The next morning, Sunset Shimmer was sitting on Flash when the alarm clock rang, staring with a blank expression right in his eyes. And yet, his mind didn’t register the unicorn on him, so when he was about to pull off the blanket from him, he felt a weight preventing it. With a yawn he let go of the blanket and rolled out of the bed, keeping the unicorn with his hands on her position.
He strolled to the bathroom, not noticing Sunset walking right behind, who still kept her eyes on him. In a comedic timing, he slammed the bathroom door right on her face. The next moment, the unicorn’s horn lit up in a red aura, and suddenly the door opened. With lowered eyebrows and a raised upper lip, she stomped with her right hoof on the ground.
“Close the door, mum.”
The words, muttered by Flash, who forgot in his current state that he lived alone, left the unicorn acceptably confused, and as she didn’t make any attempt to follow his request, he closed the door himself.
“I‘m already a big boy!”
Sunset stared for a long time into nothing in particular, in this case at the door, wondering what was going on in the mind of this teen boy and if his words had any bigger implications. She shouldn’t have, but trying to make sense of the words left her in this immovable and speechless state—not like if Sunset had spoken anything as a unicorn at Flash’s home—for such a long time, that she was already alone in his house when her eyes recognised that right before her nose was the wooden door.
During lunch break, Flash sat at a table next to the Rainbooms, trying to see how the group of friends reacted to the absence of Sunset Shimmer. Unexpectedly for him, they were calm, and while they weren’t joking as much and he could hear some serious undertone in their voices, no one said a single word about their seventh friend. He thought that at least Fluttershy would drop a few words regarding her new state, considering her incomparable, if not even obsessive, love for animals.
He knew that they had everything in control, but he still wanted to know what caused Sunset to be a unicorn living in his house, so he mustered up his courage and approached them.
However, his attempt was disrupted by an explosion. Granny ran out of the kitchen while a dishwasher with cables as its arms jumped after her. Too big for the door, it ripped down the wall around it. Immediately the Rainbooms ‘ponied up’ and ran towards the newly possessed object to defeat it.
Flash sighed and crawled out of the cafeteria, dodging the plates the dishwasher monster threw. He shouldn’t distract the heroes, nor be a burden to their life saving duties.
Maybe he could write a message? It would be a good idea, but he feared that it would be buried among the many messages the Rainbooms surely got being so popular.
He shook his head. He just had to wait for the right time, even if he didn’t know if it would come sooner or later.
Entering his home, he heard the sound of the TV from the living room being on. Interestingly enough, it was the same mystery show, an episode he couldn’t recall having seen before, even if it seemed familiar.
“Hello, Sunset,” he greeted her.
The unicorn turned her face towards him, before turning shortly after her view back to the TV without any reaction.
“So, uhm,” he scratched the back of his head, “there was a magically possessed dishwasher at school, but no worries, your friends could defeat it and didn’t get hurt.”
The unicorn flinched her ears, but her eyes remained on the TV.
He sighed. Whatever the transformation did to Sunset, it made her less approachable than before—not like she hadn’t remained her distance from him, but he could at least talk to her and she would respond. However, she couldn’t do anything about it, he tried to reason, since, as a unicorn, she couldn’t talk, but he hoped to get at least a little thanks for letting her stay here in his house—or just even have her acknowledge his existence.
No, he shouldn’t think like that. He should be grateful that she chose his house to reside in her current state, that in all that chaos of Equestrian magic changing the world and needing heroes to get it in control, his unnoticeable appearance was seen worthy of taking that little help he could offer.
“Won’t your friends come over one day?”
It was a reasonable question in his mind, as there was no way her friends wouldn’t want to visit her. In fact, he wondered why they hadn’t visited her yesterday, since they would definitely be interested in knowing how Sunset was taking her new state, but who was he to judge? Surely they were busy taking care of a new threat.
As Sunset didn’t react to that question, he sighed and sat down on the couch next to her. The TV was airing an episode he hadn't seen before, so he could as well watch it with Sunset.
There were several public critics on the mystery show, as it tried to prove that certain creatures exist and pointed out any evidence that would support it, while neglecting the facts disproving them, but Flash just enjoyed the exploration and learning about the “legendary” beings. Oftentimes he wondered if any of those beings came through the portal, but he never came around asking Sunset if she had heard about their existence. If the portal is a mirror portal, what if it also mirrored the beings?
