Flash: Redemption

by FlutterTank

Mending

Chapter 7

Fractures

Flash jolted awake, his fur matted with sweat. Another haunting sleep had passed, rife with the most gruesome images his brain could create. Every feasible torture and pain imaginable had stung his mind like a cherry-red needle.

He slowed his breathing and with it, his pounding heart. As a sharp wind came through the drafty, half-broken windows, it cut through his wet fur and sliced at his skin. The icy blade ran the length of his exposed chest, causing abrupt spasms throughout his body. He lie there, curled into a ball, body screaming in the freezing cold for just a trace of heat. Desperate for warmth, he reached out in the dark for the closest source of heat. His hooves fell across soft fur and quickly wrapped themselves around the form. As he tightened his embrace, he felt smooth, well-preened wings and solid, defined muscles. A feeling of unease crept over his body and he felt a slight churning in his chest. This was not his companion. This was not the mare he would grow old with. He did not love her that way. He had told her this himself, made it blatantly obvious that he wasn't attracted to her.

But he still loved her. And this still felt right. So Flash pushed aside his guilt and stress and felt himself relax for the first time in days. The steady rise and fall of her body comforted him and lit a small spark of happiness and content in a heart that had been consumed with vengeance and spite, a dim light in the midst of a dark, angry ocean. As long as his sister was with him, Flash would pull through. Putting himself at ease, he sunk into a more relaxed embrace and felt Rainbow Dash's plush fur sway in the wind, brushing lightly against his skin and lulling him to a comfortable sleep.

---

Flash woke up the following morning, fully rested, but not feeling quite himself. Of course, he didn't notice any difference, but he had changed a bit. It was hard to place the feeling properly, though. He still wanted his Fluttershy back, but he felt more resigned about it, as if hope for rescuing her was dwindling. Being careful to not wake Rainbow Dash, he slowly slipped his front legs away from her body.

He quietly stood up and immediately felt the repercussions of sleeping on the hard floor. His joints complained as he bent and unbent them, trying to grind out the soreness. He then found the focus of the pain centered around his back. So, he flexed and bent his spine in awkward positions, trying to get a crack or some slight relief from the aching, but to no avail.

Stiff and still hurting, Flash awkwardly shuffled over to the kitchen area and watched with reserved disgust as several roaches scuttled away from their feast of crumbs and moldy scraps and vanished through the gaps between the molding and floorboards. Pausing until the last of the nasty pests had disappeared, Flash then proceeded to the pantry on the left side of the kitchen and opened it, finding it stocked with the product of the girls' day at the market. A few cans of carrots, corn, and other vegetables lined the shelf along with two large baguettes.

Flash took down a can of spinach and a chunk of the bread. Although it had been sitting in the pantry for hours, the bread still smelled and felt fresh. Flash took out a can opener and popped the top off of his spinach. He looked down at the contents, a soupy mass of green, fibrous muk sitting in an equally green juice. It looked absolutely disgusting and Flash understood now more than ever why so many young foals hated spinach. For whatever strange reason, Flash had not been one of them. He quickly gulped down the contents and proceeded to nibble on his bread.

Soon enough, everypony awoke and came into the kitchen to grab their breakfast. Though they all were still half asleep, rubbing their eyes and yawning profusely, every face (save Pinkie's, of course) was somber and serious. Today was the day they would begin their heist.

Flash explained his plan over their breakfast. "Now the best possible means of entry," he stated, clearing his throat and swallowing to moisten it, "is a small emergency escape that my father made sure to place in the forcefield, in the event that everything went to hell."

He then pulled out a piece of paper on which he had sketched the layout of the estate. Pointing at the small cluster of trees and a small "x" on the map, he indicated their entry point.

"Next, Twilight will activate her invisibility spell and we'll all hurry over to this shed in the back. It's rarely visited and only gets a minor inspection from the patrols, so we can use it to set up a nearby base." He paused for just a second, collecting all of his thoughts into his head. "Now what we do next is wait until the clock rings, at which point, a search party of two earth ponies and a pegasus will be coming out to cover the grounds. They'll send one earth pony to investigate the shed. We take him down. Use whatever force necessary to ensure he doesn't send out a distress call; kill him if you have to."

His last sentence hung in the air as the true scope of this mission set in on the naive ponies of Ponyville. Maybe Flash had seen some terrible things in his life, but Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash had never really met any situations this serious during their peaceful lives in the other towns of Equestria. If one thing was true, Fillydelphia truly was the scum center of this nation.

After seeing the nervous glances being cast side to side, Flash continued, "The two remaining patrols will then come to check for their partner, wondering what's happened. Me and Dash will take down the pegasus, while Twilight uses her magic to render the other guard motionless and Pinkie bucks the nuggets out of him."

Again, some sidewards looks came up, but Flash pressed onward. "There will be at least 10 more guards in the house, but it appears that only one of them will be a pegasus. So, he will be the first out of the house once they realize that the search team has gone missing. We take him out and then the real fighting begins. Pinkie," he said, turning his attention to the bubbly pink pony, "we're going to need you to pull your party cannon out of thin air so as to use to fight the guards."

"Yes, sir!" she shouted, slamming her back hooves together and pulling up her front right hoof into a goofy salute.

"Twilight," he continued, "You're going to have to use your magic to incapacitate as many guards as possible. Whether you want to knock them out, put them to sleep, or even... well, you know, is completely up to you."

Twilight nodded, a firm, hard look on her face. She knew what Flash meant and almost seemed prepared to do it.

"Me and Rainbow Dash will swoop down and pick off a few guards, but once it looks like the fight is under control, we will bolt into the house and find Fluttershy. As long as we don't have to confront anypony else, we'll leave then and there. Sound like a plan?"

They all nodded in agreement, though Flash knew that wasn't the actual plan by any means. After Fluttershy was safe, he would find his father and beat him down until he was dead. It would be revenge for all the terrible things he'd done to so many innocent ponies over the years; revenge for all the pain he'd caused. But above all, it would be revenge for his Fluttershy, regardless of how they'd treated her. He took her away from Flash and that was what was forcing him to kill that pony. His father, as of this very moment, was marked for death.

---

Each pony had spent the past few hours preparing themselves for what was about to come, both mentally and physically, but something was definitely the matter with Flash. His head was pulsing as if sonic rainbooms were continually going off inside. The pain was bad, but the thoughts he was having were downright terrible. He imagined himself taking the lid to one of the food cans, sharp and rough, and swiftly running its edge across the throats of every other pony in the room. He wanted to throttle Twilight, ring Pinkie's neck, and tear off Dash's wings. He began to groan and, covering his head with his hooves, collapsed to the floor.

The others quickly raced over. After a quick explanation through gritted teeth and a strong desire to carve off Twilight's head, she managed to comprehend what was wrong. She quickly pressed her horn to his head and released a powerful blast of purple aura. He then felt, within his own mind, a huge wave, splendid and powerful as the sun, sweep across the surfaces of his very thoughts, ripping away some sort of malignant force that had been clinging to them for so long, sucking out his emotions and replacing them with sinister thoughts of death. The relief it brought was almost unbearable itself. Flash felt himself grow feint as so much weight was relieved from his once pounding skull. He suddenly felt absolutely wonderful and one hundred percent himself. After he regained his senses, he looked at Twilight, concern in her eyes, then at the other two ponies, both equally worried.

"What happened?" he asked, still dazed from the experience.

"You had been overrun," Twilight began to explain, "by another unicorn's magic. Somebody was inside your mind, torturing you internally, perverting your thoughts and trying to make you wicked." While she knew what had happened and what she was saying was true, she had no idea how it had happened. But Flash took it from there.

"It was Mist. I knew she'd play a bigger part than this. Father had her find me somehow and invade my mind, probably to turn me against you guys." Now looking at Twilight, "I didn't want to have to tell you this, but she is a powerful unicorn, Twilight. As far as magical power is concerned, you could wipe the floor with her, but she plays dirty, and she will try to kill you in any way she can. You have to kill her before she can get to you. Do you understand?"

Twilight nodded grimly, a worried expression hung grimly upon her face. She was scared and he knew it. But he also knew she was a brave, goodhearted pony who would surely triumph over the evil wretch that was Mist.

"Twilight, thank you so much. You don't know how great a relief that was."

She nodded a second time, more confidently and brightly than the first.

"Now that I'm all ship shape, how about we get our friend back?"

A cheer went out from the four of them and they all barged out of the house, ready for what was to face them, ready to kill for a friend and die for a friend. And with his hope and spirit restored, Flash knew that they could do this.

Comments

[FlutterTank]

Sorry I keep taking so long to update, guys, but my parents have me working outside constantly. I finally got a weekend where both of them are on night shifts, so I finally got the chance to sit down and write for a decent amount of time. This is the product and I'm happy to have finally gotten it done. I have to warn you all, I won't be updating as often as I would like. So bear with me, and we'll see to it that this story reaches its close.

[ScriptScrolls]

956879 It's ALIVE!
blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/Young%20Frankenstein.jpg.jpg

Wow... it's been so long since you updated I forgot I already used that.