//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3:  Honey, I Don't Want to Go, Please Know that I Have to 
// Story: Heaven’s Not Too Far Away 
// by Godslittleprincess 
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Three months had passed since Flash and his brother had placed their ad on Morganslist, and Twilight’s mother was still their best customer.  With fall having settled in, the boys had transitioned from mowing her lawn and weeding her flowerbeds to just raking her leaves.  Since raking didn’t take as much time, the boys weren’t making as much money, not that they complained.  In that time, Flash’s mother was still regularly making trips to New York although Flash still wouldn’t say why.  Twilight finally got her answer one fateful day.

That day had started like any other school day.  However, the day took a turn of the out of ordinary during fourth period. 
Both Twilight and Flash had class with Ms. Harshwhinny during that period, and Ms. Harshwhinny just so happened to have arranged the seating so that Flash was sitting in front of Twilight.

As usual, Twilight was one of the first ones present.  She had arrived with Sunset Shimmer who sat on the seat to her right. 
Flash was one of the last to arrive which was not so usual.  Flash may not be one of the smartest kids at Canterlot High, but he did make an effort to be a good student.  His assignments and projects were always neat, complete, and on time, and he always arrived in class with plenty of time to spare.  The fact that he came in with only seconds until the bell rang meant that something was off.

Flash’s uncharacteristic lag in punctuality wasn’t the only thing out of the ordinary about him today.  His hair was a mess, and his clothes were wrinkled.  Even more unusually, his eyes were bloodshot with some puffiness underneath, and when he sat down at his desk, he slouched forward as if he could barely hold himself upright.

The bell rang, and class began.  Ms. Harshwhinny was giving a long, excruciatingly detailed lecture on literary devices, but neither Twilight nor Sunset was paying attention to any of it.  Instead, both girls had their attention on Flash, watching his head bob up and down erratically.  Something about the way he was moving his head seemed odd, almost as if he was about to….

Flash’s head soundlessly dropped onto his desk as his breathing became steady and even.  Flash Sentry was sound asleep.

Twilight and Sunset turned and stared at each other with wide eyes.  Ms. Harshwhinny was one of the strictest, toughest teachers in CHS.  If she caught Flash sleeping in her class, she’d shame him in front of everybody.  They had to wake him up.

The red-and-gold-haired girl wadded up a sheet of paper and was about to throw it at Flash, but Twilight held her hand up. 
If Sunset got caught throwing things in class, then she’d get in trouble too.  Since Twilight was the closest, she had to be the one to wake Flash up.

Twilight pulled a ruler out of her backpack and poked Flash with it.  He stirred but didn’t wake.  She poked him again, much harder this time.  This time, he moaned.

Twilight froze as she looked up at Ms. Harshwhinny.  Thankfully, the teacher didn’t seem to hear Flash.  Then, Flash muttered something incoherently in his sleep.  Twilight turned towards Sunset with a look of panic on her face which Sunset returned.  The two girls turned towards the front attempting to will their teacher into completely ignoring Flash with their eyes.  Yeah, no such luck.

“NO!” Flash screamed as he suddenly jolted awake.  Twilight shrieked in surprise.

“MR. SENTRY!  MS. SPARKLE!” Ms. Harshwhinny yelled, turning around and glaring daggers at Flash and Twilight.  “Is there something that the two of you would like to share with the rest of the class?”

Twilight shrank down attempting and failing to disappear into her desk.  Flash, however, sighed in embarrassment and looked their teacher in the eye with as much dignity as he could muster.

“No, ma’am, I have nothing to share with the class,” Flash answered.

“Then, explain that noise you just made,” Ms. Harshwhinny ordered.

“That was just a bad…,” Flash trailed off, trying to choose his words carefully.  He didn’t want the teacher to know that he had fallen asleep in class.  “Headache,” he lied.

“Maybe if you had gotten the right amount of sleep at the appropriate time, you would have gotten such a bad headache,” Ms. Harshwhinny reprimanded.  “I’ll let you off with a warning since this is your first offense, but don’t make a habit of this.”

“I won’t, ma’am.”

“Ms. Sparkle,” the teacher turned her attention to Twilight.

“Y-yes, Ms. Harshwhinny,” Twilight replied, keeping her head down.

“Care to explain to the class just what you were screaming at.”

“Flash’s, umm, headache just startled me.  That’s all,” Twilight kept her voice low and quiet but still audible.  She had never felt this humiliated by a teacher since Cinch blackmailed her into participating in the Friendship Games.

The teacher said nothing but returned to her lecture.  The rest of the period was completely uneventful.  However, the only thing on Twilight’s mind was Flash’s odd behavior and his earlier outburst.

The bell rang for lunch, and all the students rushed out of the classroom.  As soon as Flash got out the door, he ran for the cafeteria.  Twilight and Sunset tried to follow him, but he had moved too fast.

“Flash!  Wait!  Flash!” Twilight called.  If Flash had heard her, he didn’t pay her any mind.

“Man, what was that all about?” Sunset exclaimed.

Twilight could only stare at the direction Flash had gone.



Once Flash got to the cafeteria, he met up with Micro Chips, Lyra, Sweetie Drops, and Derpy.  Out of all his friends, he was closest with the four of them because he had known them since kindergarten, and out of the four of them, he considered Micro Chips his best friend since Micro was the first friend he ever made.  Since Micro was Flash’s best friend, he knew things about him that the other four didn’t.  Like his mom’s condition for example.

