//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 // Story: The Sun of My Heart 2: Love's Flames // by BlueSun52 //------------------------------// Tales of Friendship and Love - Part II Soul stared at what was once his Harley that had been crushed underneath a fallen tree with a blank expression. Ever since Rainbow Dash and Rivet called him to come over to the bookstore, Soul was hoping for an explanation on why he was shoved off of his ride and robbed by Rainbow Dash. But instead, he looked at the motorcycle as the gas and oil that were in it dripped from the cracks and holes of the shattered remains. Soul hadn’t said a word for almost two hours after seeing it, which terrified Rainbow Dash beyond belief. Rivet had called Sunset and told her about the whole situation. She quickly came, only to see Soul’s lifeless, blank expression. She made a few attempts of trying to get Soul to say something, but he didn’t reply or turn away from his bike. The three watched on from a few feet away, hoping that he would eventually say or do something. Of course, while they did so, Soul’s old friend from his old school days, Treble, came along to see the whole event unfold. He introduced himself to the three and found out that Sunset had been dating Soul for almost a full year now. As time went by, they kept watching in stunned silence as they waited for their friend to pull himself together…. or for Rainbow Dash to make a run for it when he snaps and chases after her. Then suddenly, Treble spoke up. “Wow, I have never seen Soul likes this in… ever,” he said. “He must have loved that bike a lot.” “It was his first ride, and he did go though a lot to get it,” Sunset said. “Dash, what exactly were you possibly trying to accomplish when you took Soul’s bike away?” “I told you, I thought that A. K. Yearling was going to come here!” Rainbow Dash explained. “But instead I’m met with disappointment because she wasn’t able to show up.” “And because of that, Soul paid the price,” Rivet said. “I really didn’t think it would be this bad.” “Bad? Do you not see how bad my boyfriend looks right now?” Sunset pointed out. “I have no idea what’s going on inside his head right now!” “Look, we’re sorry, okay? It was sudden of Dash to take his ride like that,” Rivet said. “Hell, it even caught me by surprise.” “Hey, let’s not go pinning this down on me, you helped along,” Rainbow Dash accused. “How?” “...... Shut up.” Suddenly, Soul started to take a deep breath which caught everyone’s attention. Soul then looked back at the group and walked over towards them. He had a blank expression that was hard to read, and all he did was stare down everyone one at a time until his eyes were on Dash. Dash felt nervous when his eyes were focused just on her, and she gulped. “Soul…. Babe…. Are you alright?” Sunset asked nervously. “Yeah, I’m fine,” Soul replied, not taking his eyes off of Dash. “Are you sure? Because you’re looking at my girl like you’re about to do something to her,” Rivet said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt her in any way, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Soul assured. “That’s why it took me two hours just to resist the urge not to harm her in the most inhumane way possible.” “L-Look Soul, if there’s anything that I could do to make it up to you for the way I acted and, well…. got your bike destroyed by two guys I absolutely hate, I’m willing to do that,” Rainbow Dash said. “Just…. please stop looking at me like that.” “Ah huh……… Dash, do you mind if we talk for a bit over in that alley?” Soul asked. “In private.” “Uuuuhh-” “Now,” Soul demanded as he walked off towards the alley and waited for Rainbow Dash by the entrance. Rainbow Dash looked to others for a moment nervously after she gulped again. Taking a deep breath and steeling what little courage she had left, she walked into the alley with Soul following behind her. There was a moment of silence as the others watched the corner of the alley, unable to see either Soul or Rainbow Dash. “Do you think that they’re just going to talk it out?” Rivet asked. “Well, that is normally what Soul would do,” Sunset replied. “I guess this was just something that they needed to do in private since she was the one who stole the bike and why it was there when the tree fell over.” “Besides, I’ve known Soul for a long time; I’m sure that he’s going to take it easy on her,” Treble said with a confident smile. “WHAT THE F***, RAINBOW DASH!?” Soul shouted from the alley. “Or maybe not.” “I MEAN SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE F***!? WHY!? WHY DID MAKE SUCH A DICK MOVE!?” “S-Soul, I-” “NO! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SAY A SINGLE WORD!” Soul yelled. “YOU ARE GOING TO STAND THERE AND TAKE MY GODDAMN YELLING! I WILL TELL YOU WHAT THE F*** I FEEL ABOUT ALL OF THIS AND YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE IT!” The three listened on with shock. Sunset’s mouth was hanging open, Rivet’s eyes went wide, and even Treble looked scared. The yelling kept going on for a long while as seconds began to turn into minutes. As Soul was yelling, Treble coughed into his hand, which caught the attention of the other two. “So eh, mind telling me a bit about some of Soul’s other friends while we wait?” he asked. -Night and Fluttershy- Over by the animal shelter, Fluttershy was once again volunteering her time to help out with the staff. Night was also there to help out as he had been accustomed to coming to the shelter with Fluttershy and enjoying his time there ever since they started going out. Fluttershy was cleaning out the hamster balls while Night was washing one of the puppies with the help of one of the veterinarians there. “You’re doing well, Night,” said Doctor Stable. “Just make sure to keep the soap away from his eyes and everything will be fine.” “Easier said than done,” Night commented. “Brando really likes to splash around in the water.” Doctor Stable chuckled. “Well, he is still a pup, so just do the best you can,” he said. “I’ll be right back, I need to check on something real quick.” Doctor Stable got up and grabbed his lab coat as he walked out of the room, leaving both Fluttershy and Night to themselves with some of the animals. “Thanks so much for coming here, Night,” Fluttershy said. “I’m glad that you were able to come today.” “It’s no problem, Fluttershy. I just wanted to be here with my best girl,” Night said. “And to be with this little fellow too.” He finished washing Brando and was drying him with a towel. *Bark!* Night chuckled as he continued to wipe down Brando. After that, he petted the puppy for a few minutes before picking him up and putting him back in his cage. “You know, maybe I should adopt him. I do enjoy playing with him all the time, and I always wanted to have a dog,” Night said. “I think that sounds like a good idea,” Fluttershy said. “He does get lonely whenever you’re not around.” “I’m just not sure if my mom would go along with it,” Night said. “Maybe if I catch her in her shoe-shopping mood, I could-” “Fluttershy, we need your help,” Doctor Stable said as he walked back into the room. “We just had someone bring in a pit bull, and he’s not in the best of moods. We could use some of your magic touch on him.” “Oh, of course Doctor Stable, I’ll help any way I can,” Fluttershy said before turning to Night. “Nighty, can you do me a favor and make sure all the animals are in their cages? We don’t want any of them to be unlocked like last time when Zero came in and was attack by all the dogs in the room.” “That was a fun day,” Night commented, which earned him a raised brow from Fluttershy. “I mean, yeah, sure, I’ll take care of that.” Fluttershy smiled and went with Doctor Stable to the other room. Night let out a sigh of relief and went to check on the cages. After some time had passed, he had checked almost all of the cages except for one more. He looked to see where it was, but his eyes widened when he saw that it was wide opened. ‘Oh no, tell me he did not get out again!’ Night thought to himself. ‘It’s okay, he’s a very small rabbit, how hard could he-’ Night’s thoughts were interrupted when he felt something hit him in the back of his head. He looked down to see a half-eaten carrot on the ground and looked up to see a white furred rabbit standing on a nearby table with a smug smile on him. Night squinted angrily at the little rabbit. “Angel,” Night said with hate though his teeth. “I don’t know how you got out, but you’re going back in.” Angel stuck his tongue out. “Oh, that’s it!” Night charged at the rabbit and made a grab for it. Angel let out a squeak before jumping out of the way, and Night collided with the table, causing him to fall over to the ground. Night shook his head before seeing Angel hopping away from him. Night gave chase and ran over to capture the white demon. Angel hopped into the insect room where all kinds of bugs were being kept. Right behind him was Night as he slowly walked towards the rabbit and cornered him into a little corner. “Alright, time to put you back in your cage.” Angel made a look that made him look like he was about to faint before he smiled deviously and kicked the wall. The kick caused a jar to fall from its shelf and land right on top of Night’s head. The jar bounced off of his head and landed in his hands before he fell to the ground in a daze. The jar rolled across the floor until it stopped and the top of it popped out. A single brown tarantula crawled out of it, which was none other than Greg himself. He was in a bit of daze before shaking his small head and looking up at Angel who hopped towards him. ‘Hey, couldn’t you have done that some other way? That gave me a headache,’ Greg said. Angel rubbed the back of his head and gave a sheepish smile. ‘So, what are you doing out here anyway?’ Greg asked. ‘Is it time to get out of here again?’ Angel made a few gestures about what was going on and after a moment, Greg nodded. ‘Ah, I see. Well, you better get outta here then,’ Greg suggested. ‘Because I think he’s waking up.’ Night let out a moan as his eyes started to open. Angel gasped and hopped away from Greg while he still had the chance. Greg on the other hand had an idea. ‘Hmmm, I wonder…’ Greg crawled over to Night’s head and crawled inside of his hair. Night, unaware of Greg’s presence in his hair, got back up and rubbed the top of his head where the jar had hit him. “Oh man, that hurt,” he said to himself. “I should really be careful whenever I corner that rabbit.” “Oh Angel, whatever are you doing out of your cage?” Fluttershy said outside of the room. Walking into the room with Angel in her arms, she looked down to see Night sitting up on the floor. “Goodness, are you alright, Night? You look like you were hurt by something.” “Yeah, I was just trying to get Angel until for some random reason, one of the jars fell off,” Night replied. ‘If I told her that Angel was the reason for that, she would never believe me. That stupid rabbit has everyone believing that he’s so innocent.’ “Oh my, we should be more careful then. Who knows what other jars could be misplaced and could fall down?” Fluttershy said. “I better let Mr. Stable know about this.” “Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Night said. “We should get Angel back in his cage and then we can go on home,” Fluttershy said. “Do you mind picking up that jar there and making sure nothing came out of it?” “Sure.” Night picked up the jar and carefully looked to see if there was anything in there. After carefully looking in it, he looked around the room to see if anything was crawling around, but he saw nothing and presumed that the jar was empty from the start. Soon Fluttershy and Night were done with everything and were on their way back home. However, as they were walking down the sidewalk, they saw Soul, Sunset, Rainbow Dash, Rivet and someone else they’d never met gathered around a tree that looked like it smashed something. The two looked at each other for a moment before walking up to the group. As they walked up, Fluttershy noticed that Rainbow Dash looked pale, as if she just went through hell or one of her mom’s cooking attempts. “Um, hey guys, what’s going on?” Night asked to break the ice. Everyone in the group looked to the two. “It’s the most terrible thing that has ever happened to me,” Soul answered. “My bike was just destroyed because of this tree right here.” Fluttershy covered her mouth. “Oh my, that’s so sad!” she said. “Was anyone hurt?” “No, no one was hurt,” Rivet replied. “Except my heart,” Soul added, which earned an eye roll from Rivet. “It’ll be okay, Soul,” Sunset said to comfort him. “I’m sure that the insurance company can cover for this…. Or the city will since it was the workers’ fault that this happened in the first place.” “I know. I just can’t believe this happened to me,” Soul said. “I don’t know how this could get any worse.” Treble looked over to Night and saw something was moving around in his hair. “Hey dude, I think there’s something in your hair,” he said. “What?” Jumping out of Night’s hair, Greg came out and launched himself at Soul. Soul looked when Greg was only a few inches away from his face in slow motion. As Greg got closer and closer, Soul’s eyes went half-lid and he spoke up before Greg attached himself to his face. “Son of a b****.” -Zero and Twilight- Zero let out a sigh as he carried several bags of books with both arms. He was walking down the mall with Twilight while they were gathering some things for their science project. Zero was partnered with her and he suggested doing a plastic volcano to get the whole thing over with just so he could get an easy A. But Twilight didn’t want an A for doing something that was so simple, so she decided for the both of them to look up some projects and read up on some science books on what they could do. “Twilight, do we really have to do this?” Zero asked as they walked. “Can’t we just stick with doing the plastic volcano? It’s easy and it’ll take about, what, a good hour to put together and I can have the rest of the week to myself.” Twilight looked back at Zero with half-lid eyes before letting out a weary sigh. “For the last time, Zero, we’re not doing that,” she said. “Besides, who wouldn’t want to read about the miracles of biology?” Zero rolled his eyes. “Oh, or how about the book that teaches you one thousand ways you could dissect an animal?” “Let’s pray to God that Fluttershy never sees that.” “But maybe we can read the one about how to make working propellers.” “Yeah, that sounds really- Wait, what?” “This book here tells you how to make working propellers. You know, what they use to make boats go around in the water or how helicopters stay in the air,” Twilight explained. “So, wait a minute, we can make something like a helicopter?” “Well, it’ll be more like a part of a helicopter, but we could design the propeller and place it on something.” “..... What about humans?” Twilight opened her mouth to answer Zero’s question, but she stopped and pondered on the idea for a moment. “Hmmm, well, it never really has been done much. Although, I guess people usually think that’s dangerous to do,” she replied. “But it does sound like something interesting and worth looking into. We would need some parts, lots of wiring and a few important devices we could use to put this all together.” “I know a place where we could look,” Zero said. “Really, where?” “My garage.” “Huh?” -Half An Hour later- “Oh my god, what kind of garage is this!?” Twilight shouted from shock. Twilight and Zero had made it all the way to his home, and after Zero opened up the garage, Twilight saw that it was filled up with various parts from automobiles, boats and rotorcrafts. Twilight had her mouth wide open and Zero only nodded with a smug grin. “Yep, I’ve been collecting all kinds of parts. If there’s a part you need for your car, boat or anything, I’m the man you can come to,” Zero said. “So, what do you think?” “How long have you been doing this!?” “Well, during my early teen years, I