A Shimmering Intellect

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 4

“Hey, Mr. Shine,” Sunset said as he answered her phone call.

“Sunset, what’s happened? Is everything okay on your end?” Mr. Shine asked.

“It’s my grandmother,” Sunset lied. “It’s not looking good for her, and she says she wants to see me. I don’t know when I’ll be back because grandma wanted everything to be taken care of quickly, so I might be stuck in an inheritance meeting.”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Neither do I, but she’s been sick for a while.”

“Okay, take your time. We’ll be waiting for you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Shine. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Take care, Sunset,” he said before hanging up.

“So?” Flash asked, leaning against his car as he got off his own phone call.

“He’s okay with me going. He thinks my grandmother passed.”

“The classic grandmother excuse,” Flash said. “It works great, but only twice.”

“So I’ve heard,” Sunset said. “What about you? Did you get in touch with Principal Celestia?”

“I did,” he said. “She’s okay with me leaving my car here, but only on the condition that we stop just jumping across the portal here.”

“Why?”

“She apparently retiring at the end of this year, and she’s not explaining the whole door-to-another-dimension-in-the-statue thing to the new Principal.”

“Wow. Never thought I’d see the day Principal Celestia would retire.”

“Right? Feels wrong somehow.”

The quiet began to press in again.

“So, do you mind if I ask you a question?” Sunset said, just to break the quiet before it could take hold.

“Shoot,” he said.

“Why are you coming with me?”

Flash’s smile instantly looked strained. “What? I mean, it only makes sense, right? After all, Twilight saved my world before, right? I could do her a favor.”

Sunset stared at him with a deadpan glance. “You’re still a terrible liar, Flash.”

Flash frowned. “I get past most people.”

“Sure, but I know you better, and I’m looking at your face.”

He rolled his eyes. “Look, Princess Twilight very obviously didn’t want me to stick around. She probably wasn’t expecting me to be here or something, but she didn’t want to deal with it, so I gave her an out.”

“So you’re not actually going with me?” Sunset asked before immediately regretting it.

“No, I am,” Flash said. “You know I always follow through on stuff like that.”

“That wasn’t an invitation, Flash. Besides, I don’t know if you should go. We’re heading into one of the most hostile environments of Equestria, and you’ll be in a body you’re unfamiliar with. It is not a good idea.”

“Sure, but I know what I’m doing. I’ve only gone through scouts for most of my life. I know how to make a campsite for cold-weather environments, start a fire with a single match, deal with hypothermia, and identify edible plants. I joined ROTC and then quit because it was just discipline training. I probably know more about what you’re getting into than you do.”

She didn’t have an argument against that, and that annoyed her. Sunset remembered the one Summer when Flash just disappeared for a week, only to find out he’d gone into the woods for some “time apart” with nothing but a hatchet and fifty feet of rope.

“And how much can you do without fingers?” she asked, wiggling her own at him.

“You have magic,” he said. “I can tell you how to do anything that requires fine motor control, and then we have the best of both. Besides, if I can learn some pegasus magic, I might be able to make better conditions in an emergency. Pegasus magic doesn’t need spells, right?”

Sunset frowned.

That was a good argument.

“Okay, so you are actually going with me for some reason, but you’ve at least have an idea of what you’re doing. It could be worse, I suppose.”

“You make it sound like I’m going to get in your way.”

Sunset frowned again. “I don’t mean it that way. I just don’t like dragging other people into life-threatening adventures. If things go wrong, it’s my fault, right?”

“I mean, I know it’s dangerous,” Flash said. “But it’s also the kind of danger that I’m familiar with.”

“And I appreciate that, Flash. It’s just…I don’t know if it’s the right move.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry about whether it’s the right move. I do. And I’m already all in.”

Sunset shook her head. “You know, your dedication to bad ideas got you into this.”

“What do you mean, dedication to bad ideas?”

