I Like Me
Flash kept his phone hidden beneath the lip of the long conference table dominating the room. It was a simple trick, leaning back just far enough to look relaxed, occasionally flicking his eyes down to the screen. He did it all the time in boring classes like math and history. But today he only dared a peek or two every few minutes, and didn’t lean quite so far back. Sunset would catch on far too quickly.
“I think we need to focus on preparations for the Super Spring Splash,” Sunset said, folding her hands together. She sat the head of the table, staring down the long lines of teenage supplicants before her. “Minty Green, did you bring the spreadsheets?”
“Right here, Sunset,” said a young reddish-skinned girl with shocking green hair, flipping open her laptop. Flash rolled his eyes. Minty Green was always too eager to please. “Abacus and I crunched some numbers and ran opinion surveys. After last year’s success we expect an attendance rate approaching seventy percent of the student body.”
“Nice,” Sunset said with a predatory smile. “Okay, so, theme ideas. It runs past six o’clock, so I was thinking something centered on sunsets…”
Flash took a peek downward, scrolling through the search results as the others droned on. Brad had been very specific when he described the monster currently haunting downtown. Hearing the perky pony speak of it in haunted, dreary tones was unsettling.
Finding it on Google? Downright uncanny.
“Think, people!” Sunset snapped. “How do we get these kids to part with their money?”
“Kids love accessories,” one of the girls spoke up. Baton Switch, blue-haired and bouncy, part of the marching band. Loved accessories. “Stickers, bracelets, those can be high-profit items.”
Sunset jabbed a finger at her. “Get on it.”
Flash picked one of the search results on his phone and glanced through the text. He could pass off a talking rat as a delusion. A pony following him as a symptom of stress. But this just creeped him out. He couldn’t pass this off as his subconscious mind dredging up a random fact for his imaginary pony friend to spout. He knew he didn’t know this.
“And don’t forget,” Sunset said, “we need to nail a motto. Shorter the better. Make it catchy, make it snappy. What do we want kids to think of when they hear this phrase?”
“The Kindly Ones,” Flash murmured under his breath.
“Did you say something?” Sunset snapped.
Flash slammed the front of his chair down and turned his phone face-down onto his knee. “No,” he said obediently. At Sunset’s raised eyebrow, he said: “I mean, well, we want kids to think it’s… kind? … Kinda cool?”
Twelve other teenagers, Sunset’s combined student body council, gaped at him in awkward, pitying silence. Flash bit his lip, racing for an alibi. “Yeah. Kinda cool! We want kids to think this whole event thing is kinda cool. Like…” He made guns with his fingers and pointed at Abacus, seated across from him. “Hey, kid. This Spring fling is kinda cool,” he purred, winking and throwing in his trademark Smile to sweeten the pot.
Even the silence seemed louder than the rush of blood to his ears as everyone continued to stare, not speaking a word.
“... Right,” Sunset grunted at last, and went back to haranguing the others for ideas.
Flash blew his cheeks out with a sigh, and excused himself to the restroom. Nobody noticed when he left, or at least they pretended they did not. In the hall, he slumped against a row of lockers and opened his phone again. The hideous monster looking back at him seemed to laugh through its ugly grimace.
Erinyes. The infernal goddesses. The Kindly Ones. That’s what Brad called them, and refused to call them anything else. Such a nickname helped keep them from knowing where you were. Speaking their true title aloud gave you away. It let them hear. Let them see. Names, Brad said, were powerful, and uttering the true name of the Erinyes opened doors that really should just stay closed.
“Is this gonna be much longer? I want lemonade. You promised lemonade,” Brad said, sitting bored and lonesome next to the door, his hooves curled up underneath him.
“I promised we’d get lemonade after this meeting was done,” Flash said, glancing through his phone. “And frankly I don’t think you deserve lemonade for bringing a monster to downtown. Titan the cat is dead because of you.”
“I said I was sorry!” Brad whimpered, throwing up his hooves. “I didn’t know something followed me through the portal! It’s not like it’s an exact science, Flash. You don’t just lock the door behind you and throw away the key.”
Flash hunched his shoulders and glared at the pony. “So what made you desperate enough to try it?”
