Flash had been enjoying Hayton Central so immensely that his frustrations with the magic running wild and his personal problem had been pushed to the very back of his mind, though they were still there. Now his 17th birthday had come, on the day before spring break no less. Comet, Base, and the other guys had just taken him out to an incredibly fun game (or four) of laser tag after school. Now they were walking back to the duplex house. And when they reached and opened the backyard gate …..
“Surprise!” shouted Water, Heat, Moondancer, the other girls, and somebody else…
“Fire!” Flash exclaimed, rushing to his brother, who embraced him with a tight hug.
“Hey little bro. How’re you doing?”
“Better than I have been for a while. What are you doing here?”
“You didn't actually think I was gonna miss your party, did you?”
Flash gave a sheepish smile. “Well I did kinda think you had extra game practice.” to which Fire just poked him.
“Hey, Fire.” Comet waved to the football player.
“Hey, Comet. Been a while.” said Fire, high fiving him.
Later on after Flash had opened all his present and everyone was eating cake, Flash got a FaceTime request. He pulled out his phone to see it was from his father and answered it.
“Hey birthday boy! How's it going?"
“It's going great.”
"Your present should be there tomorrow.”
As Fire came forward to join the family conversation, Moondancer's phone rang. She glanced at it, then backed away from the group and walked to the other end of the backyard.
“How are the games?” Metal asked his older son.
“Pretty exhausting, but rewarding.”
"You sure about that?" Moondancer asked the person she was talking to.
“Yes. Please.”
“Okay.” She came back up to the group. “Comet, please try not to explode, okay?” And she turned her phone to face the boys, revealing …
“Hey, guys” Sunset waved with a nervous smile, with Twilight on her side and the other Rainbooms behind them.
“What is she doing on your phone?” Comet snapped.
“We’re friends now. Listen Flash, I’m sorry for snapping at you a few months ago. I hope I didn’t take the fun out of the snowball fight for you.”
“It’s alright. You were in a hurry.”
“Yeah, but I still shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you. Did you really transfer?”
“Yes I did, but don’t worry, it wasn’t because of you, it was Comet’s idea.”
“Hi Comet.” Sunset waved politely. Comet just glared.
“Does it matter?”
“Sure it does Flash. Even if you don’t go to CHS anymore, you’re still a wondercolt.” Twilight said. The other Rainbooms nodded. “Happy Birthday, by the way.”
Flash was flattered by that, but he wasn’t convinced. Still, he decided to be polite and introduce his family. “Thanks, Twilight.” He beckoned Fire over and turned his phone to face Moondancer’s “Dad, Fire, this is Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle.”
“Metal Gleam. Nice to meet you young ladies. You seem to have made quite the impression on my son. He talks about you a lot.” That was true, Flash had talked with him about his personal issue before.
“You too, Mr Gleam.” Twilight greeted politely. “I guess we have.” She said.
“Well what can I say?” Flash said trying not to blush in embarrassment from his father’s comments “You girls are quite influential. Especially you, Twilight.”
Twilight averted her gaze at his compliment, her cheeks turning slightly pink. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, influential.“ Comet whispered to himself sarcastically.
“Hey Pinkie/Minuette!” The two girls in question waved to each other.
“What?! You too?!” Comet exclaimed. He and Flash looked at Moondancer with respective expressions of frustration and curiosity.
“I may have introduced the girls to them.” She admitted. “And they hit it off really well.” Flash simply shrugged in indifference while Comet facepalmed in annoyance.
“Are you Firestreak?! From the Canterlot University football team?!” Rainbow Dash suddenly said, grabbing Sunset’s phone having noticed the football player.
“Yes.” Fire said nicely. “I take it you watch the games?”
"He's your brother?!" Applejack exclaimed. She and Rainbow (who had watched many of the games on TV) were so amazed, and the others’ jaws dropped slightly. Flash felt a little self conscious that they were now interested just because of this.
Comet muttered “Dude, you’re embarrassing us in front of the witches.”
Flash elbowed him “Comet.”
Metal turned to look at something else “Sorry everyone.” he said “I’ve got to go. Flash happy birthday and the best luck with your next game to you Firestreak.”
“Thanks dad. See you.” said the brothers. Flash hung up. Fire went into the house to chat with Water and Heat.
Comet took Moondancer’s phone “I need to talk to flame hair. The rest of you scram.”
“Excuse me?” Rarity said narrowing her eyes.
“I said scram!” The other Rainbooms scurried out of the phone’s sight.
“Listen, Sunset Shiner-“
“Shimmer.”
“Whatever. You and your pals can be friends with my sister, but you have to keep away from me and my friends, especially Flash. I know about what you did. Got it?”
“You have my word there. But you can’t decide who your sister can or can’t be friends with. If she wants to befriend us, you can’t change that.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to, Comet. And stop calling us witches.”
“I’ll call you whatever I want. I’m watching you, horsey.” He said threateningly as he gave the phone back to his twin.
“I’m a pony, not a horse.” Sunset corrected, feeling offended.
“Same thing.” Comet retorted.
“Actually yeah, pony literally means young or small horse.” Flash added. “Not to start a fight or anything.”
“Well, for us maybe, but not necessarily for them.” Twilight interjected. “In their dimension, it could mean something very different.”