“Where to start?” she said before counting on her fingers. “Dating me, trying to date a Princess from another universe, the fedora you wore all junior year, ooh, and the aforementioned JROTC.”

Flash glared at her. “You had to bring up the trilby.”

“And your insistence at calling the hat a trilby.”

“That’s because that’s what it is. Fedora’s are lower cut and have deeper creases in them. I know because I stopped wearing that stupid hat right after I learned the difference and that trilbies were women’s apparel.”

“I rest my case, your honor.”

Flash sighed. “Sustained. Now can we move on?”

Sunset smiled. “I guess we’re done on this side. We should head back to Equestria before the time difference messes things up even more than they already are.”

“By the way, which way does that time difference work? Do we stay longer on this side than that one or the other way around?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “According to the Equestrian calendar, I left them almost twenty years ago. It’s been thirteen years on this side but six years since Twilight was last over. Over there, it’s only been four. So it fluctuates, best I can tell.”

“Great, so we’re not even dealing with consistent time shenanigans.”

“Never,” Sunset replied.

“Glad to know physics doesn’t matter.”

“It matters,” Sunset said, approaching the portal. “It just chooses not to apply sometimes.”

“That sounds like it doesn’t matter.”

“Whatever, Flash,” she said and stepped inside.

She appeared on the other side, landing on all four hooves. Flash followed shortly behind, also walking in on all fours. “Got the landing this time?” she asked.

“You know it,” he replied.

Night waited for them. “Back already? You just left.”

“It didn’t take much time for us to do what we needed,” Sunset explained. “Is our stuff ready?”

“Not just yet,” Night replied. “You’ll both receive packs with enough supplies for a month. You will have tools to help locate magic and climb the rocky surfaces you’ll encounter. You’ll also have some fuel and firestarters, among other things.”

Flash nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll look them over and check to see if we need anything else.”

Night nodded but did give Flash a quick look over.

Sunset walked past them both. “I’m going to find Twilight and get those tickets. We’ll head out as soon as possible.”

---♦---

They left that afternoon.

Flash checked over the bags and gave his approval, along with a pair of heavy coats that would provide essential protection from the cold. He did ask for some more rope, a handful of extra blankets, and a few tarps, but other than that, he appeared content.

Twilight then led them to the train.

Flash found the city of Canterlot somehow strangely familiar. The fantastical architecture should have thrown him for a loop, but somehow he could recognize the individual buildings.

That was Donut Joe’s Donuts and Discounts, wholly different and somehow identical. Flash knew that if he walked in, he’d find Donut Joe working quietly like always. A strange sense of knowing exactly where he was and being completely lost followed him.

The train, however, only made him think of how weird this Equestria was.

The train was pink, for one. It was a pink locomotive that looked like it should have come out of the 1800s after being spray-painted by a six-year-old girl. The cars behind the train were not built with the aerodynamics that he was used to from his “modern” sensibilities, but considering how much of a box the locomotive was, it shouldn’t have made much of a difference.

“This is pretty weird,” Flash said.

“What? The train? What’s weird about it?”

“It’s pink.”

“Okay, and?”

“Who paints a train pink?”

She looked at him like he had grown a second head. “Trains are painted on your side too.”

“Sure, red, green, blue sometimes, but never pink.”

“What’s wrong with pink?”

“Well…” Flash began, “Um…nothing, I guess. It’s…it’s just weird.”

Sunset shook her head. “Come on, we don’t have much more time. The train leaves in thirty minutes.”

Flash sighed and grabbed his bag, pulling it behind him as they climbed into the car. “Princess couldn’t spring for nicer seats? Or at least a private car?”

“We’re trying to be subtle, Flash,” Sunset said.

“I know,” he said. “Complaining builds character.”

“What?” she asked.

“If you’re complaining, then it means that you’re doing something difficult that you don’t want to do,” Flash said with a smirk. “So you’re building character.”

