In a Crowd of Thousands

Chapters

Chapter 1: Now and Then
Chapter 2: Even Then
Chapter 3: Made Seen
Chapter 4: Find You Again

Chapter 1: Now and Then

Author's Note

Okay, here's a brand new story. It's totally not canon to my series even though it uses the same characters and backstory events as my series. It's basically yet another alternate version of the start of the SciFlashLight relationship. :twilightsheepish:

I got the idea for this story from listening to "In a Crowd of Thousands" from the Broadway version of Anastasia. It's a song about what TVtropes calls a forgotten first meeting, and it inspired me to play around with the trope and see what I can do with it. I certainly hope that this story hit a lot of the same emotional notes that the song that inspired it did.

Chapter 1: Now and Then

It was a beautiful, mid-May afternoon at the Canterlot City Park. In this park, a large group of boys and men had gathered to celebrate the end of the boys’ elementary school education and their transition into middle school. Most of the boys and men were playing various games while some stood off to the side chatting, eating hotdogs, and drinking soda. A good distance away from the festivities, a boy with yellow-orange skin and spikey, blue hair sat on a park bench while an elderly man with orange-tan skin, silver hair, and wire-rimmed glasses knelt beside him.

The boy rubbed the last of his tears from his vivid blue eyes, which were red from crying.

“You feeling better now, Flash?” the older man asked him.

“Yeah,” Flash sniffed, looking up into the man’s eyes, “I’m better now. Thanks, Grandpa.”

“You know, we don’t have to hang around if you don’t want to,” Flash’s grandfather said as the two of them stood up and the older man took his grandson by the hand. “Why don’t we take off early, and I’ll buy you some ice cream?”

Flash nodded and began to follow his grandfather.

“Wait!” a voice called out from behind them. Flash and his grandfather turned around and saw a boy about Flash’s age with purple skin and gray-blue hair. The boy also wore a pair of glasses with thick, black rims. Behind the boy, a tall, thin man with sky blue skin, black hair, and sharp, inscrutable facial features followed.

“Hey, Micro Chips, what’s up?” Flash greeted the boy.

“Are you and Grandpa Lionheart ditching, Flash?” Micro Chips replied.

“Now, son,” the tall man said to Micro in a deep voice tinged with a Texas accent, “Flash and Mr. Lionheart are free to go early if they want to. They don’t have to stay just because we’re still here.”

“I know,” Micro answered. “I just wanted to ask if we can leave early with them.”

“Dude, you really don’t have to,” Flash objected.

“I know,” Micro countered, “but I want to. Besides, I won’t have as much fun without you.” He turned to his father and pleaded, “Can we ditch with them, Dad, can we?”

Mr. Chips crossed his arms as he thought carefully about his son’s request. Aside from a few frown lines appearing at the corner of his mouth, his facial expression hardly changed at all.

Finally, Mr. Chips unfolded his arms and answered, “Well, I am getting a hankering for ice cream, and the refreshments here aren’t too good anyway. Why not?”

“Yes!” Micro cheered as a small smile formed on his best friend’s face. Without further ado, the two boys and their parental figures began walking towards the park’s exit.

Meanwhile, a girl about Flash and Micro’s age with lavender skin, an indigo ponytail, and black-rimmed glasses had just entered the park along with a college-age woman. The young lady had pink skin and tricolored hair that was also tied up in a ponytail. The little girl held a plush owl in her arms while her companion carried a bookbag full of chapter books and children’s encyclopedias. The little girl’s name was Twilight Sparkle, and she wanted nothing more to do today than stay inside and read, but her babysitter Cadance had insisted that today was too lovely to be spent indoors, so Twilight had agreed to do her reading in the park as a compromise.

“Cadance,” Twilight said to the young woman, clutching her toy owl tightly, “how come you get to come home for the summer, but BBBFF doesn’t?”

“Well,” Cadance replied hesitantly, “I get to come home for the summer because I’m in college, which is school for grownups. Your brother, on the other hand, is in the military, and the military is more like an actual job than it is school. Shining Armor only gets a set number of days off a year, and he’s saving them for Christmas and the winter holidays.”

“Why can’t BBBFF’s job give him more days off so that he can come home for the summer?”

“I,” Cadance paused, contemplating the best answer to Twilight’s question, “I’m not sure, but I do know that the military needs people working all year round. Maybe having fewer days off helps make sure that there’s always someone doing jobs that need to be done, maybe.”

“Is BBBFF’s job more important than me?” Twilight asked, nuzzling her face into her toy to hide the small frown starting to form on her face.

“Oh, Twilight, sweetie, of course not,” Cadance exclaimed, putting an arm around the girl. “I know Shining Armor can’t always be around whenever you want him to be, but I also know that he loves you very much and that no matter how long he has to be away, he will never, ever forget about you.”

Twilight looked up at her babysitter and gave her a small smile. The two of them reached the playground and looked for a bench to sit and set their possessions down at. When they found one, Twilight set her toy owl on it and sat down next to her toy. Candance also sat down and turned away to begin rummaging through the bookbag.

While Twilight’s attention was on Cadance and Cadance’s attention was on the bookbag, two boys ran by, grabbed Twilight’s toy, and ran away, laughing maliciously.

“Owlowiscious!” Twilight cried in distress. She got up and chased after the boys who had taken her precious toy from her.

“Twilight!” shouted Cadance, getting up to chase after Twilight. For a girl who hated physical activity, Twilight was surprisingly fast.

“Give him back!” Twilight screamed at the boys as she continued to chase them.

“What are you going to do if we don’t?” the boys taunted. “Are you going to cry like a baby? Like a big, dumb cry baby who still plays with dolls?”

With a cruel laugh, the boys tossed Owlowiscious into a nearby tree, stranding the toy in its branches. Twilight stopped right underneath the tree while the boys kept running and laughing.

“You stupid bullies!” Twilight yelled after them, trying not to cry. She looked up at the tree where her toy owl was stuck in its branches and began to jump, trying in vain to reach her toy. She knew her attempts were futile, but what else could she do?

“Twilight!” Cadance cried in relief when she finally caught up to her charge. She knelt to Twilight’s level and asked, “Are you okay?”

Twilight didn’t answer but pointed up at the tree. Cadance turned to where she was pointing, and her eyes widened.

“Those boys did that?” she asked cupping Twilight’s face with her hands sympathetically. Twilight nodded as tears began to run down her face.

Cadance knew how much that toy meant to Twilight. Twilight’s older brother Shining Armor had gotten it for her before he left for the Marines as a memento of the more innocent, carefree chapter of their lives that had drawn to a close last year. Leaving Owlowiscious stuck in the tree was not an option.

“Okay, Twilight, here’s what we’re going to do,” Candance explained. “We’re going to go look for the groundskeeper and see if he has a ladder. Then, we’ll come back and get Owlowiscious down, okay?”

“No!” Twilight refuted, planting her feet firmly under the tree.

“Twilight, we’re not going to be able to get Owlowiscious down without a ladder.”

“But if we leave, those boys might come back and take him.”

Cadance groaned as she put a hand to her face. She should have known Twilight wasn’t going to want to risk losing her toy again after what had just happened. She could always just leave Twilight with Owlowiscious and look for the groundskeeper by herself, but what kind of a babysitter just leaves her charge unattended in the middle of a public place?

Thankfully for Cadance, Flash, Micro Chips, and their parents just happened to be walking by.

“Excuse me, miss,” Lionheart called out as he approached Cadance and Twilight. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, yes,” Cadance replied. “I was watching my boyfriend’s little sister when these boys just ran off with her plush toy and threw it into that tree.” Cadance pointed up to where Owlowiscious was perched before continuing, “We won’t be able to get it down without a ladder, but this kid doesn’t want to leave to go look for the groundskeeper.”

Lionheart looked at Twilight who was still crying over Owlowiscious and then looked up at the toy. The toy owl had dark brown wings and a beige body. On its orange talons a felt note saying “Don’t forget me” was stitched. Lionheart had a feeling that someone special gave Twilight that toy and could understand why it would be so valuable to the little girl.

“Why don’t I look for him for you while you and your little one stay here?” Lionheart offered.

“Oh, would you?” Cadance replied.

“Of course. Come on, Flash. Uh, Flash?” Lionheart looked around, noticing that his grandson had gone missing. He turned back to Cadance and asked, “Uh, miss, have you seen my grandson anywhere?”