“I already told you, it’s to help you, Flash! The Kindly One had nothing to do with me, I swear! I don’t know why it’s here, or why it’s roaming this town. But it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Flash groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Right. Okay. Let’s start with what you do know. The Kindly Ones, according to Google, are monsters with a serious grudge against people who cause grudges. Right?”
Brad nodded fervently.
“And we think it is one because in your weird sparkly world where everything is happy and nice, there’s still wizards who can summon them, and their calling card is leaving dead animals because they’re bored and want to freak their mark out, but they can’t kill the wrong person, right?”
Brad nodded again. “I mean, that’s technically the rules? But they’ll break them. Oh, ponyfeathers, do they break them.”
“What happens when they break the rules?”
Brad's gaze trailed down to the floor. “The world gets a little less sparkly."
The chill down Flash’s spine felt like a worm made of ice. He put on a brave face to ignore it. “Okay… Leaving aside the existential question of how two different universes can think up the same monster, is there anyone who would have a grudge against you in particular?”
“Oh, geez, that’s pretty much nopony,” Brad said, laughing. It was a bubbly, giddy noise that chased away the terror of monsters in the night. “I have, like, zero enemies, and absolutely nopony who dislikes me would set a monster on me.” He giggled to himself and waggled his hoof. “Feathers n’ sticks, the mere thought of somepony going so far out of their way to summon a Kindly One just to do away with little old me? I’d be flattered if that wasn’t terrifying.”
Flash’s eye twitched. “You are just…”
“Yeah?” Brad chirped, eyes literally sparkling.
“... way too happy. About everything,” Flash decided. “Stop smiling like that.”
“Like what?” Brad said, smiling with the dazzle of glitter and the wonder of a small child.
“Like that! With the dazzle of glitter and the wonder of a small child!” Flash growled, rubbing his temples. “Look, Brad, a talking rat has told me an actual monster is roaming around looking for something, and it’s killed like a hundred cats and dogs. We need to find out what it’s after so we can tell the police!”
Brad tapped his chin. “Well, if it’s not after me, it has to be after something else that came through. There’s no reason it would go after someone from this world. Heck, apparently you guys are literally blind to most magical stuff, or this ‘Sparkle,’ as the rat called it. I can’t imagine living like that. Is that why everyone I see here has this kind of look on their face like--”
Brad scrunched his face up and pouted out his lips, in a close approximation of a puppy doing its best to scowl. “Like this,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s really pretty sad.”
Flash’s stomach turned. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the term ‘masculine’ was quickly losing meaning. “Dude. You are literally the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life. You’re cute on a metaphysical level. Like you were designed that way by some cosmic toymaker. It honestly makes me want to punch a locker and scream death metal to try and feel manly again.”
“That’s what the ladies always tell me!” Brad said, buffing a hoof on his chest. “I’m, ah, pretty amazing with ‘em, you know.”
“We’re getting off topic.” Flash nodded down the hall, taking off at a brisk stride, and Brad fell into step alongside him. “So this creature came through after you did, in presumably the same way. How, exactly, did you get here?”
“I walked.”
“From where?”
“From home.”
“To where?”
“To here!”
Flash gestured emphatically. “Focus, Brad. You need to tell me exactly how you came to our world.”
Brad demurred, fluffing his wings as he walked. His smile lost a little of its verve. “There was a mirror. I went through it. That’s how it happens. A magic mirror that connects to different worlds.”
Flash squinted down at Brad. “That’s it? That’s… almost suspiciously easy.”
Brad rolled his wings. “Well, you know.”
Flash did not know, and he did not like it. “So anyone can use this magic mirror?”
Brad nibbled his bottom lip, trying to keep pace even as his gaze drifted here and there. “Eh, kind of? It’s in the castle, but nopony really keeps an eye on it. Almost anypony could, in theory, get a hold of it, but it’s behind some locked doors.”
“So how come you were able to use it?”
“I had the key.”
Flash waited for Brad to elaborate. He did not. They walked on in awkward silence, turning down the school’s main hallway. They were halfway to the doors before Flash spoke again. “... Okay, why did they let you have the key?”
