//------------------------------// // The Test // Story: A Spectator's Sentryence // by gapty //------------------------------// One morning, as Flash Sentry was waking up from a well-resting sleep, he saw an indescribable being over his bed. A few features of it were recognisable, as it reached in its height towards the ceiling, it had several multicoloured wings, uncountable eyes in the centre of its body, and what seemed to be a collection of various animal and human legs and arms coming out at seemingly random places. However, these were only the small details the human mind could make sense of; they were only parts of a sight that would burn through the human mind, shatter it into pieces and break the last remaining sanity one had before. And yet, despite him seeing it, his mind didn’t comprehend its look at all, so he simply yawned and stood up, tripping towards the bathroom.  There, he took off his pyjamas and was about to go to the shower, but a bright glow of something around his neck caught his attention. He felt around it and noticed a necklace, so he tried to take it off–to no avail. It was as if it was glued onto him. Flash scratched his head, as his mind tried to make sense of the situation he was currently in. The morning routine demanded him to shower; but to shower, he had to take every piece of clothing and jewellery–which he usually didn’t wear–off himself, but he couldn’t, and any tasks demanding the slightest of problem solving abilities would be too much for his morning state. In desperation, the mind chose to simply forget the necklace and continue the routine. Entering back into his room, Flash saw the being again as it was moving quickly around the room. However, with it was what seemed to be an red coloured light resembling an alicorn–its wings widely spread and from its horn beams of light being shot at the other being.  This was definitely not part of his morning routine–Flash’s mind was sure of it–so it ignored once again the sight and Flash went to his wardrobe to get his clothes. His back towards the both beings, he heard what seemed to be quick slashes, followed by a painful neigh right behind him. Flash put on his cloths and went to his desk to– His eyes looked at a corner of the room where his desk was, or more correctly was supposed to be. It wasn’t empty, being rather the opposite, as there were many broken wood pieces, books, ripped papers and posters and even a broken guitar. But there was no desk with his prepared bag to take to school. Flash looked around and found the bag on the ground, but as soon as he was about to grab it, a cat paw suddenly took it first.  “That’s my toy!” The paw froze in its movement. To understand Flash’s words, one had to know that his mind had connected the sight to a several years old memory where he once visited his aunt and her cat–back then being just a few months old–wanted to steal something of his. The cat paw certainly didn’t know it and was confused, so Flash could take back his bag with ease. Leaving his room, he noticed several flashes of light, but as his morning routine was finished with his room, Flash simply closed the bedroom’s door. Entering the kitchen, Flash went straight to his kettle and turned it on to heat the already prepared water in it. Afterwards, he stumbled to his fridge to take out his breakfast, which he put on the table to later eat it. Suddenly, the sound of crashing and falling objects was heard, and if he judged it correctly, it must have come from the same room as he was currently in. As if to confirm it, he saw repeated flashes of light, almost blinding him. Nonetheless, since his mind was tired from the chaotic morning by now, Flash simply turned towards the kettle to pour himself the hot water into a cup, where the teabag was already prepared. He went towards the fridge again to get the milk for his tea, but as soon as he returned to his cup, he couldn’t find it anymore. He scratched the back of his head. Sure, Flash didn’t have the best morning state, but there was no way he would forget to prepare a tea before getting the milk. Even worse, his kettle was gone, not even speaking of the kitchen plate, which seemed to be broken in half as shards of plates and cups laid on the ground. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a painful neigh again, but as it was somehow connected to the disappearance of the annoying flashes, his mind accepted it and decided to skip the tea making part–even if it meant that it would take Flash a longer time to come back to his senses–and move on to the breakfast– Flash groaned, as he saw that everything that he prepared for the breakfast was on the ground, while parts of the table were sticking out the window–however that had happened. His mind had the first coherent thought of connecting the state of the kitchen to the two beings he saw that slashed their paws or shot flashing lights at each other; but as logical as that thought was, it was the only smart one, as the follow up was to connect it to a memory of when he accidentally stumbled into a rehearsal of the drama club. “Oops, sorry, I didn’t know you were practising here.” Flash left the kitchen, where sudden quick sequences of flashing lights were coming from, and sat on the couch in the living room. His mind was exhausted, not only from the constant distractions and the random, unexplainable incidents, but also from not getting the morning routine done. How else did it know without Flash’s consciousness what to do? It knew to get a breakfast and afterwards to go to school, but with the breakfast gone, should it even do anything? Should Flash just go back to sleep and repeat the morning routine? Would then the kitchen return to a normal state? The sudden explosion coming from there seemed to indicate the opposite. However, his attention was caught by the sight of six glowing geodes on the table. Each had their own colour, and each glowed sometimes brighter, sometimes weaker. Occasionally, the pink one glowed brighter and the sounds of an explosion was heard; occasionally, the purple or the white one glowed and the sounds of objects crashing into each other was heard. As his mind decided that it had by now nothing better to do, Flash watched with a mild interest the light spectacle of the geodes.  