Before Cadance could answer, everybody heard a rustling from the treetop and looked up.

“Flash Sentry! What do you think you’re doing?!” Lionheart shouted with wide eyes. Flash had climbed up the tree and was now shimmying towards the branches that held Owlowiscious.

“I’m trying to help the girl get her toy back,” Flash replied, seemingly oblivious to his grandfather’s worry. Lionheart groaned as he put a hand to his face.

Turning his attention back towards his grandson, Lionheart called out, “Just be careful, okay? You already broke your arm once doing that.”

“Okay, I’ll be careful,” Flash assured his grandfather. He was about halfway to the toy. If he could just get a little closer, he should be able to just reach out and grab it.

Flash slowly inched closer and closer to Owlowiscious. Soon, he was a mere arm’s length from the toy owl. He reached out and managed to grab it by the felt note attached to its talons. However, as Flash began to pull the toy towards him, he felt himself slipping from the branch he was on.

“Whoa!” he cried out. Lionheart rushed forward to try to break his grandson’s fall. The action surely would have resulted in a trip to the emergency room for both grandfather and grandson if Flash hadn’t managed to catch himself and scramble back onto the branch. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“Mercy me! Give me a heart attack why don’t you?!” Lionheart cried out.

“Uh, Grandpa? How do I get down while holding onto this toy?” Flash called down. “I don’t know how to climb down using only one hand.”

“Just toss it down to me, and I’ll catch it, okay? Then, climb down the way you normally would.”

“No!” Twilight cried in protest. “You’re going to hurt Owlowiscious!”

“Twilight, it’s okay,” Cadance attempted to mollify. “Owlowiscious will be fine.”

“But what if they drop him?” the little girl whined as fresh tears poured from her eyes.

“Don’t worry, little one. We won’t,” Lionheart knelt to her level and reassured her. “Someone you love gave you that toy, right?”

Twilight nodded, still crying.

“I would never ruin something that special, but if you want your owl down from the tree, you’re going to have to trust me, alright?”

Reluctantly, Twilight nodded. As Lionheart stood up again and prepared to catch Owlowiscious, she squeezed her eyes shut and covered them with her hands. Flash took a deep breath and threw the toy owl towards his grandfather, and just as Lionheart promised, he caught it.

“Got it!” Lionheart cheered triumphantly. Twilight slowly lowered her hands from her eyes, and when she saw her beloved plush toy held tightly in the older man’s hands, an enormous grin broke out on her face as she practically yanked Owlowiscious from him.

“Owlowiscious!” the little girl cheered as she hugged the toy owl tightly.

“Twilight, what to you say to the nice man?” Cadance reminded her.

“Thank you,” Twilight said to Lionheart hurriedly before she resumed protectively snuggling Owlowiscious. Twilight was about to run off and go straight home where she and Owlowiscious can read together in safety and peace, but Cadance stopped her and reminded her that she still hadn’t thanked the boy who was climbing down from the tree.

Twilight whined. All she wanted to do was go home and protect her books, her owl, and herself from the dangers of the world such as mean boys, tall trees, and falling to the ground from tall trees, but of course, her babysitter had to complicate things with matters as trivial as gratitude and basic courtesy. Nevertheless, Twilight did as she was told. As soon as Flash got down from the tree, she grudgingly thanked him.

“Oh, no problem,” Flash replied with a wide, friendly smile, oblivious to the icy shield Twilight had put up between the two of them. “Grandpa and I were just trying to help. Are you feeling better now?”

The little girl looked up, and her purple, bespectacled eyes met the boy’s warm, blue ones. His eyes were so warm that she could feel her defenses slowly melting, and despite herself, Twilight smiled back at the boy. Twilight shyly looked away and gave him a small nod.

“That’s good,” Flash continued. “You know, Grandpa and Mr. C. were just taking me and my friend Micro Chips to get ice cream. Maybe you and your babysitter want some too. Do you want to come with us?”

Unfortunately, the bold invitation caused Twilight to shrink back and refreeze the wall between her and Flash. Hugging herself and Owlowiscious, she shook her head.

“You don’t want to come with us?” Flash frowned slightly. The idea of refusing an offer of ice cream was completely alien to him, so naturally, he found the girl’s behavior utterly confusing. Twilight refused to speak and shook her head again, confusing Flash even further.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Cadance asked her charge, kneeling to Twilight’s eye level and putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“I want to go home,” Twilight whimpered. Cadance slowly nodded in understanding before standing upright.

“She’s still a little upset by what those boys did to Owlowiscious,” Cadance explained to Flash and Lionheart. “She just needs a little space right now, so I’m afraid we’re going to have to turn down the invite.”

“I understand,” Lionheart replied, taking his grandson by the hand. “Well, hopefully, we’ll run into each other again, miss. It was nice meeting you.”

After Cadance returned the sentiment, Lionheart and Flash returned to where Micro and his father were waiting for them while Twilight and Cadance went off in the opposite direction.

“Why didn’t that girl want to get ice cream with us, Grandpa?” Flash asked.

“Those boys who threw her toy into the tree really hurt her feelings,” Lionheart explained. “Some people when they get upset just don’t want to be around other people for a while.”

“How come?”

“Well, you know how turtles pull themselves into their shells whenever they think they’re in danger?”

Flash nodded.

“Some people, like that girl, do something like that with their feelings. Just give her time and space. She’ll come out when she feels safe.”

“Do you think I’ll ever see her again?” asked Flash.

“Maybe.”

“Do you think we’ll be friends when we do?”

“I don’t see why not,” Lionheart replied with a smile before ruffling his grandson’s hair. “Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a kid like you?”

Years passed, and that first meeting faded into an old memory. Flash was sixteen now and had just broken up with his first girlfriend a few weeks ago, but he wished that he had done it sooner, years sooner. He had kept putting off the breakup out of fear that he was going to end up hurting her. Little did he know the breakup would end up hurting him a lot more than it did her.

“You’re NOTHING to me, and you don’t mean a thing to anyone else either, never had, never will,” she had said to him, and judging by the smug smirk she had on when she walked away, she had meant every word.

Flash shook off the lingering pain from Sunset Shimmer’s words as he closed his locker. Suddenly, he was jolted out of his thoughts by something hitting his leg. He looked down and saw it was a girl with long, indigo hair.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed as he offered a hand to help her up. “Are you okay?”

The girl awkwardly took his hand and allowed him to help her up. She nodded in response to his question, and he smiled at her before walking away. Flash frowned as he studied the mental image he had of her face. Something about that girl seemed familiar even though he was sure he had never seen her before. He remembered seeing a similar face on a much younger girl he met once when he was ten, but something about the way this new girl looked and acted told him that she was a completely different girl from the one he had met before.

“It doesn’t matter,” he thought bitterly to himself. “It’s not like either girl is going to remember you.”

The events of the Fall Formal confirmed that the strange girl he bumped into several times was not the same girl he had met when he was ten. Even so, he and Princess Twilight found themselves forming an attraction for each other. Unfortunately, her opportunities to visit came few and far between, and a second brush with otherworldly magic and one winter holiday season later, Flash was beginning to feel the distance between them.

Well, he’s going to have to deal with that some other time. Right now, the Friendship Games was coming up, and he had been chosen to represent the school. Everyone was going to need him at his A game if they wanted a chance at beating Crystal Prep.

Flash made his way towards the gym to help his teammates set up for the welcoming party that opened the games. He even brought his guitar with him; maybe he could use it to break the ice with the Crystal Preppers.

He really should have been watching where he was going because before he even realized what had happened, he had collided with someone and fallen to the ground. The person he bumped into fell with him.

“Twilight? I almost didn't recognize you,” Flash exclaimed in overjoyed recognition as he helped the girl up. He had yet to realize that this Twilight was not the same one he had been thinking about earlier. To his confusion, she grabbed his shirtfront and pulled him closer while squinting her eyes. Flash looked around and found a pair of glasses lying on the floor. “When did you start wearing glasses?”

“Um, like, since forever,” Twilight replied. Flash raised an eyebrow at this. That answer didn’t make any sense, but she clearly needed those glasses to see, so Flash dismissed his confusion and picked up her glasses from the floor.

“Oh, so how long are you here for?” he asked.

“Just for the Friendship Games.”

“Right. Of course. We'll totally win with you here,” Flash exclaimed as he slipped Twilight’s glasses onto her face.

