to teach me a few other subjects? It’s ok if u say no…

Twilight couldn’t help but snicker. That last part seemed like a reverse psychology attempt to her, but either way, her answer wouldn’t have changed.

Twilight, 5:09 pm: Don’t be silly! I’ll help you with anything you need :)

She was in the middle of a wide field. She was wearing a white, light summer dress that went all the way down to her bare toes. Her hair was loose and the wind caressed it softly. She took a deep breath of fresh air before opening her eyes again. She saw nothing but the blue sky above her. She looked to the side and saw the soft and fresh grass she was lying on. Twilight smiled to herself. She felt nothing but peace.

She decided to sit up in order to see the horizon that surrounded her, but when she took a look ahead, her smile was wiped away from her face.

Instead of the beautiful landscape she expected to see, she saw herself, smiling diabolically and almost painfully, sporting a darker skin tone, a sheer cyan horn, fire of the same color surrounding her eyes, and enormous dark wings located on her back. The demon began to laugh maniacally and raised both her hands, which began to glow in the same color as the horn in her forehead.

Twilight, terrified, stood up and attempted to run away, but as she did, the ground beneath her feet crumbled disappeared into thin air, leaving only a vast and dark sky in its place. Twilight stopped and screamed, expecting to fall down, but instead she remained in her place, as if the ground had only become invisible. Her chest tightened and she began to hyperventilate.

Her demon self was suddenly in front of her, approaching with her sinister grin. “TRYING TO RUN AWAY?” she asked with her screeching voice. Twilight backed away as her evil version advanced. She suddenly couldn’t move any further, as if there was a wall behind her. She turned to look but there was nothing on her back, similar to how she was standing despite the lack of ground.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked fearfully, but when she looked up to where the demon was, she saw nothing. Before she could feel any relief, the haunting diabolical laugh was heard from an unclear distance, followed by a snarky response: “I feel as if we know each other pretty well already, so you can call me Midnight Sparkle!”

Midnight Sparkle? That’s what the force that so desperately wanted to take over her was called?

“Why do you keep messing with me?” Twilight asked in despair, as her fists clenched and tears began to form in her eyes. “WHAT IS IT YOU WANT FROM ME?”

Twilight suddenly felt a pressure on her shoulders and saw two hands that were grabbing on them. She yelled and turned around to find out Midnight Sparkle once more. She set her cyan eyes with magenta irises on Twilight’s frightful violet pupils.

“From you? Not much, actually” she said, as she began to slowly float in circles around the confused girl. “All I need is your body, so I can let my magic out and head to Equestria!” she exclaimed before letting out another loud chuckle.

Twilight tightened her teeth together. “I won’t let you do that!”

But as she spoke, she felt a pressure on her wrists and a force that began to pull her down. She looked at her hands and saw that they were surrounded by glowing handcuffs resembling the color of Midnight Sparkle’s horn and magic. She was tied up to thick chains of the same color, and when she saw beneath her feet, she was terrified to find she was hovering above a black hole. She could feel its energy dragging her down.

In front of her, appeared Midnight Sparkle once again, and she noticed she was wearing the same chains as she was, and beneath her was another black hole. “Sweet innocent Twilight” Midnight said with a sarcastic tone. “Don’t you see, there is nothing you can do to stop me!”

She began to flap her wings and, as she flew above, Twilight was dragged down, as if they were both attached to the same chain and it was acting as a pulley. She let out a scream as she was submerged knee-height inside the black hole. She noticed that instead of merely a strong force of gravity, this mysterious portal was also some sort of ice-cold pool, for she felt the liquid ascending from her feet up to her waist. She tried her best to return to the surface, but all of her efforts did very little against Midnight Sparkle’s strong eagle wings. Her evil laughter rumbled in Twilight’s eardrums as she kept coming down.

“You may turn me on and off all you want, but it’s only a matter of time until you come across another source of magic! And once you do…” she opened her wings once again and let out a final screeching cackle. “I’LL BE IN COMPLETE CONTROL!”

Midnight Sparkle rose and Twilight was pulled down by her chains, being sunken in the dark and cold water of her own despair.

“NOOOOOO!” Twilight yelled. She sat up and opened her eyes abruptly. Between her wild heartbeats and her hyperventilation, she found herself sitting on her bed. She looked down at herself and, in the darkness, saw that her skin tone was still the same as usual. She wasn’t wearing Midnight Sparkle’s dress, she was simply wearing her pajamas. She turned her neck as much as she could to look at her own back, and was relieved not to find those gigantic wings. Her breath slowly stabilized and she turned on the lantern that stood on her night table, faintly lighting up her bedroom. She looked down at the floor, and saw Spike. He was standing on his dog bed, and he looked at Twilight with concern in his eyes.

“Was it… her again?” he asked Twilight quietly.

The girl sighed and nodded. She got up and started walking to a desk that sat on the other side of her room. She wrapped her left wrist with a band that was connected with a machine she had built herself out of an old computer. With her right hand, she began to type in some data into the small screen. “She told me her name was… Midnight Sparkle” she told Spike, her voice trembling a bit at those last two words.

“Midnight Sparkle?” Spike repeated. “Was the nightmare the same as usual?”

