Waking Eyes

"Where have you been all night?” Arrow asked pointing a hoof at Flare accusingly. Flare opened his eyes and strained to get up. Arrow could easily see that Flare hadn’t slept.

“I had to make sure that she got home safely,” Flare replied as he got on all hooves. He hoped that answer would cover him somehow. Arrow just looked at him, obviously not buying it.

“Taking her home took all night? Sounds a little suspicious to me.” Arrow inquired sternly.

“How so?” Flare questioned. Arrow peeked a small grin.

“Flare, are you sure you aren’t somepony that she needs protection from?” Arrow asked. Flare didn’t understand what Arrow meant.

“What are you-” What Arrow had said clicked inside Flare’s mind suddenly. “Are you saying that I’m a freak for fillies?” He asked, slightly withdrawn by being accused of such hideous perversion.

“Well, you did admit that to me just yesterday.” Arrow reminded him, seeming to mock Flare. Flare narrowed his eyes down on Arrow.

“That isn’t true. I’m not a filly freak.” Flare said, seriously upset with Arrow now.

“Then explain what you were doing,” Arrow said, taunting information out of Flare but Flare didn’t want him to know that he had broken down again.

“I was at the lake.” Flare admitted.

“Doing what?” Arrow pressed on, not convinced that he was hearing the whole truth.

“Just stargazing.” Flare answered. “What’s it to you anyway? Just drop it already. I’m old enough to not have you as my babysitter!” Flare shot towards Arrow.

“Of course you are old enough not to be babysat. However, when left with young foals you apparently need to be kept in line.” Arrow said, approaching Flare step by step.

“I didn’t do anything!” Flare defended, gritting his teeth and stepping towards Arrow.

“How can I be sure you were just out stargazing? You realize it would have been a really long time for somepony to be doing that.” Arrow said, not even attempting to hide the grin on his face anymore. “I feel as if you were hiding something.”

“Don’t believe me all you want, but don’t bring Scootaloo into this either.” Flare said, defending Scootaloo more than himself this time.

“Oh, already getting protective over your victims, hmm?” Arrow tormented. Flare snapped, launching himself towards Arrow and tackling him to the ground.

“I didn’t do anything!” Flare shouted enraged. Arrow easily pushed exhausted Flare off of him, and rolled over to pin Flare to the ground.

“Flare, you need to calm down!” Arrow commanded, after successfully securing Flare to the ground. Flare wiggled and shook trying to escape, but Arrow held him like a vice. After realizing that resistance was pointless, he shot back at Arrow.

“Why should I? You are accusing me of terrible things!” Flare screamed and continued fighting. Arrow shook his head in response.

“Flare, this isn’t you, you need to sleep!” Arrow said, completely disregarding Flare’s question. “If I let you up, will you promise me you’ll get some?” Arrow offered.

“No, if you let me up I’ll beat your flank!” he replied with rage. Arrow shook his head once more.

“Alright then, I’m sorry but you don’t leave me other choice.” Flare knew what Arrow was about  to do, and so the resistance returned. He tried his hardest to escape. “Why do you make me do this?” Arrow asked before a hoof came hard across Flare’s face.

The struggle stopped and Flare laid there, completely silent. Arrow slowly arose from Flare, making sure he was deeply unconscious. “Why do you make me do that?” He asked again as he examined Flare. There was a small amount of blood running from his nose.

Arrow rolled his eyes, unsurprised. “Why do you have to get so violent when you are sleep deprived?” he said as he turned to the bushes nearby. After retrieving the concealed medical saddlebags, he returned to Flare and removed a couple napkins with his magic from them.

As he wiped Flare’s nose clean, Arrow began to think about how angry Flare got from Arrow’s joke. I had to knock him out, I couldn’t let him stay up. He would have just ended up hurting himself, or worse somepony else.

When he finished getting all the blood off Flare’s snout, Arrow examined his friend’s body. He questioned how comfortably Flare was lying on the ground. The answer that came to him was “not very comfortably”. Arrow’s horn lit up as he used his magic to reposition Flare into a more natural sleeping position.