As her vision cleared, Twilight found herself staring into the kind boy’s vivid blue eyes. Oh, good gracious! Did this boy have beautiful eyes! Those eyes also seemed oddly familiar, as if she had seen them before a long time ago and then forgot about them. However, before she could further contemplate the familiarity of those eyes, her energy detector beeped reminding her of the task at hand.

“Uh, I gotta go,” said Twilight before running off as fast as she could.

“Uh, okay. Bye?” Flash called back, his earlier confusion returning. That was weird. Why did Twilight seem to not know who he was? And if she had needed glasses quote “since forever” unquote, why wasn’t she wearing them the first few times she visited?

Flash pondered these questions as he resumed making his way to the gym. As he continued to think, he realized that something about Twilight seemed markedly different from the last few times he saw her, especially her eyes. No, it wasn’t just the glasses. Strange, even though her eyes were different, Flash couldn’t help but feel as if he’d seen them before a long time ago.

The fact that Twilight was competing with Crystal Prep was a huge hint that she wasn’t the otherworldly princess that Flash met previously. Turning into an insane, world-ending threat was an even bigger one. More importantly, this Twilight didn’t seem to find anything about him attractive at all. Her new boyfriend from Camp Everfree was proof enough of that.

Flash didn’t hold Twilight’s lack of attraction for him against her though. She was free to be with whoever she wanted even if the person in question wasn’t him. All he had to do was accept the situation for what it is and move on from it, easy.

So, why can’t he get her out of his mind? Her eyes especially were constantly haunting him like a forgotten memory that was begging him to remember, but remember what exactly? The answer to those questions came one fateful June day.

Every summer, Canterlot City had a huge summer festival at the park, and every year, Flash and his family took part in it. This year was no different. Twilight didn’t partake in the festivities as regularly as Flash did, but she was partaking in them this year. Unlike Flash, she wasn’t spending the day with her family. Instead, she was on a date with her boyfriend.

“Here you go, boo,” Timber Spruce said to Twilight as he handed her a snowcone.

“Thank you,” Twilight replied before taking a big bite out of the mound of shaved ice and raspberry syrup. She immediately regretted the action when her teeth started to chatter from the sudden cold.

Meanwhile, Timber licked his lips as he prepared to do the same with his lemon snowcone. However, before he could so much as lick his snowcone, a small person ran between him and Twilight, bumped into him, and caused him to spill his entire snowcone all over his shirt.

“SHELLY!” a 4-year-old girl with light tan skin and a short, lilac ponytail cried out as she chased a plush turtle tied to a bright blue balloon. The wind carried the balloon into the air and across the park, dragging the stuffed turtle with it.

“My shirt!” Timber cried, staring incredulously at the mess of ice and syrup splattered all over his shirtfront.

“I’m so sorry!” the girl’s mother hurriedly apologized to him and Twilight as she ran after her daughter. Timber didn’t seem to hear her as he scowled and began marching after the two of them.

“Timber!” Twilight exclaimed, frowning in concern as she followed her boyfriend.

The wind carried the balloon into the trees, and the balloon’s string got caught on the branches, stranding the turtle in the treetops. The little girl caught up to her toy and tried in vain to reach up and grab it.

“Shelly!” she whined as tears threatened to come out of her eyes. Her mother caught up to her and knelt to her level to try to comfort her.

“Hey!” Timber shouted when he and Twilight had caught up to them. “What’s the big idea bumping into a guy like that?”

As if in response to Timber’s yelling, the little girl burst into tears and let out a long, piercing wail. Timber shrank back in a mixture of guilt and surprise.

“Timber,” Twilight scolded him. “She’s just a kid. You didn’t have to be so hard on her.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Timber uttered in panic. Not knowing what else to do, he bent down to the girl’s level and began making faces. “I didn’t mean to yell. I was just being silly. See, I’m silly, silly, silly.”

The girl only seemed to cry even more, much to Timber’s mortification.

“Excuse me,” a voice called out. Twilight, Timber, and the girl’s mother turned to the voice and saw Flash approaching them holding a kite. Behind him were a middle-school-aged boy that looked like a smaller, darker-colored version of him and three women. Two of them were middle-aged and uncannily similar in appearance with red hair, brown eyes, and yellow-orange skin that was lighter than Flash’s. One wore glasses and had her hair up in a bun, and the other had brown highlights in her hair and a ponytail. The last woman had the same eyes as the other two and also wore glasses but was much older with pink, wrinkled skin. Her gray hair had bits of brown, hinting at its original color.

“Is something wrong?” Flash asked the little girl’s mother.

“The wind blew Shelly up the tree,” the little girl wailed, pointing up at her toy. Flash and his family looked up where the girl was pointing and saw a plush turtle tied to a balloon which was tangled on a tree branch. Anyone with eyes and a brain could figure out what had happened.

“I could get your turtle down for you if you’d like,” Flash offered the little girl, handing the kite off to his younger brother.

“Oh, no, we couldn’t possibly trouble you,” the girl’s mother protested.

“It’s no trouble at all, really.”

“Honey, don’t tell me that you’re planning on climbing up that tree,” the bespectacled, red-haired woman exclaimed.

“Of course, I am, Mom,” Flash replied. “How else am I supposed to get it down?”

“Flash Sentry, you already broke your arm once doing that,” his mother objected, crossing her arms.

“Mom, it was only once, and I was eight. I’ve climbed plenty of trees since then, and nothing has happened. I’ll be careful,” Flash assured as he prepared himself for the climb.

Flash’s mother sighed and put a hand to her face. Then, she put her hand down, uncrossed her arms, and gave her son a small, amused smile. Everybody watched apprehensively as Flash climbed higher and higher up the three. Something about the entire situation felt oddly familiar to Twilight, but she couldn’t figure out why.

Finally, Flash reached the branches where the balloon and the stuffed turtle were tangled up in. He tried to carefully untangle the balloon string from the branches, but the task was proving difficult. As he continued to tug on the string, he didn’t notice that he was slipping off the branches until…

“Whoa!” he cried. His mother screamed and covered her eyes while everyone else gasped in horror. Thankfully, Flash managed to catch himself before he completely slipped off. “I’m okay, I’m okay.”

“Oh, mercy me, give everyone a heart attack why don’t you?!” the woman who was presumably Flash’s grandmother exclaimed.

“Sorry, sorry.” Flash repositioned himself more securely and stared intently at the tangled mess of string and branches. “Guys, I think I’m going to need to cut the turtle loose from the balloon. I’ll still be able to get the turtle down, but the balloon’s probably a goner.”

“Oh, don’t worry about the balloon,” the little girl’s mother replied. “I can deal with that later.”

“Great. Does anybody have anything I can use to cut the string with?”

“How about this?” the other red-haired woman asked as she pulled a folded pocketknife out of her pants pocket.

“Since when did you start carrying around a knife with you?” Flash’s mother exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

“I started carrying one after I joined the Army. Besides, you never know when you need to slice through something.”

“That’ll work great, Aunt Flare. I just need to climb back down and get it,” Flash replied.

“Hey, Mom, can I start carrying a knife with me?” Flash’s brother asked.

“Oh, sure, when you’re 22,” his mother answered with just the slightest hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Flash was about to start climbing down when Twilight interrupted, “Excuse me.”

Everyone turned to her.

“Um, I could always just bring the knife up to him,” Twilight began, “that way he won’t have to come down.”

“You going to climb up after him?” asked Flash’s brother.

“Not quite,” Twilight answered as her hand and necklace started to glow purple. Aunt Flare’s knife took on the same glow and floated out of her hand towards the treetops.

“Whoa! You’re one of those girls from Big Bro’s school that he tells us about.”

“I see my girlfriend’s reputation precedes her,” Timber bragged, proudly putting an arm around Twilight’s waist.

“Timber, stop,” Twilight scolded as a small, sheepish smile graced her face. That smile was the key to the door of Flash’s memories. In his mind, Flash saw a much younger face with that same smile, and that face also had Twilight’s beautiful, bespectacled, purple eyes. Twilight was that little girl that he helped and wanted to be friends with all those years ago.

“Bro! Grab the knife!” his brother called up the tree, returning Flash to the present.

“Oh, right,” Flash replied, grabbing the pocketknife out of the air and unfolding it. With a single swift motion, he cut through the balloon string and caught the toy turtle before it fell out of the tree. Then, he carefully climbed down the tree cradling the plush toy and presented it to the little girl.