As Twilight checked her blood pressure and adrenaline levels on her device, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before answering softly. “No. Usually, she just stares at me and chases me. This time… she spoke to me a lot more. She told me it was only a matter of time until she takes over.”

Spike walked to Twilight and put his front paws on her lap. “Twilight, are you sure you don’t want to speak about this with you parents or your brother?”

“Why do you think I sound-proofed my bedroom, Spike?” Twilight answered with irritation, taking the velcro off her left wrist and using both hands to type. “I want to keep them as away from this as possible. They already know it happened once. If they found out it’s still happening… it would only make them feel worried and helpless. They’re better off not knowing.”

Spike stood on all fours and looked at how stressed and frightened Twilight was. This made him feel worried and helpless, but he still attempted to reason with her. “You shouldn’t face this alone, Twilight.”

“My friends know about this. They at least have some experience with magic, maybe they can…”

She got cut off at the beeping sound of her device as it printed out her results. She took off the sheet and scanned it quickly. She gasped when she looked at the alarming numbers on it.

“It’s getting worse…” she said under her breath, putting a hand over her mouth and laying her forehead on her desk. She began sobbing softly.

Spike attempted to comfort his friend by petting her knee with his paw. He couldn’t stand seeing her so morose. “Twilight, are you sure your friends can help you?”

“I… I don’t know, Spike.” Twilight answered, weeping and without looking up. “I really don’t know. And even if they can’t… I’ll just have to face this on my own.”

She rose her head and sniffed. Wiping a tear, she looked down at the ground as she scratched Spike’s ear. “I’ve always been on my own anyway.”

Author's Note

Poor Twily-twi :fluttercry:

To this date, I'm still really proud of the interactions between Flash and Twilight that I wrote! Since Sci-Twi was introduced, I've felt like those two had great potential to have some AMAZING chemistry together. They could've been so cute! But alas, Hasbro obviously doesn't think the same. Oh well, that's what fanfiction is for.

Also, Moondancer as their new teacher... yeah, that's another one that back then I was just like "it's an AU, guys, she could be a different age", but now... err, let's move on to the last one!

Chapter 5: Returning The Favor

5:58 A.M. Two more minutes and the alarm clock would start beeping. It had been weeks since the last time Twilight had been awaken by the alarm itself. All because of the nightmares. Once she managed to wake up from them, it was very difficult to go back to sleep. Sometimes she managed to snooze for about an hour. Sometimes only for 15 minutes. And most times… nothing. She just laid there on her bed, staring at the ceiling, in silence. Spike attempted to stay awake with her, but the sleepy dog only lasted about twenty minutes before he felt flat on his face. Twilight let him sleep, of course. Why should he martyrize himself because of her traumas?

But were they just traumas, thought?

5:59 A.M. No matter how hard she tried not to, she kept thinking about it. And worrying about it. Constantly. Especially when she was alone and in silence. According to what Sunset had told her, her last transformation had probably been due to stress and pressure. So, would she have to go live in a cloud or a bubble with no worries at all in order for her to not turn into a monster? For someone as perfectionist and worrisome as her, “keeping calm” and “thinking positive” were easier said than done. It only got worse with those lucid and extremely realistic nightmares. She wasn’t sure anymore if they were just dreams, or maybe something inside of her was speaking to her directly.

The alarm rang and she pounded it before it could finish the very first beep. She was already sitting up at the edge of the bed. She got on her feet, made her bed and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. All of her morning routine was done in automatic. All she wanted to do, and ironically, also the last thing she wanted to do, was go back to sleep. Because yes, she was exhausted and poorly rested, but she knew what sleeping implied.

After she got fully dressed and her hair was done, she went downstairs and straight into the kitchen. The only thing keeping her awake during the day, aside from her paranoid thoughts, was coffee. Lots of it.

Her mom, Twilight Velvet, was in the kitchen, washing some dishes and setting some things on the table quickly. Her parents got up –technically– before her, because they had to be in the restaurant before 6:30, which was the time when they opened up and people began to come over to eat breakfast or ordering coffee to go. By the way her mom was hurrying through the dishes and the sloppy way in which the table was set, Twilight could tell that they were running late. Five minutes could make a half hour difference when it came to traffic, so her parents got pretty frantic whenever their alarm betrayed them.

Twilight sighed and walked to the coffee maker. “Good morning, mom” she said, sounding pretty monotone and tired.

“Uh, good morning, Twilight” the white-purple haired woman responded rather rapidly as she dried her hands and turned on the stove. Twilight was about to pour coffee into a mug, but stopped when she heard her mother yell after dropping an egg on the floor. Twilight Velvet angrily closed her eyes and groaned to herself. Her daughter quickly put a hand on her shoulder and said: “It’s okay mom, I’ve got this.” She turned off the stove on her way and grabbed the mop that was next to the fridge. Her mother sighed and attempted to calm herself. “Thanks, dear” she said as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, grabbing her purse from the sofa and taking out her mirror and lipstick.

Twilight proceeded to clean the floor as she heard the bathroom door opening, and her dad, Night Light, walked into the kitchen, seeming just as agitated as her mom but slightly less frantic. “Oh, good morning, sweetheart” he said, giving her daughter a quick kiss on her head as he walked to the fridge behind her. “Good morning, dad. And, goodbye” Twilight responded when she saw her dad taking out his lunch and walking to the living room where his suitcase was.

