Twilight’s eyes began to open, or at least, that’s what she was trying to do. The more consciousness she regained, the greater the sting felt. All of her limbs, her head, and even her eyelids felt sore and painfully heavy. The girl slowly started becoming aware of her surroundings, sense by sense. The first thing she felt was the cold, humid grass she was lying on. She felt it underneath her entire body, except her head, which was resting on something softer. It felt like some sort of fabric, probably cotton. She breathed through her nose and she could tell she was still in the park when she caught the familiar smell of the oak trees, the fountain, and the afternoon breeze.
She began hearing something. A muffled sound she couldn’t quite make out at first. Twilight was struggling to separate her eyelids, and it took her eyes a few seconds to get accustomed to the light.
“Easy,” she made out a single word between the jumbled sounds, which were starting to become clearer and clearer. What wasn’t becoming clearer though, was her sight. Her eyes were fully open now (if anything, a bit squinted), and all she could see was a grayish blur. Her glasses must have fallen off. Great.
“Twi, can you hear me?” a male voice above her head asked, which she immediately recognized as her friend Flash Sentry. With all the time she had been spending with him lately, at school, chemistry club, and even with the math tutorships she gave him every Thursday after school at the Sweet Snacks Café, the girl had become familiar enough with his voice to recognize it even if all he appeared as was an orange and blue smudge.
“You feel okay?” the young man asked Twilight as he carefully put one hand beneath the girl’s nape, gently lifting her head as he cradled it.
The lavender skinned girl felt a bit lost and confused for a second, but the wheels in her head were adjusting and began working at their normal pace once more. As the memories of what had happened right before she blacked out returned to her, her worry grew. Her unseeing eyes opened wide, and she let out a gasp as she quickly sat up. Flash, who had been kneeling beside her, barely avoided receiving an accidental headbutt from the frantic girl.
“W-what’s hap… where is the…!?” Twilight asked hysterically as she looked around without actually seeing anything, unable to finish her sentences due to how out of breath she felt and how taken aback she was. “I was just about t…!”
“Shh! Shh, sh,” Flash quickly began hushing the girl in order to calm her down. He moved in front of her and put a hand on each of her shoulders, gently rubbing her skin with one of his thumbs. “Take it easy. That was a pretty bad hit you took,” he said to her softly, barely above a whisper, setting aside some of the girl’s strands of indigo hair that were covering her face.
Flash’s soothing demeanor encouraged Twilight to slow down. She closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths. It was no use getting frantic, much less if she had a concussion. She put a hand to her head, which still hurt a little. She moved her hand to the side of her face and opened her eyes when she felt one of her pony ears. She then proceeded to feel and open her wings. She was still transformed. She touched the top of her head and noticed that the tiara that usually appeared when she “ponied up” was missing. Turning around, she also noticed that the braid she sported had become undone, and all of her magically elongated hair was now hanging loose behind her like a cape, with well over six feet in length.
“Oh! I almost forgot,” Flash exclaimed out of the blue, as he took something from beside him and held it up as he leaned closer to Twilight. “You might need these,” he said with a slight chuckle. The young man placed Twilight’s glasses on her face, and her sight adjusted back to normal as the first thing she saw was the boy’s crystal-clear face, smiling warmly at her. This gesture reminded the girl of the very first time she met Flash about a year or so ago, during those Friendship Games, but the less remembered about that day, the better.
“Thanks” she said to him a bit distractedly as she adjusted her recovered glasses, but she still had one thought that kept coming back at her. “Where’s the…?”
“It’s taken care of,” Flash replied before Twilight could even think of a word for what she saw. “Well, sort of. Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity are keeping it at bay, but it’s giving quite the fight. They told me to take you away while you recovered”
Twilight looked around her and all she could see were trees, some of them fallen down. She heard some roars and her friends’ voices in the distance, but the sources of these sounds were nowhere to be seen.
It had all just happened so fast. Twilight had gone to the park for a small Saturday stroll as she usually did, listening to an audiobook on her headphones as she walked amongst the trees. All of the sudden, the ground shook, and a loud sound emerged from deeper into the trees. Everyone in the park got alerted and looked around in fear.