“Hey,” the boy with the thick, black-rimmed glasses greeted as the five teens got in the cafeteria line, “how are you holding up?”

“Terribly,” Flash replied.“I fell asleep in Ms. Harshwhinny’s class and got myself and Twilight Sparkle in trouble.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” said the soft-spoken, blonde, wall-eyed girl.

“You don’t look like you today either,” the mint-skinned girl with the pink headband pointed out examining Flash from head to toe.

“Gee, thanks, Lyra,” Flash sarcastically retorted.

The cream-colored girl with the two-toned hair, Sweetie Drops, frowned at her best friend disapprovingly.

“Well, he doesn’t,” Lyra defensively cried.

“Look, maybe you should tell someone else about it,” Micro Chips said to Flash.  “Someone you can talk to.”

“And cry with,” Micro thought to himself.  Lord knows Flash could use a good cry with what he’s dealing with.

“I don’t know if I even can talk about it,” said Flash with his eyes downcast.  “I’m having a hard time just facing it.”

“Talking about what?” asked Sweetie Drops.

Before Flash could formulate an answer to Sweetie’s question, his phone vibrated.  His notification bar showed that he had gotten a text from Twilight.  Normally, an event like this would get him nervously excited, but today, he was too tired to feel much of anything.

He opened the message and read it with the other four also reading it from over his shoulders.

“Meet me at under the bleachers.  We need to talk.  NOW,” Twilight had texted.

“Sounds serious,” said Derpy.

“Maybe she’s finally fallen for you and wants to confess her love,” Lyra whispered with a giggle.

Flash glared at her, clearly not in the mood for jokes.  “Don’t make me regret letting you guys in on my secret.  Just don’t.”

Seeing the look that Flash was giving her, Lyra backed away from the group with her arms raised defensively.  “I was just teasing.  I didn’t mean anything mean by it, really.”

“Maybe she’s still mad at you for getting her in trouble with Ms. Harshwhinny,” Micro speculated.

“Either way, I’d feel a lot better if one of you went with me,” said Flash, putting his phone back in his pocket.  “Micro, why don’t you come?”

“Yeah, sure, I always wanted to see you get chewed out by a girl,” Micro flatly quipped.



Flash and Micro went to the soccer field bleachers and found Twilight waiting for them underneath.  Flash walked up to Twilight to greet her.

“Hi, Twilight, what—whoa!” Flash began before he was suddenly tackled by a red and yellow blur.

“Flash!” Micro Chips cried, seeing his best friend knocked down.

Sunset Shimmer had knocked Flash to the ground and was using all her weight to keep him pinned.  Then, she grabbed both his wrists, causing her eyes to glow white.

A few seconds later, Sunset let go of Flash, allowing him to throw her off.  Flash turned to face his attacker and saw that it was actually Sunset.  The sad, pained look that she was giving him told him exactly what had happened.

“Do you have any idea how violating that is?  At all?” Flash shouted at his ex-girlfriend turned just a friend.  “And you?” he continued, turning to Twilight.  “I can’t believe that you would put her up to this.  I can’t believe it.”

Normally, hearing such a normally kind and well-mannered guy like Flash getting angry would frighten Twilight into silence and submission, but as this day was proving again and again, today was not a normal day.  Twilight looked Flash in the eye and crossed her arms, a sign that she was standing her ground.

“Firstly, I didn’t put her up to it.  We planned it together,” said Twilight.  “Secondly, I’m giving you two choices.  Either you tell me what Sunset just saw or Sunset can tell me what she just saw.  Your choice.”

Flash felt his face soften as Twilight continued to glare at him sternly.  He looked back at Sunset.  The sorry look she was giving him told him that she did not want to relay what she had seen.  Finally, he and Micro Chips shared a look.  Micro Chips nodded at him, signaling for him to go ahead and tell Twilight everything.

Flash turned his gaze back to Twilight and shut his eyes as he sighed.  “My mom has cancer,” he said to her as he opened his eyes.

“What?” Twilight gasped.

“My mother has cancer,” Flash repeated as all his repressed emotions came spilling out of him.  “She’s had it for the past three months, and last week, she stopped responding to treatment.  The doctors are going to try and cut it out, but they’re worried that it’s already too late for that and that no matter what we do, we’re going to end up losing her.  I never told anyone because one, I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me and two…,” Flash trailed off as his voice began to break.  “I-I, I didn’t want to admit to myself that any of this was real, that this was actually happening.  I just-just…,” Flash’s breathing became faster and more haggard.  Then, he fell to his knees as he cried out, “I don’t want her to go!”

With that, the tears and sobs came pouring out of him.  He tried to hold them back again, but they could no longer be contained.  Flash just kept crying and didn’t stop.

Suddenly, a pair of thin, delicate, yet surprisingly strong arms wrapped themselves around his chest and held him tight. 
Flash stopped crying long enough to feel a dark blue ponytail brush against his cheek.  Whoever was holding him began to rub small circles onto his back and press her face into his shoulder.

“It’s okay.  Go ahead,” Twilight gently whispered to him.  “I won’t judge.”  Flash resumed crying, his tears soaking into Twilight’s shirt.