Arrow noticed that Flare had a small smile in his sleep, despite being knocked out. At least he sleeps peacefully now. Just a few minutes ago he was threatening me, nopony would guess that if they saw him sleeping like that. He thought to himself. Arrow moved over and sat down next to Flare.

From time to time, I could believe you’re bipolar. You shift moods so quickly sometimes. Arrow’s thoughts were addressing Flare, as if he could hear them or reply. Sometimes I wish you could stop that, I can guarantee that. Arrow closed his eyes, allowing himself to visualize old memories.

-

Light was dimming in the streets that Flare and Arrow progressed down. They were traveling in the downtown area of the city. Flare hadn’t slept in at least eighteen hours. Arrow didn’t think anything of it at the time.

“Arrow, where are we going?” Flare asked in a complained voice. “It’s getting dark.”

“Just somewhere.” Arrow replied, refusing to tell him. He wasn’t lying either, they truthfully were just wandering the city.

They proceeded down the street as Flare continued to whine. Due to the lack of light the two didn’t notice the three other colts heading towards them.

“Get out of our way!” one of the three said and pushed Arrow aside as they went by. Arrow sidestepped, not wanting anything to do with the three ponies who had appeared before them. He expected Flare to do the same. However when one of the three purposely pushed Flare, he acted the complete opposite from what Arrow had anticipated.

“What’s your problem?” Flare asked in a rather rude tone, causing the pony in front to turn around and confront Flare.

“It’s you not moving when I order you to!” He spat. His coat was a dark green, and his mane was a pure black. This earth pony appeared to be the leader of the three. “Are you gonna cause any more problems? If so, I’ll fix it right here.”

“Flare, let’s just go.” Arrow recommended, but Flare wasn’t listening. Instead, he stood straight up and didn’t move an inch.

“You should listen to your friend there, Flare.” The word “Flare” was spat out as if he had eaten something rotten. “I don’t want to send you crying to your mother.” He said, insulting and challenging Flare.

Arrow looked at Flare, now with worry. He was grinning and Arrow could tell that Flare had accepted the challenge. “Flare, let’s just-” Arrow tried to stop the inevitable.

“My mom, eh?” Flare said, his voice dripping with venom. His smirk washed away in action. He pounced towards the earth pony, charging him and planting his right hoof across the earth pony’s face, knocking him onto the ground.

“Flare, stop!” Arrow called. Flare ignored him once again, and jumped on top of the fallen ringleader’s body.

“We’ll see who is crying after this.” Flare said, raising his hoof to strike again. The other two ponies went to remove Flare from their comrade, alas, both of them got a hoof directed towards them. While Flare fended off the others, the earth pony went to move out from under him. Flare noticed this and swung fast at escapist’s face to stop him.

Arrow decided now was time for action. As Flare went for another attack, Arrow piled him off of his victim and onto the ground. Flare struggled and almost hit him in the face. Arrow had no choice, he headbutted Flare right above his snout knocking him almost completely unconscious.

The other two helped the earth pony up. “You might want to control your friend, because next time-”

Arrow didn’t care to listen. “Go, or else I’ll finish what he just started.” Arrow said, turning to glare at the three. Flare fought for wrong reasons, but he obviously won. If I hadn’t stopped him, he would have done something worse. “I could honestly care less for your petty threats, now get lost.”

“Hmph.” The three turned and continued down the street, leaving Arrow to deal with Flare. Arrow gazed down at Flare’s half-conscious form.

“Really Flare?” Arrow asked, levitating Flare onto his back. “You really need your sleep, don’t you?” Arrow started back down the road.

-

I can’t help but wonder how far he would have gone if I didn’t stop him… Arrow felt Flare shift slightly. He began to move a bit more once Arrow looked over at him.

Flare opened his eyes slightly and began to get up. Arrow held a hoof out to stop him. “Flare, you need to sleep. You slept for maybe ten minutes.” Arrow commanded. Flare pushed the hoof out of the way and proceeded to stand.

