//------------------------------// // Flash Headroom // Story: Equestria Girls: Secrets Beyond the Stars // by GoldenGoomba900 //------------------------------// Rarity shifted into Inapan's form, smiling brightly as she entered the teleportation pod that Twilight handled with ease. Fluttershy and Applejack waited patiently for it to cool down, striking up conversation. "So, Twilight, what do you think'll happen if Princess discovers we all had relationships with Flash?" Applejack pondered curiously. Twilight paused briefly and shook her head. "Well, Applejack given that my fields of expertise are paranormal and engineering. I haven't the slightest professional opinion." Twilight began. "But if I were to hazard a guess, she'd no longer see us as collectible power sources and, change her views to "moving targets" judging by her psychotic tenancies and Napoleon complex." "So you mean she'd-" "She'd kill us until we are dead, then channel her rage to destroy everyone we loved or cared about, living or otherwise." "Maybe we should rethink this plan..." Fluttershy suggested just as she was teleported away. "Relax, how likely would it be for her to realize we were Flash's former lovers. If she did find out, she'd probably target the ones who got the furthest with him rather than someone like me or you." Twilight reasoned. "So, where would that put Sunset Shimmer?" "Somewhere between a firing squad and the blast radius of an atomic bomb." Twilight zapped Applejack in and began working on the panel to get herself in. In the lab, Tested released the clone Sentry. He was slightly taller than Flash, and his hair was for more pointed. He had a set of six-pack abs and a smile as pure as the winter snow. He moved unusually, like he hadn't quite gotten the point of knees and elbows. His eyes were the most jarring difference however, their soulless piercing glare of black and white gloss. "Hey there!" came the soulless, heartless voice of the simulated man. "We've got to stop bumping into each other like this!" Tested paused, mortified and shoved it back in the tube. "Yeah, let's change a few things." The girls wandered the ship, shuddering as the cold, dull metal interior provided the feeling of not being in an actual location, but in some kind of mechanical beast. "This place gives me the creeps" Applejack mumbled. "Let's get to Flash, find that stuff, and get out." "It's just not natural. It needs a carpet or some paneling at the very least." Rarity muttered as she began into the ship, leaving the others behind. Finally, Tested pushed out the new and improved Flash clone out into the ship. It looked like Flash, but slightly shorter, and a moderately more punchable face. With every piece of code and programming hastily jammed in the specimen's body, it made its first few clumsy steps into the brave new world. "Ah, Flash, darling!" Rarity's voice came from behind Flash before she cleared her throat and attempted to impersonate Inapan. "I mean, Flash, honey, there you are!" "Uh... right uh, I had a question, j-just gimme uh," the boy stalled in an unusual manner, rubbing his head. "What's for dinner? Yeah, that's it!" "Spam and Bacon. Lead the way." Rarity began pushing Flash forwards, leaving the confused clone to do what she tells him. "Come now Flash, you can't leave Sunset Shimmer waiting!" "Sunset Shimmer..." The Flash stand-in repeated, in a daze. "Yes! Sunset Shimmer!" He said in glee, turning the tables and dragging Rarity along instead. "I cannot wait for the Sunshine Shammer to come and give me her worn embrace once more! It is a joy-joy-joyful experience!" "Flash are you feeling alright darling, you seem a bit off." She pointed out the obvious, taking out her phone in an attempt to dial the others for backup. "Here we are! Library and archives!" The sentry shouted, shoving Rarity through the metal door. "Can I come back with you?" He asked, giddily. "I w-w-want to be with Moonshine Stiller again." "That's Sunset Shimmer, darling. Maybe I should bring you with, so Twilight can take a good look at you." Gathering the blueprints laid out a bit too obviously, Rarity grabs Flash by the arm and brings him to the group by the teleporter. Sure they were probably fakes, but she felt Flash might be the more important factor here. "Girls, I think something is wrong with Flash." Rarity said, the boy unblinkingly staring at Twilight. "...Are you sure he's not dead?" Applejack asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face, with no reaction. "That is odd. Flash, tell me what you're thinking." Twilight began. "Twilight! You're purple!" The group looked at one-another worried. "Did Inapan do this to you, darling?" Rarity asked, passing the blueprints to Twilight to analyze. "Pri-pri-Princess had nothing to do with this, Rareware." He said calmly. "I haven't even met her yet!" Tested, who had a mic planted on the clone just let her face sink into her gloves, making a mental note to not rush programming clones from this point on. "Furthermore, you look like a wonderful humen bean." He directed this comment at Fluttershy while Twilight wisely sent Applejack to the teleporter. "Applejack, I'll need you and Rarity to escort Flash to camp, I think they've brainwashed him or something. Sunset Shimmer's dealt with these kinds of spells, hasn't she? Rarity, these aren't the blueprints. I'll go back to where Flash lead you and try to find my blueprints. Fluttershy can come help." "Well," as the group began splitting up, Tested removed her head from her gloves, relaxing slightly. "At least I can hear their plans once they bring him to