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Chapter 1: A New Friend3,078 words
Chapter 2: A Welcome and a Memory3,105 words
Chapter 3: Outburst4,814 words
Chapter 4: Bad timing7,592 words
Chapter 5: Returning The Favor7,346 words

Chapter 5: Returning The Favor

5:58 A.M. Two more minutes and the alarm clock would start beeping. It had been weeks since the last time Twilight had been awaken by the alarm itself. All because of the nightmares. Once she managed to wake up from them, it was very difficult to go back to sleep. Sometimes she managed to snooze for about an hour. Sometimes only for 15 minutes. And most times… nothing. She just laid there on her bed, staring at the ceiling, in silence. Spike attempted to stay awake with her, but the sleepy dog only lasted about twenty minutes before he felt flat on his face. Twilight let him sleep, of course. Why should he martyrize himself because of her traumas?

But were they just traumas, thought?

5:59 A.M. No matter how hard she tried not to, she kept thinking about it. And worrying about it. Constantly. Especially when she was alone and in silence. According to what Sunset had told her, her last transformation had probably been due to stress and pressure. So, would she have to go live in a cloud or a bubble with no worries at all in order for her to not turn into a monster? For someone as perfectionist and worrisome as her, “keeping calm” and “thinking positive” were easier said than done. It only got worse with those lucid and extremely realistic nightmares. She wasn’t sure anymore if they were just dreams, or maybe something inside of her was speaking to her directly.

The alarm rang and she pounded it before it could finish the very first beep. She was already sitting up at the edge of the bed. She got on her feet, made her bed and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. All of her morning routine was done in automatic. All she wanted to do, and ironically, also the last thing she wanted to do, was go back to sleep. Because yes, she was exhausted and poorly rested, but she knew what sleeping implied.

After she got fully dressed and her hair was done, she went downstairs and straight into the kitchen. The only thing keeping her awake during the day, aside from her paranoid thoughts, was coffee. Lots of it.

Her mom, Twilight Velvet, was in the kitchen, washing some dishes and setting some things on the table quickly. Her parents got up –technically– before her, because they had to be in the restaurant before 6:30, which was the time when they opened up and people began to come over to eat breakfast or ordering coffee to go. By the way her mom was hurrying through the dishes and the sloppy way in which the table was set, Twilight could tell that they were running late. Five minutes could make a half hour difference when it came to traffic, so her parents got pretty frantic whenever their alarm betrayed them.

Twilight sighed and walked to the coffee maker. “Good morning, mom” she said, sounding pretty monotone and tired.

“Uh, good morning, Twilight” the white-purple haired woman responded rather rapidly as she dried her hands and turned on the stove. Twilight was about to pour coffee into a mug, but stopped when she heard her mother yell after dropping an egg on the floor. Twilight Velvet angrily closed her eyes and groaned to herself. Her daughter quickly put a hand on her shoulder and said: “It’s okay mom, I’ve got this.” She turned off the stove on her way and grabbed the mop that was next to the fridge. Her mother sighed and attempted to calm herself. “Thanks, dear” she said as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, grabbing her purse from the sofa and taking out her mirror and lipstick.

Twilight proceeded to clean the floor as she heard the bathroom door opening, and her dad, Night Light, walked into the kitchen, seeming just as agitated as her mom but slightly less frantic. “Oh, good morning, sweetheart” he said, giving her daughter a quick kiss on her head as he walked to the fridge behind her. “Good morning, dad. And, goodbye” Twilight responded when she saw her dad taking out his lunch and walking to the living room where his suitcase was.

“Yeah, sorry, but we’re running late.” He grabbed the car key and opened the house door. “Have a great day at school, Twily!” he finished before quickly walking out. Twilight Velvet followed and turned to say “We love you!” before closing the door behind her.

The sudden silence and solitude hit Twilight like a cold breeze. She sighed. “I love you, too…” she said quietly.

Her parents were… nice, of course. She knew they did everything they did because of her and her brother. Now it was mostly for her, ever since her brother moved out with his fiancé, Cadance. She just wished she could spend more time with them. Their restaurant was very successful, which of course was good. But the only family times they got lately were on Holidays, and even then, they were still pretty busy working half day and attending phone calls most of the time. With her dad being the owner and her mom the head chef, they barely ever had time for family anymore. She had always felt a distance between her and her parents, but it had gotten worse with the years, as The Royal Cheval got more and more prosperous.

She really wished she could spend more quality time with them.