“Oh! Well that’s a funny story.” Brad took to the air, facing Flash as he fluttered backwards. He flung his hooves around as he talked, drawing wild patterns in the air. “So first of all, I’m a member of the Royal Guard. Basically a really big deal. That’s also how I know so much about monsters. We have this little field guide: A Pony’s Guide to Magical Monstrosities and Arcane Calamities. Required reading in our line of work.”
“Lucky us,” Flash grumbled.
“I joined after I got my cutie mark and everypony always told me, ‘Flash, you’ve got a lot of potential, but it’s gonna take a lot of work.’ So I say ‘Great! I love hard work!’ And they put me on Luna’s detail I guess as a trial by fire because wow Princess Luna is scary, she has this pet possum that just comes out of nowhere if you aren’t paying attention…”
Flash rolled his eyes as Brad nudged the school’s main doors open with his flanks while he gabbed, leading them into the chilly evening air. Even though it was a fine spring day, the sun still set somewhat early. It wasn’t even six o’clock and the sky was exploding with orange and pink and purple. The concourse was totally empty except for Flash and the pony at his side who refused to stop talking.
“... There’s a big door that squeaks really loudly and I think it’s supposed to scare ponies, and I heard it’s an enchantment to make the door actually talk but only in a voice that certain ponies understand like a really weird alarm system, because it didn’t squeak when I used the key but they probably just oiled it because Glaive Runner likes to mess with me…”
Flash found himself walking towards the equestrian statue at the center of the concourse. Thoughts of Erinyes and Sunset’s angry, disapproving stare filled his head. The statue reared above him, blithely happy. It stood above everything and everyone, while Flash stood at sea level with a pony babbling in one ear and a girlfriend barking in the other. He hated the statue. It was wild and free, not even knowing it was rooted in one place. It had no right to be happy.
“Geez, today sucked,” he muttered.
His phone rang. He winced, wondering if he could let it go to voicemail, but he already knew who it was. He answered it. Sunset’s voice easily drowned out Brad’s aimless babbling.
“Flash!” her voice snapped like a whipcrack. “Where the heck are you?”
“Just taking a walk, babe,” he said, keeping his voice neutral.
“A walk? The meeting is almost over and you haven’t even given us ideas. Do you even care about making the Spring Fling work?”
Flash pinched the bridge of his nose. “I do, babe. You know that. But you got, like, a whole team of experts with charts and crud, and I wasn’t even contributing that much so I thought--”
“I told you how important this is to me!” Sunset cut in like a knife. “I need you to be here for this!”
Flash blinked, mouth agape. “Uhh… wow, really? You need me?”
“If people don’t see you supporting me, rumors are going to fly, Flash,” Sunset growled. “Not even my inner circle is immune to gossip. You know how this works. I have worked too hard for too long to let that all go up in smoke because you conveniently forgot something again.”
The brief flash of hope disintegrated in his stomach, like crumpled paper in a fire. “Uhhh.”
“And don’t forget the big announcement! It’s going to happen at the Spring Fling and there’s going to be a lot of people there, so get your head on straight! I won’t need a ride home, Minty Green is carpooling. Try to be on the ball like her next time, alright?”
Before Flash could say another word, the call ended. Flash’s hand dropped to his side, and he stood in morose silence in front of the statue.
A hoof touched his shoulder. The gentle thrum of flapping rested over his shoulder.
“Flash?” Brad asked, his voice small and quiet. “I’m sorry I brought all this trouble. I really didn’t mean it. I wanted to help you.”
“How?” Flash muttered. “How can you help me? What even made you think you can make a difference? You said you’re me, right? Have you even looked at me? I got the car, I got the girl, I got the dough. And Sunset still isn’t happy.” He scuffed his shoe on the sidewalk. “I’m still not happy.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t try to be happy just because Sunset is.” Brad shuddered. “I don’t know a lot of things but I know when I see someone who isn’t happy. And that girl isn’t happy.”
“I just want to be a normal boyfriend. A good boyfriend. A good guy.”
