Twilight Sparkle paced the floor of her dining room as she looked over everything within view. On the dining room table were a stack of books, a plate of cookies, and a pitcher of fruit punch along with two drinking glasses and an assortment of school supplies. Did the punch have enough ice? It looked cold enough, but how can she really be sure? What if Flash didn’t like chocolate chip cookies with walnuts? What if he’s allergic to walnuts and goes into anaphylactic shock, and she didn’t have an Epi pen with her? No, that’s silly. Pinkie Pie assured her that chocolate chip with walnuts were Flash’s favorite cookies, and Pinkie Pie’s never been wrong about people’s favorite foods before, except for that one time that Pinkie thought that Twilight ate books.
Twilight could see her living room from where she was pacing. The floor was visible and clean, the remotes for the TV, cable box, and Blu-ray player were neatly lined up on the coffee table, and not a speck of dust could be seen on the furniture. Even though the living room was clearly clean and organized, Twilight had to suppress the urge to get the vacuum cleaner and to reorganize the books and movies on the shelves. Twilight felt her face heating up as she caught sight of the one shelf of Dolly B. DVDs from her childhood. Admittedly, she still watched them on occasion, but she can’t let Flash know that. What if he laughed at her?
She was about to run over and hide the offending objects when she paused and pulled out her phone. Using her selfie camera as mirror, she looked over herself. Her skin was free of blemishes as usual, and her hair still hadn’t grown back to its normal length but was otherwise immaculate. Twilight put away her phone and looked down at her clothes. She was wearing her usual outfit, consisting of a collared shirt, a star-patterned skirt, and a bowtie. It only started becoming her usual outfit some time after the Juniper Montage incident. What if Flash liked her old usual outfit better? Maybe she should change.
However, before Twilight could do anything, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” her mother called. Twilight inwardly screamed.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Twilight thought to herself as she raced to beat her mother to the door.
“Why, hello, Flash,” Ms. Velvet said, opening the front door to a blue-haired teenage boy. Too late.
“Hi, Ms. Velvet,” Flash greeted back with a smile. His smile faded, however, when he glanced towards the sheet of paper that was taped to the door. It was a picture of Shining Armor with his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face captioned with the words “I’m watching you.” Twilight looked all over the hallway and, to her embarrassment, saw that the same image was placed in regular intervals from the door all the way to the living room. Darn that overprotective rookie cop!
“Come on in,” said Ms. Velvet as Flash entered. “Twilight’s been looking forward to having you over all day.”
“Mom!” Twilight groaned, putting a hand to her face.
“Well, you have,” said a voice from behind and below Twilight. Twilight turned around to see her faithful dog Spike standing behind her. “I don’t know why though,” Spike continued. “This isn’t the first time Flash has been to our house.”
“It is Flash’s first time over since he and Twily officially started dating,” Ms. Velvet clarified as the group moved down the hallway into the dining area.
“Mom!” Twilight cried, covering her face with both her hands.
“By the way, I’ll be in my office if you need anything,” Ms. Velvet continued as she began to walk away before turning back to the two teenagers who had seated themselves at the dining table. “Do you need anything? Extra paper? More snacks? Classical music?”
“No, Mom, we’re good,” Twilight replied with thinly veiled irritation. Thankfully, Velvet got the hint and left the teens alone with the talking dog, who had curled himself up at his human’s feet.
“I’m so sorry about all that,” Twilight said to Flash, “especially the posters that my brother put up.”
“No worries,” Flash replied with a chuckle. “I kind of expected as much after what happened on the day of the dance. Besides, I’m sure you went through the same thing the first time you invited Timber Spruce over.”
Twilight had been laughing along with him up until he mentioned her ex-boyfriend. She turned away from him with a guilty look.
“Yeah,” Twilight began as she nervously stared at the table. She let out a sigh before confessing, “About that, I’ve never invited Timber over. In fact, no one in my family knew that I was in a relationship until Timber and I broke up.”
Flash’s eyes widened as he realized the implications of what Twilight had just told him. “You mean, you kept your relationship with Timber a secret from your family?”
Twilight slowly nodded before continuing, “Not exactly my proudest decision. It wasn’t that I had anything to hide. It’s just that, well, it was my first relationship, and you saw what my mom was like and the posters. I guess I was just scared that my family was going to end up scaring him away.”
To Twilight’s surprise, Flash began laughing. His laughs weren’t those giggles that people get when they’re mildly amused. No, these were hearty, bursting-out-the-seams belly laughs.
“Are you laughing at me?” Twilight turned to her boyfriend with an incredulous expression on her face. She couldn’t believe he was laughing at her. She couldn’t tell if she should cry or punch him or both.