She felt so selfish for wishing such a thing. As if she was so fixated in her own problems, that she had gotten herself into anyways, that she wouldn’t think of her family’s stability and well-being anymore. Her parents were so happy the way things were. Stressed and constantly in a hurry, yes, but that’s what they had gotten used to the past years. She knew how, before she had been born, and even in her early years of childhood, her father had struggled and gone through many hardships in order to start his own business. Her mother used to have two jobs as a cook in local restaurants so that they could maintain the family. When The Royal Cheval was finally founded and started to slowly become more popular, all of their efforts began to pay off. Their dream was finally being realized and their lives were coming together quite neatly.

Throughout her life, Twilight had rarely spoken to her parents about her problems, because she knew the time she had with them was very limited, and almost every time she saw them, they seemed tired and wanting to get away from the stress of work. She didn’t want to stress them out more with her personal problems, big or small. She never told them about the hard time she had fitting in Crystal Prep.

Usually, her sole confidant was her older brother, Shining Armor. He was the one Twilight felt more comfortable telling almost everything. They had always shared a lot whenever their parents weren’t around. But, ever since Shining got promoted at work and moved out to live with his fiancé Cadance, her contact with him decreased significantly. They would speak on the phone once or twice a week and meet every other week. But whenever she spoke to him, he just seemed so happy and content with how things were going in his life. It was so nice seeing him like this that she didn’t want to take it away from him, so she wouldn’t go into much detail about what was troubling her. She would act like it was no big deal and quickly change the topic.

Because the truth was, Twilight hated seeing her dear ones sad or preoccupied. Especially if she was the cause of it. This was a bit of a problem, considering she wasn’t the exactly the best one when it came to “lighten the mood” or even cheer people up. However, she always tried to make sure that the people she cared for were okay and happy, so she took whatever chance she had to avoid being the reason of their concern. She actually never intended to tell her family about the whole “Midnight” incident the very first time it happened. It had only been because Cadance had insisted so much and basically forced her to do so by organizing an impromptu family meeting the night after the events.

She had known Cadance for years, ever since Twilight was a child and Cadance would sometimes babysit her. She knew how intuitive the woman was. Also very persuasive in a subtle way. Cadance was the kind of people who are “always right”, and only acted for Twilight’s own good, even if the younger girl sometimes disagreed with Cadance’s decisions.

“Morning” said Spike with a cautious voice. Twilight snapped out of her train of thought and looked down, a bit startled, at her pet, who was staring at her from the entrance of the kitchen. The girl hadn’t heard him coming down the stairs. She hadn’t even noticed what she had been doing herself. She looked at her hands and found herself in front of the stove, holding a skillet with her left hand while using a wooden spoon to scramble some eggs with her right. She noticed that these eggs were beginning to look a bit too brown. Twilight shook her head a little and led out a sight, turning off the stove. “Good morning” she finally replied to Spike, her voice sounding as weary and tired as she felt.

She had done it again. Her boring, monotone routine combined with her haunting memories, nightmares, and concerns, had caused her to often get extremely lost in thought the past couple weeks. She could be brushing her teeth one moment, and the next thing she knew, she was in the bus, two blocks away from her school. She hated when that happened to her. She had tried her best to fight it, but just like these memories, nightmares, and concerns, it was often inevitable.

Twilight had found that she very much enjoyed tutoring Flash. Not only did she get her mind off undesirable thoughts, it also helped her focus on what she was doing at the moment. That fact that she was imparting knowledge to someone else and helping him become a better student felt extremely important and fulfilling to her. Her mind didn’t strain when she was teaching him something. She spoke out loud and concentrated in a very concrete topic, so she didn’t have time to get lost in her train of thought and lose track of time.

The same thing occurred, to some extent, when she was with her friends, the Rainbooms. But when she was with them, topics like fashion, parties and boys would come up more often than not. She was not familiar or interested in those fields. Therefore, she tended to lose interested on the girls’ conversation, and would begin dwelling once more until someone took notice and helped her come back to reality.

However, she knew pretty much all a girl of her age could know about her school subjects. And she had always been fascinated by them. So when she talked about them with Flash, it took all of her attention. She also liked coming up with new ways and methods to explain the subjects to Flash, so that he could understand and remember better. It was like a fun challenge to her. Flash was a very visual person, so together, the two of them ideated new studying mechanisms for Flash. They went from associating chemical elements with classical rock bands, to doing an improvised puppet show with erasers and pencils to memorize dates from the Cold War.

