Flash Sentry exhaled slowly as he vigorously stirred 10 mL of dish detergent into a solution of potassium iodide, forcing himself to remain focused on his current task. He had once again found his mind wandering towards the pretty, bespectacled girl over on the next lab table. Flash had found himself growing more and more attracted to Twilight Sparkle the more he got to know her, and no matter what he tried, those feelings just won’t go away.
The first idea that Flash had tried was rekindling his feelings for his ex, Sunset Shimmer. Flash had offered to start over with her as a friend and hoped that eventually, it would grow into something more, not that he had extended his friendship to Sunset just to run from his feelings. He truly did want to have Sunset as a friend. However, if Flash was being completely honest with himself, his reasons for reaching out to Sunset weren’t as altruistic as he’d like to believe. Besides, not only were his old feelings not coming back, but Sunset also seemed completely disinterested in being in a relationship right now.
His latest attempt to snuff out the growing flame in his heart involved mentally listing all of Twilight’s less attractive characteristics. To give him some credit, it worked for a while, but then, his stupid heart had to remind him (and continue reminding him) that love didn’t work that way. Why?! He wasn’t even sure if what he felt toward Twilight was even real love.
“One,” Flash thought to himself, still stirring the mixture, “she turned into a power mad monster that nearly destroyed everything and everyone I care about. Two, she already has a boyfriend. Three, she’s a bossy, uptight control freak. Four—”
“Don’t you think you’re being completely unfair to Twilight,” his heart interrupted, causing his hand to grip tighter around the glass stirring rod. “You don’t do that with anyone else you love, not your mom, not your brother, not your friends. Besides, everyone who loves you also has reasons not to, but they do anyway.”
“Four,” Flash pushed his heart into the back of his mind and forced himself to continue his list, his inner turmoil tightening his grip on the stirring rod, “she hates being wrong about things and getting her to admit that she’s wrong about something might as well be like pulling teeth. Five, there are other girls in the school who are objectively prettier than she is.”
“So what?!” his heart cried out. “You care about her anyway, don’t you? And the sooner that you admit that the less painful this is going to be.”
“Ow!” Flash cried as the stirring rod shattered in his hand and pierced the skin of his palm. He pulled his hand away from his work and quickly stuck it under a running faucet, sending blood and glass fragments down the drain.
“You okay?” his lab partner Derpy Muffins asked, her good eye looking at him in concern while her lazy eye kept facing the other way. The other people in the lab, Twilight and her partner Rarity, also turned towards him, equally concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Flash replied. “It’s not deep.”
“Maybe you should go to the nurse’s office just to make sure,” Twilight suggested.
“I’ll go with him,” Derpy volunteered.
“So,” Derpy began as she and Flash walked towards the nurse’s office. “Your feelings for Twilight tormenting you again?”
“Shut up,” Flash muttered.
“Come on, Flash,” Derpy insisted. “You know you can talk about this with me. Besides, it’s not like pretending your feelings aren’t there is going to make them go away.”
Flash sighed, facepalming himself with his uninjured hand.
“Ugh,” he groaned. “Why won’t my feelings for her just die? I’ve been trying to kill them ever since she started going out with Timber Spruce, but I think they’re actually getting stronger.”
“Why can’t you just accept that you have them and try to live with them?” Derpy asked.
“Because they’ve gotten so strong that I actually want to tell her about them, and if I do, our friendship will get weird and possibly end, and I like having her as a friend.”
“We had mutual crushes on each other during middle school, and we’re still friends.”
“That was because we both decided that the idea of being in a serious relationship with each other felt too weird and that we were okay with being just friends. Twilight might not feel the same way.”
“Well, you’re not going to find out for sure unless you take that chance,” Derpy pointed out. “Sure, you might end up getting hurt, but it can’t be more painful that what you’re doing to yourself right now.”
Flash growled under his breath.
“Let’s just get my hand fixed so that we can finish the experiment. I’ll deal with this some other time,” Flash retorted.
Flash returned to the chemistry lab with a bandage wrapped around his hand and Derpy following him. The first thing that he noticed was that his and Derpy’s station was completely free of broken glass even though neither of them had bothered to clean up before leaving for the nurse’s office. The second thing that he noticed was that someone had finished mixing the soap and potassium iodide solution that he had been working on earlier.
“Hey,” Flash called to Twilight and Rarity, “did one of you girls clean up our station for us?”
“Why, yes,” Rarity replied. “Twilight thought it wouldn’t be right to have you handle broken glass with an injured hand and cleared your station for you dears. She also noticed that you had gotten some glass into your solution and remixed it for you, so that you wouldn’t have to start the whole thing over. Isn’t that thoughtful of her?”
“It was nothing. I was just trying to be helpful,” Twilight added with a sheepish smile.
“Well, thanks anyway,” Flash said to her with a warm smile. “Derpy and I really appreciate it.”
“Y-your welcome,” Twilight stammered, turning away from him as her face reddened.