“Shelly!” the girl cheered, taking her toy from Flash and hugging it tightly. “Thank you so much, mister.”

“Oh, no problem,” Flash replied with a smile. Twilight blinked twice as she unconsciously began to stare at him. Why did those words and that smile seem so familiar to her? “Sorry that I couldn’t get your balloon.”

The little girl scowled and humphed, “I don’t like balloons anymore.”

Her mother stifled a laugh and said to Flash, “Thank you so much for your help. That was so kind of you.”

The woman took her daughter by the hand, and they left to continue enjoying the festival leaving Flash, his family, and Twilight and Timber still standing under the tree.

“So,” Flash said to Twilight, shyly avoiding eye contact with her, “thanks for the help.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Twilight replied, oblivious to the torture that her smile was putting Flash through. “You did most of the work.”

“Well, you did save me an extra trip up and down the tree, so thanks anyway.” What was wrong with him? He was being attracted to Twilight because of a stupid childhood memory that she probably doesn’t even remember. More importantly, she already has a boyfriend.

“Um, hey, Bro, are you done talking to your friend?” Flash’s brother once again interrupted his thoughts. “We’ve got to go. This kite’s not going to fly itself.”

“Okay, I’m coming,” Flash replied. He quickly said his goodbyes to Twilight and Timber and left with his family.

When the two of them were alone, Timber asked his girlfriend, “So, why don’t we try our hand at a few games? I think I just might win you a prize.”

“Oh, sure,” Twilight replied before following her boyfriend. Even though Twilight’s body was at the park with Timber, her mind was elsewhere. Everything that just happened was giving her a major case of déjà vu, and she wanted to know why.

She started with the little girl and the toy in the tree. Something like that definitely happened to her once. The toy owl her brother had given her had gotten thrown into a tree by some bullies. Luckily, a boy and his grandfather had been kind enough to help her, just like how Flash helped that little girl.

As she focused on remembering that boy, she began noticing similarities between him and Flash. They both climbed trees and apparently broke an arm once while climbing trees. They both had the same spiky, blue hair, the same vivid, kind, blue eyes, and the same warm, friendly smile. Finally, all the pieces came together for Twilight. Flash Sentry and that boy were the same person.

Upon that realization, Twilight mentally aged Flash’s face back and forth between the present and the past repeatedly. Flash’s facial features had changed over the years, but the kindness and warmth that exuded from his eyes and smile remained unchanged. That observation caused Twilight to blush slightly as she smiled to herself.

Wait. Why was thinking about Flash’s face making her blush? Why was it making her smile the way that it did? Twilight didn’t even know this boy well. More importantly, she has a boyfriend, and she found said boyfriend very attractive and enjoyable to be around.

“Hey, Twilight, which keychain do you want?” Timber asked her, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“Huh?” she exclaimed before remembering what she and Timber had been doing. Timber had set out on winning her a prize, and after failing to do well at ring toss and the ping pong ball game, his latest attempt was darts. To his frustration, he hadn’t been able to win her a large prize, but he did win her a keychain. Her choices included a sun, a palm tree, a beach umbrella, a balloon, and a kite. After narrowing her choices down to the palm tree and the kite, Twilight ultimately chose the kite.

Chapter 2: Even Then

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Chapter 3: Made Seen

Twilight and Flash wouldn’t see each other again for another seven days. That day happened to be the day Flash went to the beach with his brother, their dog Banana, his best friend Micro Chips, and First Base’s best friend Button Mash.

“Beach party! A-woo-hoo!” Base cheered. Button whooped in agreement while Banana yipped excitedly, the noise causing the two older boys to cringe.

“Can you three keep it down until after I park?” Flash scolded. “I’m still driving.”

Meanwhile, Twilight was also at the beach with her dog Spike and her friends Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. The five of them were crammed into Fluttershy’s car as they patiently waited for their cautious friend to park. Their other friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were going to meet up with them much later. Since their car only had Pinkie’s exuberance to deal with, Fluttershy had a far easier time parking than Flash did.

“Woohoo!” Pinkie cheered as she and her friends got out of Fluttershy’s car. As soon as Fluttershy opened the trunk of her car, Pinkie gathered her mask, snorkel, flippers, and pink flamingo floatie in her arms and screamed, “To the beach!” racing ahead of her friends towards the water. Her friends simply rolled their eyes and giggled affectionately as they unloaded their beach gear out of the trunk.

Flash and his group had also parked and unloaded, and all of them were out on the beach ready for some fun.

“Go get it, Banana!” Flash said to the black and white Boston terrier as he tossed a frisbee at First Base. Banana chased after it, but First Base caught the frisbee before he could.

“Over here, Banana, over here,” Base goaded, running around with the frisbee in his hands with the dog chasing him before throwing it back to Flash.

Banana skidded to a halt on the wet sand, sharply turned, and ran after the frisbee. Just as before, his human caught it before he could and threw it to his other human.

“Keep away!” Base cheered, once again running around to let Banana chase him a bit before throwing the frisbee back to Flash.

Banana bolted after the frisbee spraying sand everywhere as he did so. Then, he jumped and tackled Flash right in the chest. The terrier struck Flash with just enough momentum to knock the air out of him but not enough to knock him over. Flash quickly recovered and caught Banana in his arms, allowing the frisbee to sail past him. Then, Banana barked happily and started licking Flash all over his face.

“Ugh! Banana! Gross!” Flash laughed as he wiped the slobber off his face.

“Hey, Base,” Button Mash called, holding up a bucket and a shovel. “Let’s head out and do some digging.”

“Sweet!” Base cheered, running up to meet him. “Which one of us is getting buried first?”

“We’ll decide when we get there.”

“Hold on, guys!” Flash called, running up to the two younger boys. He pulled a small Ziploc bag out of his shorts pocket; inside the bag was an emergency inhaler.

“Oh, come on!” Button groaned. “Don’t tell me my mom made you bring that with us. I haven’t had an asthma attack in years.”

“Hey, better to have it and not need than need it and not have it,” Flash replied as he was about to hand it off to his brother. First Base reached out to take it, but Flash pulled back before he could.

“Don’t lose it,” Flash emphasized.

“I won’t,” Base muttered. He reached out to take the inhaler from Flash, but once again, Flash pulled back.

“I mean it.”

“Bro, okay! Can we go now?” Base snapped.

Flash just sighed and finally handed off Button’s inhaler. First Base shoved it into his shorts pocket and went with Button to look for the perfect digging spot.

Once the two of them were out of earshot, Micro Chips laughed as he walked along the beach waving around a metal detector.

He said to Flash, “I can’t tell if I’m annoyed along with the two of them or jealous that I’m an only child.”

“Oh, come on! I wasn’t being that uptight about the inhaler,” Flash retorted before questioning, “was I?”

“Eh, maybe a little, but you weren’t wrong.”

“Hey, you mind if Banana and I join you on your epic quest for buried treasure?”

“Oh, not at all. Maybe Banana can help sniff out some good junk.”

While Flash and Micro were out hunting for random junk, Twilight was up in the lifeguard tower looking out into the ocean with a pair of binoculars.

Her boyfriend Timber Spruce, who was employed as a lifeguard for that summer, walked up behind her and flirtatiously greeted, “Whatcha lookin’ for?”

“Answers,” she replied as she lowered her binoculars with a serious scowl on her face. Much to Timber’s disappointment, she didn’t even seem to notice he was flirting with her.

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll let you know when I have them,” Twilight assured as she went back to looking through her binoculars. Timber just shrugged and walked away. Not long afterwards, she saw a seaweed-covered, animal-shaped creature heading for the beach. Twilight gasped, seeing that the creature was making a beeline for Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie.

“Oh, no! My friends!” she cried, racing out of the lifeguard tower back towards the beach. “Sunset Shimmer! Pinkie Pie!”

By the time, she and Timber Spruce reached the two of them. The monster was already six feet away from them and getting closer. Timber screamed and grabbed on to Twilight, holding her in front of him like a shield. Thankfully, the “monster” turned out to only be Pinkie’s floaty covered in seaweed being retrieved by Fluttershy.

Twilight glared at Timber as Pinkie happily reunited with her floaty. Timber smiled sheepishly and walked away, whistling awkwardly. Twilight just frowned and went back to where and the girls had spread their beach blankets. Twilight smiled, finding Spike sunning himself on top of hers.

“Oh, hey, Twilight,” Spike greeted, not even moving a muscle. “How did looking for that sea monster go?”