“Yeah, sorry, but we’re running late.” He grabbed the car key and opened the house door. “Have a great day at school, Twily!” he finished before quickly walking out. Twilight Velvet followed and turned to say “We love you!” before closing the door behind her.

The sudden silence and solitude hit Twilight like a cold breeze. She sighed. “I love you, too…” she said quietly.

Her parents were… nice, of course. She knew they did everything they did because of her and her brother. Now it was mostly for her, ever since her brother moved out with his fiancé, Cadance. She just wished she could spend more time with them. Their restaurant was very successful, which of course was good. But the only family times they got lately were on Holidays, and even then, they were still pretty busy working half day and attending phone calls most of the time. With her dad being the owner and her mom the head chef, they barely ever had time for family anymore. She had always felt a distance between her and her parents, but it had gotten worse with the years, as The Royal Cheval got more and more prosperous.

She really wished she could spend more quality time with them.

She felt so selfish for wishing such a thing. As if she was so fixated in her own problems, that she had gotten herself into anyways, that she wouldn’t think of her family’s stability and well-being anymore. Her parents were so happy the way things were. Stressed and constantly in a hurry, yes, but that’s what they had gotten used to the past years. She knew how, before she had been born, and even in her early years of childhood, her father had struggled and gone through many hardships in order to start his own business. Her mother used to have two jobs as a cook in local restaurants so that they could maintain the family. When The Royal Cheval was finally founded and started to slowly become more popular, all of their efforts began to pay off. Their dream was finally being realized and their lives were coming together quite neatly.

Throughout her life, Twilight had rarely spoken to her parents about her problems, because she knew the time she had with them was very limited, and almost every time she saw them, they seemed tired and wanting to get away from the stress of work. She didn’t want to stress them out more with her personal problems, big or small. She never told them about the hard time she had fitting in Crystal Prep.

Usually, her sole confidant was her older brother, Shining Armor. He was the one Twilight felt more comfortable telling almost everything. They had always shared a lot whenever their parents weren’t around. But, ever since Shining got promoted at work and moved out to live with his fiancé Cadance, her contact with him decreased significantly. They would speak on the phone once or twice a week and meet every other week. But whenever she spoke to him, he just seemed so happy and content with how things were going in his life. It was so nice seeing him like this that she didn’t want to take it away from him, so she wouldn’t go into much detail about what was troubling her. She would act like it was no big deal and quickly change the topic.

Because the truth was, Twilight hated seeing her dear ones sad or preoccupied. Especially if she was the cause of it. This was a bit of a problem, considering she wasn’t the exactly the best one when it came to “lighten the mood” or even cheer people up. However, she always tried to make sure that the people she cared for were okay and happy, so she took whatever chance she had to avoid being the reason of their concern. She actually never intended to tell her family about the whole “Midnight” incident the very first time it happened. It had only been because Cadance had insisted so much and basically forced her to do so by organizing an impromptu family meeting the night after the events.

She had known Cadance for years, ever since Twilight was a child and Cadance would sometimes babysit her. She knew how intuitive the woman was. Also very persuasive in a subtle way. Cadance was the kind of people who are “always right”, and only acted for Twilight’s own good, even if the younger girl sometimes disagreed with Cadance’s decisions.

“Morning” said Spike with a cautious voice. Twilight snapped out of her train of thought and looked down, a bit startled, at her pet, who was staring at her from the entrance of the kitchen. The girl hadn’t heard him coming down the stairs. She hadn’t even noticed what she had been doing herself. She looked at her hands and found herself in front of the stove, holding a skillet with her left hand while using a wooden spoon to scramble some eggs with her right. She noticed that these eggs were beginning to look a bit too brown. Twilight shook her head a little and led out a sight, turning off the stove. “Good morning” she finally replied to Spike, her voice sounding as weary and tired as she felt.

She had done it again. Her boring, monotone routine combined with her haunting memories, nightmares, and concerns, had caused her to often get extremely lost in thought the past couple weeks. She could be brushing her teeth one moment, and the next thing she knew, she was in the bus, two blocks away from her school. She hated when that happened to her. She had tried her best to fight it, but just like these memories, nightmares, and concerns, it was often inevitable.

Twilight had found that she very much enjoyed tutoring Flash. Not only did she get her mind off undesirable thoughts, it also helped her focus on what she was doing at the moment. That fact that she was imparting knowledge to someone else and helping him become a better student felt extremely important and fulfilling to her. Her mind didn’t strain when she was teaching him something. She spoke out loud and concentrated in a very concrete topic, so she didn’t have time to get lost in her train of thought and lose track of time.

The same thing occurred, to some extent, when she was with her friends, the Rainbooms. But when she was with them, topics like fashion, parties and boys would come up more often than not. She was not familiar or interested in those fields. Therefore, she tended to lose interested on the girls’ conversation, and would begin dwelling once more until someone took notice and helped her come back to reality.