Arrow let him get up, but watched closely to where he was going. Flare stumbled over to the nearest tree and slumped up against it. He looked towards Arrow.

“Good morning and goodnight,” he said before sliding down the tree’s trunk and curling into a small ball.

Arrow was quite confused. “Flare, you are a very odd pegasus.” He commented and trotted over to him. “Now, go back to bed before I make you again.” He jokingly said.

Flare’s response was to rise a hoof and try to pull Arrow down to sleep next to him. With the help of Arrow, he was successful.

“Very odd pegasus.” Arrow repeated. Flare shifted closer to him and rolled up.

“Go to sleep.” He quietly whispered, his eyes closed as he was already following his own advice. Arrow just smiled at him.

“You’re also a lucky pegasus.” Arrow said getting comfortable and closing his eyes. Lucky I didn’t sleep too much either. Slowly the two crept into the realm of dreams.

-

Flare couldn’t feel anything. His vision was blurred to the extent that he could not make out anything around him either. All he saw was a gray blur surrounding him. The silence was deafening.

“Hello? Anypony?” He managed to call out. He could faintly hear his voice echo into the nothingness. His call never got a direct answer though. Flare covered his eyes with his hooves. What is going on? Why can’t I see or hear that well?

Suddenly Flare heard a very distinctive giggle. He moved his hooves and looked straight ahead of him. Clear as day, Scootaloo was there smiling right at him.

“Scootaloo, what are you-” he started to ask before she turned around and ran away, giggling happily. “Hey, wait!” She ran away from him, down what appeared to be a small stone hallway. There was barely any room for more than two ponies next to each other. He took a step to begin following her, but flinched back when he noticed water rising about an inch around his hooves.

Flare took a moment to learn his surroundings. The only piece of the hallway that was lit was the small section Flare stood in. Scootaloo had already disappeared into the darkness and her giggles faded too. The water was at rest and flowing neither with or against Flare.

“What is this place?” He asked aloud.

“What’s wrong, Flare?” Flare spun around, the other direction of the hallway looking completely the same. However, this time he saw Derpy. She was smiling and seemed not to have a care in the world or where she was.

“Derpy, what are you doing here? Why am I here?” Flare questioned. Derpy looked at him in a confused manner.

“What do you mean? Do you not want me here?” Her smile dropped as she took the wrong meaning of Flare’s words. Her eyes became sad and she looked as if she was going to cry.

“That’s not what I-” Flare began to explain, but was interrupted. A tear fell from Derpy and she turned away from him.

“No.” She stated firmly. “If you don’t want me here then I will just leave.” She began to sob and ran off into the darkness, the opposite direction than Scootaloo had ran. Each one of Derpy’s tears that hit the water seemed to speed it up slightly against Flare.

“Derpy, wait!” Flare called as she ran away. He wanted to chase her, but a loud crash came from the opposite direction.

“Flare, help!” Scootaloo’s voice echoed throughout the hallway. Flare gasped in shock, realizing something must have happened to her.

“Hold on Scoot, I’m on my way!” he said, dashing into the darkness. With every step the water grew colder but Flare didn’t allow it to slow him down.

After what seemed to be hours of running, the water temperature now so low it seemed to burn him, Flare spotted a dim light. As he ran towards the light, he recognized Scootaloo’s figure hanging off the edge. Water ran over her, making it difficult to maintain her hold.

“Flare…” Scootaloo wailed, grasping the edge for her life. Flare saw her begin to lose her grip. He tried his hardest to run faster. As he reached the light, Scootaloo gasped.

“Scootaloo!” Flare went to grab her but she slipped just before their hooves would touch. He saw the fear in her eyes as she fell into a pit of nothingness.

“Flare!” Scootaloo screamed before she faded. Flare hung halfway off the edge, looking at where she had fallen. He closed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth.

Scootaloo… A tear fell, the speed of the water slowed to a stop. Flare didn’t seem to notice. His mind was locked on what had just happened. There were a couple water splashes that came from behind Flare. He opened his eyes and looked to his side, preparing for anything.

“Well, it appears you have failed.” A female voice said from the unlit hallway behind him.