“There was no sea monster, Spike. Long story,” she replied as she sat down beside her dog. Then, she frowned, replaying what Timber had done in her mind.

“What’s wrong?” Noticing his human’s frown, Spike got up and padded up to Twilight’s lap.

“Oh, it’s probably nothing,” she shrugged, her frown getting deeper the more she thought about what happened.

“Come on. Tell me,” Spike prodded with a whine. Twilight gave a small smile and relented.

“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she began, “Timber used me as a shield when we thought a monster was about to come out of the ocean and get us.”

“Really?” Spike frowned, raising an eyebrow and an ear in confusion. “This might just be because I’m a dog, but aren’t people in relationships supposed to protect each other, especially the guy?”

“Well, certain people believe that last part is totally outdated, but for the most part, I would say yes,” Twilight replied. “I mean, sure, if that thing had been a real sea monster, I would have been capable of taking it on, more so than Timber would have been, and would have been in less need of protection than he would have been, but,” Twilight trailed off before grunting in frustration, “I don’t even know why what happened bothers me so much. Like I said, it’s probably nothing, and maybe I’m just overthinking it.”

Spike looked as if he wanted to say something in reply, but before he could, Twilight’s phone rang. Twilight grabbed her beach bag and began rummaging through it. She pulled out her cellphone and checked the caller ID. Weird. What could Micro Chips be calling for her for?

“Hello?” she answered the call.

“Twilight! Oh, thank goodness! Please tell me that you’re with the other girls right now!” Micro replied. His voice sounded like he had seen the face of death and somehow escaped it but was still running from it.

“Just Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. We’re meeting up with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity later.”

“That’s going to have to do for now. Listen. I need you and everyone you’re with at the beach NOW, the south side of the beach. Hurry!”

“What? Why?”

“Giant hermit crab! Possibly magic! Actually, incredibly likely to be magic since no known species of hermit crab has ever been recorded to grow that large, but I think you get my point. Anyway, just get over here!”

Before Twilight could formulate an answer, Micro Chips hung up.

Earlier, while Twilight and her friends were busy looking for sea monsters, Flash, Micro, and Banana had managed to find a handful of loose change, a cheap ladies’ watch, a child-size charm bracelet, several crushed soda cans, and a half-eaten sushi cone, which Banana wolfed down eagerly.

“Do you ever find anything good when you go metal detecting?” Flash asked, skeptically looking through their findings.

“I did find some guy’s wedding ring once,” Micro recounted. “The guy who lost it gave me a hundred bucks for finding it.”

“Lucky,” Flash chuckled. His good spirits were interrupted when he heard his dog barking and growling at something in the water. He couldn’t see what it was, but it was likely a crab or a turtle.

“Hey, Banana, calm down, boy,” he scolded as he went over and picked up his dog who continued to bark and growl. “It’s okay, boy. It’s probably nothing. Just leave it be.”

Banana suddenly became quiet. The dog’s eyes widened, and he let out a whimper. Flash looked down and saw that the ground he was standing on was suddenly shrouded in shadow. He looked up and saw Micro Chips wearing the same wide-eyed look that Banana was wearing.

“There’s something right behind me, isn’t there?” Flash stage-whispered to Micro. Micro nodded stiffly as he bit his lip. Flash slowly turned around and looked up. The first thing that he saw were two giant, orange-brown pincers each flanked on the outside by two long, crustacean legs. As his eyes moved upwards, Flash then saw two giant beady, black eyes. On the creature’s back was an enormous mollusk shell.

Flash gulped as he slowly backed away from the creature, pausing every so often to shush his whimpering dog. He had just managed to step out of the giant crab’s shadow when a high-pitched scream rang through the air. He, Micro Chips, and the crab turned toward the scream and saw a little girl a short distance away staring at the crab in fear. Her parents turned to her and saw what she was screaming at. Her mother screamed as well while her father grabbed her and began running. The crab screeched in response, and soon, everyone on the beach was screaming and running away, well, almost everyone.

The crab began lumbering towards the panicking beachgoers, ignoring Flash and Micro entirely. Once the shock of the encounter had passed, Flash gritted his teeth and placed Banana in Micro’s arms.

“Take Banana and get help,” he ordered before taking off after the crab.

“Hold it! Where are you going?!” Micro yelled.

“To find my brother! And Button!”

Micro Chips groaned, unable to facepalm because his arms were full of dog. However, as annoyed as Micro was with Flash for taking such a huge, potentially deadly risk, he couldn’t help but admire his friend for being such a caring, selfless older brother. He reached into his shorts pocket, pulled out his cellphone, and called the first number that would be most helpful in this situation.

“Bro! Button!” Flash called as he ran through the fleeing beachgoers. Flash could barely make out anything or anyone in all the chaos, but he had to make sure that his brother and his brother’s best friend were safe.

“Watch it!” someone yelled at him as he searched.

“You’re going the wrong way!” Someone else shoved him before running past him.

Flash continued to fight the crowd before a particularly terrified and desperate beachgoer simply pushed him to the ground. Flash grunted as he hit the sand, but he forced everything in him to keep moving, crawling on the sand and dodging the mess of running legs that threatened to step on him or kick him. As soon as he reached a part of the crowd that was more thinned out, he scrambled up to his feet and looked around.

“Aaaah!” a little boy who had fallen behind screamed. The crab roared in response and raised a claw, ready to bring it down on him. Thinking fast, Flash grabbed an empty, forgotten beach bucket and hurled it at the crab. The bucket struck the crab causing it to pause in surprise.

“Hey, you overgrown beast! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?!” Flash knew that he possibly signed his own death warrant with those words, but he had to do something.

The crab roared again, turning his attention from the fleeing beachgoers to Flash. It gave chase as Flash took off running.

“Yeah, that’s right! Come on, big guy!” Flash shouted when he saw that the monstrous crustacean was following him away from the crowd. When you’re a normal, unremarkable, completely average in every way human teenager with no superhuman abilities or attributes, there’s only one thing to do when you’re running away from a rampaging hermit crab the size of a small building, and that is to pray. Flash Sentry did exactly that.

“Dear God,” Flash prayed silently to himself, “if I die today, please take care of my family. Help them recover from losing me, and let them live long, happy lives, especially my mom. Please look after my brother as he grows up. Help him learn how to be a man that he can be proud of. Above all, please, please, please, don’t. Let. Me. Die. Today.”

After Flash had lured the giant crab a distance away from the other beachgoers, he slipped and fell face-first onto the sand. Unfortunately, that fall gave the crab just enough time to catch up with him. Flash pushed himself up to his knees and turned himself over so that he was facing the crab. The crab screeched as it raised its enormous, hammer-like claw and quickly brought it down.

Flash absolutely did not want to die screaming. However, keeping yourself from screaming when staring down a monster crab claw about to beat you into mincemeat proved a borderline impossible task because even though Flash tried to hold in his screams, he couldn’t help but scream anyway. Thankfully, he didn’t die.

Unbeknownst to him, he began to glow with a magical, purple aura, and a certain bespectacled girl pulled him away before the crab could crush him into a pulp. When the sand cleared, Flash was happy yet confused to see that he was still sitting on the beach alive and unharmed.

“What? How?” he sputtered as he looked himself over. The answer to his questions came when Twilight Sparkle and her friends touched down between him and the crab in their magical girl forms with Fluttershy in the front.

“How dare you!” the normally timid girl scolded, glaring into the crab’s beady, black eyes with an intensity rivalling that of a white-hot furnace. “Do you think you can just come up to this beach and go around scaring people just because you’re giant with big, meaty, shell-covered claws?! Well, you can’t! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

To Flash’s shock and amazement, the crab let out a squeak and retreated slightly back into its shell. Fluttershy’s expression softened, and she nodded as if she understood what the creature said to her, which she did.

“Oh, I see. Don’t worry. I’m sure my friend Sunset can help you with your problem,” she said to the crab.

“What problem?” asked Sunset.

“Oh, well, Salty here says that he was just minding his own business when a weird glow came out of a hole in the rocks, and before he knew it he was huge, and everyone was screaming at him, so he got scared,” Fluttershy explained.

“Wow! You got all that from one squeak?” Pinkie pointed out.

“Fluttershy, can you ask him where the glowing hole is?” Sunset requested. After Fluttershy relayed the question to the crab, the crab used its claw to point at a large rock formation out in the water that was shaped like a horse’s head.