The time from 3 to 5:30 pm had become her favorite time of the day. The most real and stable time of her day. And although she didn’t expect to at first, she also enjoyed the time after they finished studying. Often they would end their lesson at about 5 in the afternoon or a little earlier, but Twilight’s bus didn’t arrive until 5:30. So Flash would accompany Twilight the remaining time, and they would talk. They made an agreement that every day they would ask each other questions, taking turns, until the bus to the city arrived for Twilight. That way, they would get to know each other a little more. They were friends, after all. Studying all the time wouldn’t make that much sense. But everything they talked about felt like a discovery to Twilight, and he didn’t lose her attention a single moment.

“Okay, Twilight” Flash had said to her the day before, as they were sitting on the grass, in front of the Wondercolts statue as usual. “What’s your favorite music genre?”

Twilight meditated her answer for a moment, before finally answering. “Well, most of the time I prefer to listen to audiobooks instead of music. But when I do listen to music, it’s often classical.”

Flash snorted. “I didn’t mean something to sleep to, Twilight.” A smug drew on his face and he raised an eyebrow.

Twilight felt slightly offended. She knew that look on his face. It meant a friendly discussion was coming. They went on, back and forward, for about 10 minutes, discussing what real music was to them, Flash defending his favorite bands with pride, Twilight objectively talking up Tchaikovsky and Chopin. Flash found himself in disadvantage, argument-wise. So he decided to show instead of tell. He took his cellphone out of his bag, lend Twilight one of her earbuds and put on one of his personal favorites: Better for You by Tiger Fang. Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but she actually ended up liking the song. But she enjoyed even more the way Flash mouthed all the words with his eyes closed and even mimicked the notes of the guitar solo. She couldn’t help but giggle. She could tell how much he loved that song. When the tune ended, Flash sighed and carefully removed Twilight’s earbud.

“So?” he asked, interested. “What do you think?”

Twilight turned her head and lifted her chin, attempting to look unamused, although she couldn’t erase the smile off her face. “I don’t understand why you like this so much. It isn’t real music.”

“Oh, really? Then why were you bobbing your head through the whole thing?” Flash asked her teasingly.

Twilight snorted. “You’re one to talk! You almost ripped the earbuds apart during that wicked solo!” she exclaimed, imitating a manly voice in the last two words, mimicking Flash’s air guitar gesture, making both of them burst in laughter.

Back in present day, Twilight still smiled thinking of the good time they had. Along with one time she made Flash confess, after insisting for 15 minutes, that he watched some anime, it was one of her favorite memories she had with him. It was always a good time when he was around.

But today, he wasn’t around. In the mornings, Flash was usually still too sleepy to study, so she waited for him with a cappuccino –to which Flash seemed to be slowly getting addicted to– and they would quickly wrap up the topic they had left unfinished the day before until the bell rang. He usually arrived about 15 minutes before class began. Now it was 7:59 and Flash’s car was nowhere to be seen.

Spike hadn’t come with her today, and her friends were inside the school as they usually were at this time, so she was standing there with no one to talk to. Twilight felt a little concerned. He hadn’t arrived late a single time before today. But she figured it was time to walk to her classroom. She couldn’t help but feel curiosity and some uneasiness regarding her friend’s mysterious absence, but she had to continue with her day, normally.

When she went through the entrance door, she greeted her friends and walked to the Math classroom beside them. Just as Twilight sat down on her desk next to Sunset, she looked up to see her friend Flash rush into the classroom. He quickly greeted Twilight with a dry and quick “Hey” as he passed next to her, and sat down on his desk. Twilight turned to see him. He was panting a little, since apparently he had ran from the parking lot to the class.

Twilight took a good look at his face, and noticed that, more than physically tired, his expression looked preoccupied and somewhat anxious. He rested his forehead on his desk and clenched both fists. Twilight wanted to go and ask him what was wrong, but before she could even get up, Professor Cranky entered the classroom, greeted the students and began writing the lesson. So Twilight was left with no other option but to remain quiet in her seat.

At lunchtime, Twilight was sitting with her six friends at the cafeteria, and Flash was in the table across them with his friends, as usual. But his attitude was not the usual one. He was the same as when he had arrived this morning: distracted, gloomy and quiet. For someone who was usually the most talkative and cheerful of his group, this didn’t feel right. Twilight wouldn’t get her eyes off him. Just yesterday, Flash was his normal, happy self. When the girl got on the bus and waved him goodbye, the boy had the biggest and brightest smile on his face. She missed that contagious smile. She kept wondering what could’ve made it go away in a matter of hours.