However, she knew pretty much all a girl of her age could know about her school subjects. And she had always been fascinated by them. So when she talked about them with Flash, it took all of her attention. She also liked coming up with new ways and methods to explain the subjects to Flash, so that he could understand and remember better. It was like a fun challenge to her. Flash was a very visual person, so together, the two of them ideated new studying mechanisms for Flash. They went from associating chemical elements with classical rock bands, to doing an improvised puppet show with erasers and pencils to memorize dates from the Cold War.

The time from 3 to 5:30 pm had become her favorite time of the day. The most real and stable time of her day. And although she didn’t expect to at first, she also enjoyed the time after they finished studying. Often they would end their lesson at about 5 in the afternoon or a little earlier, but Twilight’s bus didn’t arrive until 5:30. So Flash would accompany Twilight the remaining time, and they would talk. They made an agreement that every day they would ask each other questions, taking turns, until the bus to the city arrived for Twilight. That way, they would get to know each other a little more. They were friends, after all. Studying all the time wouldn’t make that much sense. But everything they talked about felt like a discovery to Twilight, and he didn’t lose her attention a single moment.

“Okay, Twilight” Flash had said to her the day before, as they were sitting on the grass, in front of the Wondercolts statue as usual. “What’s your favorite music genre?”

Twilight meditated her answer for a moment, before finally answering. “Well, most of the time I prefer to listen to audiobooks instead of music. But when I do listen to music, it’s often classical.”

Flash snorted. “I didn’t mean something to sleep to, Twilight.” A smug drew on his face and he raised an eyebrow.

Twilight felt slightly offended. She knew that look on his face. It meant a friendly discussion was coming. They went on, back and forward, for about 10 minutes, discussing what real music was to them, Flash defending his favorite bands with pride, Twilight objectively talking up Tchaikovsky and Chopin. Flash found himself in disadvantage, argument-wise. So he decided to show instead of tell. He took his cellphone out of his bag, lend Twilight one of her earbuds and put on one of his personal favorites: Better for You by Tiger Fang. Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but she actually ended up liking the song. But she enjoyed even more the way Flash mouthed all the words with his eyes closed and even mimicked the notes of the guitar solo. She couldn’t help but giggle. She could tell how much he loved that song. When the tune ended, Flash sighed and carefully removed Twilight’s earbud.

“So?” he asked, interested. “What do you think?”

Twilight turned her head and lifted her chin, attempting to look unamused, although she couldn’t erase the smile off her face. “I don’t understand why you like this so much. It isn’t real music.”

“Oh, really? Then why were you bobbing your head through the whole thing?” Flash asked her teasingly.

Twilight snorted. “You’re one to talk! You almost ripped the earbuds apart during that wickedsolo!” she exclaimed, imitating a manly voice in the last two words, mimicking Flash’s air guitar gesture, making both of them burst in laughter.

Back in present day, Twilight still smiled thinking of the good time they had. Along with one time she made Flash confess, after insisting for 15 minutes, that he watched some anime, it was one of her favorite memories she had with him. It was always a good time when he was around.

But today, he wasn’t around. In the mornings, Flash was usually still too sleepy to study, so she waited for him with a cappuccino –to which Flash seemed to be slowly getting addicted to– and they would quickly wrap up the topic they had left unfinished the day before until the bell rang. He usually arrived about 15 minutes before class began. Now it was 7:59 and Flash’s car was nowhere to be seen.

Spike hadn’t come with her today, and her friends were inside the school as they usually were at this time, so she was standing there with no one to talk to. Twilight felt a little concerned. He hadn’t arrived late a single time before today. But she figured it was time to walk to her classroom. She couldn’t help but feel curiosity and some uneasiness regarding her friend’s mysterious absence, but she had to continue with her day, normally.

When she went through the entrance door, she greeted her friends and walked to the Math classroom beside them. Just as Twilight sat down on her desk next to Sunset, she looked up to see her friend Flash rush into the classroom. He quickly greeted Twilight with a dry and quick “Hey” as he passed next to her, and sat down on his desk. Twilight turned to see him. He was panting a little, since apparently he had ran from the parking lot to the class.

Twilight took a good look at his face, and noticed that, more than physically tired, his expression looked preoccupied and somewhat anxious. He rested his forehead on his desk and clenched both fists. Twilight wanted to go and ask him what was wrong, but before she could even get up, Professor Cranky entered the classroom, greeted the students and began writing the lesson. So Twilight was left with no other option but to remain quiet in her seat.

At lunchtime, Twilight was sitting with her six friends at the cafeteria, and Flash was in the table across them with his friends, as usual. But his attitude was not the usual one. He was the same as when he had arrived this morning: distracted, gloomy and quiet. For someone who was usually the most talkative and cheerful of his group, this didn’t feel right. Twilight wouldn’t get her eyes off him. Just yesterday, Flash was his normal, happy self. When the girl got on the bus and waved him goodbye, the boy had the biggest and brightest smile on his face. She missed that contagious smile. She kept wondering what could’ve made it go away in a matter of hours.

Twilight’s friends were all talking to each other about things she wasn’t even listening to. Applejack, who was sitting in front of Twilight, noticed that her friend kept staring at her left, looking upset. “Twilight?” said the cowgirl, making Twilight blink startled and turn to look at her. “Is everything alright, sugarcube? Ya haven’t touched your food.” The rest of Twilight’s friends turned to look at her, and noticed that what Applejack had said was true.