camp." Getting up and setting the equipment to record, Tested moved back to the medical bay, to view the real Flash's progress. "That is not Flash." Sunset said after one glance at the clone. "Yes I am, Sandwich Stairmaster." The clone pleaded. "I have l-l-loved you since the day I was born! All ten minutes ago!" "Yeah, no. You guys play your stupid games all you want I'm going to sleep." She ducked into the tent, zipping it up behind her. As Flash tried to enter the tent, failing to understand the concept of a zipper, Pinkie, Applejack, Spike, Rarity, and Rainbow watched. "Was Flash always like this?" Rainbow asked. "Because we didn't hang out much and..." "Of course not, silly!" Pinkie began. "Flash would only bump into walls and doors when he was thinking about stuff. He's clearly not thinking at all right now." "I can hear you from here, you know!" Flash said, continuing to try and figure out how zippers work. "No you can't!" Pinkie retorted. "If you say so!" "Yeah, that's definitely not him." Rarity shook her head. "A pity, I'm sure Sunset would have been overjoyed." "Her name is Samwell!" Flash corrected. "Sure it is, darling." Rarity shook her head. "But he clearly can't be left alone." "And we're doing too much important things to keep an eye on him." Spike nodded. "Didn't you guys talk about being bored of training all the time?" Rainbow asked. "Would YOU like to watch Fl- Flash, don't touch that!" She calls over to the boy, who went on to touch the fire anyways, with no reaction. "Fair point. We need someone to keep him out of our hair." Pinkie said as the fire spread all over Flash, who didn't seem bothered by it. "What about those Crystal Prep girls?" Rainbow suggested. "They owe us for pressuring Twilight into a demon." "Are you sure? They might be a bad influence on him." Applejack asked as Spike noticed the event unfolding in the back. "What are you, his mom?" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "He just needs to have someone looking over him, as long as they have some kind of common sense he'll be fine." Spike returned with a bucket of water and tried giving it to Flash, who stared at the dog, confused. "Alright, I guess we'll ask Twilight for their numbers when she gets back, since we don't have much other ideas, what with Shining and Cadence spying on Cinch and the principals working on the school." Applejack sighed as Flash examined the bucket of water. "Flash!" Rainbow called, starling the clone into fumbling the water onto himself. He approached, the girls looking him over. "What happen- nevermind." Applejack cut herself off, not sure she wanted to know. "Flash, we know how much you like Sunset." "Sing-sing," he corrected. "But she's busy and so are we, so we'll be having someone watching you while we work." Rainbow explained in a patronizing tone. "But I don't wanna leave! I wanna stay h-h-here! You're the best friends I ever had, Randal." As the group explained to the unusual being why they wanted to ditch him with a group of people they didn't even like, Tested returned the balance to normal by bringing the normal Flash Sentry outside of his healing tube. The real Flash moaned, holding his head and coughing up the healing liquid. "I keep blacking out and having these terrible nightmares." He explained as his vision unblurred. He was in the medical bay, and before him stood one of the sisters. He wasn't sure which one it was, they'd not been wearing their belt. "How come this keeps happening?" "You see," Tested began. "I think you have a brain problem. Either your universal translator's not hooked up quite right or our meddling with your mind is doing this." "What?!" "Ah, right, I keep forgetting that you're not aware you're being mind controlled. Anyways, long story short, your brain is broken and since you're the only human we know, we'll be opening your father's to see why his is working and yours is not." "What?!" "Relax, it won't kill him, most likely. Besides, you don't want to die, do you?" "But I-" "I don't think you have a choice in the matter anyways. Even if you tell Inapan I know a few things she'd be interested in." She took his phone from her pocket. "Sunset Shimmer was called a short while ago. I'm sure she'd like to hear why you were talking to another woman." "Didn't you say you could mind control me?" "An obedient mind is easier to work... and what mind control?" She snapped her fingers. "Huh?" "Exactly." Just a few rooms over Fluttershy and Twilight dug around the library and archives, looking over items in panels & displays that seemed to follow a backwards and confusing sorting method, and unlike the Dewey Decimal System. Twilight didn't know this one! Had the girls known how to read this mysterious language, they would have found many titles of worth: "Harnessing Phlogistin", "Household Cures to Terrible Intergalactic Diseases", and "How to Cook For Forty Men". But alas, as they dug through video screen after video screen, they found nothing. "Wait." Twilight said, worried. "What if they're already building them...?" "What were on your blueprints, if you don't mind me asking?" "Do you know that device I used to gather your guys' magic back at the games?" "Yes?" "That was just a prototype of a more powerful device. The device in the blueprints was going to sense any kind of energy. Knowing what I do now, that the locket can gather the energy as well, that makes the blueprints a far more dangerous item than I ever thought it would be." "What are the chances the aliens already have that kind of device?" Fluttershy asked, worried. "I really don't want to think about that..."