Sunset blinked as she stared at him. “But…but if you’re complaining about it, then you’re not actually….”

Flash looked back up at her, smiling the whole way.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I hate your humor sometimes.”

“No, you don’t,” he said. “You hate that you fall for it nine times out of ten.”

Sunset sighed again.

Flash chuckled a bit before he stepped into the cabin. “Better get used to it, Sunset. I’m sure we have a long ride ahead of us.”

Sunset stared at him as she dropped her bag next to his. “I hate that you’re right.”

Flash nodded before opening his bag and adjusting a few things. The small hatchet he asked for, he removed from the bag entirely. “How do ponies feel about blades being openly carried?” He asked.

Sunset looked over at him. “They’ll either give you looks or think you’re involved with the guard.”

Flash shrugged and strapped the hatchet to the outside of the bag with some thin rope that one of the castle servants insisted would be strong enough for climbing. “Sunset, could you help me with a knot?”

“Hm? Oh, sure, I suppose. What do you need me to do?”

“Just snake this end through here and then here. Tight, but not too tight. I want to be able to get the hatchet quickly.”

“Sure, I guess. But do you really think that getting the ax out of the bag would take too long?”

“It’s not just that. It’s the cold too. If I’m too cold to move my fingers…” Flash trailed off. “Okay, since I’m not good with my hooves, I can’t count on them to get what I need in a survival situation. If I need something to gather firewood or whatever, and I need the ax, having it ready makes it easier for me to get to it without wasting time.”

“Fair enough,” Sunset said, finishing the knot.

Flash tested it a few times, reaching for the hatchet and pulling it free each time. Finally, he nodded. “That’s exactly what we need.”

“Good,” Sunset said. “Now, get some sleep. It’s an overnight ride, and if we’re going to jump straight up to the mountains, then we need to be rested.”

Flash smiled. A part of him wanted to joke about how she was still telling him what to do after they broke up, but he stopped himself. “Sounds like a plan.”

Sunset nodded and lay down on the seat.

Flash turned to face the window and sighed.

He still couldn’t be himself around her. He still couldn’t go back to normal.

Flash knew she was trying. She’d done everything to put her old self behind her. She’d suffered through enough. Yet he couldn’t treat her the way she wanted. He couldn’t let go, even though he wanted to. He wanted to let those moments in the past fall away. To let them go.

But he couldn’t.

And she didn’t deserve that.

---♦---

Night watched as the train’s lone trail of smoke disappeared over the horizon. On it, Flash Sentry—Twilight’s “Good Friend”— sat traveling north toward the Crystal Empire.

His mind wandered through a thousand thoughts as he watched the evening pass. Not least was the idea that he became incredibly pensive since he joined Twilight’s staff.

When he was living on the streets, even in Celestia’s employ, he never spent much time thinking about his standing. He always knew he was a thief and thought he’d only stay a thief. Night shouldn’t be here, where ordinary people wanted to stand. He figured he would stay out of sight in the shadows, gutters, and alleys.

When Twilight offered him the job, he saw his chance to take place in the light. It would have been his chance to join the normal ponies in their world, yet now that he was here, he felt wrong.

Night had wanted to step into the world of light for years, yet, now that he was here…he didn’t know what to do.

No, he knew what he had to do. He had to do the job Twilight gave him, but that felt hollow. What he got wasn’t enough, and he didn’t know why.

“Hey, Night!”

Night turned to see Spike walk in. “Spike. What can I do for you?”

“Be a friend and hang out without worrying about doing stuff for me,” the dragon said without slowing down and leaning against the railing. “Seriously, you’ve gotten so cautious lately. We’re friends, so let’s act like it.”

Night sighed. “You’re right, of course.”

Spike shrugged. “Don’t say that too loud. It’ll get to my head.”

Night shook his head.

“You seem to be staring off into the distance a lot lately. Is there a reason why?” the dragon asked.

“I don’t know,” Night replied. “I’m trying to figure that out.”