Twilight looked down at her plate full of macaroni and cheese. She grabbed a fork and began stirring it a bit. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I’m fine, it’s just…” She gave another quick glance at Flash, who remained unchanged. Twilight then spoke more quietly. “I’m a little worried about Flash. He seems a bit… off.”

“I’ll say!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, in her usual chirpy tone. “Look, he’s having a grilled cheese sandwich. He always eats grilled cheese when he’s stressed!” All of Pinkie’s friends shushed her in unison. Thankfully, Flash hadn’t heard her –or at least he pretended he hadn’t–, but their tables were very close to each other, so it was better for them to speak quietly.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it” said Sunset, taking a bite of her cereal bar. “He gets like this every time exams are close. So he’s probably worried about that.”

Twilight turned back to see Flash again. She didn’t say anything, but she knew that wasn’t the reason. She and Flash had done some great improvements in their tutoring classes the past few weeks. In the tests she made him do, his results went from very good to excellent. Flash was learning a lot and clearly seemed less worried about the exams by the day. Sure, maybe he still felt a tiny bit nervous, but Twilight felt pretty sure that the exams weren’t the cause of his anguish today.

The girl kept looking at the blue-haired guitarist from her seat, and noticed him staring longly at the cafeteria clock. He chewed on his grilled cheese sandwich as if it were the only thing calming him down. Twilight took a few bites of her meal, but couldn’t fully get invested in her friends’ conversation, as she very often would give a look at Flash.

After a few minutes, Flash had finished the only food he had gotten today and took a final glance at the clock. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, pulling his head backwards and rubbing his forehead. This caught Twilight’s attention and made her stare at him more intently. What was happening now?

Flash got up, making his friends on his table turn to look at him. He spoke loudly, bluntly, and quickly, not even opening his eyes. “Flash Drive, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news. Our presentation for Friday… got cancelled.”

Just as he said that last word, the bell that announced the end of the recess rang and Flash immediately ran out of the cafeteria. His bandmates, who didn’t have the time to be disconcerted by the news, ran after Flash, exclaiming his name angrily.

Twilight’s group heard and saw the whole thing, and now they were all sitting perplexed. Pinkie Pie broke the awkward silence. “Ooooh! So that was the reason!”

Twilight didn’t waste another moment and went to find out what was going on. She didn’t even think if she was being nosey or not. She just had to make sure Flash was going to be okay. She finally found him, cornered by his friends in front of his locker.

“WHAT THE HECK, DUDE?” Ringo exclaimed.

“We thought you had it all covered!” Micro Chips pointed out.

“WEREN’T YOU GONNA SIGN US UP?” Brawly Beats asked loudly, pointing strongly at Flash.

Sandalwood, who was not part of the bad, but was supporting his friends, just shook his head slowly in disapproval.

Flash clearly seemed pressured and stressed out. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes, putting a hand in front of him, attempting to calm down his upset buddies. “I know, I know…” he attempted to sound secure, but his voice was still stained with guilt and exhaustion. “Look, the thing is… I had a lot to do yesterday. Had to help a lot at my place. I got a call from work and had to go there almost the whole afternoon. And then…” he paused. He exhaled once again, and rested his back against the metal locker behind him. His voice became softer and with a hint of sadness in it. “Well, I got distracted. I completely forgot, to be honest. I’m very sorry.”

All of his friends were frowning at him and looked angry and disappointed. “I know I promised I was going to take care of this. This is my fault. I screwed up, ok?” he said remorsefully.

“Darn right you did” Ringo said with his characteristic blunt manner.

“Flash, we’ve been preparing for that presentation for a month. You knew how big of a deal this was going to be for the band.” Brawly said, lightly smacking the back of Flash’s head.

“Approximately 15% of the attendants of Punky Café on an average Friday night are the kind of influential people that could really help our band start to get recognized across the city!”

Flash covered his face with his right hand. “I know. Guys, I am so, so sorry!” he apologized once again, with a truly regretful expression on his face, running his fingers through his hair. “I’ll get us another presentation, I promise!”

Brawly Beats sighed and looked away. “Whatever, man.” He walked away, looking at the ground, hitting a locker with the side of his fist on the way. Micro, Ringo and Sandal followed him, leaving Flash alone and ashamed of himself. The blue eyed boy looked up and saw Twilight, who was looking at him with concern in her eyes. She walked closer to him. Flash felt just terrible with himself. He rested his back against the locker once again, hiding his face in his palm and letting out a heavy sigh. “You heard all that, huh?” he asked Twilight without looking at her.

“I did. Sorry” Twilight said apologetically, rubbing her left forearm. “I was worried about you.”

Flash quickly looked at Twilight, his eyes half-closed, and forced a quick smile. But he then looked at the ground and his smile turned into a frown. He wasn’t even trying to hide how terrible he felt. Twilight couldn’t handle seeing Flash like this, but her curiosity got the best of her, and she asked: “Why did you lie to them?”

“What do you mean?” Flash asked in response, raising an eyebrow at Twilight, although the rest of his features were still sad.