“No, no,” Flash insisted as he struggled to contain his laughter. “I wasn’t laughing at you. I was actually laughing at me.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
Flash took a few deep breaths as his laughter subsided. Then, he turned towards Twilight and placed his hands on hers. Almost immediately, all her fear and anxiety was replaced with feelings of comfort and security. Why did those hands of his have to be so safe and warm?
“I was laughing at myself because what you said about hiding Timber from your family,” Flash explained, “sounds a lot like what I did back when Sunset Shimmer and I were together.”
“Wait. What?” Twilight replied, her jaw dropping.
“Look, I’m not sure if anyone told you or not, but Sunset and I used to date.”
“I know about that. Sunset told me,” Twilight clarified before continuing. “You mean to tell me that you actually kept something from your family?”
“I wasn’t proud of it, but yes,” Flash admitted.
“But,” Twilight began before trailing off in thought. “I don’t get it. You and your family seem close. Why would you hide something as important as your first relationship from them?”
“Like I said, I wasn’t proud of it,” Flash repeated before answering. “If you want to know how it happened, I’m going to have to tell you how I met Sunset in the first place.”
“Hold that thought,” Twilight said as she got up and poured herself and Flash a glass of fruit punch and pushed the plate of cookies closer to where they were sitting. “Okay, go.”
Flash smiled as he took his glass from Twilight and began his tale, “When I first met Sunset, she had just arrived at Canterlot High. This was before she built up a reputation for herself as CHS’s biggest meanie.”
“Pinkie Pie told me that the whole school voted her for that yearbook superlative. Were the two of you together before or after that?” Twilight asked, remembering what her pink friend had told her and the rest of the yearbook committee.
“We got together before that, and I abstained, so technically, the whole school minus me and Sunset voted for that superlative. Anyway, when Sunset first came to CHS, she seemed a little lost and confused. She might have also been scared, but she was really good at hiding it,” Flash continued. “When I first met her, she had tripped in the cafeteria and gotten her food all over herself. After she fell, she just sat there staring at everybody staring at her. Some of the other students were even laughing.”
“But not you.”
“I went over to her, helped her up, and brought her over to Rarity to get a change of clothes. I didn’t think much of it. I was just trying to help someone who look like she needed it.”
“You don’t sound too happy about having done that,” Twilight noted. “Do feel bad that you helped her?”
“No, I don’t feel bad for helping her,” Flash answered. “I feel bad about what ended up happening afterwards.” Flash sighed as he looked away from Twilight. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this story.”
“Why not?” Twilight asked, turning Flash so that he was facing her again.
“Sunset’s your best friend. I don’t think she’d want you thinking about her like that.”
“Flash, I already know about Sunset’s past.”
“Well, I doubt you know just how bad she was before she changed.”
Twilight pulled her hands out from under Flash’s and gave his upper arm a reassuring squeeze.
“Flash,” she began, “Sunset Shimmer is my best friend. She saved me from the worst mistake of my life and gave me a brand-new lease on life.” She looked away from Flash and smiled to herself. “She’s the reason why I even have friends now in the first place.” Then, Twilight turned back to him and said, “She’s also the reason why you and I are even possible. After everything that she’s done for me already, I doubt that any dirt you have on her past is going to make me change my mind.”
Flash looked into Twilight’s eyes. They were as firm and unmoving as a statue’s. He could feel her chilly hands warming up as they held on to his arm. Twilight had quite a grip for someone with such thin fingers. He searched his brain for the right words to counter everything she had said, but none of the rebuttals he came up with felt sufficient.
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” he conceded. “A few days after I helped her, she started giving me these, well, signals. She’d walk by me and toss her hair a certain way. She’d even brush against me sometimes. She’d look at me with these big, round eyes and smile at me a certain way. She’d always try to sit really close to me during lunch. She even used to grab my arm and put her head on my shoulder.”
Flash studied Twilight’s face as he spoke. He could see that his description of how Sunset used to behave was shocking to her, but for the most part, her primary emotion seemed to be confusion. Clearly, the girl he was describing didn’t match up with the girl that she knows. Flash wanted the stop talking right then and there, but the way Twilight was squeezing his arm both urged him to continue and reassured him that he could trust her.
Flash let out a sigh and continued, “I’ll admit it. I liked the attention Sunset was giving me, and I wanted more of it, but at the same time, something didn’t feel right, so I told Mom, Aunt Flare, and Grandma about it, and they all told me to just tell Sunset I wasn’t interested.”
“Did you?” Twilight asked.
Flash turned away as he shook his head. “I told her that she seemed like a nice girl, but that my family didn’t think she was the right one for me. She gave me this look and said, ‘Well, what your family doesn’t know won’t hurt them.’ Next thing, I knew I was taking her out on a date, one date became two, and not long after, we were dating.”
“So, when did your folks find out?”
“By the time freshmen year ended, Sunset had, well, changed. She didn’t seem as nice anymore, to put it lightly. I told her that maybe we needed some time apart and that we should stop dating for a while.”
“Hold on. Sunset told me that you guys didn’t break up until last fall,” said Twilight.
“That’s because the first time I tried to end our relationship, she cried and got me to change my mind,” Flash paused before continuing, “In hindsight, I really should have known that she was only faking. Anyway, I was pretty much stuck with her, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go to my family for advice, but I didn’t want them to know that I had gone ahead and started dating Sunset behind their backs, so I stayed with her, hoping that she will change again but for the better. Finally, I couldn’t put up with her anymore. I spilled everything to my family, and boy, were they mad.”
“I imagine,” Twilight replied, having gone through a similar situation with her family when they found out about Timber.
“The thing was that they weren’t so much mad that I dated Sunset as they were mad that I had hid things from them and lied to them,” Flash sighed and continued, his voice dripping with guilt, “for almost 3 years, and even then, they were willing to help me out with her. They told me to just break up with her and not get sucked into whatever scene she tries to make when I do. I still remember Grandma’s exact words from that day. ‘If you know that this relationship is bad for both of you, then get out while you still can. Don’t let her try to keep you in.’”
“Then, you broke up with her?” Twilight asked.
“Well, it took me a while to actually build up enough courage to do it, but yes,” Flash replied.
“How did she take it?”
“Surprisingly well,” Flash answered. “Then again, she did pretty much all but admit that she was just using me the whole time.”
Twilight let go of Flash’s arm and looked away from him, her expression and body language unreadable. Flash panicked and took her by the shoulders.
Turning her to face him, Flash pleaded with her, “Twilight, I know it’s a lot to take in, and what Sunset did to me was horribly painful, but please, please, please don’t get upset with her or cut her off as your best friend.”
Flash felt like a total sap for begging, but he couldn’t let Twilight make yet another one of his mistakes. She was too good for that. Twilight simply stared back at him in bewilderment and nodded.
“Okay,” she replied, “I won’t.”
Flash released Twilight, and for a while, the two teens simply sat there in silence each afraid to look at one another in the eye. Flash took a cookie and began to nibble it, attempting to calm himself. Finally, Twilight spoke as she grabbed on of a book from the top of the stack.
“So, uh, why don’t we get this study date started, shall we?” she said nervously, trying to break the tension that had just built up between them.
For the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening, Flash and Twilight studied and worked on homework together. However, Flash’s mind wasn’t completely focused on the facts, books, and assignments that Twilight was trying to distract them with. In his heart, he knew he had to fix his past with Sunset if he wanted his relationship with Twilight to work, but how does a guy even begin to fix three years of pain and stupidity?
The next morning, Flash pulled his car into the student parking lot in Canterlot High. Micro Chips sat in his passenger seat.
“So, you mind telling me what all this is about,” Micro Chips said as both boys got out of the car and walked to the front steps of the school. The sun had just barely emerged from the horizon, and the whole school was completely empty except for the bespectacled girl sitting at the front steps with her dog. Shortly after, a red-haired girl came running from the direction opposite to the student parking lot.
“Alright, Flash, what’s all this about?” Sunset all but demanded. She slumped forward with her hands on her knees as she came to a stop, her breath coming out in fast, shallow puffs.
Flash felt his stomach twisting inside of him as everybody’s eyes turned towards him. As nervous as he felt, he knew that this conversation needed to happen. Yesterday made that perfectly clear.
Flash took a deep breath and gestured towards the steps. “Maybe we should all have a seat.”
Sunset didn’t need to be told twice, practically dropping herself next to Twilight. Flash sat on Twilight’s other side while Micro Chips sat next to him.
“Okay, we’re seated. Go,” Sunset said in one breath as she rubbed her eyes.
Flash opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He bit his lip and tried again, getting the same result. Finally, he gritted his teeth and let out a long, tension-relieving hiss before speaking.
“There’s no easy way to tell you this, but I told Twilight about our old relationship yesterday,” Flash said to Sunset.
Sunset just stared at him disbelievingly before crying out, “Are you kidding me? You got me up this early just to tell me that? She already knew about it.”
“Did she know about how we met, how we broke up, and everything in between that led up to the break up?” Flash clarified.
Sunset’s eyes widened as she realized what Flash was trying to communicate. “Oh.”
Another long, awkward silence stretched out between the four teens and the dog before Sunset finally said to her best friend, “So, I’m guessing that Flash told you some pretty bad things about me.”
“Bad?” Spike interjected. “Bad doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Twilight glared at her dog before turning back to Sunset and nodding uncomfortably.
“Let me put it this way. Flash made you sound like a selfish, hurtful, manipulative,” Twilight paused, biting back the appropriately inappropriate word she was thinking of saying, “beast.”
“Well, he wasn’t wrong,” Micro butted in. Flash gave him a stern glare and elbowed his arm. “Ow!”
“Look, Twilight, Flash, if you guys are upset with me over what I did—,” Sunset began.
“We’re not!” Twilight interrupted, talking very quickly. “Or I’m not. At least, I don’t think I am. I don’t know if I can say the same for Flash, but I certainly hope he isn’t.”
“Can I please just say what I need to say?” Flash shouted, quieting everybody else. Once he had everybody’s attention again, he continued. “Thank you. Sunset, about our past, I just wanted to say…”
Sunset braced herself. She didn’t know why she did because she wasn’t expecting Flash to be angry. In fact, she was pretty sure that Flash had already buried their past a long time ago, but then again, if that was the case, why was he bringing it up now?
“I’m sorry,” Flash finished.
“What?” Sunset, Micro, Twilight, and Spike exclaimed in confusion.
“I’m sorry that I let you talk me into dating you behind my family’s back,” Flash continued, specifically addressing Sunset. “I knew it wasn’t right, and I should have told you no, but I didn’t. For that, I’m sorry.”
Sunset couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but she definitely wasn’t expecting an apology, especially since her and Flash’s relationship was mostly her fault to begin with.
“Uh, thanks,” Sunset managed to utter. “But why are you even bring it up now? I thought you’d want to forget that the relationship ever happened.”
“Believe me. I did, but when I went to Twilight’s yesterday for our study date, Twilight ended up telling me about how she had gone out with Timber behind her family’s back,” Flash explained. “At first, I laughed because I thought it was funny that Twilight and I had made almost the exact same mistake with our exes, but then, I started telling her the details. When I did, well, the conversation stopped being funny.”
“For the record, I’m not mad about what you did to Flash,” Twilight said to Sunset. “I’m honestly more confused than anything else. I mean, in all the time that we’ve been friends, I didn’t think that you of all people could be capable of being that bad. I mean, your temper still gets the best of you on your worst days, but you’re honestly one of the nicest people I know.”
“Anyway, I got worried that I might have driven a wedge between you and Twilight, and that made me realize that the two of us never really cleared up our past history, and that’s why I wanted us to meet.”
At first, Twilight, Micro, and Sunset’s faces were completely unreadable. Then, Sunset smiled, turned to Twilight, and said to her, “Girl, you better not let him go.”
“You,” Twilight began, a smile growing on her face as she affectionately leaned into her boyfriend, placing her head on his shoulder. “I can’t believe that you went through the trouble of mending fences with Sunset just for the sake of my friendship with her. That’s so sweet.”
Flash smiled back at Twilight as he wrapped an arm around her. “I didn’t want you losing your best friend over me. I know better than anyone that a best friend is a terrible thing to lose.”
“Wait,” said Micro as he sat up in realization. “Is that why you wanted me to come?”
Flash turned to Micro Chips and replied, “I wanted you come because I realized that I never actually thanked you.”
“For?”
“For being there for me after the break up,” Flash clarified. “I really didn’t deserve that, especially not after the way that I ditched you.”
“Yeah, you didn’t,” Micro bluntly agreed, “but up until you ditched me, you had been the best best friend a guy could ask for. I couldn’t just let all that die over one mistake. Besides, you were pretty darn pitiful after you found out that Sunset never really cared for you.”
Flash lightly jabbed Micro Chips in the shoulder as the two of them laughed.
“For what it’s worth, thanks anyway,” Flash said.
Sunset looked like she was about to speak when Flash stopped her, “Sunset, before you say anything about how Micro and I breaking off our friendship was your fault, let me remind everyone that it was my choice. I chose to break it off, and I shouldn’t have. That was my mistake.”
Sunset opened her mouth to argue but quickly shut it again. Instead, she smiled and rolled her eyes as she said, “Flash Sentry, you are just too noble sometimes.”
“That’s how you know Twilight deserves him,” Spike added, climbing onto his human’s lap.
Flash smiled at everybody before pulling Twilight closer to him and turning to the horizon.
Silence followed. However, this silence wasn’t like the previous two silences. There was no tension or discomfort or awkwardness, only calm. The four teens and the dog just sat there simply enjoying one another’s company with nothing more needing to be said. The morning light had turned the sky a bright, happy blue, and all seemed right with the world.
“Well, now that we’ve finally cleared the air, can I please take a nap?” Sunset groaned as she curled into fetal position and lay her head on her backpack. “Wake me up when school starts. It’s still too early.”