“Stallion Rock,” Twilight identified.

“We’re going to have to get over there and investigate later,” said Sunset, “but for now, I’m going to send a message to Princess Twilight.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy exclaimed as the crab let out a series of squeaks and clicks. “He’s wondering if we can help him get back to his normal size.”

Twilight and Sunset looked at each other, unsure how to help the crab out of its predicament.

“Oooh, we could always try lighting him up,” Pinkie suggested. “That worked the last few times we’ve had to deal with magic.”

“Well, none of us have any better ideas, but we’ll have to wait for the others,” Sunset agreed before turning to Fluttershy. “Can you tell him to wait for us over at Stallion Rock?”

Fluttershy once again relayed Sunset’s message to the crab. The crab seemed to nod before retreating into the ocean.

During that entire conversation, Flash was still sitting on the sand, processing the whole ordeal, and trying to get his breathing back under control. Once he was calm enough, he stood up and walked up to the girls.

“Hey, thanks for saving me back there,” he said to them.

“You’re welcome,” Sunset replied curtly before tearing him a new one. “Geez, what were you thinking back there? You could have been splattered across the beach!”

“I was thinking that if I didn’t get that crab away from all those people, someone in that crowd could have gotten hurt, and two of those someones could have been my brother and his friend,” Flash retorted. “Speaking of which, I’ve got to find them and make sure they’re okay.”

“Bro!” First Base’s voice called from a distance. Everyone turned towards the call and saw First Base, Banana, Micro Chips, and Button Mash running towards them. First Base reached them first and pulled his brother into a tight hug. “Thank goodness! You’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, and you?” Flash replied, returning the hug.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Button’s okay, too.”

The rest of their group caught up with them as they broke the hug.

“Dude!” Micro Chips cried. “That was insane! You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m a little shaken, but I think I’ll be alright,” Flash replied. Then, he frowned, noticing that Button Mash was wheezing a little bit. He turned to his brother and asked, “Bro, did Button have an asthma attack?”

“At the worst possible time too,” Button affirmed with a slight wheeze. “I was up to my waist in sand, the monster was attacking, and everyone was screaming and going nuts.”

“On top of that some random guy ran into me just as I was getting Button’s inhaler out of my pocket and knocked it out of my hand, so I had to crawl around looking for it,” Base added. “If that crab hadn’t started going the other way, we would have been smashburgers.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, First Base’s last sentence triggering a realization in her.

“Guys,” Twilight began, “if Flash hadn’t led the crab away, those two could have died before we got here, and who knows how many other people could have as well.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Micro Chips agreed. “In Button’s case, Flash might have been doubly responsible for saving him because if he hadn’t made Base take Button’s inhaler with them, Button could have asphyxiated even if they had managed to get away from the crab.”

“Can we please talk about something other than me suddenly running out of air in the middle of a monster attack because I’d really rather not think about that?” Button butted in. To everyone’s relief, his wheeze was completely gone now.

“Come on, guys. Let’s get Button to a doctor just to make sure everything’s fine,” said Flash. He picked Banana up and began to lead his group away from the girls.

“Flash, wait,” Twilight called out to him. Flash stopped walking and turned towards her.

“Yeah?” he replied.

“Uh, you, you just saved a life, two lives, maybe more than two lives. Aren’t, aren’t you proud of that?” Twilight mentally facepalmed herself. Good grief! Of all the things to ask about, why did she ask that?

Flash stared at Twilight utterly confused by her question. Twilight turned away from him and tried to will her face to stop heating up. After an uncomfortably long half a second, Flash spoke.

“Well, yeah, I guess I’m proud of myself; I mean, who wouldn’t be? I just don’t think what I did is that big a deal,” he replied. “Besides, I think the fact that everyone came out of that whole ordeal okay is WAY more important than whatever role I played in making it happen.”

“Oh, I see,” uttered Twilight. For some reason, she had expected Flash to brag over how much of a hero he had been for risking his life like that, but he didn’t. Okay, why wasn’t he bragging, and more importantly, why had she been expecting him to? True, she didn’t know Flash very well, but he didn’t come off to her as a showoff or a braggart.

“My boyfriend, on the other hand, loves bragging,” Twilight thought grumpily to herself, her mind going back to the fundraiser gala at Camp Everfree when Timber had made a big deal out of saving her from falling off the dock which somehow made him responsible for saving the rest of the campers from misused Equestrian magic. “Wait a minute. Gosh! Why did I just think that? Timber obviously meant what he had said as a joke, so comparing his and Flash’s responses isn’t even a fair assessment. I mean, I’m not really comparing my boyfriend to another guy and finding him lacking, am I?”

“Hey, before I go,” Flash said to her, pulling her out of her thoughts, “I just want to say thanks again for saving me. I’d love to stay and talk some more, but I’ve really got to get Button checked out.”

“Oh, right,” Twilight stuttered, “and you’re, uh, welcome.”

The day went on. Twilight and her friends found and plugged up the hole in Stallion Rock that was leaking Equestrian magic and rainbow lasered Salty the Hermit Crab back to his original size. Button’s pediatrician gave him a clean bill of health and allowed him to return to the beach with his friends. The sun began to set, and everybody returned home.

When Twilight got home, she greeted her parents, fed Spike, and took a shower. While she was doing all this, the events from earlier in the day kept replaying in her mind and stirring up questions in her heart. Why did Timber hiding behind her during the “sea monster attack” bother her so much, and why did thinking about Flash thanking her for saving him make her face flush like crazy? No matter how many times she replayed the events, she just could not find the answers to these questions, or maybe she did know the answers. She just didn’t want to face them.

After getting dressed, Twilight went downstairs to join her family for dinner. The confusion spinning inside her mind and heart kept her from eating. Once again, her parents and Shining Armor took notice.

“Twily, are you alright?” Shining Armor asked her.

Twilight looked up from pushing her food around and replied, “Yeah. Why?”

“Sweetie, I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” her father began, “but you haven’t taken a bite of your food since we started eating.”

“Did something happen with that boyfriend of yours, who you still haven’t introduced us to?” her mother asked. That question made Twilight feel like crying, but she managed not to.

Twilight sighed and replied, “I, I’m not sure. I mean, he did use me as a shield earlier at the beach when we thought we were in danger, but the whole thing turned out to be a false alarm, and I’m sure what happened isn’t even that big a deal, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Hold on,” Shining Armor exclaimed. “He was willing to put you in danger to save himself? That’s the kind of guy you are dating?”

“Okay, when you put it that way, it does sound like a bigger deal than I think it is.”

“It is,” Night Light added. “If he’s going to throw you into danger now while your dating, how do you expect him to protect you and your kids when you’re married?”

“Dad!” Twilight exclaimed. “It’s too early in the relationship to be thinking about that.”

“Well, you’re going to have to think about that at some point in your relationship, maybe not now but someday. It’s not like you can keep the relationship in the dating stage forever.”

Twilight groaned. She hated it when her dad was right, especially when the thing he’s right about is something that she already knew but didn’t want to admit to herself.

“Twilight, not even your self-proclaimed scaredy cat of a father treated me like that,” Velvet pointed out, eliciting a laugh from Night Light.

“You’re talking about that time we thought we had gotten broken into, aren’t you?” Night said with a chuckle.

“We got broken into?” Shining exclaimed in shock. “How come I don’t remember that?”

“Because you hadn’t even been conceived yet when it happened,” Night Light replied, causing Twilight to giggle and Shining Armor to frown, “and no, we didn’t get broken into. We just thought we had.”

“What happened?” asked Twilight.

“Well, it was pretty early in our marriage, and your mom and I adopted these two cats who we named Aslan and Hippolyta,” Night recounted. “On our first night with them, your mom and I wake up in the middle of the night to this noise, and we think we’re being broken into. She wanted to go out there and chase away the robbers, and I wanted to call the police and keep hiding in our bedroom, but before we could come to an agreement, your mom leaves the room holding one of her workout weights like a club. I briefly considered just hiding in the bedroom without her, but after maybe half a second of thinking about it, I throw my hands up, grab a pillow, and go after her.”

“Then, he passes me in the hallway and says, ‘Honey, get behind me,’” Velvet continued. “When I asked him why, he says, ‘Because as much as I don’t want to get gunned down by a burglar, I won’t be able to live with myself if I let anything bad happen to you,’ and he was shaking like a wet chihuahua the whole time.”

