//------------------------------//
// Clubbing 
// Story: A New Flashlight 
// by Neroson40 
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	Flash Sentry POV
After school I started hearing things About Chief. None of them were bad, though there was some speculation that he was either a cheater, or a genius (or had a supercomputer implanted into his brain, which I highly doubted, considering the nature of Equestria). All the friends I had who were in any classes with him said that he slept through ninety-eight percent of the class, and the other two percent was to answer a question… done faster than Rainbow Dash runs a mile according to Twilight. The only class he actually pays attention in would be our World History class.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“In Equestria, you learn all this stuff by ten,” He explained. “The only difference in the curriculum here I can find is in the History. Sure the names and events might be similar, but I’d still like to learn the differences in our two histories.” I could relate… except for the part about learning everything by age ten, humans don’t do that. History and Music were my strongest subjects by far, but I was always interested by what happened Years ago. Maybe turning it into music for younger generations, who knows? Okay that dream may be more than a little silly, but so is a world of wild roses and that’s a dream for the bravest and the most determined.
I called Starlight to say that I was going to be at Twilight’s for a couple hours. I could tell she was not too happy with the idea, but she told me it was fine… she was not going to believe that I was bringing “me” with me, either that or take it the wrong way. I saw Twilight and her friends get up to get off at their stop (Wow, they even lived close to each other). So, Chief and I followed. They each had a class with him (Besides history… that was with me) and got a chance to meet him (and Tenebrae but that’s another story). We made it to Twilight’s place, and her sister-in-law, Cadance came out and hugged her, greeted me and stopped short at Chief.
“I’m from ‘outta town.’” he said. And it seemed that Cadance understood that this happened before. “Call me Master Chief.” They shook hands.
“Well, Twilight tells me you have two other friends coming,” she said. “Who could they be?”
“Um…” We were all a little hesitant. But we decided… to let Twilight tell her. And Cadance’s jaw wouldn’t come up for another ten minutes.
“Why Shining!?” She said.
“Because he knows a thing or two that will help Flash here get his memory back,” Chief said. “Or, more accurately, help me get his memory back in his head. Don’t ask, long story!” then Tenebrae appeared behind Chief and by the look of it, gave Cadance a heart attack… Twilight calmed her down, and Tenebrae said something… odd to her.
“Hello Cadence, your family’s future is looking bright as always.”
“You have a kid?” I asked.
“She’s pregnant,” Twilight corrected.
“Two months?” Chief guessed.
“How did you-?”
“You’re also two month’s pregnant in my world,” He said. That was left to sink in for a minute
“Anyway,” Tenebrae said. “I came here to deliver the locations of Flash’s Memory Keys, which we’ll need in order to restore his memory.”
“Why can’t we just find the person who did this and make her fix it?” I asked.
“Finding her would take quite a while and many tools, both of which we do not have,” that did answer that. “Here’s the list.” He handed Chief a piece of paper, which he handed to Cadence to see if she recognized anything on the list.
“Well this first one’s a problem,” she said.
“Why’s that?” Twilight asked.
“It’s the Cider Barryl,” She said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A night club, you guys aren’t getting in for five years.”
“The Portal set is in the club, so Master Chief is the one with that problem,” Tenebrae said. “The Key is just in the general vicinity. So Flash will just want to meet Shining and Zore there.”
“Another problem, it’s an exclusive club for high society and military.”
Chief looked, um… how do I put it?... Ponderous? Yeah, ponderous at the thought of how he was going to get in.
“Can I at least look five years older?” He asked no one in particular.
“I can make you look twenty-one,” Tenebrae said. “But that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be military or high society.”
“I can get in without that,” he assured, though he didn’t seem to sure himself. “I just need to look older until I get into the Breaklands.” Cadance looked very confused, but Twilight assured that she could go her whole life without understanding, but if she still wanted to know she’d explain as best she could.
A couple hours later, Chief was walking up to the doors of the Cider Barryl. We already told him a few rules to avoid trouble with these places.
1: Don’t drink anything. Every beverage in the club has an ingredient called alcohol and that would lead to impaired judgement, blurred vision, and a few other symptoms that I couldn’t remember off the top of my head. Besides, there are some people whose livers don’t clear out alcohol and he could die from alcohol poisoning, that’d be bad on more levels than convenience.
2: Don’t look at the dancers. He already had a girlfriend and the last thing we wanted was him getting in trouble with her for anything, especially what goes on in there.
3: Get in, reach the Breaklands, and get out of the building. The tattoo that Chief showed us would help convince people he’s twenty-one at least, but he didn’t want to blow it.
With all that Cadence reluctantly drove us to the Cider Barryl dropped us off, and waited in the nearby parking lot. We met up with Shining and Zore, whose mouth for some reason I can’t remember seeing move (among other things) and they handed Chief a small bottle.
“Only open it when you find the Portal set,” Shining said. “I have to warn you though, if you’re not dragged into the Breaklands, your entrance is gonna be a little… strange.”
Chief nodded and approached the Club with a cocky sway to his walk. Everyone else went up the fire escape to the roof of the nearest apartment building. I prayed this would go well.