//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: A Thousand Sleepless Nights // Story: Revelio // by Godslittleprincess //------------------------------// Flash lay awake in his bed staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. His mind replayed the events of the day before, focusing on the terrified, shamed faces of the two girls across the street and the two staying in his grandmother’s room. Grandma had moved from her room to the room that Aunt Flare used to share with his mother back when she was still living so that Bee and Ocellus could have a place to sleep. Flash had offered to sleep on the couch so that the girls could each have a bed to herself, but Ocellus had insisted that she didn’t mind sharing, and Bee seemed almost disgusted at the idea of having to sleep in a boy’s room. Well, Grandma’s bed was big enough for two people, so they should be comfortable enough. Despite that, Flash couldn’t help but wonder if they were having as hard a time sleeping as he was. Flash got up and began pacing around his room, hoping that fatigue would set in and bring sleep along with it. However, the faces in his mind were refusing to give him any rest. He eventually stopped in front of one of his shelves. On this shelf were two framed photographs of his family, one from last year and the other from roughly six years ago, his old plush lion Simba, and Twilight’s plush owl Owlowiscious. The sight of that toy owl staring back at him with its big, brown, plastic eyes made him think that maybe he should call Twilight about his sleepless night. Talking to someone about his earlier experience would be nice, and naturally, as his fiancée, Twilight would want to be the first to know about and if possible, help him with his problems. At the same time, Flash felt rude for wanting to wake her so late in the night. What time is it anyway? Flash grabbed his phone from his nightstand and checked the time. A little past 12:30. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t THAT late. Flash sighed as he scrolled through his contacts. He found Twilight’s name, selected it, and pressed the call button. He placed the earpiece next to his left ear and listened to the phone ring. “Flash?” Twilight groggily answered the phone. “What’s going on? It’s late.” “I know,” Flash replied. “I, I just couldn’t sleep; that’s all.” “Honey, what’s wrong?” “I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to tell you.” “Your ride-along with my brother yesterday?” “You, uh, know about that?” “Not all the details but I get the gist of it. I also know that Gale, Bee, and Gypsy were there and that Robby is still missing.” Flash sighed as he slumped forward, resting his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees. “I just can’t their faces out of my head. They were just so, so, ugh! It was like they were on the edge of losing any hope of getting out of that situation. Also, did you know that Bee got cussed at in front of the other kids and that Gale was blaming herself for losing Robby? Gosh, it just breaks my heart. I wish I can do more.” “Do more what?” Twilight asked. “I don’t know. Something, anything. I wish I can find Robby and bring him back. I wish I can stop the guys who are doing this. Darn it, I wish I can keep this from happening to other people.” “You know, maybe you can,” Twilight replied. The sound of her voice told Flash that an idea had taken form in her head and was about to break out like a baby bird. “What do you mean?” “Just give me a minute.” The other line was silent for a while. However, Flash could just barely make out what sounded like typing. “Hey, Flash, you ever considered working for the feds?” “You mean like as in a career?” “Well, yeah, apparently the FBI handles human trafficking investigations, and I just searched up their prereqs,” Twilight replied. “I think with a little time and hard work, it’d be a pretty good fit for you.” “I,” Flash paused, biting his lip, “I don’t know. I mean, it would help me do the stuff I just said that I wanted to do, granted, a lot farther into the future than I’d like, but at the same time, it’s a pretty demanding career path.” “And?” “Well, don’t you have your own plans and dreams? Ones that you’ve had long before we even started dating?” “And?” Flash blinked twice in surprise. “Twi, we’re going to be married within the next year, within the next two years at the latest. I know for a fact that marriage is going to be a major wrench in your plans. Having me go after a career with the feds is going to be an even bigger one.” “Oh, I know that.” Flash blinked several more times. “So, how is it that I’m freaking out about it more than you are right now?” “Because,” she paused and then continued, “I’ve been freaking out about it since last December, and the freaking is mostly out of my system now.” “Wait, last December?” “Oh, you know, when you started asking me about my plans for the future, where our relationship fit into them, and my opinions on marriage. By the way, you were about as subtle as Pinkie on a sugar high juggling chainsaws on unicycle.” Flash couldn’t help but snicker to himself at that last statement. “I mean, it was pretty obvious that you were thinking about marrying me,” Twilight continued. “At the time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to marry you. I mean, I wanted it; I just wasn’t sure where it was supposed to fit in my plans. I kept imagining you proposing to me, and it hurt me to say no, but I was too afraid of how my other plans were going to change if I said yes. I can’t even tell you how many times I called my brother, Cadance, and Sunset Shimmer up in the middle of the night just to freak because of that.” “So, what helped you get over it?” Flash asked. “One night, I called Cadance and said, ‘This is so unfair! Why do I have to choose? Why can’t I just have it all?’” “And she said?” “She told me that I might