“Well, after a few, uh, unimpressive attempts at trying to seem threatening on my part, we go into the living room and turn on the lights. It turned out that the ‘break-in’ was just the cats knocking stuff off the shelves.” Twilight and Shining’s parents shared a laugh over the story. The two siblings found themselves laughing as well.

“Man, were you guys lucky,” Shining Armor pointed out. “If that had been a real burglar, what you guys did would have been really dangerous.”

“It was, but if we had gone with your father’s suggestion, we would have ended up calling the cops on two cats,” Velvet countered, getting a laugh out of her husband.

Watching her parents laughing together made Twilight smile a bit, but then, she frowned as two pointed questions skewered their way to the forefront of her mind.

“Gee,” Twilight thought to herself as she stared at the way her parents smiled lovingly at each other, “will I be able to have anything like that with Timber? What about with, with that boy?”

Twilight shook the questions out of her head and spoke up, “Mom, Dad, is having a boyfriend fail to protect you when he should have grounds for breaking up with him?”

Her parents stopped laughing and looked at each other before looking back at Twilight.

“Well, Twily, as appalled as we are that your boyfriend would willingly put you at risk like that,” Night began, “everyone does make mistakes and bad choices from time to time. Unless you’ve noticed that he consistently puts himself before others, especially you, I’m going to have to say no.”

“I say bring the guy over to meet us already so that I can give him a piece of my mind and straighten him out real good,” Shining Armor interrupted.

Twilight ignored Shining Armor’s statement and asked, “What if I have other reasons for not wanting the relationship to continue?”

Everyone at the table turned and stared at her. Her parents looked at each other again, and Shining Armor frowned in thought as he kept his gaze on Twilight.

“You’re losing interest in the guy, aren’t you?” Shining deduced. Twilight whimpered pitifully as she nodded her head.

“It’s not that am not trying to stay interested in Timber because I totally am,” Twilight explained. “It’s just that whenever I look at you and Candance or Mom and Dad, I keep wondering if Timber and I will ever be anything like that, but no matter how much I try to see it, I’m just not seeing it.”

“Sweetie, is there anything else that you should be telling us but aren’t?” Night Light asked, raising an eyebrow at her in suspicion.

“Great!” Twilight thought to herself sarcastically. She had hoped to avoid talking about that one other detail, but there was no point in hiding it anymore, was there?

“Well, I guess there’s this one, small, tiny, unimportant detail,” Twilight half-lied. “I don’t think it’s worth mentioning, but I supposed I can let you in on it.”

“Uh-huh,” Velvet replied, nodding knowingly.

“You see, there’s this boy from school,” Twilight began before hurriedly continuing, “I wouldn’t quite call us friends, but he’s really nice, uh, almost too nice. I want to believe that he’s genuinely like that, but I’m afraid to. I mean, what if I start believing he’s actually that nice only to be completely wrong in the end? On top of all that, we actually met before as kids, and ever since I remembered that first meeting, I’ve been having a hard time not thinking about him, and whenever he gets into my head, I suddenly can’t think straight. I don’t understand it. What is it about that boy that just drives me crazy?”

“You like him,” Shining Armor bluntly stated, rolling his eyes as he reached for his water glass.

“What?! N-no! Of course, I don’t,” Twilight protested. “Gosh, BBBFF, didn’t you even hear what I just said? The two of us aren’t even friends, so I don’t even know him, and I’m not so silly that I’d just fall for a guy over a few chance encounters and his reputation with the rest of the school.”

“How did you end up with the guy you’re currently with?” Night cut in. Twilight just stared at her father in shock. Not only did the question surprise her, but it also forced her to face more facts that she didn’t want to.

“Well,” Twilight stuttered, “I met Timber at Camp Everfree. He was helping his sister run the place, and I thought he was cute. Then, I ended up talking to him for a bit, and it turns out that we both liked little-known facts and other geek interests, and, and I guess that was just it. I mean, at the time, I was also totally stressing about the possibility that I’d turn into a monster again, and geeking out with him distracted me from that, and, and there’s no ‘and’. All he was to me was just a distraction from my actual problems. Now that he has nothing to distract me from, being around him doesn’t seem as special.”

“Compared to that, how you’re feeling about this other boy doesn’t seem so silly, doesn’t it?”

Twilight turned away from her father and looked down at her lap, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. She tried to hold them in, but they eventually fell, one drop at a time, followed by the sound of soft sobs. Velvet got up from her seat and put her arms around her daughter, letting Twilight cry into her chest.

“Oh, Mom, why did things have to get so complicated?” Twilight managed to say between sobs. “I know what I have to do, but I don’t want to do it.”

“Oh, sweetie, you’ll be alright,” Velvet assured, stroking Twilight’s hair. “I know it doesn’t feel like you’ll ever get over it, but you will, and all of us will be here for you.”

“But what about—?”

“Hey, don’t worry about that other guy,” Shining Armor advised, anticipating Twilight’s question. “You don’t have to jump into a relationship with him right away just because you like him. Give yourself time to get over your breakup, and, well, we’ll see from there.”

There were many phrases in the English language that Twilight hated having to say and having to hear. “I don’t know” was at the very top of that list; “we’ll see from there” was a close second. However, as much as she wanted to punch her brother for saying that, she knew he had a point. The situation she was in had too many variables to account for, and therefore, no ideal solution.

Twilight’s crying died down to a few barely audible, intermittent hiccups. Even so, her mother continued to hold her and stroke her hair. All the while, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t come clean about her relationship to her family sooner.

Author's Note

So, yeah, random, Equestrian magic-induced monster attack. :ajbemused: I, uh, couldn't come up with better ideas. :twilightsheepish:

Anyway, another odd headcanon that I have is one of Button Mash having asthma. I questioned it because in one story (that is not canon to either this one or my series), I showed him playing baseball with First Base, but according to the experience of a pediatrician I shadowed, a kid with mild asthma can participate in athletics as long as the asthma is well-controlled, so yeah, Button's mildly asthmatic. I just never had a chance to have it show up in a story until now.

Chapter 4: Find You Again

Twilight anxiously played with the kite keychain Timber had won for her as she sat at one of the coffee shop’s outdoor tables.

“You can do this,” Twilight thought to herself. “Just rip the Band-Aid off and get it over with.”

She was startled out of her thoughts when someone put his hands over her eyes and greeted, “Guess who.”

Twilight sighed in frustration and grumbled, “Hello, Timber.”

Timber frowned as he removed his hands from Twilight’s eyes.

“Is everything okay?” he asked as he sat down next to her. “You don’t sound very happy to see me.”

“Timber,” Twilight began hesitantly before forcing herself to meet Timber’s gaze, “we need to talk.”

Timber’s frown deepened. Those four words in combination with her tone, facial expression, and body language were like a flock of ravens circling around him.

“‘We need to talk’?” Timber repeated uncertainly. “As in ‘let’s chat’ or ‘I’m about to break up with you’?”

Twilight sighed and replied, “The second one.”

“What?! Why?!” Timber cried. “I thought everything was great between us. What changed?”

“It’s hard to say, but,” she paused, searching for the right words to explain her feelings, “I’ve been doing a little self-examination, and it would appear that I’ve been getting less and less attracted to you.”

“What?! Bu-bu-but, how?! How can you possibly find all this,” Timber gestured to himself, “less attractive?”

“I don’t know. I just do,” Twilight snapped, trying not to yell. She placed the keychain on the table and slid it over to Timber. “Here. Just to make it official.”

Timber glared at her bitterly in response. “What if I don’t want to take it?”

“Then, I’m afraid I’m going to have to get my family involved, and trust me. You do not want me to have to do that. My brother is a cop.”

Timber’s eyes widened, and his face went two tints paler.

“Uh, how tall is your brother exactly?” Timber tittered nervously.

“Taller than you and strong enough to break your arm if he wanted to,” Twilight bluntly replied. “Did I mention that he used to be in the Marines?”

After blanching a bit more, Timber scowled and took the keychain.

“Fine. I’ll go along with this,” Timber huffed as he got out of his seat, “but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

With that, Timber stormed off, muttering to himself angrily all the while. Twilight simply sat there for a little while longer, alone with her thoughts. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting, but eventually, she got up and left as well.

