As Flash used his phone as his alarm clock, he woke up in time for the next day, even if he fell asleep on the couch. There was no need to mention that it was an uncomfortable sleep, and with the additional anxious dreams he had, he woke up with a strong headache. He groaned, waking up the unicorn on his chest in the process, who immediately sat up, stared into his eyes and lit up her horn. However, he didn’t acknowledge her existence and sat up, making the unicorn fall with a smack to the ground.
His eyes wandered around the living room, and Flash tried to make sense why he didn’t see the usual room he had always woken up to. His stomach growled, notifying him that after he came from school, he didn’t eat anything—not even speaking about the burning throat begging him for water. In short, he felt miserable, so he turned towards the kitchen and stumbled over the unicorn on the ground, who remained laying there motionlessly.
In an awakened state, Flash would’ve stopped, apologised to Sunset and taken care of her, but in his—additionally almost sick—state he kept going, letting the confused unicorn stare into nothingness.
In the kitchen, he filled up a cup with water and chugged the substance in, before grabbing a piece of bread on the kitchen counter and stuffing it into his mouth. While he chewed, he walked into his room and followed afterwards his usual morning routine.
When he approached the front door to leave, he couldn’t find the keys to unlock it. Searching around in his somewhat awakened state, he found them on the table in the living room—next to Sunset Shimmer.
As soon as he stretched his hand to grab the keys, a hoof was suddenly above them. Yet, his mind didn’t comprehend this fact and simply grabbed the hoof and pulled it upwards. The unicorn was dandling in the air, as Flash’s eyes were watching the yellow hoof in his hand. After a while, his eyes wandered back to the keys and he took the keys with his other hand.
No matter how much the unicorn was shaking, his grip around her hoof was firm, and the next moment he was outside, carrying Sunset with him without even noticing it.
Soon enough, his burden was noticed by pedestrians that crossed his way, each stopping whatever they’re doing to stare with wide open eyes in his direction. By that time, his mind had slowly come back, and finally he noticed what he was doing with the unicorn.
“Oops! Sorry, Sunset,” he said and immediately put her down. This was embarrassing, surely not only for him, but also for her, being carried around like that. Hopefully it wasn’t painful.
While Sunset sat down, he also noticed the stares of the people around him, each saying absolutely nothing, as their eyes and mouths were wide open, generating an onerous atmosphere. He saw a woman slowly stepping backwards, a child suddenly getting tears in their eyes, a man biting his lip as his legs were shaking—not exactly the reaction he expected from seeing a unicorn on the streets. At least he supposed that they were reacting to Sunset, but several looked above her, which confused him even more.
“Flash?” he heard a quiet voice behind him say.
Turning around, he saw Derpy, having the same kind of expressions as the others.
“Oh, hi Derpy!” he greeted her. “How are you?”
He tried to smile, even though he felt like walking back and falling to his bed. He was surely sick.
“I—” Derpy muttered, her eyes focusing between the unicorn and him. “I wanted—” He saw in her hands a decorated envelope with a name written on it, but she was too far away to make out the letters.
Suddenly, she crumbled the envelope and ripped it apart, as she closed her eyes and looked away.
“Doesn’t matter.” She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “You deserve someone like her.”
She turned around and ran away.
Confused, he looked to Sunset, who simply licked her hoof like a cat. However, once she noticed his stare, she stopped and looked up to him, as her horn was surrounded by a red aura.
Out of nowhere, he coughed. His head went dizzy, his head suddenly felt like being hammered, and his body froze.
Sunset tapped with its hooves on his leg.
“You’re right,” he muttered. “I should stay at home today.”
The unicorn nodded and led the way back to his house.
We finally found it! It lives with Flash!
Flash? Why didn’t he say anything?
Maybe it affected or controlled him, we can’t tell. He was with it shortly outside on his way to school, before he went back to his home with it.
What did it do?
Just what we know already: Everyone saw something else in it. Someone said though that Flash was looking pale.
You need to be with him.
But how? We’ll get affected by it too!
I—
I don’t know, but you have to.
We’re trying to come up with something.
Did you try to message him?
We did. I’m more wondering how he skipped our public announcement. It shows that he read it, so we thought he knew.
If it was in the morning, he wouldn’t remember reading it. He and mornings are—
Wait, this is it!
The last steps towards his front door, Flash stumbled over his own feet and fell to the ground, as his coughing got even worse. After he got a break, he saw up, only to see Sunset at the door with an annoyed expression.
He was too weak.
He took a deep breath and stood up, before he took out the keys with his shaking hands and, after several trials, opened the door. The unicorn just snorted and entered the house, not waiting or even giving a thankful glance at him.
Flash sighed and followed her, before staggering gaspingly to the kitchen and making himself a hot tea. He became sick, he could feel it, but he couldn’t do anything more than drink a lot, eat chicken soup and stay in bed—the way his mother treated his colds before. Hopefully Sunset wouldn’t get infected by him, if she even could with her different body, but as he didn’t want to risk it, he went to his room and closed the door, before laying in multiple layers of blankets on his bed. He felt his phone vibrate, notifying him for new messages, but he was too tired to check them.
However, as he was laying there, he heard the door open and small steps coming nearer to him, the kind of steps only a four legged creature with hooves could make.
“Sunset, I’m sick. Don’t be with me,” he muttered.
She didn’t listen and jumped on the bed, before laying on top of his chest and aiming her face in his direction, as their eyes met again like yesterday. When her horn lit up, he coughed again.
It must’ve meant well by the unicorn, showing her care for him this way, but it didn’t matter. She shouldn’t waste his time for him, whose non-existence would’ve changed nothing. For Sunset, it was different; the world revolved around her, it gave her power, then a fall, only to rise like a phoenix from the ashes with redemption, with new best friends, with magical powers—a second chance.
For him, it had decided that he was not worthy of any attention. He didn’t deserve it for his stupidity of getting together with an attractive bully who has used his position for her personal gain, and he also should’ve known better than having any hope of ever getting into a relationship with a Princess from another world. He made decisions based on looks, so the world punished him—deserved—by throwing at him unreachable visual desires he would never get. Sunset had redeemed herself for her actions, proved in the Battle of the Bands her worth, and what did he do? Asking her out, hoping to get some distraction and another chance in unattainable love.
He was stupid, and he deserved to remain ignored, forgotten and alone. There was no point in picking up his vibrating phone to answer the call. He was glad that Sunset was with him right now, but he wouldn’t be angry at her if she got bored and left him alone, rotting in his room until no one would remember his name, because that’s what he deserved.
He coughed again. His lungs hurt, his throat was burning, and his body was sweating despite freezing. He felt awful. It was the worst kind of cold he ever got, and he should’ve measured his temperature for fever, but he was too weak for it.
It didn’t matter though, as he didn’t matter.