An enormous figure emerged from the trees, growling. It was an angry beast made out of spare rocks from various sources, such as bricks, boulders, concrete, and even some of the park’s smaller statues. These stone objects had all been grouped together (one must presume) magically, and formed a gigantic and destructive dragonesque creature, almost as big as the Canterlot High School building itself, and it was now dangerously approaching the city as it roared in anger. Everyone who was in the park at that moment screamed and ran away in fear. Everyone, of course, except Twilight. This wasn’t the first unexplained magical creature that she had to protect the city from unprompted. She would find out an explanation for the monster’s sudden appearance later. For now, the important thing was to keep the people safe.
With a determined glance and no second-guessing, the spectacled girl allowed the magic carried in her pendant to transform her, making a pair of wings appear on her back, as her hair grew into a long braid behind her, and pony ears appeared on her head. A new outfit materialized on her, and the girl took off into the air in order to get a better view of the beast and find any potential weakness that could hold it back or if possible, take it down. She didn’t know whether or not her friends would arrive to help her fight this magical menace, but for now, she was all the citizens had.
Deeming the stone dragon too large and heavy to try to lift it with her powers, Twilight thought of blocking the creature’s path, if only just long enough while her friends arrived and did something more effective with their respective combined and individual powers. With only flight and telekinesis at her disposal, the girl had to work with whatever she had at hand, which was only so much.
Twilight made her hands glow and with great difficulty and extra effort than she usually used, started bending the park’s trees that were surrounding the dragon, in an attempt to capture it inside an improvised tree cage. Not only was this uneffective, but the beast seemed to actually understand what the magical girl was attempting to do, which only made it growl at her furiously. Twi was beginning to question her plan, but she continued her effort nonetheless, trying as hard as she could not to break her concentration.
The rock dragon used its giant snout to yank one of the other trees from the ground, throwing it in the air in Twilight’s direction. Thankfully, her reflexes were fast enough that she was able to catch the tree with her magic before it hit her, taking an extra amount of strength for her to keep the large plant mid-air. She thought of throwing it back at the dragon, but unfortunately to her, the oddly intelligent beast had taken advantage of this distraction to attack. Twilight barely caught a half-second-long side glance at the creature’s stone tail that was approaching her at a great speed.
Then everything turned black.
Next thing she knew, she woke up with her hair undone, her glasses gone, and her entire body sore with Flash Sentry watching over her. Now that her sight had been restored, she took a good look at the boy who had taken care of her while she had passed out. He didn’t have his new gray hoodie on, which was strange, since he had been wearing it pretty much every single day ever since his Flash Drive bandmates got it for him as a birthday present. Twilight looked behind her and confirmed her suspicions that the soft, cotton-like object her head had been resting on a moment ago was Flash’s hoodie, folded in such a way she could use it as a pillow.
She looked back at Flash and noticed that the white t-shirt he was wearing was torn from various places, and his skin had small cuts underneath those tears. His jeans, while whole, were covered in dirt and had a few tiny blood stains. She then lifted her glance to look at the boy’s face. She hadn’t noticed until now, but Flash had a prominent red scratch on his right cheek, as well as a cut on his chin.
“Oh my gosh…” Twilight said as she carefully touched Flash’s wounds with her fingertips. “Flash, what happened to you? Did the monster attack you?”
“Ah, it’s nothing,” Flash said as he took Twilight’s hand in his and put it down. “I can be a bit of a klutz sometimes. I started running around to distract it and tripped a few times…”
“Wait, ‘distract it’?” Twilight interrupted the young man, a bit startled about what he had just said and how casually he was saying it. “What exactly happened?”
Flash cringed to himself, letting out a grunt as he looked down and stared at the ground for a bit. Why couldn’t he have just kept his mouth shut? Now she was probably going to think he was some reckless dumb kid. Ugh, whatever. The cat was out of the bag anyways.
“Well, I…,” he scratched the back of his neck and sighed before continuing. “I was on my way to Micro Chip’s place, and just when I was taking a turn near the park, I saw how everyone was running away screaming. And I probably should’ve just minded my own business and kept driving, but… I parked on the roadside and ran to see what was causing such fuss.”
“Why?” Twilight asked, not understanding what had led him to such a risky decision so suddenly.
“I’m not sure.” Flash said absent-mindedly as he looked down once again. “I’ve seen people run away like that many times, especially at our school. Guess I wanted to see if I could actually be of help for once?”