saw this one guy that always went out to get car parts, and he made a lot of money whenever he sold them,” Zero explained. “He was able to sell a lot because somehow he was able to get so many parts in just a short time.” “...... Zero, I think he was operating a chop shop,” Twilight said. “What?” “Yes, he was selling stolen parts that he took from vehicles.” “Oh…. Well…. These aren’t stolen. I’ve been finding them in the town’s junkyard.” “But Zero, that still counts as-” “Anyways, what parts do we need?” Twilight let out a sigh. “Let me take a look at them and see what I can put together,” she replied. “After that, I’ll draw up a schematic and we can start assembling it together.” “Alright, let’s get to work!” Twilight and Zero were able to start building their ideal device. After Twilight drew up the schematic, Zero wasted no time putting the thing together with some tools that he “borrowed” from his father when he wasn’t looking. Zero started fitting all the pieces together by following Twilight’s schematics, though she had to explain it to him several times over before he got it right. After much time and hard work, the two were in the back of Zero’s yard and they looked to see what they had designed. It was a backpack of sorts that had a tall pole sticking out on top with a large propeller at the very tip of it. It had some wires exposed that every now and again would let out a spark. Zero nodded with accomplishment, oblivious to the obvious dangers it presented while Twilight looked at it with a cautious raised brow. “Zero, I don’t think this is going to work out as well as we thought it would,” Twilight stated. “I think we should do something else.” “Hey, I already put this thing together. Might as well give it a test run,” Zero said. “Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?” “Oh, there are so many things that could go wrong that I already made a mental list of it,” Twilight answered. “But if you are so determined on trying it out, we’ll test it just this once.” “Sweet!” “Just place the dummy on it and we can get started.” “Alright.” Zero grabbed a test dummy and placed the device on it. After that, Twilight and Zero took a few steps back from it before Twilight started messing with a device that controlled it. “Okay, on the count to three. One…. Two…. Three!” Twilight pressed the button and- *BOOM!* The next thing Twilight and Zero remembered was being blown back from the explosion that the device made and falling on their backs. They both let out groans of pain before sitting up to see the very few remains in a small crater where their device stood moments ago. Suddenly the headpiece of the dummy fell on Zero’s lap with only the top of it still on fire. Twilight let out a sigh. “This was number six on that list,” she said. “Any more ideas you might have?” “Uh-” “Not the volcano.” “Damn it!” Zero cursed. “Well, we could experiment with that jet turbine I have.” “Wait, what!?” “Yep, found it in the junkyard too.” “But how does a jet turbine end up in a backcountry junkyard!?” Twilight asked. “I don’t know, I just find this stuff.” “But- It- I don’t- Ugh! Just show me it,” Twilight said in defeat. After getting themselves cleaned up and getting rid of the mess, the two went over back to Zero’s garage where he showed Twilight the jet turbine that was covered by a simple sheet. “This is amazing!” Twilight gasped in awe. “I can’t believe you were able to get something like this from a regular junkyard!” “Eh, I have that kind of luck,” Zero bragged. “Does it still work?” “I’ve tried to get it to work, but I never could,” Zero replied. “Let me look at it for a moment.” Zero opened up a panel on it and started to fiddle around. Twilight took a closer look at it as she inspected the engine. While Zero was looking on the inside, he saw something that made him realized that he was an idiot for not noticing it in the first place. “So that’s why it doesn’t work!” Zero said. “The switch to the engine is off!” Zero flipped it and the engine suddenly started to run. “Wait, how is turning on if it’s- AAAAAHHH!” *RIP!* Twilight was hanging for dear life as the machine started to suck her in as it spun faster and faster. “TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!” Twilight screamed. Zero panicked and quickly flipped the switch to the off position. The fans inside the engine slowed down until they were unable to cause any more suction. Zero looked away from the panel and went over to Twilight. “Twilight, are you okay!?” he asked concernedly. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking and-” Zero’s eyes suddenly widened and his jaw hung while he stared at Twilight as she got up from the ground. Twilight let out a small groan. “It’s alright, Zero,” she said. “I didn’t see that coming either. I mean, how was it able to run if it didn’t have any…. Why are you looking at me like that?” Zero didn’t reply as he only stared at Twilight, his face red as a tomato. Twilight raised a brow and looked down at herself, only to see with horror that all of her clothes and underwear were gone. Her entire body was exposed right in front of Zero and she quickly covered herself up with her hands. “AAAAAAAAHHH!” *WHACK!* “OW!” Zero went down on the ground after Twilight had slapped him across the face. It was then that they decided to do a plastic volcano.