After a while, suddenly each of them glowed in an even brighter light than before, before they faded and lost their glowing. At least the sounds and flashing from the kitchen stopped too. When Flash came back to his senses, the first thing he noticed was that he had an unusual cup of tea in his hands, as, while it was still a well done tea, it had no milk in it. The second thing was that he still wasn’t on his way to school, but in the living room on his couch, and looking at the time revealed that he was certainly late for the first lesson. The last thing was the mess in the kitchen, which he could see from where he sat: it was the biggest mess, as if something blew up there, and—since when was there a hole in the ceiling? He sighed, as he realised that there must have been a fight in his house, which he must’ve missed, but he was sure that the Rainbooms had dealt with it already. But still, why was he always so “lost” in the mornings? Why couldn’t he remember anything? There had been the chance for him to become important, to be useful, but he was sure that he had only been a burden for the girls, as they’ve gloriously fought the danger in his house. Suddenly, he saw a yellow hand offered to him, and looking to his right, he saw a smiling Sunset Shimmer. “Good morning, hero.” He looked confused at the girl sitting next to her. What was she doing here? His mind recalled the last days, remembering the state she had been before. “Wait, you’re back to being human!” Sunset laughed. It was a heartwarming laugh, something that, while seemingly coming from him having said something stupid, was a genuine, friendly laugh with not bad intentions. “Glad to see that you’re still slow in the morning,” she said and took a sip from her own cup—knowing her, presumably coffee. “Huh?” He scratched the back of his head, before taking another sip. It was silent, as they remained sitting wordlessly on the couch, but the atmosphere was relaxed—well, as relaxed as one could be seeing your destroyed kitchen. Admittedly, he nonetheless enjoyed the moment of them sitting together in silence. It reminded her of his first days in their previous relationship, where he had been slowly coming back to his senses and realised that her girlfriend had been with him the whole time in the morning. At last, the memories from yesterday came slowly back, and when he made gasping noises, he heard Sunset giggle again. “Here we go,” she said. “Wow,” was all he could say.  “Yep. You can’t imagine how relieved I am that the plan worked.” “I bet you’re also happy that you’re back.” “I am,” Sunset responded. “But honestly, I’m more happy that you, my friends, the CHS-students, and everyone who helped to defeat it came through it harmlessly. This was something we seven were far from able to deal with alone.” Flash took another sip, as they remained quiet for a while. “So, uhm,” he bit his lip, “could I ask why you had to be on the other side?” Sunset’s expression hardened immediately, as her eyes widened. Her chest moved quicker and quicker from her breathing. Suddenly, she shook her head. “Let’s—Let’s not talk about what it did to me.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m sure that words wouldn’t be able to describe even a quarter of it, and I really don’t want to remember it.” Flash nodded, not feeling left out from being kept in the dark—her reaction did explain more than enough for him. He kept the silence between them, until Sunset’s breathing got back to normal and she had calmed down . “Do you know that, uhm—” “I do,” Sunset replied. “Applejack told me about what you saw in it.” “Oh.” Flash gave a nervous smile. “Can I ask, well, how do you feel about it?” “I don’t know yet, honestly. Twilight told me that many students have seen at least one of the Rainbooms in it, which would probably explain how it got here. A collective, shared doubt.” “Many?” Sunset nodded. “That’s—kind of a relief,” he muttered, but then saw her stare at her. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” “Mhm.” She gave a slight grin. “I didn’t mean that—I—I am relieved that I’m not the only one, you know? Maybe it’s wrong to want others to feel the same—” “Flash,” Sunset put a hand on his shoulder, “any feelings and doubts are okay to have. Don’t be ashamed of them.” He sighed. “Well, they don’t make sense though, you know? What deal do I have feeling left out when you get Equestrian magic? How is it your fault?” Sunset didn’t reply, and Flash remained quiet, thinking over all the thoughts the being had put into him. Back then, they all felt real to him, as if they were his own thoughts, but now? Was he really that depressed? Or did it just understand how to manipulate him and grow the few insecurities he had? It was probably the latter, he hoped. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” Sunset said, “maybe it’s all your own fault, or it’s Starswirl’s who created the portal. I don’t think that—in this case—you have to search for who’s fault it is, but to talk about your feelings, to not let them stay inside you and eat you up. Truth be told, you seemed weird around us for a while already, as if you feared us.” “I did?” Flash looked away. “Yep. You stopped texting me and avoided me whenever possible.” “Now that you say it, I really did.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.” “Nothing to apologise, Flash. Whenever you need an open ear, know that I am always happy to listen to you.” “Really?” “Of course, that’s what friends do.” His eyes widened. She saw a friend in him. He wasn’t forgotten. “Can we sit for a little longer?” He asked. “Just for ten more minutes, then we have to go to school.” Flash groaned. “Are you kidding me?” “No. Principal Celestia agreed on you missing out on the morning classes, but when the construction workers come, you could as well be in class.” “Construction workers?” “Well, who else will fix your kitchen?” “Fair point. But who pays them?” “Insurance.” He laughed. “No wonder the fees are getting so high around here.” After school, Flash felt a tap on his shoulder and, turning around, saw Derpy before him. “Hello, Derpy!” he greeted her. “Hello, Flash!” she said with her cheerful voice. “Thank you for defeating this being!” “Oh, it was nothing, literally.” He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t even remember it happening.” “But it was you, so you’re the hero!”  He was flattered from the praise, but he felt it wasn’t deserved. “I wasn’t the only one after all, and if I wouldn’t have been saved on that day before from it, I wouldn't have even survived. Plus, you and others helped keep it in place while I recovered, so it was a team effort from everyone.” “Sure, but I still wanted to give you a gift.” She gave him a chocolate bar and an envelope. “Oh, uhm, thanks, but—” “Just take it.” She smiled. “You deserved it.” He took the gift. “See you tomorrow then!” she said and walked away. “Bye!” he said, before turning his view towards the envelope. It had his name written on it. Curiously, he opened it, wondering what was written in there.