“About yesterday” Twilight answered. “You told them you had done all those things at home and work, and you didn’t. You spent the afternoon studying with me. Don’t your friends know that?”

“Oh no, they do know you’re tutoring me” Flash answered, with his mood unchanged, as he scratched the back of this neck. “They just don’t know it’s every day. I guess it's because I didn’t want them to blame you in any way.” he gestured at himself, “I’m the only guilty one here. I wanted to keep you out of this mess.”

Twilight looked at Flash in surprise, but before she could say something, Flash opened his locker and got out his book and notebook for the next class. “Look, it doesn’t matter anymore. I led them down. I’ll figure a way to make it up to them.” he closed the small gate and turned to Twilight. Once more, he forced a quick smile, which felt empty and fake to the girl. “See you after class” the boy said, before he turned around and left.

Twilight felt awful. She was moved about how Flash tried to protect her from receiving any of the blame, but still, she felt like the guiltiest one around. It was because she had kept him so busy with the daily lessons that he had forgotten to sign up his band at Punky Café, which she knew was one of the most important places in the city in which upcoming bands could start getting noticed by the public. And now, because Flash had missed the chance to have his band performing there, his friends had gotten mad at him, and he felt miserable now.

It was as if she had been the one who made him miserable. That was probably the worse sensation she had felt in the whole time she had been in this school. Flash was the one person who never failed to make her smile, and now, because of Twilight’s so-called “brilliant” idea of tutoring him, he was unable to smile himself.

But Twilight was going to bring that smile back. She had promised herself that, and she would not break that promise. She took out her cell phone, went to her contacts, and made a quick call.

“Hello, Dad? No, I’m ok, but I need to talk to you. Look, you said something about needing a band for this Saturday’s event at the restaurant, right?”

Once again, the final bell of the day rang, and the students at CHS began packing their things to head home. Twilight quickly got off her seat and went straight to Flash, taking him by surprise. “Flash, listen” she said to him with a bit of excitement. “There’s been a change of plans. There isn’t going to be a tutoring session today, but I do need to talk to you, so whenever you’re ready, meet me by the statue!” she finished her sentence with a little awkward giggle before getting out of the class as quickly as she could without running. “And bring your guitar!” she yelled from the hallway.

“Uh… ok?” Flash answered, although mostly to himself. He was very weirded out about this and failed to understand what it was about. But still, he wasn’t going to question Twilight. He packed everything he needed for the afternoon in his backpack, went to his locker to grab his guitar, and then headed just outside the school, towards the statue where he and Twilight would study together every weekday afternoon. Twilight was standing there, waiting for him. But he stopped in surprise when he saw who she was with.

His three bandmates, plus Sandalwood, where standing in front of Twilight. To their left, Flash saw all their instruments, arranged in the position where they usually performed, and next to them were some speakers and a big briefcase where they carried their sound equipment. Flash felt even more confused than before. What had Twilight gathered all of his friends for? It probably wasn’t a group tutoring, otherwise they wouldn’t need their instruments. But, after the news Flash had given to the group earlier today, would they be willing to perform with him again so soon?

Twilight waved at Flash from afar, making all the guys turn to look at him. They clearly still felt resentful and mad at him, which made him doubt for a second whether he should go to them or not. Could he get away with turning around and running to his car?

“Flash, come on! We’re waiting for you!” Twilight said loud enough for him to hear. The guitarist gulped and walked forward to the group before he could chicken out. He felt very uncomfortable around his band right now, but Twilight’s presence calmed him down a little bit. He trusted her. He just hoped she knew what she was doing.

“Okay” said Twilight aloud, breaking the awkward silence that had been formed when Flash arrived. “Now that we’re all here, there’s something very important that I need you to know. Well, you are all very aware of the news Flash gave you earlier today, regarding a presentation of your band” she said, gesturing at the blue-haired boy.

“Yeah” all of Flash’s band replied in unison, turning to stare accusingly at Flash, who lowered his head and scratched his neck, feeling embarrassed.

Twilight cleared her throat and moved next to Flash, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Well, the fact that he forgot to sign you up for this Friday… isn’t entirely his fault.”

Flash’s head quickly turned to look at the girl, opening his eyes widely. “Twilight, no, you don’t have to do this” he said to her, sounding almost pleading.

“Yes, I do” Twilight responded, making her voice sound both reassuring and firm. She turned to the rest of Flash’s friends and continued speaking to them. “Those things Flash told you he did yesterday… they weren’t true. He just said that so that he wouldn’t get me in trouble.” Flash’s friends turned to look at him again, although now they were more intrigued than mad and accusing. Flash stuck his hands inside his jacket’s pockets and looked at the ground, still feeling guilty.

“The truth is,” Twilight continued, “he was right here with me all afternoon. I was tutoring him like I do every weekday after school. I didn’t ask him if he had other things to do. And I wouldn’t let him go until we finished our lesson. So I’m responsible for this, too.”

Flash took a step forward and looked at his friends. “Okay, I was studying with her all afternoon,” he turned to look at the girl, “but it was my responsibility. I’m the one who forgot to go to the café, not Twilight.”

She smiled at Flash sympathetically. “That doesn’t take away the fact that I disregarded whether you had other plans or not.” She then spoke to all the others. “Which is why, I would like to make it up to all of you.”