“You should focus on being a better Flash!” Brad cheered, twirling in midair and spreading his hooves wide. “That’s exactly what I’m here for, dude! I’m here to help you. I don’t know what we can do about Sunset or anyone else, but hey, you’ve been focusing on her for way too long! You need to decide what’s important. You can go back there and try to do everything Sunset tells you to do, get to the bottom of her checklist, and finally erase all your obligations to her. And then she’ll write a new list of things for you to never finish, because nothing you’re doing is helping her be happy. Or you can try to help me figure out this Kindly One business, and maybe save someone’s life, and then I can maybe get to the real business of making you the kind of pony I know you can be.”
Flash leaned against the equestrian statue, at the front of the pedestal. “You’re all about that self-affirmation thing, aren’t you?”
Brad stared at the statue’s pedestal as he hovered. He appeared lost in thought. Flash raised his eyebrow as the silence stretched on, and on, and the gentle sound of flapping wings became nothing but background noise.
“Dude?” Flash asked. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a Kindly One.”
Brad blinked and shook his head, tousling his perpetually slicked back mane. “Oh, uh, nothing. Just… thinking about that statue.”
Flash smirked and reached up to give one of the horse’s hooves a tap. “Yeah, he’s a weird one, huh? I never liked looking at him. There was always something strange about it, you know? Why a horse? Why even Canterlot High? Who even thinks up names like this?”
Brad cleared his throat and turned away. “Uhhh. I… wouldn’t think about it too hard. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that some doors shouldn’t be opened before you’re ready.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing. If the mirror’s in a castle, and the castle has other guards, how did the Kindly One slip past everyone including you?”
Brad opened his mouth to answer, but another, scratchier voice cut in.
“Who the heck are you talking to?”
“Nobody!” Flash squealed, jumping off the statue and spinning in place. His hands came up in a faux-judo stance, ready to ward off Kindly Ones and meddling traffic officers alike.
A young girl perched on a scooter squinted at him from beneath a mop of messy, bright purple hair. Her gaze had the vague hostility of someone staring at something horribly embarrassing and refusing to be contaminated. “You’re weird,” she decided. “But you’re Flash Sentry, aren’t you?”
The feeling of being recognized was a powerful thing. It settled Flash’s frazzled nerves and he quickly returned to leaning on the statue, putting his hands in his pockets and assuming the trademark Smile. “Well, uh, yeah! Yeah, I am that… guy. I’m Flash Sentry. And you, you’re…”
He made finger guns at her. She continued to stare at him.
“The… kid.”
“... Scootaloo,” she said. “I’m Scootaloo.”
“She seems nice!” Brad whispered. Flash waved him off.
“Whatcha doing out here, Scootaloo?”
She glanced down at her scooter, then back up at him. “Scooting,” she growled, trying to put some extra scratch in her voice. She puffed at a strand of hair dangling in front of her nose, but quickly gave up when it refused to budge, assuming a disaffected posture much like Flash’s. “What’s it to you? You’ve got a car, right? You can go anywhere you want.”
“Ehhh.” Flash waggled his hand. “Not as free as you think, kid. I’m waiting on my girl. She’s got a meeting about school president stuff. I decided to pass on it and take a walk. I’m no good with numbers and big plans. Honestly goes over my head sometimes.”
“So you ditched your girlfriend?” Scootaloo asked, squinting hard as she leaned closer. “You ditched Sunset Shimmer, the most popular and important girl in school?”
Flash pressed his back up against the statue, tugging at the lapels of his jacket. “Uhhh. Well, I, you know, it’s not exactly ditching ‘cuz I’m still here--”
“Nice,” Scootaloo said right over his mumbling, grinning viciously. “I don’t know how you can stand her, she’s such a jerk sometimes! If I were in your shoes, I’d take a long walk and just keep on walkin’!”
Flash grinned along with her, chuckling nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Ooh, ha ha, she’s not all that bad when you get to know her--”
“She kind of is,” Brad said.
“--Really I was just bored. Really.”
Scootaloo went back to her semi-condescending, semi-baffled stare. “I wasn’t here when you two hooked up, but it must’ve been something. I mean, you’re supposed to be really hot, and Sunset is too, and you’re both apparently rich because Sunset flaunts basically everything she has, and you’ve got that car...”
“You have dreams of licking it or something?” Flash grumbled.
“I’m just saying, not even Rainbow Dash has a car, and she’s way cooler than Sunset Shimmer.” Scootaloo smirked and waggled her eyebrows, pretending she wasn't throwing bait in the water like an expert chum fisher. Flash rolled his eyes.
