Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49

Arc XVII Episode III: A Lovely Surprise Visit

As everyone prepared to enter school for the day, Flash Sentry spent some time on the front steps of the building. The depressed look on his face said it all--something about Valentine’s Day caused a nagging sensation in the back of his mind.

“Why can’t I get over this?” he thought, “You’d think it’d be easy. I know she’s not coming back, so why is this bothering me? Blech…”

In truth, he was happy that Princess Twilight Sparkle had her own life, but nothing could ever take away what he had felt towards her in the past. You can’t simply un-love a person.

“And then there’s Sunset…really hope she’s still willing to hang out sometime. But knowing her, she’s probably too busy. Who’d wanna hang out with a nobody like me, anyways? In the end, I’m not gonna matter as much as her…or any of them, really.”

The other sad truth was that Flash’s status as the “cool guy” around school was utterly meaningless. At the end of the day, he was another face in the crowd, and once everyone graduated, it would all be for naught as the only thing anyone would remember would be the seven magical girls who had saved their world countless times--and the talking dog.

What brought all of this on? Valentine’s Day in particular. A day that reminded him and many others of their lonesome states. But for Flash specifically, all it did was remind him of both times he lost someone he thought he loved.

The young man didn’t cry, though--as much as he wanted to. Instead, he simply stared at the concrete beneath his shoes and wondered… “...No. I just need to move on. Suck it up, and forget about it. Just like dad said--it’s what being a man is about, right?”

Before he could stand up though, one of his fellow classmates finally decided to console him.

“...Jitters from the forced expectations brought upon by such a ridiculous greeting card holiday?”

“...What?” Flash looked up to see Micro Chips take a seat next to him. “Ah, yeah…uh…something like that.”

The computer whiz with intelligence rivaling that of Sci-Twi knew little about affairs regarding love. Despite this, he would attempt to offer his best advice. “Listen, while I don’t have the best expertise in this subject, I can tell that something’s eating at your soul. Is something the matter?”

“...” Flash opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it seconds later. “No offense, bud….but you probably won’t be able to help me very much. I’ll just spare you from wasting your time.”

“...Nah,” he answered half-heartedly, “I’m just thinking about what’s next for me after high school. Don’t worry about me.”

“Are you certain?” Micro asked, “I know it must be hard to reach out to others given your current position, but know that I’m willing to help if you’ll let me.”

Yet again, Flash denied his classmate’s assistance. “I’m fine. Really. I just need to take a walk and clear my head before I head back there.” With that, he got up and started a casual stride towards the sidewalk with his hands in his jacket pockets.

Defeated, Micro Chips would also rise from his seat on the steps and call out to let Flash know how much time he had left before classes started. “Alright, but--keep in mind there’s about twenty minutes left until school begins. And if you ever need to talk, don’t hesitate, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah…got it,” the young man muttered as he continued walking.

Meanwhile, Micro would enter the school as usual, dumbfounded by what he had just seen. “I don’t understand it. What could be hurting him so badly?” Unfortunately, he wasn’t paying attention, and-- “Oof!”

Bumped into someone--knocking his glasses off his face.

“Dammit, I always do this when I’m thinking too hard,” he grumbled as he rubbed his eyes, “Sorry--whoever you are--I’m just worried about a friend of mine.”

“Story of my life,” a meek girl’s voice replied, “Here, let me help…”

Micro was picked up off the floor and the person who helped him gave him his glasses back. “Appreciated. These things are ridiculously overpriced for how easily they can fly off a person’s face.” Once he put them on, he could see who it was…

Wallflower Blush. The green-haired girl was all too ready to throw down some commentary off of what was just said to her. “Tch--right? Glasses are practically a scam with how overpriced they are, but nobody ever thinks of it that way. But anyway…no problem--Micro Chips, right? I’ve seen how well you do in robotics class. Twilight considers you something of a rival--aren’t you both trying to create nanomachines?”

“...Ahem.” He pushed his glasses up and continued walking. “That’s classified information.”

“Aw, c’moooon!” Wallflower was persistent in her approach as she demanded an answer…

“Take a number--your request for information will be processed in the order it was received--starting at number 666.”

“Pleeeease? I’m interested in that stuff too!”

…Admittedly, it seemed as if this conversation wasn’t headed anywhere fast. Why don’t we switch gears?

---

Outside…

Flash Sentry continued his little walk without a care in the world. The lengths one would go to to force themselves to repress certain emotions were painful--though not in the traditional sense. His mind was in tatters as he tried to figure out a way to permanently remove such thoughts from his head.

“Just…ignore it. Focus on yourself. Nothing else matters, right?”

Sadly for him, those words wouldn’t last in the long run. Why exactly?

He was about to have a date with destiny.

“...Flash? Is that you?” a familiar female voice called out to him.

“What?” he turned around…

And to his surprise, Twilight was standing there--not the Twilight of this world, but the Twilight Sparkle that he got to know. Flat hair, no glasses--in the flesh. “...It is you,” she said with a relieved exhale, “Thank goodness…”

“Wait, for real? Is it really you?” he asked with a concerned tone, wondering just what could’ve brought a pony princess back to this world. “What’re you doing here? Is something happening?”

“No…not at all…” Twilight looked down at the ground as she approached him, then placed a hand on his chest. “I really just came to see you, Flash…”

The boy’s jaw dropped--and it took him all of two minutes to respond. “...You…you did??”