Maybe Sunset was watching this show for this exact reason. He was impressed by her selflessness, taking the free time to research any new creatures that might be possibly related to her home world—although there wasn’t probably anything else to do in his home for her, but still, it was time valuably spent.
Unlike him.
He couldn’t do anything for the world.
When the episode ended, he turned to the unicorn, only to back up in surprise, as her eyes were fixated on him. Since when did she stare at him? Was she trying to say something?
As she kept staring at him in her sitting position, he leaned back and slowly stretched out his hand towards her head. Was it dehumanising to pet a human transformed into a cat-sized unicorn? He got the answer when Sunset raised her hoof to push the hand away. Of course it was dehumanising; he also wouldn’t like to be treated like a pet if he got transformed into one, so why would it be different for Sunset—not even considering that this body was the one she was born with.
However, Sunset suddenly stood up and climbed on his chest, as he was almost laying, and laid there, her eyes staring into his own. He couldn’t make any sense of this action, especially that deadpan expression the unicorn had the whole time, while her eyes were barely blinking. Coming to think of it, did she even blink at all? Maybe it wasn’t an Equestrian thing to blink.
Whatever Sunset was doing, his thoughts were suddenly running, recalling all the events he had with her. The first time she went to school, the first weeks where she acted all weird—now explainable with her coming from another world—the first months where she rose in popularity, the turning point where she saw the school as a ruling ground and started her bullying path, the first time she asked him out to be together—
Him being a young teenager, he agreed, as Sunset was attractive. It wasn’t really him being in love yet, as he was still discovering all the new feelings coming with puberty, and Sunset just saw in him a tool to become more popular, which honestly hurt him when he found it out.
Then came Twilight Sparkle—the Princess one. He heard that love at first sight didn’t exist, but he thought that this was exactly what had happened. However, his fate was cruel to him, as his interest in a romantic relationship turned out to be destined to fail. As to make it crueller, later on this world’s Twilight appeared, daily in his sight, not being remotely interested in him.
A reminder for what he would never get.
Nonetheless, he had accepted his fate and dropped his hope in getting his love returned. What else could he do anyway? Even if he crossed the portal, Twilight was a Princess, and he was just a highschool boy.
Well, he hoped to get a second chance with Sunset, one where both were more mature and, most importantly, the former bully being reformed. Was it to get distracted from Twilight? Was it to clinch into anything connected with Equestria, the world where the Princess came from? It didn’t matter anyway, as Sunset was caught up in all the new and fun activities with her new best friends, and he could see that she wasn’t interested in more than just a friendship with him. Besides, she rose into a hero status by defeating anything possessed with Equestrian magic, becoming someone others looked up to whenever unexplainable danger arrived in this city. He was happy for her to have found her destiny.
He just wished he had one too.
As his thoughts were turning and spinning around, the unicorn kept staring at him, and, if he saw it correctly, her horn was surrounded in a faded red aura.
Wasn’t he considered popular? Just what happened after the Fall Formal with him? He knew the answer: After Fall Formal, Sunset’s pedestal crumbled; everyone saw who she was truly all along, and with him having been together with her, his credibility fell too. No one wanted to do anything with him anymore. Everyone saw in him a former minion who had helped Sunset’s terror. At least his closest friends remained, but he missed when his other classmates would casually talk with him too.
If only he lived back with his parents. If only he had someone to talk to about his confused and weird feelings.
If only he wasn’t alone.
But it didn’t matter. He was just someone caught up in a story of superheroes, while he was destined to remain in the background, getting ignored, being irrelevant, being forgotten. He was a nobody. He was—
The doorbell rang, ripping him from his thoughts. He moved his arms to put the unicorn away, but she raised her hoof and pushed the arm away.
“But the doorbell—”
She gently put his hoof on his lips.
Right, it didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. He was a nobody. He was worthless.
Her eyes remained on him, while the red aura around the horn brightened. The silence was only interrupted by his occasional coughing, as he felt weaker with each minute.
Any success?
No. We’re searching everywhere, other students ask among their families or other friends. Principal Celestia notified Crystal Prep and Candance promised that their school is looking for it, but we didn’t find it.
I hate being stuck here. I wish to be helpful.
You are! You try to find more information about it.
Yes, but I doubt we’ll find more than the few notes we already have. Please, be careful.
Don’t worry, Sunset, we’ll find and defeat it!