He cleared his throat and continued, looking at Twilight once again so that, hopefully, she wouldn’t pity him too much. “Anyways, when I got to the patch where that weird rock monster thingy was, I saw how it threw its tail at you and knocked you down. I freaked out so much when I saw it was coming after you, and you didn’t move at all. I thought he was going to crush you or eat you or something. Obviously, there wasn’t much I could do without any magic, so I thought fast and started,” he let out a side snicker, “I started throwing rocks at it. Pfft, it sounds so lame now that I say it out loud, but it’s not like I was trying to fight it or anything. I just wanted to keep it away from you.”
The spectacled girl looked intently at the guitarist, getting more and more moved at his words, as he continued explaining his misadventure to her.
“I kept teasing it, like throwing stuff and yelling at it, so that it would focus on killing me and not you. Don’t worry, it’s not like I wanted to die or anything! In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast in my entire life. Like I said, I tripped a few times and I kept getting scratched by the little pebbles that were falling from its cracks, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job dodging that thing. Maybe two or three minutes later, the girls I mentioned showed up, although it did feel like hours to me. Anyways, they were much more effective at fighting a giant rock monster, so they told me to carry you someplace safe and look after you till you woke up. So, I did, and now you’re awake, so… here we are I guess?” he finished sheepishly scratching, once more, the back of his neck.
Twilight took a few seconds to process everything she had just heard. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she did this. “Wait, wait, let me get this straight. You were pestering a giant magical beast made of stone, barely escaping from getting killed by it, all by yourself!?”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” Flash covered his face in embarrassment and groaned inside his palms and started nervously rambling. “It was so, SO stupid, I know. What was I thinking? Well, that’s the thing, I guess. I... wasn’t. I didn’t think of anything. All I wanted was to protect you. I, I saw that beast was trying to kill you, and I couldn’t just watch and do nothing, and I know you probably think that was something dumb and dangerous to do, but…”
He paused as he caught a glance of Twilight’s expression. Unexpectedly to him, the girl was actually smiling. She just looked at him with glimmering eyes and a small smile across her face. He couldn’t tell if this was a sign of gratitude or pity, or maybe she was just holding back laughter after hearing about his stupid failed hero attempt.
But then, to his surprise, she actually grabbed his hands. When he looked at her face again, he noticed a light pink hue that was now coloring her cheeks. It no doubt looked much cuter than the mess of red (both from his flush and his wounds) that was currently adorning his face.
“I do think that was a dumb and dangerous thing to do,” she told him, slightly smirking at him. Ouch, Flash thought, but then Twilight continued in a more sincere tone. “But I also think that was one of the bravest, noblest acts I’ve ever seen. And, if it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t be here right now. So, I guess all I should say is ‘Thank you, Flash.’”
The heart of the young man fluttered at the sound of his own name pronounced so softly by this girl. He wasn’t even able to mutter a single word in reply. He was completely bewitched, smiling at her like an idiot, still red as an apple. He couldn’t stop looking at her. She was just… so beautiful, especially in this state. With her long, flowing hair falling gracefully around her, those majestic wings, and that warm, tender smile on her face, she looked like an angel. He could look at her forever.
For months now, Flash had been trying to deny these strange feelings he felt whenever he was close to Twilight.
“It’s just cause she reminds you of the princess”, he thought to himself most times. And that was probably what most people would assume if he told them what was on his mind. But no. He now knew this Twilight better. Princess Twilight, as wonderful a person as she seemed, was basically a stranger to him. On her three short visits to his world, they had barely had the chance to interact. But with this Twilight, the actual human Twilight, he had had hours to get to know her. Her strengths, flaws, quirks, likes, dislikes, etcetera. The more he knew about her, the more his feelings grew. She just had such a unique and distinctive way of doing things. The way she explained math to him was so much better than the actual teacher. The way she carefully grabbed each flask and container in the chemistry club and poured the exact amount on her first try. The way she lowered her eyes whenever Crystal Prep was brought up but then continued speaking as casually as ever. The way she was so passionate and persevering about the things she loved. It was those things that he fell in love with. Every day it was harder and harder to deny it, and he was starting to think that it was no use. He really did have it bad.
But there was a tiny, huge problem: she was taken.
Twilight had been dating Timber Spruce, one of the Camp Everfree counselors, for months now. It had probably been almost a year. And as far as Flash knew, she was happy. Why wouldn’t she be? In its time, Flash had the opportunity to demonstrate a certain interest in the spectacled girl, only to be turned down by her, mere days before her and Timber became an item, meaning it wasn’t that she didn’t want a relationship. She just didn’t want a relationship with Flash. Obviously, something between her and Timber had clicked that didn’t between Twilight and himself. Flash obviously wasn’t her type.
And the sad thing is, that would never change. Even if Twilight broke up with her current boyfriend. Heck, even if Timber had never been in the picture to begin with. The girl Flash was head over heels for just wasn’t interested in him. She probably never would be. He knew it; that’s just how things are sometimes. This wasn’t even the first time he had been (indirectly or otherwise) rejected by a girl he liked.
Then why did it hurt so bad?
Just by being there, at that moment, looking into her amethyst eyes and holding her hands, he had to physically stop himself from holding her tight and passionately kissing her lips. This happened to him so often, but right now, it felt more difficult than ever. Flash wasn’t one of those guys. If his parents had taught him anything, it was to respect women, and stealing kisses from a girl, especially if said girl was in a relationship, wasn’t very respectful. The last thing Flash would want was for Twilight to think of him as a jerk.
But could there ever be any room for hope? The tender way in which she was looking at him at this moment, how she softly caressed his hands, the blush on her face. It almost felt as if she was…
No. No way. Twilight was in love with Timber, and that was it. She was only grateful at Flash for saving her life, nothing else. The young guitarist shouldn’t even allow such thoughts into his head. It was foolish and childish to believe in such miracles. Fantasizing about possible ‘what if’ scenarios was one thing, but actually believing they were happening right now? Part of him wanted to hold to the idea that what he had seen in those eyes was a glimmer of love, of consideration, of seeing Flash in a new light; but another part of him scolded himself just for even considering that a possibility.
So, as he usually did whenever these thoughts invaded his mind, he had to remind himself that, no matter what he thought of Timber Spruce, or how bad of a feeling the guy gave him, or how much he wished he was in his place, at least he made Twilight happy. And at the end of the day, her happiness was all that mattered to Flash. Ideally, he would be the one making her smile and laugh every day, but alas, he wasn’t. So, he was at least glad that she had found that joy and that love, even if not with him. Knowing she was happy was good enough. It kind of had to be.
Nonetheless, Flash savored this moment. He felt her hands inside of his, trying to memorize the texture of her skin. He looked intently at every inch of her face, at every lock in her hair, and tried to memorize it, seal it in his memory. If this was the most he was going to get, he wanted to make the most of it, even if it only lasted a couple seconds.
And that’s pretty much what happened. Their moment was abruptly cut short when the giant stone beast fell on a tree that was not less than 10 feet from them, crushing said tree in the process. Flash instinctively put an arm around Twilight protectively, even though at this point, she was far more capable of protecting both of them than he was. And though Flash didn’t see it, his protective reflex made Twilight blush even more.
The creature reincorporated itself, and behind it, three of Twilight’s friends appeared: Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. The three girls were disheveled and sweaty, clearly having been fighting this inexhaustible monster for quite some time.
Rainbow Dash turned around to see that her spectacled friend had regained consciousness.
“Hey, Twi, you feelin’ better?” she asked between huffs and puffs. Just because her power was superspeed didn’t mean the rainbow haired girl couldn’t get tired. “We could kinda use an extra hand.”
“Right! I’ll help right away, girls,” Twilight said, almost as if coming back to reality after her heartfelt moment with Flash. Both of them quickly got up.
“The rest of the Rainbooms are on their way!” Flash announced. “I texted them while you were out, and it shouldn’t take them much longer.”
“Awesome! Thanks, Flash,” Twilight eagerly said to him. She then grabbed him by the shoulders and motioned for him to sit down in a nearby fallen trunk. “Now, PLEASE do me a favor and stay here, okay? I don’t want you to get any more hurt. We’ll keep you safe.”
It gave Flash a bit more comfort to know that at least she cared about him. Not in the way he wished of course, but at least she worried enough to not want him hurt and to try and keep him from danger, protecting him from the things he was too normal to protect himself from. Considering how at the very start she didn’t even have intentions of talking to him or learning more than his name, this was a much preferable option.
The girl with the long, untamed indigo mane took off and began to use her magic to help the rest of her friends hold back the dragon, far more successfully than before, now that she had help. Flash looked at the girls in action and smiled to himself.
“I know you will.”