“Rainbow Dash? You mean that weird girl heading the junior varsity team? Dyes her hair, shouts a lot?”
Scootaloo pouted, stomping her foot. “She’s not weird, she’s awesome! And her hair color is totally awesome and totally all natural!”
“That’s totally frightening.”
“Whatever,” Scootaloo grumbled. “You’re not as cool as I thought anyway.”
“Coolness is in the eye of the thermometer, kid.”
“Stop calling me kid! I’m a teenager like you, you know!”
Brad nudged Flash’s leg. “Whoa, dude, dial it back. I know you’re in a tough spot, but you don’t wanna hurt her feelings, do you?”
Flash sighed heavily and pushed off the statue, staring off into the darkening sky. Tonight wasn't the first Sunset abruptly told him to buzz off. She did that a lot on meeting nights. She liked stretching out how much time meetings took, ostensibly to have more reasons to avoid going home. If only they hadn’t already made plans to go out. Spending time with your boyfriend seemed to him a good way to forget home troubles. He hadn’t forgotten those plans, but Sunset didn’t care about what he remembered. Only what he didn’t. Deficiencies were like honey to her.
Scootaloo glared at him, fuming, pouting, spoiling for a fight. She looked like Brad if he was trying to bite someone. He knew why Sunset stayed after hours. But this pipsqueak? She should’ve taken the bus home hours ago.
“Look… Scootaloo.”
“Yeah?” she grumped.
“Scootaloo. I’ve had a rough day.”
“Join the club.”
”But. I’m not gonna try to be a jerk. I know Sunset dishes out a lot more than most people can take. I’m trying to balance that out. Karma, or something. So let’s start over. Yeah, I’m Flash Sentry. I have a car, I have more money than most kids my age should even be touching, and I am the boyfriend of Sunset Shimmer. That said… I am definitely more than that. Just like I’m sure you’re more than your scooter. I just have trouble remembering that sometimes, since it’s…” He shrugged, kicking the ground to gather mental fortitude. “Well, it’s basically all anyone talks about when they mention me. But, you know. I got time to talk about all that other stuff.”
Scootaloo’s vivid purple eyes darted around, to the ground, to the sky, anywhere but Flash’s face. Gradually, those eyes softened, and her shoulders slumped.
“Well,” she muttered, smaller, more contrite. She wrung the handlebars of her scooter. “I guess that’s cooler than calling me kid.”
Flash smirked. “You gotta keep that from getting to you so easy, kid. Trust me, there’s way worse than not being grown-up enough.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
Sunset’s scowling visage flashed over his mind’s eye. “Being a grown-up in a school for kids.”
“I guess. I dunno,” Scootaloo said. She suddenly sounded weak and uncertain, like a flag failing in sparse wind. “I saw you out here and I thought it was weird you’d just be lounging around talking to yourself. I’m not scared of Sunset, you know.”
“Nobody should be. She’s not scary. Just…” He tsked, shrugged, spread his arms helplessly. “She’s just Sunset. There’s way more scary stuff out there than Sunset. Sunset’s just… grrr. The really spooky stuff is like...” He grabbed his jacket and fanned it out, imitating the wings of a very, very pitiful bat. “Grrrr!”
Scootaloo snorted, seemingly charmed by his turn to self-aware silliness. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Uhhh.”
“Lions!” Brad chirped.
“Lions!” Flash said, spinning and pointing at Brad. He caught himself a split-second later and swung his arm towards Scootaloo instead. “Lions. Are more frightening than Sunset. Annnnd…” He wagged his finger, smirking at the younger teen. “Tigers?”
Scootaloo stared slack-jawed. Flash almost saw the gears working in her head until, with a visible click, a gasp and a grin lit up her whole face. “And bears!”
Flash slapped his forehead, grinning even as he raised an accusing eyebrow at her. “Oh! Oh, man! You're how young, and you still watched that dumb old movie? Awww, come on, I thought we were cool kids here.”
“Pffft, I’m not the one who quoted it, dork!” Scootaloo shot back, brushing off his little jabs with a flippant hand wave. “I was forced to watch it in like, middle school as some art appreciation thing. Back when I really was a kid.”
“I was terrified of that movie! I thought the talking trees were gonna eat me!”
“The trees?” Brad giggled along with Scootaloo. “Dude, we got quarray eels and dragons. That’s way worse than dumb trees.”
‘We’ll talk about that,’ Flash mouthed at Brad before turning back to Scootaloo.
“Trees,” the young teen said, trailing off with a little sigh. “Nah, like, I wonder if we really do have bears and lions and junk out here sometimes.”
Flash froze. Something in her tone made his brain jerk to a stop. A heavy, ominous feeling draped itself over the veranda. “What makes you say that?”
Scootaloo jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, pointing directly down the street from the school. “Oh, I was just scooting around up near 5th Avenue, right? Some prime trick country there, uh, bro. And I went by that abandoned brew factory, the one that’s been rotting forever. But there was this smell, like something actually was rotting. I took a peek over the fence and there was a dead dog, right there on the ground!”
A strand snapped taut in Flash’s mind, pulling his gaze over to Brad’s. “A… dog? Dead?”
Scootaloo looked way too happy to be reporting on random dead dogs. A macabre kind of joy, the kind shared by exposing the most disgusting and vivid details of a trainwreck, had swept her up. “Yeah, it was like, still red and bloody! But it wasn’t even eaten! I’m no expert, but it looked like something just tore its throat out! I saw guts and stuff all over the ground, I nearly threw up! Gross, right?”
“Scootaloo!” Flash exclaimed, unable and unwilling to hide the sternness in his voice. “This is important now. Did you see anything else? Anything at all?” Scootaloo shrank back, suddenly keenly aware she was reporting a possible crime to someone old enough to do something about it.
“Uhh, no? No, I didn’t. Didn’t hear nothin’ either. But it was fresh, like, not rotten or anything. Kinda sad now that I think about it.” She slumped, and the pout returned full force. “Geez. Poor dog. What even would do that, just kill something and leave it? Oh shoot, what if it wasn’t another animal? Oh man, what if we got some freak running around?! That was only a mile away!”
Her breath stepped up from ‘quick’ to ‘hyperventilating.’ Flash held up his hand to forestall any more panic. “Okay, whoa, calm down, kid. Nothing bad’s gonna happen. If it’s some weirdo, he’s probably miles away by now trying to get away from the scene of the crime.”
Scootaloo didn’t look convinced, anxiously wringing the handlebars of her scooter and glancing around like a frightened squirrel. The sun was almost completely set now, and twilight was starting to reign. “Uhh. Yeah. Miles away. I-I’m really far from my house right now…”
“This is bad,” Brad whispered. He somehow looked pale even beneath that solid coat of fur.
Flash pulled out his phone and quickly dialed Sunset.
No answer.
He dragged his hand over his face. This was just what he needed. Why did he even think to call Sunset? She was driving home with Minty. Did he really need her to tell him what to do about a monster she would think was his imagination? But he definitely didn’t have any ideas, like usual. He thought he had more time. Time to think, time to plan. Time to… what?
Do what? his mind asked. Keep pretending he was stable and happy? Keep pretending a car and money made him cool? There was a young girl about to flip out right in front him, and he had an actual, factual monster on his hands. It felt so weird, so distant at first. But now seeing Scootaloo’s very real fear brought the danger crashing home. It was only a matter of time before someone ended up on this thing’s dinner list.
“Flash,” Brad said. “We can’t just leave Scootaloo.”
“We’re not,” said Flash. His mind flashed through a hundred possibilities before settling on the only one that didn’t make him feel like a jerk. “Scootaloo, I’ll drive you home.”
“Wait, really? In the car?”
“Yes, in the car!”
The moment the word “car” left his mouth, Scootaloo made a squeak that reminded Flash of Brad more than he liked. The terror fled from her face and her whole body suddenly tensed with eager energy.
“I’m gonna get to ride in the car? With Flash Sentry?”
“I thought you said I wasn’t cool?” Flash said, hands on his hips.
“That was before you offered me a ride in your car! Heck yeah I’ll go in that instead of scooting around with some rabid panther or whatever's out there! Let’s go!”
She was literally bouncing, now. Vibrating, almost. Brad joined in too, for reasons Flash couldn’t bother to fathom right now. He felt trapped, in that resigned, hapless way of a parent with two small children, or maybe two lunatic dogs that got their first taste of coffee.
“Okay, okay, calm down! It’s right over there.” He pointed across the veranda, to where his sleek little ride still loyally waited.
Scootaloo slung her scooter over her shoulder and zipped away before Flash could get another word in. “Woohoo! My friends are gonna be so jealous!”
Flash watched her dash off, smiling. Then he realized he was smiling and wondered why. “Score one for the car, I guess,” he muttered, and kept his eyes on Brad while he walked. “Brad, we should go check out that place Scootaloo mentioned after we drop her off.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Way I see it, if magic things are invisible to most people, the Kindly One will be too. She could’ve walked right past it and never knew it was there. She could’ve died tonight, Brad. Anybody else we ask to go looking for it could die and never even know what hit them.”
Up ahead, Scootaloo fawned over his car, touching the sleek lines, drooling over the hood and what could have been inside. He thought he heard something about “Nascar” and “borrow the keys.” He shook his head and sighed; the kid was worse than Pop Fly. First he was weird, then he was the most amazing thing ever. Admittedly, Pop Fly never really reached that second stage.
“I’m not gonna let anyone get hurt over this, Brad.” He turned to look down at the pony, his gaze firmer than his convictions felt. Deep inside terror wormed its way around the righteous anger of protective loyalty. Being the only defender against a magical menace felt a lot less heroic than he thought. “If this is the only good thing I can do, I should do it, right? And dragging more people into this will only get them killed since they can’t see the darn things, so we keep it on the down low. Nobody can know about this magic stuff.”
“Then you know calling the police won’t do any good,” Brad said quietly. “I don’t know if anything in this world will affect the things from mine, and that includes guns. But don’t worry, Flash. I got some ideas.”
Flash blew out a long, discouraging sigh. “So do I. And I like exactly none of them. We need to find some rats.”
Scootaloo fought him for control of the radio the entire way home. She turned the volume to the maximum. And she sang along to every station. Badly.
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And just when I was telling myself "Dang! This one turned to be another of them dead fic...", you've got a great sense of timing!
8163276
You're going to hate me later then. >.>
Poor Flash needs a real friend. Will Scootaloo be that friend? Lets hope so. Near the end Flash seems so pitiful and yet defiant of his current circumstance of being "the friendless nobody who is only popular through the tenuous strings of his girlfriend"
8163279 Meh, I don't hate for so few.
On the other hand, I migth be very disapointed by you.
We should frame this and hang it on a wall for posterity.
I thought this story is dead but not anymore!
Words can not express how much I love this story. The way you characterize Flash and Brad is just fantastic, especially the amount of depth you give them. I'm super excited to see where you go with this.
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I'm actually wondering if Flash will end up meeting the human Elements, or at least a few of them. If the key to being able to deal with all this is the Sparkle, that spark of magic that so few people seem to have, they're right at the top of my list for humans that might have it. And friendship kind of is their thing.
I think Flash is in over his head. And I don't trust Brad at all.
Good for Flash. He is a good person at heart—just look at Brad—and now he's starting to make good choices. Let's just hope he gets through his first paranormal investigation with minimal damage. Especially since odds are the Kindly One has targetted his girlfriend. It's not like there are many other extraplanar grudge-makers in the area... though the sirens are unaccounted for. Still, Sunset is the simpler solution.
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Right now, they aren't quite so friendly, at least not with each other. It remains to be seen if being divided and conquered will have an impact on their Sparkle levels.
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There's always the possibility of Flash preempting Twilight's thing in this world. Brad's presence is changing him is ways he never did in canon, so who knows? He is the savior of the universe and all that. But now I'm curious to see if Sunset's little games are dimming the Sparkle in the people she's victimizing. That would certainly be an interesting twist.
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I mean, considering they've survived for so many centuries in the bodies of teenage girls on a hostile and dangerous planet, I assume the Sirens can take care of themselves.
Another great chapter with a nice flip from slice of life to existential horror.
The repeated use of companies that developed in our world feels rather lazy and forced, but the plot and characterization is still great.