Twilight’s friends were all talking to each other about things she wasn’t even listening to. Applejack, who was sitting in front of Twilight, noticed that her friend kept staring at her left, looking upset. “Twilight?” said the cowgirl, making Twilight blink startled and turn to look at her. “Is everything alright, sugarcube? Ya haven’t touched your food.” The rest of Twilight’s friends turned to look at her, and noticed that what Applejack had said was true.

Twilight looked down at her plate full of macaroni and cheese. She grabbed a fork and began stirring it a bit. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I’m fine, it’s just…” She gave another quick glance at Flash, who remained unchanged. Twilight then spoke more quietly. “I’m a little worried about Flash. He seems a bit… off.”

“I’ll say!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, in her usual chirpy tone. “Look, he’s having a grilled cheese sandwich. He always eats grilled cheese when he’s stressed!” All of Pinkie’s friends shushed her in unison. Thankfully, Flash hadn’t heard her –or at least he pretended he hadn’t–, but their tables were very close to each other, so it was better for them to speak quietly.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it” said Sunset, taking a bite of her cereal bar. “He gets like this every time exams are close. So he’s probably worried about that.”

Twilight turned back to see Flash again. She didn’t say anything, but she knew that wasn’t the reason. She and Flash had done some great improvements in their tutoring classes the past few weeks. In the tests she made him do, his results went from very good to excellent. Flash was learning a lot and clearly seemed less worried about the exams by the day. Sure, maybe he still felt a tiny bit nervous, but Twilight felt pretty sure that the exams weren’t the cause of his anguish today.

The girl kept looking at the blue-haired guitarist from her seat, and noticed him staring longly at the cafeteria clock. He chewed on his grilled cheese sandwich as if it were the only thing calming him down. Twilight took a few bites of her meal, but couldn’t fully get invested in her friends’ conversation, as she very often would give a look at Flash.

After a few minutes, Flash had finished the only food he had gotten today and took a final glance at the clock. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, pulling his head backwards and rubbing his forehead. This caught Twilight’s attention and made her stare at him more intently. What was happening now?

Flash got up, making his friends on his table turn to look at him. He spoke loudly, bluntly, and quickly, not even opening his eyes. “Flash Drive, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news. Our presentation for Friday… got cancelled.”

Just as he said that last word, the bell that announced the end of the recess rang and Flash immediately ran out of the cafeteria. His bandmates, who didn’t have the time to be disconcerted by the news, ran after Flash, exclaiming his name angrily.

Twilight’s group heard and saw the whole thing, and now they were all sitting perplexed. Pinkie Pie broke the awkward silence. “Ooooh! So that was the reason!”

Twilight didn’t waste another moment and went to find out what was going on. She didn’t even think if she was being nosey or not. She just had to make sure Flash was going to be okay. She finally found him, cornered by his friends in front of his locker.

“WHAT THE HECK, DUDE?” Ringo exclaimed.

“We thought you had it all covered!” Micro Chips pointed out.

“WEREN’T YOU GONNA SIGN US UP?” Brawly Beats asked loudly, pointing strongly at Flash.

Sandalwood, who was not part of the bad, but was supporting his friends, just shook his head slowly in disapproval.

Flash clearly seemed pressured and stressed out. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes, putting a hand in front of him, attempting to calm down his upset buddies. “I know, I know…” he attempted to sound secure, but his voice was still stained with guilt and exhaustion. “Look, the thing is… I had a lot to do yesterday. Had to help a lot at my place. I got a call from work and had to go there almost the whole afternoon. And then…” he paused. He exhaled once again, and rested his back against the metal locker behind him. His voice became softer and with a hint of sadness in it. “Well, I got distracted. I completely forgot, to be honest. I’m very sorry.”

All of his friends were frowning at him and looked angry and disappointed. “I know I promised I was going to take care of this. This is my fault. I screwed up, ok?” he said remorsefully.

“Darn right you did” Ringo said with his characteristic blunt manner.

“Flash, we’ve been preparing for that presentation for a month. You knew how big of a deal this was going to be for the band.” Brawly said, lightly smacking the back of Flash’s head.

“Approximately 15% of the attendants of Punky Café on an average Friday night are the kind of influential people that could really help our band start to get recognized across the city!”

Flash covered his face with his right hand. “I know. Guys, I am so, so sorry!” he apologized once again, with a truly regretful expression on his face, running his fingers through his hair. “I’ll get us another presentation, I promise!”

Brawly Beats sighed and looked away. “Whatever, man.” He walked away, looking at the ground, hitting a locker with the side of his fist on the way. Micro, Ringo and Sandal followed him, leaving Flash alone and ashamed of himself. The blue eyed boy looked up and saw Twilight, who was looking at him with concern in her eyes. She walked closer to him. Flash felt just terrible with himself. He rested his back against the locker once again, hiding his face in his palm and letting out a heavy sigh. “You heard all that, huh?” he asked Twilight without looking at her.

“I did. Sorry” Twilight said apologetically, rubbing her left forearm. “I was worried about you.”

Flash quickly looked at Twilight, his eyes half-closed, and forced a quick smile. But he then looked at the ground and his smile turned into a frown. He wasn’t even trying to hide how terrible he felt. Twilight couldn’t handle seeing Flash like this, but her curiosity got the best of her, and she asked: “Why did you lie to them?”

“What do you mean?” Flash asked in response, raising an eyebrow at Twilight, although the rest of his features were still sad.

“About yesterday” Twilight answered. “You told them you had done all those things at home and work, and you didn’t. You spent the afternoon studying with me. Don’t your friends know that?”

“Oh no, they do know you’re tutoring me” Flash answered, with his mood unchanged, as he scratched the back of this neck. “They just don’t know it’s every day. I guess it's because I didn’t want them to blame you in any way.” he gestured at himself, “I’m the only guilty one here. I wanted to keep you out of this mess.”

Twilight looked at Flash in surprise, but before she could say something, Flash opened his locker and got out his book and notebook for the next class. “Look, it doesn’t matter anymore. I led them down. I’ll figure a way to make it up to them.” he closed the small gate and turned to Twilight. Once more, he forced a quick smile, which felt empty and fake to the girl. “See you after class” the boy said, before he turned around and left.

Twilight felt awful. She was moved about how Flash tried to protect her from receiving any of the blame, but still, she felt like the guiltiest one around. It was because she had kept him so busy with the daily lessons that he had forgotten to sign up his band at Punky Café, which she knew was one of the most important places in the city in which upcoming bands could start getting noticed by the public. And now, because Flash had missed the chance to have his band performing there, his friends had gotten mad at him, and he felt miserable now.

It was as if she had been the one who made him miserable. That was probably the worse sensation she had felt in the whole time she had been in this school. Flash was the one person who never failed to make her smile, and now, because of Twilight’s so-called “brilliant” idea of tutoring him, he was unable to smile himself.

But Twilight was going to bring that smile back. She had promised herself that, and she would not break that promise. She took out her cell phone, went to her contacts, and made a quick call.

“Hello, Dad? No, I’m ok, but I need to talk to you. Look, you said something about needing a band for this Saturday’s event at the restaurant, right?”

Once again, the final bell of the day rang, and the students at CHS began packing their things to head home. Twilight quickly got off her seat and went straight to Flash, taking him by surprise. “Flash, listen” she said to him with a bit of excitement. “There’s been a change of plans. There isn’t going to be a tutoring session today, but I do need to talk to you, so whenever you’re ready, meet me by the statue!” she finished her sentence with a little awkward giggle before getting out of the class as quickly as she could without running. “And bring your guitar!” she yelled from the hallway.

“Uh… ok?” Flash answered, although mostly to himself. He was very weirded out about this and failed to understand what it was about. But still, he wasn’t going to question Twilight. He packed everything he needed for the afternoon in his backpack, went to his locker to grab his guitar, and then headed just outside the school, towards the statue where he and Twilight would study together every weekday afternoon. Twilight was standing there, waiting for him. But he stopped in surprise when he saw who she was with.

His three bandmates, plus Sandalwood, where standing in front of Twilight. To their left, Flash saw all their instruments, arranged in the position where they usually performed, and next to them were some speakers and a big briefcase where they carried their sound equipment. Flash felt even more confused than before. What had Twilight gathered all of his friends for? It probably wasn’t a group tutoring, otherwise they wouldn’t need their instruments. But, after the news Flash had given to the group earlier today, would they be willing to perform with him again so soon?

Twilight waved at Flash from afar, making all the guys turn to look at him. They clearly still felt resentful and mad at him, which made him doubt for a second whether he should go to them or not. Could he get away with turning around and running to his car?

“Flash, come on! We’re waiting for you!” Twilight said loud enough for him to hear. The guitarist gulped and walked forward to the group before he could chicken out. He felt very uncomfortable around his band right now, but Twilight’s presence calmed him down a little bit. He trusted her. He just hoped she knew what she was doing.

“Okay” said Twilight aloud, breaking the awkward silence that had been formed when Flash arrived. “Now that we’re all here, there’s something very important that I need you to know. Well, you are all very aware of the news Flash gave you earlier today, regarding a presentation of your band” she said, gesturing at the blue-haired boy.

“Yeah” all of Flash’s band replied in unison, turning to stare accusingly at Flash, who lowered his head and scratched his neck, feeling embarrassed.

Twilight cleared her throat and moved next to Flash, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Well, the fact that he forgot to sign you up for this Friday… isn’t entirely his fault.”

Flash’s head quickly turned to look at the girl, opening his eyes widely. “Twilight, no, you don’t have to do this” he said to her, sounding almost pleading.

“Yes, I do” Twilight responded, making her voice sound both reassuring and firm. She turned to the rest of Flash’s friends and continued speaking to them. “Those things Flash told you he did yesterday… they weren’t true. He just said that so that he wouldn’t get me in trouble.” Flash’s friends turned to look at him again, although now they were more intrigued than mad and accusing. Flash stuck his hands inside his jacket’s pockets and looked at the ground, still feeling guilty.

“The truth is,” Twilight continued, “he was right here with me all afternoon. I was tutoring him like I do every weekday after school. I didn’t ask him if he had other things to do. And I wouldn’t let him go until we finished our lesson. So I’m responsible for this, too.”

Flash took a step forward and looked at his friends. “Okay, I was studying with her all afternoon,” he turned to look at the girl, “but it was my responsibility. I’m the one who forgot to go to the café, not Twilight.”

She smiled at Flash sympathetically. “That doesn’t take away the fact that I disregarded whether you had other plans or not.” She then spoke to all the others. “Which is why, I would like to make it up to all of you.”

All the boys, including Flash, felt intrigued, and listened to Twilight with close attention. “As Flash already knows, my father is the owner of the restaurant The Royal Cheval, in the city.” All the listeners seemed impressed and even more interested when they heard this. “Well, for every Saturday afternoon, my dad hires a band to perform live at the restaurant, in a small event called Lunch & a Show. Right now, he’s still looking for someone to perform this coming Saturday. I talked to him earlier today, and he told me that you can perform something, and I’ll record it with my cell phone and email it to him, as some sort of audition.” She put her hands behind her back and looked at the boys around her. They were all left speechless and turned to look at each other in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” Brawly asked Twilight, with astonishment. “We could be performing at The Royal Cheval?”

“That’s a much bigger deal than Punky Café” said Ringo, sounding a little more enthusiastic than his usual mood.

“And our possibilities of getting noticed by someone influential increase from 15-20%!” Micro declared as he finished some calculations, showing his calculator screen to Sandalwood next to him.

“That’d be radical, dudes!” Sandalwood exclaimed, nodding.

“So… what do you guys say?” Twilight asked them once more, eagerly. She turned her head slightly to look at Flash. He looked up nervously at his friends, hoping not to get a negative response again. The guys thought about it for a moment, interchanging some unsure glances.

Until finally, they all smiled and nodded. Brawly turned to Flash and extended his hand to him. “I say we take it away.”

Flash’s face lid up and his wide, sincere smile returned. He clapped his right hand with Brawly’s. He turned to his other friends and they all patted each other’s back and exclaimed in celebration, before they rushed to prepare their instruments and sound equipment for their surprise performance. Twilight smiled in relief. It was great that Flash had made up with his friends, and that his joyful, positive mood had returned.

After a short moment, their instruments and equipment were all set up. Flash was doing a quick sound check.

Twilight stood in front, were she thought was the best place to record. Flash, who was the lead singer and guitarist, was placed front center. A few feet behind, to his left, was Micro Chips, behind his keyboard. On the other side, stood Ringo, holding his bass. Brawly Beats was at the back, all set up with his drums. Sandalwood, who wasn’t a part of the band, was sitting on the ground next to Brawly. Twilight didn’t quite understand why that boy had insisted in staying there, if he wasn’t even part of Flash Drive, but she abstained from asking. She guessed Sandalwood was simply an inseparable friend of them, who wanted to support his friends and their band.

“Alright, gentlemen” Flash spoke to his band once he made sure the microphones and instruments sounded good enough. “What will it be?”

“How about Jessie’s Girl?” Brawly suggested.

“Mmmh, no.” Flash answered, scratching his chin. “I still need to practice some chords on that one. Maybe Endlessly?”

“We’ve only played that one once before. It’s still too rough around the edges, if you ask me.” Micro replied, adjusting his glasses.

“Back to Black?” proposed Ringo.

“White these acoustics? No way” said Brawly, shaking his head.

“How about I’m Still Standing?” Sandalwood asked out of the blue. All the other guys turned to look at him, all of them raising an eyebrow. “Oh, sorry dudes.” Sandal apologized. “Not in the band, none of my business.”

“No, no.” Flash said, putting his had in front of him and thinking for a moment, then turning to his bandmates. “That’s actually a good idea. We’re pretty good at that one, right?” All of the others looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

“Alright! So are you guys ready?” Twilight asked, holding her phone in front of her.

Flash once again looked at the members of his band. All of them nodded their heads at him. Flash looked at the front and smiled at Twilight. “Ready.”

Twilight smiled back at him and held up her phone. After she went to the camera and pressed Record, she nodded at Flash, indicating him to begin. Flash seemed a little bit nervous, but he quickly shook it off. He cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone, looking at the camera. “Hello. We are Flash Drive, and we’re going to perform I’m still Standing. We hope you enjoy.”

Flash placed his fingers in the chords of his guitar to play the first note. Brawly Beats hit his drumsticks together three times, and they all began playing their respective instruments. They played the upbeat opening of the song in perfect harmony. Twilight felt surprised. She wasn’t sure if it was the case or not, but it seemed like they had rehearsed this song a million times, because everyone was seamlessly synchronized and, although she didn’t know an awful lot about music, they all sounded in the right key. When the opening instrumental was coming to an end, Flash leaned forward to his microphone, and while he kept playing, he began singing.

You could never know what it's like
Your blood like winter freezes just like ice
And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you
You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use

Twilight’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She didn’t know Flash sang so well. The way he was able to convey such energy and emotion with his voice while playing rapid notes on his guitar, and not once falling out of key, left Twilight quite impressed.

And did you think this fool could never win
Well look at me, I'm coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know while I'm still standing you just fade away

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

The rest of Flash’s band began singing the backing vocals

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

As they kept playing, Twilight noticed that people from the neighborhood were starting to come over to listen. They all seemed curious and amused, and a few of them began recording as well. This took the members of Flash Drive by surprise, but they kept playing like professionals, and some people couldn’t help but tap their feet or bob their heads along.

Once I never could hope to win
You starting down the road leaving me again
The threats you made were meant to cut me down
And if our love was just a circus you'd be a clown by now

You know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Flash started playing his guitar solo. Twilight wasn’t sure what was better: his singing voice or his guitar skills. Because truly, they were both quite amazing. The way his fingers moved across the strings, producing such trilling sounds in such a short time, made the people in the audience cheer. And Flash seemed really into it. He closed his eyes and a big smile adorned his face. He kept singing, moving a little from side to side in his place.

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Everyone played their final notes, and the tune ended. The gathered neighbors, who had ended up being around 15, all clapped and cheered. Twilight finished her recording and clapped as well. She didn’t expect to enjoy their performance so much. All the members of Flash Drive were smiling proudly. It was the first time they had performed outside of their school or Ringo’s garage, and they were ecstatic to see that they seemed to attract audience. “Thank you! Thank you very much!” Flash spoke to the audience in the microphone, giving a small bow. He was really enjoying this.

“Hey! When will you perform again?” a tween boy in the small public asked them. “You were awesome!”

Twilight, who was in the very front of the audience, walked to Flash and stood next to him, turning to see the spectators. “This Saturday!” she answered the boy’s question. “They’ll be performing in the city, at The Royal Cheval, starting at noon.”

“Cool, I’ll be there!” a girl from the public exclaimed, and several other people agreed. The small audience dispersed and they all returned to their homes, but kept talking about how much they had enjoyed the presentation.

Once they all left, Flash looked and Twilight and asked her: “Hey, are you really that sure that we’ll get to play at your dad’s restaurant?”

“Are you serious?” Twilight answered with a bright smile and a glow in her eyes. “You guys are amazing! Knowing my dad, he’ll take you in immediately.”

Flash smiled at her. Twilight turned to look at Micro Chips, who had come to her side. “I just wanted to say, uh… Thank you, Twilight!” the boy with glasses exclaimed, shaking his fists together in excitement. All of the others thanked Twilight from their places, and they seemed so very happy. Twilight giggled. “You’re welcome, guys!”

They proceeded to put away everything, with the help from Twilight. It took them a little less than what took them to install it all. Then they all waved each other goodbye and headed to their respective cars, or in Sandalwood and Micro’s cases, bicycles. When Brawly said goodbye to Flash, he leaned close to him and told him quietly: “She’s alright, man.”

Flash turned to look at Twilight, who was saying goodbye to Ringo and Sandal, and immediately after, she got on her phone and began sending the video to her father.

Flash smiled. He couldn’t believe what she had done for them. For him. Of course, he already knew how nice she was. But he was beginning to see that she was very thoughtful and selfless. He was also glad that Twilight and his guy friends were starting to get along.

The girl put her phone away and looked at Flash with an optimistic expression in her face. He took a few steps closer to her. “Twilight, thank you for this.”

“Hey, it was no problem, really.” She led out a small chuckle.

“I mean it” he said. His voice was sincere and warm, his eyes glowed with gratitude. “And not just because of this opportunity for my band. Also for helping me mend things up with my friends. It means a lot to me.”

Twilight shyly rubbed her arm and smiled at the ground. “You’re welcome. I think it’s the least I could do. I’m just…” she paused for a moment and looked up, her amethyst eyes meeting with Flash’s blue glance. “I’m just glad to see you happy again.”

Flash’s smile widened and he chuckled. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds. They realized how grateful they were to have the other in their lives.

Flash looked at the ground and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. He turned to look at the clock at the top of the school. “Hey, there’s still about one hour left before your bus arrives.”

Twilight gasped in excitement. “You know what that means!” she said with a little clap and a spark in her eye.

Flash sighed in defeat. Yes, he knew. “Pop quiz?”

“Pop quiz!” the girl exclaimed, giving a little hop and sitting in front of the statue. She unzipped her backpack and took out a few sheets of paper. “Pencils out, Sentry! It’s Natural History today!”

Flash shook his head with a grin on his face. He sat next to Twilight and spent the next hour answering questions about fossils.

And he was perfectly okay with that.

Author's Note:

Music and Lyrics to “I’m Still Standing” belong to Elton John.

And that's all. As many of you probably know, I tried to continue the story in comic form, but quickly lost both motivation and interest in it. I think cancelling was the best decision both for me and for the readers, because I know waiting almost a literal year just to read a transition chapter is... not the greatest. But by comparing this chapter to the first one, I think there's some clear improvement, and I hope I can use that improvement and the things I've learned in the past year to create better stories in the future. Stories that I do feel are worth finishing.

And since, by publishing in this site I'm officially saying goodbye to this story, a few noticeable shout-outs that I feel are worth mentioning:

ArthurCrane, for suggesting “I’m Still Standing” for this chapter.

SuperSonicHeroes2 for a line in the mini-flashback, which was originally left by him in a comment on a sketch I posted. It was so simple and cute, I had to put it in here!

Mary Grace Foster, Fire Rose, and Sofía Landbo, who were beta readers of different chapters.

Godslittleprincess and Jii Brown, who are two of my biggest supporters and just straight-out lovely people.

And last but certainly not least, to Angy López, who's not only a great friend, but who also gave me a lot of useful advice and has helped me more than I could ever have imagined, and not just with writing. Gracias otra vez, Angy

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Godslittleprincess

Godslittleprincess #1 · Apr 20th, 2019 · · ·

EEEE! I already read this on deviantart, but I can't wait to read it again here! This is a reminder not the use my real name on this site. Thanks. You're awesome.

SuperSonicHeroes

SuperSonicHeroes #2 · Apr 20th, 2019 · 2 · ·

Hey, this was an awesome story. I am disappointed it will never be finished but I will always enjoy what you gave us. Keep up the great work, no matter what you choose to do.

Starlight Nova

Starlight Nova #3 · Apr 20th, 2019 · · ·

Why was this cancelled?

Godslittleprincess

Godslittleprincess #4 · Apr 20th, 2019 · · ·

9576471
She explains it right here.

Banshee531

Banshee531 #5 · Apr 20th, 2019 · 1 · ·

Man this is just as good as I remember it. I remember first reading this after finding its trailer on youtube. To bad it'll never get finished, but what are gonna do. Maybe someone will one day want to rewrite it and compete it themselves.

Ro994