All the boys, including Flash, felt intrigued, and listened to Twilight with close attention. “As Flash already knows, my father is the owner of the restaurant The Royal Cheval, in the city.” All the listeners seemed impressed and even more interested when they heard this. “Well, for every Saturday afternoon, my dad hires a band to perform live at the restaurant, in a small event called Lunch & a Show. Right now, he’s still looking for someone to perform this coming Saturday. I talked to him earlier today, and he told me that you can perform something, and I’ll record it with my cell phone and email it to him, as some sort of audition.” She put her hands behind her back and looked at the boys around her. They were all left speechless and turned to look at each other in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” Brawly asked Twilight, with astonishment. “We could be performing at The Royal Cheval?”

“That’s a much bigger deal than Punky Café” said Ringo, sounding a little more enthusiastic than his usual mood.

“And our possibilities of getting noticed by someone influential increase from 15-20%!” Micro declared as he finished some calculations, showing his calculator screen to Sandalwood next to him.

“That’d be radical, dudes!” Sandalwood exclaimed, nodding.

“So… what do you guys say?” Twilight asked them once more, eagerly. She turned her head slightly to look at Flash. He looked up nervously at his friends, hoping not to get a negative response again. The guys thought about it for a moment, interchanging some unsure glances.

Until finally, they all smiled and nodded. Brawly turned to Flash and extended his hand to him. “I say we take it away.”

Flash’s face lid up and his wide, sincere smile returned. He clapped his right hand with Brawly’s. He turned to his other friends and they all patted each other’s back and exclaimed in celebration, before they rushed to prepare their instruments and sound equipment for their surprise performance. Twilight smiled in relief. It was great that Flash had made up with his friends, and that his joyful, positive mood had returned.

After a short moment, their instruments and equipment were all set up. Flash was doing a quick sound check.

Twilight stood in front, were she thought was the best place to record. Flash, who was the lead singer and guitarist, was placed front center. A few feet behind, to his left, was Micro Chips, behind his keyboard. On the other side, stood Ringo, holding his bass. Brawly Beats was at the back, all set up with his drums. Sandalwood, who wasn’t a part of the band, was sitting on the ground next to Brawly. Twilight didn’t quite understand why that boy had insisted in staying there, if he wasn’t even part of Flash Drive, but she abstained from asking. She guessed Sandalwood was simply an inseparable friend of them, who wanted to support his friends and their band.

“Alright, gentlemen” Flash spoke to his band once he made sure the microphones and instruments sounded good enough. “What will it be?”

“How about Jessie’s Girl?” Brawly suggested.

“Mmmh, no.” Flash answered, scratching his chin. “I still need to practice some chords on that one. Maybe Endlessly?”

“We’ve only played that one once before. It’s still too rough around the edges, if you ask me.” Micro replied, adjusting his glasses.

“Back to Black?” proposed Ringo.

“White these acoustics? No way” said Brawly, shaking his head.

“How about I’m Still Standing?” Sandalwood asked out of the blue. All the other guys turned to look at him, all of them raising an eyebrow. “Oh, sorry dudes.” Sandal apologized. “Not in the band, none of my business.”

“No, no.” Flash said, putting his had in front of him and thinking for a moment, then turning to his bandmates. “That’s actually a good idea. We’re pretty good at that one, right?” All of the others looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

“Alright! So are you guys ready?” Twilight asked, holding her phone in front of her.

Flash once again looked at the members of his band. All of them nodded their heads at him. Flash looked at the front and smiled at Twilight. “Ready.”

Twilight smiled back at him and held up her phone. After she went to the camera and pressed Record, she nodded at Flash, indicating him to begin. Flash seemed a little bit nervous, but he quickly shook it off. He cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone, looking at the camera. “Hello. We are Flash Drive, and we’re going to perform I’m still Standing. We hope you enjoy.”

Flash placed his fingers in the chords of his guitar to play the first note. Brawly Beats hit his drumsticks together three times, and they all began playing their respective instruments. They played the upbeat opening of the song in perfect harmony. Twilight felt surprised. She wasn’t sure if it was the case or not, but it seemed like they had rehearsed this song a million times, because everyone was seamlessly synchronized and, although she didn’t know an awful lot about music, they all sounded in the right key. When the opening instrumental was coming to an end, Flash leaned forward to his microphone, and while he kept playing, he began singing.

You could never know what it's like
Your blood like winter freezes just like ice
And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you
You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use

Twilight’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She didn’t know Flash sang so well. The way he was able to convey such energy and emotion with his voice while playing rapid notes on his guitar, and not once falling out of key, left Twilight quite impressed.

And did you think this fool could never win
Well look at me, I'm coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know while I'm still standing you just fade away

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

The rest of Flash’s band began singing the backing vocals

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

As they kept playing, Twilight noticed that people from the neighborhood were starting to come over to listen. They all seemed curious and amused, and a few of them began recording as well. This took the members of Flash Drive by surprise, but they kept playing like professionals, and some people couldn’t help but tap their feet or bob their heads along.