“That’s fair. Have you figured out reasons that aren’t the answer?”

Night thought about that for a second. “I think.”

“It’s not my fault is it?” Spike asked, keeping a faint smile on his face.

“No, no. It’s no one else’s fault but mine.”

Nobody spoke for a long second before Spike slowly nodded. “Well, Twilight will be happy to know it’s not her fault.”

Night glanced over at the dragon. “Twilight?”

“Yeah, she’s been worried that she made you mad somehow for a bit now. I knew you weren’t the kind of pony to hold something over someone without letting them know.”

Night nodded. “Give her my apologies, then.”

“‘Give her my apologies?’” Spike repeated. “You’ve been spending too much time around Azure. But regardless, you’ll have to give her your apologies yourself. I’m here on my own. You don’t need to know what the problem is, but you do need to let Twilight know it’s not her. Because she’s going to start worrying about it, and she doesn’t need that on top of ruling the kingdom.”

Night nodded. “I get it. I won’t worry her.”

Spike shook his head. “No, I don’t think you did get it,” he said, staring Night in the eye. “I said she doesn’t need to worry about what she’s done to you. She’ll still worry about you, but that’s her right as a friend. What I want you to do is to let her know it’s not her fault. Do that for me, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you out with what’s going on.”

Night glanced at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because Celestia and Luna’s jobs of therapist and Pony Resources had to go to someone and I don’t have a degree in psychology.”

Night blinked. “Wouldn’t…wouldn’t the therapist be the one who’d try helping me?”

“Sure, but we haven’t hired her yet, and I’m not going to let my friend suffer alone in the meantime.”

Night chuckled. “Thanks, Spike. You’re a good friend.”

“It comes with the territory of being in the supporting cast for eleven plus years.”

“Supporting cast?” Night asked. “You’re second billing at least.”

“I wish,” Spike said. “When all your friends are the Elements of Harmony, you’re lucky to get some lines as an extra.”

“You’ve got some chapters in the friendship book.”

“And none of those were my better moments,” he said. “Ponies either think I’m barely competent or, if they’re from the Crystal Empire, they think I’m a hero. There’s no in-between.”

“Being thought of as a hero isn’t that bad.”

Spike smirked. “No, no it’s not.”

They stood quietly for a little longer before Spike spoke again. “We have a Council of Friendship in a few days, are you going to be there?”

“Sure,” he said.

Spike nodded. “Great.”

“Are you actually going to ask Rarity out this time?”

“As long as I don’t chicken out again.”

“You’ve got to pull yourself together, man.”

“Look, I know, alright? The problem is I sort of grew out of the crush, but the nervousness keeps hitting me every time I try.”

“You can do it, Spike.”

He nodded. “I know. I’ll get there. I don’t know if it’ll be this time, or later, but I will do it.”

“Do you want me to hold you to that?”

Spike rubbed his chin. “Not just yet. If I don’t ask her this time, or the next, then I want you.”

“The next one is over a month away.”

“Yes,” Spike said. “But it’ll only be the second time I’ll get to see her.”

Night shook his head. “Alright, Spike you have a deal.”

“Well struck,” the dragon said. “Now let’s go get dinner.”

Comments

[MoonlightRift]

“I know,” he said. “Complaining builds character.”

Quote to live by lmao

[Sol Nemesis]

He rolled his eyes. “Look, Princess Twilight very obviously didn’t want me to stick around. She probably wasn’t expecting me to be here or something, but she didn’t want to deal with it, so I gave her an out.”
====
This man. Just left his home for an alien world in the hopes of seeing his old flame. Probably lonely. Willing to risk life and limb just for a chance at happiness. And now he sees her. And she clearly doesn't want to see him. That's soul crushing. I've been there.

A life and death mission to save the world sounds like a good distraction.

[Leventego]

“You’ve got to pull yourself together, man.”

Maybe Night should take his own advice *cough cough*