As she began walking away, Twilight carefully examined her emotions. She felt like she had gotten released from a Victorian-era prison, sat through a round of kindergarten vaccines without crying, and buried a pet goldfish all at once. None of those emotions were unexpected, and each emotion made sense individually. She had gotten out of a relationship she didn’t want to be in anymore, followed through with a breakup that she wasn’t sure she was going to be brave enough to pull off, and lost her first boyfriend. However, getting hit with all those emotions simultaneously made Twilight’s brain feel as if it had been shoved into a snow globe and shaken to bits.

As Twilight struggled to piece her head back together, life decided to give the metaphorical brain snow globe another good shake. She grunted as she slammed into someone, splattering a rocky road ice cream cone all over his clean white shirt. Twilight looked up and saw the face of the second to last person she wanted to see right now.

“Oh, oh, my gosh!” she sputtered, looking from Flash’s shocked face to his stained T-shirt. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Flash just smiled and replied, “Don’t worry about it. I know it was an accident.”

He grimaced as he wiped the remains of his crushed ice cream cone off his shirt with his hands.

“Umm, do you have a napkin or something I can borrow?” Flash asked Twilight with a sheepish grin.

Twilight smiled back and pulled out a packet of tissues from her skirt pocket. She handed Flash a few sheets to wipe the sticky mess off his hands with.

“Thanks,” Flash replied, taking the tissues.

“No problem,” said Twilight. “I’m so sorry about your ice cream. I’ll compensate you for however much you paid for it.”

“That won’t be necessary. Besides, I can wait another couple weeks for ice cream,” Flash declined.

“Maybe you can, but you won’t have to,” Twilight insisted. “Come on. The ice cream shop is just a couple blocks away. Let’s head over there, and I’ll treat you.”

Flash frowned at Twilight’s sudden, almost uncharacteristic boldness.

“Look, that’s very generous of you, but,” Flash paused, trying to think of a convincing reason for Twilight to relent, “wouldn’t your boyfriend have a problem with you treating another guy to ice cream?”

Twilight looked away from him and sighed, “His opinion on the matter is no longer relevant. I just broke up with him, uh, today.”

“Hold on,” Flash exclaimed. “You just broke up with Timber Spruce TODAY, and now, you want to take me out for ice cream?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Twilight scoffed. “I’m merely paying off a few debts. This doesn’t mean anything.”

As soon as those words left her mouth, Twilight could hear her heart whispering to her head, “Liar.”

She bit her lip and looked away from him once again. If the emotions from her breakup had sent Twilight reeling, they were nothing compared to what she was feeling right now. The emotions that came with her growing attraction to Flash felt as if she had gone on every ride in Equestria Land seven times back-to-back, but she couldn’t let Flash know about that yet, not so soon.

“I didn’t say it did,” Flash replied hesitantly.

“Well, it doesn’t,” Twilight huffed back, talking hurriedly, “but if you’re so worried about this coming off as a rebound date, then why don’t you call some of your friends, and I’ll call some of mine, and we make it a group hang-out, a totally platonic, mixed gender group hang-out.”

Flash opened his mouth to reply when something Twilight had said caught his attention.

“Wait a minute,” he cried. “What did you mean by ‘a few debts’? Running into me and wasting my ice cream was an accident. You don’t owe me anything for that. Even if you did, that’s technically only one debt. What’s the rest of them?”

“Well, there’s all those times you were nice to me, and I totally brushed you off,” Twilight began.

“Oh,” Flash uttered before turning a shade of red and looking away from her. “Yeah, about those, do me a favor and not count those. I might have had ulterior motives a few of those times, and I’d rather not be rewarded for them.”

“You didn’t have ulterior motives EVERY SINGLE time you were nice to me, did you?”

“Well, no, at least, I don’t think so. I’m not really sure. It’s just, ugh!” Flash groaned as he put a hand to his face. “All I know is that for a few of those times I was nice to you, I did it because I wanted you to notice me, and that I’ve done it enough times to feel ashamed of myself, and I’m sorry.”

Twilight blinked a few times, trying to process what Flash had just told her.

“Are you sorry for treating me kindly, sorry for being ashamed of yourself, or sorry for having ulterior motives?” Twilight asked, her face scrunched in confusion.

“For having ulterior motives, of course,” Flash retorted. “I don’t want to do the right thing just for the potential reward. I want to do the right thing because it’s the right thing. It's just really hard to sometimes, but darn it! I want to try anyway.”

“Well, at least you’re not too proud to apologize or admit when you’re wrong. Besides, even if I wasn’t counting all those, I definitely still owe you for that ice cream invitation I turned down six or seven years ago.”

Flash turned and stared at Twilight, his eyes wide with surprise. She remembered.

“Okay, one,” Flash started, “I don’t think you can get into debt for turning down an invitation. Two, I can’t believe you even remember that.”

“Well, you somehow managed to remember,” Twilight pointed out. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, this is going to sound crazy, but I think we met before as kids’? Besides, your boyfriend, or should I say ex-boyfriend, was there, so that conversation would have turned out extra awkward.”

Twilight thought back to that day at the summer festival. When she did, she remembered a key detail about that encounter, especially in comparison to her and Flash’s first meeting.

“Hey, Flash,” Twilight began, unsure how to ask him her question, “uh, how’s your grandfather doing? I didn’t see him with the rest of your family at the festival.”

Flash’s face dropped and he looked away.

“Oh, uh, Grandpa,” he sighed, “Grandpa passed away about two years ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Twilight replied sympathetically

“It’s okay. You didn’t know. Besides, I’m over it, or at least, as over it as you can get when you lose someone you love and look up to.”

Twilight bit her lip, wishing she could say something comforting to Flash. She looked intently at his face as if the words she wanted to say were somehow going to magically appear on it. They didn’t; however, the more Twilight studied Flash’s face, the more obvious a certain detail became to her.

“Has anyone ever told you that you and your grandfather have the same eyes?” Twilight asked.

“What?” Flash replied, staring at her as if she had told him that she was from another planet.

“I mean, sure, your eye colors are different, but you and you grandfather have similarly shaped eyes. Now that I’m really looking, a lot of your other facial features are similar, too.”

Flash just continued to stare at her.

“What? No one’s told you that before?”

“No, not really,” Flash replied. “I mean, Grandma’s always told me that I take after Grandpa, but she’s never mentioned our looks specifically.”

Suddenly, Flash smiled, and Twilight couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“I, uh, sure hope I got a lot more from him than just his looks,” Flash continued.

“I’m sure you did,” stuttered Twilight, shyly looking away to hide her blushing face.

“How would you even know? You’ve only met him once,” Flash noted in amusement.

“And the one time I met him, he took time out of whatever he was doing to help a couple of strangers,” Twilight argued. “You did the same thing during the summer festival.”

Flash laughed, and Twilight found herself laughing along with him. When the two of them stopped, Flash’s face became serious again.

“Hey, Twilight,” Flash started, “there’s something that’s been bothering me, and I was wondering if I can ask you about it.”

“By all means, ask away,” Twilight replied.

“Are we friends?” Flash asked.

“Excuse me.” Twilight hadn’t been expecting Flash’s question to be so direct and personal, so she was quite surprised by it.

“Are you and I friends?” Flash repeated before biting his lip.

Twilight also bit her lip as considered the question carefully and thought back to what she had said about Flash to her family.

She answered, “No, I don’t think so.”

“I figured,” Flash thought to himself bitterly, looking away from Twilight to hide the frown forming on his face.

“But I’d like to be,” she finished, turning towards him.

“Excuse me,” Flash stuttered as he turned to face her.

“I’d like to be friends with you,” Twilight reiterated. Unbeknownst to both of them, Twilight had subconsciously reached out and taken Flash’s hand in hers.

“Seriously?” Flash’s eyes lit up and a wide grin slowly spread from ear to ear. He subconsciously began to brush his thumb over the back of Twilight’s hand.

“Of course,” Twilight affirmed, grinning back. “Who wouldn’t want to be friends with someone like you?”

Author's Note

Okay, so, yeah, this is the least dramatic TimberLight/TwiSpruce breakup I've written so far, and I'm oddly proud of it. What did you think of it? :twilightsmile:

Also, yes, Flash and Twilight are just friends for now. There's no need to rush into things. Before you people start begging me for a sequel, I don't think this story needs one. Sure, the story ended with Flash and Twilight's relationship with each other just barely, barely beginning, but that was kinda the point. I'm afraid y'all are just going to have to fill in the blanks yourself because I have no ideas on how to satisfactorily continue this story. :twilightsheepish: