//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Love in a Flash // by SolaceStone //------------------------------// Canterlot Hill. A famous hilltop decorated with only a few trees on the side, giving a large space for multiple vehicles and picnic blankets to rest for plenty of friend-groups and couples to enjoy the view it could offer, which is, to its, the whole city. A single, lone blue car rests on that very hilltop, parked close to the edge, its nose just inches away from the wooden railing, its driver and passenger looking over the city below. The sun dips slowly to the end of the horizon, its rays basking everything—the city, the hill, the car, the couple—with a warm cozy sunset. The couple sat comfortably on the hood of the car; a girl with long, scarlet hair, etched with lines of gold, watches the sun paint the city a warm orange like the color of her skin, her head resting comfortably on the shoulder of her boyfriend, whose head faced not to the city below but to the open sky, its colors painted more beautifully, a moving painting of sunset-shaded clouds on a purple dusk, the boy’s spiked, blue hair swaying gently like field grass to the soft wind. Head still resting on her boyfriend’s shoulder, Sunset Shimmer looks up to Flash. “So, what do you think, Flash?” Without looking away from the painted sky, Flash responds, “Yeah, this is pretty cool. Thanks for having me drive us here. The sky’s amazing.” “Glad you like it, Flash.” Sunset moved away from his shoulder, her face now looking at Flash. The boy notices and faces her as well, and gives her a sweet, loving smile. “Happy birthday, Flash.” Sunset said, her lips curved to match the boy’s tender smile. She leans closer, and Flash does the same, every centimeter they move closer Flash could feel his heart beating faster and faster, and by 15th centimeter of movement, his lips met hers, and his heart exploded into fireworks. He closes his eyes to relish the sweet flavor of her lips; its softness, its warmth. But Sunset’s eyes are still open, devoid of any happiness that Flash is clearly feeling. While her lips stay in contact to his, she looks around, beyond the boy, searching for something—a signal. And she does; a few meters away from her and Flash, hidden behind tree was another boy in a black t-shirt, younger, shorter, light-stone in skin texture and a fiery orange hair to match it. He smiles a grin, showing his buckteeth, as he lifts up a camera on one hand and a thumbs-up on the other. Satisfied to what she sees, she pulls away from Flash abruptly, snapping the boy out of the trance. “Wow, Sunset. Just…wow.” Flash said looking to his girlfriend, his cheeks and ears in a darker shade of red. Sunset’s skin however seemed to have never been dipped to a shade of red at all, and turning away to get off the car, she tells her boyfriend. “Let’s go.” Flash blinked. Confused. “Huh? Already? But we just got here.” Already getting in the car, Sunset replies, “I said let’s go.” “B-but…” He faltered, and as turned to get off the car, something caught the far corner of his eye. He turns the direction of it and squinted in focus, and sees that just behind the tree was a small boy with orange hair and black t-shirt, already jogging downhill. He recognized that figure anywhere. The thought finally came to him. Oh. In a matter of seconds the shade of red on his face faded to match his girlfriend, and his heart that was bursting like fireworks lost its entire spark, leaving nothing but a fading ember. He entered his car and saw his girlfriend, Sunset Shimmer, her eyes glued to her phone. A long, tiring sigh escaped from his throat. He buckled up and started the engine. “Seatbelt,” he said. “Whatever,” was her response. And that was the last word that was spoken between them as he drove away, dropped Sunset off to her apartment, and returned home, immediately to his bed, to which he collapsed face-first. His body did not turn the entire night. The next day at school, everyone was at their phones, viewing a new post of Sunset Shimmer; a picture of her and Flash kissing on Canterlot Hill. The photo has already gotten more than a few hundred views, which to a small public high school, already says a lot. There was a mix of loathing and adoring from the students commenting on the photo, but Sunset only cared for the latter kind of comments. This is giving me more popularity than I expected, she thought. As Sunset walks through the hall, she could hear a lot of aaaaaawwwws from the girls and even from some of the guys. More than that however, are some students looking away from her, some even deciding to hide in their own locker. As she passes by a lean, purple boy with glasses, she slightly raised her hand to his direction. Not even a moment has passed before a few bills and coins magically appeared on her palm, to which she obliged. A smirk rising on her face, she continued to walk in stride to her locker. At her destination, not to her surprise, was Flash. She expected him to warmly smile at her and wave, like a good boyfriend should, but instead she sees him leaned one arm to her locker, hands in pockets, eyes down, and a face showing no clear emotion whatsoever. She silently clicked her tongue. This is not what they ‘rehearsed’. I’m going to have to talk to him again about our ‘public display of affection’. As she stops in front of him, right before she could mouth off a greeting to her boyfriend, like any girlfriend should, Flash straightens his posture, pulls his hands out of his pockets, relaxed, defeated, and looked right at Sunset. What he said next was not the greeting a boyfriend is expected to say to his girlfriend, nor was it anything sweet and sappy either. In a clear, solid voice, without any sign of hesitation, without faltering, what he said made everyone around them stopped whatever they were doing—some even dropping their phones—as they could only stare at Flash in surprise. Including Sunset. “Sunset Shimmer. Let’s break up.”