Once I never could hope to win
You starting down the road leaving me again
The threats you made were meant to cut me down
And if our love was just a circus you'd be a clown by now

You know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Flash started playing his guitar solo. Twilight wasn’t sure what was better: his singing voice or his guitar skills. Because truly, they were both quite amazing. The way his fingers moved across the strings, producing such trilling sounds in such a short time, made the people in the audience cheer. And Flash seemed really into it. He closed his eyes and a big smile adorned his face. He kept singing, moving a little from side to side in his place.

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Everyone played their final notes, and the tune ended. The gathered neighbors, who had ended up being around 15, all clapped and cheered. Twilight finished her recording and clapped as well. She didn’t expect to enjoy their performance so much. All the members of Flash Drive were smiling proudly. It was the first time they had performed outside of their school or Ringo’s garage, and they were ecstatic to see that they seemed to attract audience. “Thank you! Thank you very much!” Flash spoke to the audience in the microphone, giving a small bow. He was really enjoying this.

“Hey! When will you perform again?” a tween boy in the small public asked them. “You were awesome!”

Twilight, who was in the very front of the audience, walked to Flash and stood next to him, turning to see the spectators. “This Saturday!” she answered the boy’s question. “They’ll be performing in the city, at The Royal Cheval, starting at noon.”

“Cool, I’ll be there!” a girl from the public exclaimed, and several other people agreed. The small audience dispersed and they all returned to their homes, but kept talking about how much they had enjoyed the presentation.

Once they all left, Flash looked and Twilight and asked her: “Hey, are you really that sure that we’ll get to play at your dad’s restaurant?”

“Are you serious?” Twilight answered with a bright smile and a glow in her eyes. “You guys are amazing! Knowing my dad, he’ll take you in immediately.”

Flash smiled at her. Twilight turned to look at Micro Chips, who had come to her side. “I just wanted to say, uh… Thank you, Twilight!” the boy with glasses exclaimed, shaking his fists together in excitement. All of the others thanked Twilight from their places, and they seemed so very happy. Twilight giggled. “You’re welcome, guys!”

They proceeded to put away everything, with the help from Twilight. It took them a little less than what took them to install it all. Then they all waved each other goodbye and headed to their respective cars, or in Sandalwood and Micro’s cases, bicycles. When Brawly said goodbye to Flash, he leaned close to him and told him quietly: “She’s alright, man.”

Flash turned to look at Twilight, who was saying goodbye to Ringo and Sandal, and immediately after, she got on her phone and began sending the video to her father.

Flash smiled. He couldn’t believe what she had done for them. For him. Of course, he already knew how nice she was. But he was beginning to see that she was very thoughtful and selfless. He was also glad that Twilight and his guy friends were starting to get along.

The girl put her phone away and looked at Flash with an optimistic expression in her face. He took a few steps closer to her. “Twilight, thank you for this.”

“Hey, it was no problem, really.” She led out a small chuckle.

“I mean it” he said. His voice was sincere and warm, his eyes glowed with gratitude. “And not just because of this opportunity for my band. Also for helping me mend things up with my friends. It means a lot to me.”

Twilight shyly rubbed her arm and smiled at the ground. “You’re welcome. I think it’s the least I could do. I’m just…” she paused for a moment and looked up, her amethyst eyes meeting with Flash’s blue glance. “I’m just glad to see you happy again.”

Flash’s smile widened and he chuckled. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds. They realized how grateful they were to have the other in their lives.

Flash looked at the ground and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. He turned to look at the clock at the top of the school. “Hey, there’s still about one hour left before your bus arrives.”

Twilight gasped in excitement. “You know what that means!” she said with a little clap and a spark in her eye.

Flash sighed in defeat. Yes, he knew. “Pop quiz?”

“Pop quiz!” the girl exclaimed, giving a little hop and sitting in front of the statue. She unzipped her backpack and took out a few sheets of paper. “Pencils out, Sentry! It’s Natural History today!”

Flash shook his head with a grin on his face. He sat next to Twilight and spent the next hour answering questions about fossils.

And he was perfectly okay with that.

Author's Note

Music and Lyrics to “I’m Still Standing” belong to Elton John.

And that's all. As many of you probably know, I tried to continue the story in comic form, but quickly lost both motivation and interest in it. I think cancelling was the best decision both for me and for the readers, because I know waiting almost a literal year just to read a transition chapter is... not the greatest. But by comparing this chapter to the first one, I think there's some clear improvement, and I hope I can use that improvement and the things I've learned in the past year to create better stories in the future. Stories that I do feel are worth finishing.

And since, by publishing in this site I'm officially saying goodbye to this story, a few noticeable shout-outs that I feel are worth mentioning:

ArthurCrane, for suggesting “I’m Still Standing” for this chapter.

SuperSonicHeroes2 for a line in the mini-flashback, which was originally left by him in a comment on a sketch I posted. It was so simple and cute, I had to put it in here!

Mary Grace Foster, Fire Rose, and Sofía Landbo, who were beta readers of different chapters.

Godslittleprincess and Jii Brown, who are two of my biggest supporters and just straight-out lovely people.

And last but certainly not least, to Angy López, who's not only a great friend, but who also gave me a lot of useful advice and has helped me more than I could ever have imagined, and not just with writing. Gracias otra vez, Angy :twilightsmile: