A Flash in Timber

by The Blue Bandit

Chapter 1, Friendship Blooms

Chapter 1, Friendship Blooms

Canterlot High was a school unlike any others, it could be very different at times, and the students had gone through a lot. Most students at Canterlot High had been hoping for a period of time without any magic, good or bad, they just wanted to have a normal school life. Flash Sentry was among those students as he had witnessed everything that had happened and also had been affected by the magic.

One morning Flash was by the steps at Canterlot High and he stood waiting for Sunset Shimmer as they had a study session, as he waited he couldn’t help but stare at the statue that was in the front of the school. He wished that someone that was very dear to him would show up at the school again, someone who was a princess, someone who he had a crush on. Twilight Sparkle was her name. He’d formed an attraction to her and she’d felt the same, however, she had to return to her land. A new Twilight Sparkle had shown up at the school but she didn’t feel the same attraction to Flash as her doppelganger had.

He continued staring at the statue, but his eyes went onto something else as he noticed that Timber Spruce walking up the path. Flash had felt conflicted by Timber ever since they’d met, as Flash felt like Twilight had been stolen from him by Timber. However, deep down he knew that that Twilight was never his to be stolen from. Flash let out a he sigh when he noticed that Timber was walking towards him as he didn’t feel like talking to Timber.

Timber stopped near Flash, “Hi Flash, have you seen Twilight around?”

“No, sorry.” Flash replied honestly.

“Oh, we were meant to meet up here before going to get coffee at the diner,” Timber said. “Do you mind if I wait here?”

“No, not at all.” Flash said untruthfully.

The two stood by the steps in an awkward silence, each of them staring down at their shoes waiting for the girls to show up. They were both bored. Flash started humming randomly, creating a new catchy tune that caught Timber’s attention. Timber listened to Flash’s humming and he really liked it, and knew that if Flash played the tune on guitar it would sound even better.

“So, why are you here this morning?” Timber asked after Flash had stopped humming.

“Both Sunset and I have a test coming up and we’re studying together for it.” Flash lied as he didn’t want to sound dumb because he needed some help.

“I never had you down as the studying type,” Timber said. “But I guess looks can be deceiving.”

“There’s a lot that you don’t know about me, Timber” Flash shot Timber a glare..

This started another awkward silence and this time Flash didn’t hum up a new tune as they stared at the statue. Flash and Timber were getting bored of the silence, Timber wanted to get along with Flash for once as they’d never been able to have an actual conversation like he did with many other students of Canterlot High. The silence was broken when both Sunset and Twilight showed up together and they both began talking about something that had happened on their way to the school.

“Hey guys, you’ll never guess what happened on our way here!” Sunset stopped near them.

“So we were walking on the path when a bird passed, and Fluttershy was running after it because it had flown away from the animal shelter.” Twilight said.

“And Fluttershy just kept shouting for it to come back and she didn’t stop for around ten minutes until the bird went back to her!” Sunset laughed.

“I felt really sorry for her, I couldn’t resist laughing though.” Twilight felt a bit mean, but she still thought it was funny.

“Sounds really funny.” Flash sighed and looked at his shoes.

“So did anything happen here?” Sunset asked.

“No, not really.” Timber answered.

The two duos parted ways, Twilight and Timber headed towards the diner and Sunset and Flash headed inside the school. Both Sunset and Flash made their way to an empty classroom and they sat at a desk facing each other, they then got out their textbooks and started going through it together. They had been having these study sessions for a week now and Sunset had noticed that Flash wasn’t giving enough effort into studying than she did.

Flash would sometimes tap the tables with his hands, she had also noticed that after awhile he would usually turn his interest onto something else. Today wasn’t the exception and he continued to lose interest in the studying, Sunset wondered what had taking over his mind this time. She had tried her best to help Flash raise his grades, however she didn’t know how the sessions were helping him, especially since he noticed that he got a D- on his last paper.

“Flash.” Sunset said, trying to get his attention.

“What?” He replied.

“You were meant to read this paragraph.” Sunset pointed at the text-book.

“Sorry, I’ve just got a few things on mind right now.” Flash said.

“Like what?” Sunset asked.

“Twilight, I’m just wondering how she is.” Flash looked at the statue through the window briefly.

“I hate to say this, but could you think about that later. We have to study.” Sunset said.

Sunset wasn’t surprised that Flash was thinking about Twilight as she consumed his thoughts a lot of the time, however she didn’t like it when it happened in study sessions, and sometimes he didn’t stop thinking about her for a long time. This time he listened and he began to read the paragraph out, Sunset then helped him understand what he didn’t already know. Flash appreciated her help and he knew that it wasn’t easy to help him, especially when he never showed an interest in the study.

They’d worked hard for an hour and Sunset decided that it was time the two had a quick break before they began studying yet again. She was proud that Flash had managed to keep his attention on what they were doing as nothing had interfered their session for the whole hour. Flash couldn’t deny that he’d continued to think about Twilight for the hour, however he was glad that he’d been able to concentrate.

“Thanks for helping me Sunset, I’m really grateful.” Flash said.

“It’s no problem, you’re a friend that needed help and you did great work just then.” Sunset replied.

Sunset went to get some water from the cooler from outside and Flash stared at a wall, then his phone vibrated. He looked at it, he had a notification that Twilight had posted a new picture online, it was a selfie of her and Timber. Flash stared at it for a moment, then removed it from his screen and turned his phone off. Strangely he then received a strange electric shock from the phone. Flash stared at it in confusion as he wasn’t sure why that he’d just received the shock and his phone was weirdly perfectly fine. Sunset had returned and the two resumed with their study session.

As they continued, Flash once again lost focus, Twilight once again was on his mind, he couldn’t get her out of his head. Sunset noticed that he wasn’t as focused as before and she wanted to know what the problem was this time, because he was doing a great job before and now he wasn’t. She closed his books and stared at him in the eye, and he knew that Sunset wasn’t happy about him not being focused.

“Flash, why aren’t you concentrating on the work?” Sunset looked directly into his eyes.

“It’s the same reason as last time, I guess.” Flash replied.

“Okay, you need to get over Twilight Sparkle because it’s affecting you. I think that you should move on and stop thinking about her, you should be studying and thing about school a bit more.” Sunset felt bad for being so harsh, however she knew that she was right.

“I guess so.” Flash said.

“Right, I think that we’ll stop for now. We have another session in a few days, I’m hoping you’ll be more focused then.” Sunset said.

“Yeah I will be.” Flash began packing up his things.

Meanwhile at the diner, Timber and Twilight were sitting opposite each other and they both had caffeine beverages in front of them. The two had been there for a while and they’d talked a bit, but it wasn’t the coffee date that Twilight was expecting as Timber barely talked about anything. She’d noticed that he wouldn’t really pay attention to what she was saying and wasn’t laughing at the jokes she was making.

“So do you like the coffee?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah sure, it’s okay,” Timber took a sip of his drink.

“So, what have you been up to recently?” She then asked.

“Well there was some campers at the camp the other day so I was doing activities with them, but nothing else really.” He said.

“Oh, interesting.” She replied.

There was then a silence and they just sat there looking at each other, the only sounds were the people who were sitting around them. Twilight drank her drink and Timber looked around the room, and then he faced Twilight once again. He was trying to find a concept to talk to her about and start up a proper conversation but he couldn’t think about anything.

“So I noticed you and Flash were talking before, what were you talking about?” She asked.

Timber looked at the window briefly. “Oh nothing, really.”

“Well I think he’s finally adjusting to the concept that I’m not ‘his’ Twilight.” She said.

“Yeah well it’s pretty confusing, there’s a lot of confusing things that go on around here,” He said. “I would find it hard if I was in his situation.”

“Yeah.” Twilight said.

“So how’s school been recently?” Timber asked.

“Well there’s been a few tests and I’ve been hanging around with the girls but everything has been normal.” Twilight replied.

Twilight was actually glad, they had refrained from using their new abilities and nothing strange had appeared in a while. Timber was also glad that nothing had happened as his sister Gloriosa was still embarrassed and ashamed of herself about what had happened previously, and he was also afraid of what could happen. They couldn’t disagree that the town was extremely strange and the stuff that happened was unexplainable.

“So, how’re your other friends?” Timber looked at her and smiled.

“Yeah everyone’s doing well, what about yours?” Twilight smiled at him.

“I don’t have that many friends, but the few that I do have are fine.” Timber answered.

“Why don’t you have friends?” Twilight said.

“Well I live in Camp Everfree, you can’t make many friends there.” He looked down at the table.

“Yeah I guess,” Twilight looked at the door quickly. “We should probably get going, I don’t want to be late for school.”

“I’ll walk you back.” Timber said.

The two got up and then left the diner and walked hand in hand down the road until they reached the school. Flash was once again by the steps and he was staring at the statue, he knew that Sunset was right he had to forget about Twilight. He then noticed as Twilight and Timber walked up to the steps and then hugged before Twilight headed inside the school.

“Hi again.” Timber walked towards him.

“Hello.” Flash said.

“Sorry if I offended you earlier.” Timber said.

“It’s okay, you didn’t, I’ve been having a kinda off day.” Flash replied.

“Really? Is there anything I could help you with?” Timber smiled at Flash.

This surprised Flash as he’d never expect that Timber would offer his help to him as they weren’t friends. Although he barely knew Timber, he thought that perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to have a talk with him, maybe he’d have advice on how to get over Twilight.

“Yeah, how do you get over a girl?” Flash asked.

“To be honest with you, I don’t really know,” Timber replied. “You just have to move on, you’ll know when you’re ready to do that. The feelings will fade day after day of you being apart and I guess eventually you won’t think about her as often.”

“I didn’t expect that you’d give me good advice.” Flash said, taken aback.

“Well then perhaps you don’t know me either, Flash Sentry.” Timber said.

“I guess I don’t,” Flash felt bad about his rudeness earlier. “I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“It’s fine, and anyway you said it yourself, you’ve been having a bad morning.” Timber replied.

Timber and Flash stood there as students passed by going inside the school and they looked at each other. Flash would never have thought that he could actually be friends with Timber but now it seemed likely that he’d be a good friend to have. As for Timber, he was glad that he could help out Flash even if his advice wasn’t the best, it would probably help Flash at least a bit.

“I don’t suppose you have change for the bus do you?” Timber asked.

“Yeah I do actually.” Flash pulled some money out of his pockets and gave it to Timber.

“Great thanks, I never knew that coffees were so expensive,” Timber said. “I’ll come by and pay you back tomorrow morning.”

“You don’t have to.” Flash smiled at Timber and wondered how he'd never realised that he was such a kind and nice person.

“I’ll feel bad if I don’t, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Timber said.

“Yeah, bye.” Flash replied.

Timber walked away from the school and Flash and made his way towards the bus shelter that was across the road. Flash went inside, heading for his locker where his books were stored and he wasn’t thinking about Twilight Sparkle. He was now thinking about this new friendship which may have just started between him and Timber, which he’d never believed to be possible earlier that morning.

Comments

[Damen]

This is... New.
If I could suggest one thing though: Space pragraphs out a little more. Right now it looks like a wall of text, which is a tad intimidating.
Other than that, not half bad. Maybe not even a quarter bad. Heck, even an eighth might be pushing it.