Thunder was heard in the distance, the sky grey of smoke. A building was burning fiercely in the city, a scream was heard somewhere within the burning structure. The scene changed from the exterior of the building to the interior of a room.
There were three figures, stallions, that were surrounded by the dancing flames. One of the stallions was laying on loose floorboards, conscious yet injured and covered with sratches on his grey coat, his darker grey mane covering his eyes. The other two figures were apparently in the middle of a fight, both giving and receiving blows from the other. One of the figures was a unicorn, but it was hard to tell what he looked like with the flames surrounding him and his opponent, the only feature that could be seen from the unicorn was his deep red dragon-like eyes. The third stallion was a pegasus whose features were more visible than the unicorn's, for he had a blue mane and tail with an orange coat, teal eyes and a cutie mark of a blue shield with a thunder cloud in the center.
As the two were fighting, they didn't notice a fourth pony present in the burning room watching the two fighting figures with fear and horror as he stood there frozen.
The stallions seemed to be talking, perhaps taunting the other. Their battle going from scratches and bruises to more major injuries as the Pegasus had to dodge a blow by rolling to the side. The unicorn took his chance and stomped his front hooves on the pegasi's right wing.
A cry of agony and pain errupted from the pegasus as he attempted to shove his opponent off of his wing. He slowly recovered, shaking as he stood up to face the unicorn.
Before the unicorn could react, the pegasus swiftly turned and lifted his hind legs in a bucking motion. The unicorn had enough time to duck his down, but not fully as the hooves made impact on the unicorn's horn.
A snap was heard through the crackling flames, followed by a cry of agony and deep growl of rage.
The pegasus turned to face the unicorn, preparing to fight back, but something caught his eye as he turned back to see that one thing.
His teal eyes showed shock and worry as he stared at the form standing in the doorway, in a shaky and weak voice, he spoke one word.
"Flash?"
The pegasus wasn't even looking when the unicorn came and shoved him into a burning wall that fell on his impact.
The unicorn's burning red eyes turned to the doorway where the pegasus stared at, finding a young pegasus colt staring wide-eyed, noting that the colt looked like the stallion he was currently fighting.
A lightning bolt sparked, showing more features of the unicorn, mainly the teeth with sharp fangs and the horn that was broken,the tip coloured red from the blood in the horn, known as magic blood which sometimes stains a unicorn's horn.
Aside from those two features, the rest were forgotten right away!
The unicorn was about to approach the scared colt, but was shoved to the ground by the pegasus.
The pegasus looked to the colt before calling out to him. "Take Starswirl and get out, Flash!"
The colt opened his mouth to object, but soon obeyed his father's command and galloped to the unicorn that laid a few meters away from the brawling stallions.
Flash nudged at him, a low moan coming from the now conscious stallion. Flash crawled under Starswirl's left hoof so that he could drag the unicorn out of the building.
He made it a couple of meters until the old pony finally stood, a bit shakily and limped with young Flash supporting him until they made it out of the building, greeted by two earth pony mares.
One of the mares had tears in her eyes as she embraced Flash who looked back to the burning building. "What about dad?" He whimpered.
After talking to the mysterious figure, Cadence confronted the two pegasi.
It turned out their names were Flash and Fluttershy Sentry and that they were siblings when she had mistaken them for a couple.
She did ask if they could sing, and Fluttershy was nervous when Cadence asked that, but she assured the dancer that she can sing if both she and Flash were singing, which comforted Fluttershy more.
Flash was hesitant at first since it was a long time since he last sang, so Cadence asked for a preview of the siblings singing the song piece she had with her.
They complied, and by the time they reached the second verse, lots of ponies had been listening and watching them, and it was clear who the new opera singers were.
After the siblings were finished the song, they were showered by the applause of the stagehooves, the dancers, even the patrons.
After that, they were taken to a room in the opera house by a light orange unicorn with a mane and tail that resembled fire, later introducing herself as Sunset Shimmer. The room Sunset took the siblings to had one large area that was a living room and was supposed to lead to two separate bedrooms. In other words, it was huge and seemed really fancy.
Currently, Flash and Fluttershy were settling into their new living quarters, Fluttershy was chatting with Sunset while Flash opened a letter from their little sister who was in Ponyville.
"Dear Flash and Fluttershy,
How is it at the opera house and Canterlot? I wish you guys weren't as busy so that you could come to Ponyville. Sweet Celestia, you missed a lot, 'cause I just got my cutie mark, so did my friends Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, 'cause we have the same cutie mark! I know it's only a couple of days 'til I come back to Canterlot, but family appreciation day is coming up and I was hoping one of you would come to Ponyville to be there, and maybe tell my classmates a story from the past? Because Applebloom's granny told our class of the founding of Ponyville.
I'll see you guys soon.
Scootaloo"
It was true that Scootaloo stayed at Ponyville on weekdays, but it was because the schools in Canterlot were expensive and the school in Ponyville was cheaper, and on weekends both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle take the train to Canterlot because Sweetie had an older sister that also worked at the opera house.
Flash immediately took out a roll of paper and a quill then, using his mouth, started to write a reply.
"Dear Scootaloo,
It's amazing to hear that you finally got your cutie mark, and I can't wait to see it. As much as we'd like to come for Family Appreciation Day, I'm afraid we can't because we have some good news as well; your sister and I have become the newest singers of the opera house. So we might be busy, but I can still send you a story! Recently, I heard the legend of the two sisters and how they lived in Canterlot long before you were born, heck, long before your sister was born! I'll write it on a separate sheet for you.
Sincerely,
Flash."
So Flash got out another sheet of paper and wrote the story he promised, then he quickly gave it to the mail mare then returned to their quarters in what is his new bedroom. It had a large bed, a chair with a side table, a bookshelf that was full stocked on books, a door that led to a balcony ( he assumed his sister had a balcony in her room as well.), a closet with lots of tuxedos and a few jackets, and finally a full length mirror.
It would take a while for him to get used to the space of the new quarters. As he was thinking about that, he suddenly realized that Fluttershy and Sunset had gone quiet since he returned from his errand. He thought about going to check on the two mares, but assumed either they fell asleep or left the quarters.
What he didn't know was that the mirror was partially open and there was a note from Fluttershy that said specifically:
Flash,
Sunset and I found a passage way behind the mirror and decided to investigate. We'll be back as soon as we find out where it leads.
Fluttershy.