Beep. Beep. Beep.
Flash woke up to the sound of his alarm and, gently with his left hoof, turned it off. He sniffled then wiped away a sudden onset of tears from his eyes with his hooves. Once he felt calm again, he got out of bed.
He ignored the window as he already knew he was still in the loop. After all there was at least one other pony he needed to talk to before he could finally escape.
For once, he wouldn’t even need multiple loops to talk to the next pony on his list. He would only need one as he already knew exactly what he was going to say.
Flash exited the train car, made a hard left, trotted towards the door and swung it open hard enough to cause a clang as it impacted with the doorframe.
Point Guard, standing in the center of the luggage compartment, turned towards him, startled by the loud noise. When she saw it was him, she smirked.
“Hey, Big Wig. Here for round two?”
“We need to talk,” Flash announced.
“Oh, what about? How much of a stick in the mud you are?” Point trotted towards Flash and leaned in close with a malicious grin on her face. “Or shall we revisit when you slugged me in the jaw?”
“No, well, sort of. Those two things are related in a way, and I would like to take another moment to apologize for punching you. That was still horrible of me to do.” Flash raised a hoof to stop Point Guard from interrupting. “Let me talk, Point.”
Point scowled, but she did back away and sit down to listen to him.
Flash took a deep breath. “My relationship with Twilight was bad. Really bad.” Point rolled her eyes. “I realize now that Twilight was not a great marefriend. A relationship is supposed to have two sides mutually holding each other up. Ours was one side laying horizontal while the other turned itself into a support beam and did nothing else.” Flash felt his entire body droop. “I found out rather recently that I was the support beam in that metaphor.”
“So, what?” Point said, “You discovered that she used you and now you’re whining about it to me? Newsflash: everypony already knew that.”
Flash sighed. “It's new to me, Point. I’m still coming to terms with how my ‘compromises’ were really just me sacrificing everything about myself to become her majesty’s perfect saddlebag accessory.” Flash rubbed one of his legs with his opposite hoof. “Twilight dumping me was the healthiest thing for me. You were right. I kept hoping that if I waited long enough, Twilight would take me back. At this point, now having had my own problems shoved into my face, if she asked me now, I would say no.”
“Oh?” Point grinned. “That’s great! Means we can finally get back to our thing now that you’ve moved on from that prissy princess. Hey, when we get to the Crystal Empire we could even swing by a bar and start our patented-”
“That brings me to the second thing,” Flash interrupted.
Point paused. “What second thing?”
“Us.” Flash pointed his hoof at Point then himself. “Point Guard, I don’t think we should be around each other anymore unless we have to.”
“What?” Point yelled, “Why? What in Tartarus is wrong with us hanging out? Where is this even coming from?”
“It's overdue, Point. We’ve become very different ponies since we started in the guard and I don’t think that’s been for the better. For either of us.” Flash lifted his head and stared back at Point who looked confused. “We’re not good influences on each other and besides that I don’t like how you pressure me into doing things I don’t want to do. I also don’t appreciate the constant barrage of insults. Especially that nickname you-”
“Seriously?” Point stood up abruptly. “You’re getting upset because I call you Big Wig?”
“I’m upset because you call me that even after I tell you not to,” Flash replied, “For whatever reason, you seem to have this image in your head of who I am. Well, I’m sorry Point, but the kind of pony I want to be isn’t who you want me to be.”
“Oh, that’s a bunch of lies, Flash. You’re exactly the same as you’ve always been.” Point Guard pointed to her bruised lower jaw with a hoof. “Remember this? That just proves you haven’t changed since we first met.”
“No, Point. It proves that we’re not good for each other and we need to stop.” Flash paused to brace himself for what he had to say next. “This actually brings me to my most important point and this is something I need you to listen to.”
“Oh and what’s that? Can’t be any worse than what you’ve already said.”
Flash took a deep breath.
“I am never going to date you, Point. You need to move on.”
Point Guard froze with a stricken expression on her face. “I-What? I don’t-”
“Point,” Flash interjected, “I admit that I’m not the most observant pony at times, but I could see you’ve had a crush on me for years.” Flash shook his head. “Look, Point-”
“No, you look!” Point shouted, “You go and date some stupid Princess then break up with her. I comfort you when you act like a sad loser and now you’re trying to break up with me?” Point Guard snorted angrily and slammed her right hoof on the floor. “I’ve been there for you since day one! When’s my chance? When do I finally get to be with you?”
“I don’t owe you anything, Point. I won’t be with you just because you have a sense of entitlement over me.”
“Are you kidding me?” Point took a shaky breath and forced herself to calm down. “Look, you had a bad break up and I haven’t been as supportive as I should have been.” She gave a shaky smile. “You keep saying you ‘lost yourself’, so we can just find ‘you’ together.”
“No, Point. I need to find myself by myself,” Flash said, “I spent a lot of time letting somepony else dictate who I should be and I’m not going through that again. I don’t want a relationship right now, and even if I did, I wouldn’t want one with you.”
“You’re just going to throw away years of friendship for nothing?” Point threw her hoof back. “You’ll be all alone, Flash. I’m the only one who stuck by you through your ‘Twilight’ years. If you drop me by the wayside, you’ll have no one.” She pointed an accusatory hoove at Flash. “I know you. You can’t be happy without being in a relationship. You were miserable before Twilight and that doesn’t include all of the other mares you tried to get together with before her.”
“I shouldn’t have done that. Those were huge mistakes on part.” He felt tears form in the corners of his eyes. “I’m not ready to be in a relationship. Not then, not now. Maybe I can’t be happy without being with somepony, but I need to find that out on my own. Forcing myself onto somepony else while I’m like this is just self inflicted pain.”
Flash took a shaky breath. Tears flowed down his face in a steady trickle. He stared directly into Point Guard’s face. Her teeth were clenched. She was snorting angrily every few seconds.
He needed to end this.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be who you needed, Point, but it would be best for the both of us if we cut our losses and moved on. We’re not meant to be.”
It was the final straw for Point. She looked incredulous then furious as she began a tirade of insult after insult. Each curse was screamed at Flash as tears began to flow down Point’s face.
Flash ignored her. There wasn’t anything left to be said. He was officially all alone.
There was something bittersweet in that revelation.
His ears flicked as he heard the shrill call of the train whistle and saw the train compartment start to become enveloped in white light.
Just before it fully engulfed him, Flash smiled.