not have to but that I’d be wise to prepare for that possibility, which only upset me more. Then, she asked me, ‘Twilight, in the event that you have to make a choice, would you rather have Flash by your side as you face all the ups and downs life will inevitably bring or would you rather have all your plans and dreams just handed to you on a silver platter?’” “And what did you tell her?” “I told her I’d think about it, and boy, did I think about it!” Twilight exclaimed. “It took me a while, but I realized a few things. The first thing I realized was ‘Since when has my life ever gone the way I planned it?’” That last statement made Flash laugh, and Twilight couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “Oh sure, it’s funny now, but at the time, I was losing major sleep over it,” Twilight giggled. “The second thing I realized was that my plans and dreams aren’t going to mean much if I didn’t have you to share them with. I know that sounds like something straight out of Disneigh movie, but I really did make that realization.” “You know, you’re the second woman who has ever made me feel like a prince,” Flash said with a chuckle. “Second?” “The first was my mom.” “Oh,” she giggled. “In fact, that was her nickname for me up until I was nine.” “She used to call you ‘Prince’?” “Well, actually she used to call me ‘Little Prince,’ but we’re getting off topic,” Flash replied. “Anyway, did you realize anything else?” “Yeah, just one other thing,” Twilight continued. “I realized that if I took the time to look and do my research, I can find a career that I can be satisfied with anywhere. It may not be my plan A, but it’ll be something.” “She IS good at doing research,” Flash thought humorously to himself. “Still, Twi, a career in the FBI is only slightly more stable than a career in the military,” Flash said to Twilight. “Are you sure you can handle that demanding of a lifestyle?” “If I was by myself, of course not,” Twilight bluntly answered, “but I won’t be by myself. I’ll be with you.” Flash didn’t say anything at first. He just sat there allowing Twilight’s confidence and support to sink into him. After a while, he noticed that he wasn’t as restless as he was before. “Hmm, that’s weird,” he thought to himself out loud. “What’s weird?” Twilight asked from the phone. “Oh, huh? Sorry, I was just thinking to myself.” Then, Flash smiled to himself and said to Twilight, “I don’t know what it is about what we talked about, but I do feel a little better about what happened. I mean, I’m still bummed that there’s not much I can do about it now, but you know, someday.” “That’s right,” Twilight agreed. “By the way, Shining had some choice words to say about you and the ride-along.” “Oh? What did he say?” “He said that you had a good heart and good protective instincts and that you’d make a good cop because of that.” Flash beamed at Twilight’s praise, well, more accurately, Shining Armor’s praise coming from Twilight’s mouth. “He also said that you just need to get a better handle on your emotions, and you’d be an even better one,” Twilight added, deflating Flash’s ego a bit. “Yeah,” Flash agreed with a laugh, “yeah, that sounds about right.” “So, you feeling better enough to go to sleep now, or do you still need to talk?” “I think I’m good. Thanks for the talk, Twi. I love you.” “I love you too, my prince. Sleep well.” Flash felt his face grow warm at the sound of Twilight’s new pet name for him but didn’t say anything, not that he could have said anything since Twilight had already hung up. Flash was about to put his phone away and lie down when suddenly… “Immooooooor-Immortals!” his phone screamed out. Flash didn’t have to check the caller ID to know who it was. There was only one person on his contacts list assigned to that ringtone. “Dude, it’s past one in the morning. What’s going on?” Flash spoke into his phone. “Gale and Gypsy woke me up because they couldn’t sleep. I made them some warm milk with honey, cinnamon, and vanilla, but they refused to drink it, so now, I don’t know how to get them back to bed. None of us wanted to wake my parents, so I decided to call you,” Micro Chips rapidly explained from the other end of the connection. Flash frowned and blinked a few times, trying to process everything Micro just info-dumped on him. Once he finally understood why Micro was calling, he realized what the problem was. “Were they looking at you like you were about to poison them?” Flash asked Micro matter-of-factly. “Eh, now that you mention it, yeah, they kinda were looking at me like that,” Micro replied. “Why?” “Because the last time those two drank something that made them sleep, they woke up on the back of a moving truck.” “Oh.” A long, sheepish pause followed. “Whoops.” “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t know.” “So, now what do I do?” “Well, you’ve gotten up in the middle of the night before as a kid. How did your parents make you go back to bed?” “Warm milk with honey, cinnamon, and vanilla. You just told me why not to do that. Before you ask, their alternative method was chamomile tea, honey, and warm milk, but I think we’re going to run into the same problem with that one.” Flash opened his mouth to reply but paused when he heard what sounded like gulping on the other end. “Are you drinking the milk you made for the girls?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “What? They don’t even want it, and there’s no point in letting perfectly concocted warm milk go to waste,” Micro retorted defensively, gulping down a few more swallows of milk afterwards. “Okay, did your parents ever try anything that didn’t involve beverages to get you to go to sleep?” “Well, my mom did used to sing me to sleep, but I can’t do that for two reasons,” Micro explained. “One, all the songs she sang me to sleep with were in Spanish. Two, I’ll wake my parents AND the rest of the neighborhood doing that.” Flash silently agreed. Micro wasn’t an awful singer, but he wasn’t a very good one either. “I’ll tell you what,” Flash answered, “why don’t you put me on speaker, and I can sing them to sleep for you?” “Oh, yeah, that’s a great idea,” Micro wholeheartedly agreed. “Let me just take the girls back to their room.” A few minutes later, Flash singing the closing lines of a song into his cell phone. “So we sing a lullaby/To the lonely hearts tonight,” Flash sang soothingly. “Let it set your heart on fire/Let it set you free/When you're fighting to believe/In a love that you can't see/Just know there is a purpose/For those who wait” After closing the song, Flash waited for a few seconds for an answer. “Okay, they’re completely out, and I just tucked them in,” Flash heard Micro say. “I had no idea that song could work as a lullaby.” “Neither did I,” Flash replied. “I’m really hoping that we won’t have to do this again tomorrow night, but I’m not going to count on it. Ugh, I can’t imagine just how bad what they went through was; I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to be in your shoes. Speaking of which, how are you holding up?” “Fine, I guess,” said Flash. “I mean, I was pretty shaken by what I saw, but I feel better now.” “That’s good. You’re probably pretty tired, so I’m just going to hang up and let you get some sleep now. Thanks a million.” “You’re welcome. Bye.” With that, the two friends hung up. “You have a really nice voice,” a small voice said through the door. Flash got up, opened his door, and saw Ocellus standing on the other side. “You couldn’t sleep either, could you?” he asked her. Ocellus shook her head. “Bee’s still awake too. She’s just lying in bed, pretending to be asleep. I tried talking her, but she just told me to shut up and leave her alone. I was hoping that getting up for a walk would help, and I sort of heard your phone ring, and then, I heard you sing. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything.” “It’s okay. My friend and I weren’t talking about anything that private,” Flash assured her. “So, did listening to me sing help calm you down enough to sleep?” “Yeah, it helped plenty. I think I’ll just be going back to bed now.” “Hold on a minute,” Flash stopped her. He took his plush lion off the shelf and said to Ocellus, “This guy here is Simba. Back when my brother and I were kids, I used to let him borrow Simba whenever he got up in the middle of the night or had trouble sleeping. You can hold onto him for a while if you need to.” “Oh, gee, thanks,” Ocellus replied, timidly taking the toy from Flash. She tilted her head and looked at the shelf Flash had grabbed it from. “Where’d you get that stuffed owl?” “Oh, Owlowiscious?” Flash replied, turning to the direction Ocellus was looking. “He’s my fiancée’s. She got him when her brother left home for the Marines.” “He sounds pretty special, so why do you have it? Did she want to get rid of it because something bad happened to her brother?” Ocellus asked, her curiosity piqued. “Oh, no, it was nothing like that,” Flash explained. “Owlowicious is just part of a pact we had back when we were just dating. We were about to leave for different colleges, so I gave her something special to me, she gave me something special to her, and if we ever got our stuff back, we were going to take it as a sign that one of us wanted to break up. Also, nothing bad happened to her brother. You’ve actually met him.” Ocellus raised her eyebrows as she tried to think of who she had met in Canterlot that would have a sister about Flash’s age. Then, her eyes widened. “You’re marrying Officer Armor’s sister?” she asked Flash who nodded. “So, that’s why he trusts your family so much.” Flash nodded again. Ocellus frowned again as another thought occurred to her. “So, how are you and your fiancée going to get your stuff back if you can’t return them to each other without breaking up?” Flash chuckled to himself as he answered, “Oh, we’ll be getting our stuff back alright. We’re just going to be getting each other along with them.” Ocellus didn’t understand what Flash meant by that answer but nonetheless, accepted it. She looked from the toy lion in her arms to the toy owl still on the shelf. Then, she looked from her and Bee’s room to Flash. “Hey, this is going to sound weird, but is it okay if I borrow the stuffed owl too?” Ocellus asked. “I know he’s not yours to lend, but I promise I’ll give him back tomorrow morning.” Flash turned towards where Owlowicious was perched and thought hard. On one hand, Owlowicious didn’t belong to him, and he really should ask Twilight first before he lent him out to other people. On the other hand, he really didn’t want to wake Twilight with another late-night phone call. He turned to Ocellus, her light cyan eyes wide and trembling. She was clutching Simba in her arms as if she was trying to squeeze every bit of comfort as she possibly could out of him. Flash sighed and took the toy owl of the shelf. Twilight would understand, and if she did get mad at him, well, they’ll work it out later. “I want him back by morning, okay?” he emphasized as he handed the plushie to the girl. For the first time since he met her, Ocellus smiled, eagerly hugging the plush owl to her hearts content. “Hey, Flash,” she began, looking back at him, “Officer Armor must think a lot of you if he’s letting you marry his sister and letting your family take care of me.” “Yeah, I guess he does,” Flash replied with a small smile. “I hope for both your sakes that you don’t end up letting him down.” Ocellus looked at the floor, a sadness covering her face. With the plush toys still clutched tightly in her arms, she turned from Flash and went back to her room without another word. Flash blinked a few times, completely taken aback by Ocellus’s surprisingly hurtful and bitter statement. “Now where did that even come from?” Flash thought to himself.