Moondancer snickered seeing her twin getting the science talk from someone else “I’m loving this.” Comet growled with frustration while Flash rolled his eyes amusedly and said nothing. Moondancer moved slightly further away and continued talking with Twilight and Sunset.
“Listen Twilight, if I know my brother which I absolutely do, he’ll probably want to know who your boyfriend is so they can dodge him. So just for that reason, what’s his name?”
Twilight sighed. She was about to break up with him anyway, but they didn’t need to know that yet “Timber Spruce.”
Everything stopped the moment she said that name. The twins and the rest of their Hayton group all froze in place. Comet’s facial expression slowly morphed into pure rage while Moondancer’s eyes slowly widened and gained a scary looking mix of anger and fear, something that made Flash, Base, and their CHS friends nervous.
“I see.” Moondancer said after a moment, struggling to keep her composure. “Well, thanks. That’s all I needed to know. Okay, see you later, bye.” She said rather quickly, and she hung up before Twilight could respond.
Twilight faced her friends with equally confused looks. “What was that about?” She wondered.
In the backyard, Comet then rounded on Flash. “She’s seeing HIM?! And you knew this?!”
Flash turned to his cousin “Base, Button, could you go inside for a moment?” Base opened his mouth to protest, but quickly realized that was likely happening so he ushered his best friend into the house. Once the door closed Flash turned back to face Comet again “Yes.”
After a few seconds of silence, Comet turned and started to run towards the yard gate. Flash, having predicted this, tackled him to the ground and the two struggled for several more seconds.
“Let me go! I’m gonna kill him!”
“You will do no such thing!”
“That jerk’s crossed the line again!”
“No he hasn’t!”
“How can you be okay with this?! He stole yo—“
“Don't you dare say that!" Flash said loudly, cutting him off. "Timber did NOT “steal” her from me! That’s like calling her property. She never was interested in me anyway remember?”
“But Flash!“
“Comet, just pause and think about this for a moment. The best friend of a guy who liked your mirror self from another dimension walks up and tells you that he once saw your boyfriend flirting with multiple girls at once. What would you think?”
Comet pondered for a moment and finally relented and stopped struggling. “Okay yeah, I see your point. She probably wouldn’t believe us.”
“Or even worse, she’d yell at us for even saying it. Trust me, it’s better to just let all this become a distant memory.” Flash gave him another stern look after they got back up “You see? This is why I didn’t tell you.”
“Sorry, dude. I just —”
"I know. But this is how it should be. We are not chasing him down for any sort of vengeance. Understand? Please don’t.”
Comet hung his head in disappointment “Okay, I won’t do anything.”
Flash turned to the others who had looked angry but calmed down “I’m sorry guys. I didn’t ask any of you about it because I didn’t want to make you relieve any unpleasant memories.”
“It’s okay Flash” said Moondancer “I know you were just trying to be sure.”
“So that really did happen? It’s not just one of Comet’s made up scenarios to protect all of you?”
Moondancer, the girls, and Cheese all nodded and Comet gave Flash an “I told you“ look.
“Well who knows? Maybe Twilight’s changed him for the better.” Flash offered.
Minuette and Twinkleshine rolled their eyes and Lemon Hearts scoffed “That guy? Change? I’ve heard more believable things than that.”
“I thought I could change him.” Moondancer agreed.
“Believe me, very few people have ever gotten me extremely angry, but he did” Cheese added.
“Speaking of Twilight, shouldn’t she at least know about this?” Micro asked, finally speaking up. He and the CHS students had been frightened by the boys’ little squabble.
Flash pinched his nose with a sigh “Yes, but let her find out by herself. Trust me, It won’t look good coming from any of us. Especially me.”
“Are you sure about that?” Derpy asked.
“Positive. Besides, she’s smart enough to figure that out.”
“You know what I’m curious about?” Comet commented, getting the others’ attention “Why are those horses so pretty in human bodies?”
“I have no idea.” Flash replied, then raised an eyebrow “Are you asking that because of Sunset?”
Comet looked embarrassed “Kinda.”
“Dude, I really don’t want to see you make my mistake. I fell for one of them and look what happened.“
“Yeah. I mean I can only imagine what would happen if we bumped into the Sunset of this dimension.” As soon as Comet said that, Flash suddenly froze in place. “What?” he asked confused.
“What did you just say?” Flash asked.
“I said I can only imagine what would happen if—“ Comet trailed off, the realization dawning on him and everyone else. “Oh.”
“Of course!” exclaimed Moondancer. “If the pony Twilight has a counterpart in this world, and Sunset is a pony from the other world, she has to have one here too!”
Everyone started to get really nervous.
“Why hasn’t the other Sunset shown up here already?” asked Twinkleshine.
“This is basically identity theft!” said Minuette.
“Identity theft? Are you kidding? This is LIFE theft!” exclaimed Cheese.
“What if the government finds out?!” said Sandalwood.
“How have they not already noticed? How has SHE not realized this yet?!” Comet panic-shouted.
Water, Heat, and Fire came back outside “What’s all the shouting about?”
“Nothing, Uncle Heat. Just a little teenage disagreement. Sorry.”
“See you guys at the next game, right?”
“You know it, big bro.” said Flash with a double thumbs up. After sharing a brother hug, Fire left the backyard, got in his car and drove away.
Flash faced his best friend with a very serious expression “Comet, it looks like we have something important to do.”