The radical adventures of a disturbed teenage boy who is visited by a talking horse.
Flash Sentry is not the most attentive student in Canterlot High. He is not the smartest or the fastest or the most assertive. He is not a lot of things, but he does try to be a good boyfriend, and an even more normal teenager.
But one fateful day he becomes the only person on Earth to have a talking pony in his closet. A pony only he can see. A pony that is incredibly, stupendously annoying.
The incredibly dangerous, stupendously powerful things that followed him to Flash's world, though... those are another matter entirely.
Flash sat next to Sunset Shimmer at lunch hour. He always did, because she demanded it, and it wasn't like it inconvenienced him or anything. She mostly sat there glowering at everyone and muttering to him under her breath about 'disorganized monkeys' and 'sparkless idiots.' Her glare kept everyone away so he could eat his lunch in peace, and it made him feel just a little bit special that she let him listen to her private ranting. Not even the impenetrable retinue that shielded Sunset from the undesirables in the student body heard these little outbursts—they all sat two seats down, alternately staring into their phones or make-up mirrors. Apart from the occasional rebuke for not standing straight or having stains on his jacket, it was the only real insight Flash ever got into how Sunset really thought.
Those little special moments, which he had to hope were moments of emotional connection, almost made up for everything else.
"Look at them, Flash," Sunset hissed, elbows on the table and her sandwich uneaten in front of her. "They're like chimps at the zoo. I never get tired of watching them hop around. They think they're so special, walking around with their phones and their prissy bags and dreams of fancy colleges. They have no idea how easy it is to manipulate them, even without using magic."
"Like a magician?"
"... Yes. Like a magician, Flash."
Flash shrugged and bit into his sandwich. It was ham. He liked ham, especially with extra mayo.
"So, babe," he said with his mouth full, which she elbowed him in the ribs for. It was like tradition. "I think there's a sickness or something going around."
Sunset grunted. He needed to broach the subject carefully, since she was obviously in a bad mood. She was always in a bad mood, but that was beside the point.
"Like, I guess I'm not getting enough sleep or something. I'm starting to see things."
She grunted again. Feeling embarrassed now for even bringing it up, he put his sandwich down and twirled his finger on the tabletop.
"I saw something just this morning."
"Eh."
"Well, I guess saw isn't appropriate. I imagined it, like a mirage or a hallucination."
"Hnn."
He rubbed the back of his neck and forced himself to laugh. It should be safe to tell her, since she barely listened to a word he ever said, and if he didn't tell somebody, he was going to go insane. Simple as that.
"So, like, I woke up and was doing all my morning stuff, right? And then in my closet, I dunno, one of my old stuffed toys started talking. Or I guess that's what I thought it was, because, like, this whatever-it-was was kinda cute in a weird way. I mean, I could touch it and everything, and it felt like a toy. A living thing that feels like a toy! How weird is that?"
"Toys, yeah."
He looked to one side, sniffed, looked back again, licked his lips. "I guess... what I'd like to know is, have you ever been in a certain sort of really weird position where a pony appeared in your bedroom closet?"
Sunset's glare snapped over to him. "A what?"
He tugged at his shirt collar. She was using The Voice. That low, dangerous growl like the wind taking a breath before a hurricane. Whenever she used The Voice, he knew he had asked the exact wrong question. "You know... a pony. Like a little horse. They walk on four legs and eat grass and—"
"I know what a pony is, Flash!" Sunset squealed, grinding her gritted teeth. "And they don't appear in people's bedrooms! Especially yours!"
She slammed her hands on the table and stood up, snapping her fingers at the other teens.
"Girls!" she barked, power-walking past them to the door. "I am perturbed. Distract me."
They gaped at her like fish, as if having their high-school chatter interrupted turned their brains off as well as their mouths. They were her designated flock of followers, but lunch had barely even started and they were hungry.
"GIRLS," Sunset seethed, stomping her foot. Like a mob of startled puppies they scrambled out of their seats, swept phones and makeup kits into their bags, and followed her out, babbling flippantly about inconsequential things.
Flash was left alone, picking sadly at the saran wrap he brought his sandwich in.
The little pony that had been sitting next to him the whole time unnoticed by anyone reached up and plaintively tugged his sleeve with a hoof.
"I don't think she's good for you."
------
The pony stood waist high, with sapphire-blue hair just like Flash’s own and a pelt disturbingly reminiscent of his own skin color. Its voice wasn’t the most annoying thing in the world, even though it was basically Flash’s own voice a few octaves higher with a little squeak added in. Flash found it in his closet that morning, nestled between his guitar stand and a pile of old sweaters. Staring up at him with baby-blue eyes the size of dinner plates, little hoofsies tucked up against its chest, Flash really did mistake it for some old plushie he bought as a child and forgot until now.
Then it talked, and that was when everything went downhill. It said its name was Flash and they were "like, super tight but didn't know it yet," but Flash refused to entertain that idea. Mostly just tried to ignore it. He ignored it while he brushed his teeth. He ignored it while he ate breakfast. He ignored it on the bus, and he ignored it all the way up to lunch. Yet on and on the pony talked. It never stopped talking, in fact. It babbled and bubbled and giggled about how pretty the sky here was or how weird humans smelled or about how similar they were to his friends “back home.”
Flash was determined to remain willfully ignorant. It was a hallucination. A weird dream. A prank. It had to be, it must be. Even if it wasn’t, Flash was pretty sure acknowledging the alien creature would just make everything worse. He didn’t like thinking very hard. He didn’t like confrontation. He most certainly didn’t like being seen as strange. That was a death sentence in this school. He was just Flash. Normal, boring, everyday Flash, with a kickin’ car and a hot girlfriend like guys were supposed to have. Guys did not have ponies following them around.
Of course the little pest stuck to his side like glue, no matter how many times Flash said ‘shoo’ or made little wavy motions with his hands in the opposite direction, or gently shoved the pony behind a door he quickly locked. Somehow the pony was always there, walking with him. Like it physically could not be away from him. But that wasn’t even the strangest part.
Kids actually made room for the little guy. Flash knew, conceptually, that it made no sense that everyone ignored the pony even as they stepped around it. But they did, curving and scuttling and absently swerving when they needed to, as if the pony were a boat cutting through a sea of denim jeans and neon mini-skirts. Like they were in on the joke. Like they wanted Flash to think he was insane. But why stick to the script with such eerie enthusiasm?
“I’ve had my fair share of fillyfriends, Flash,” the pony version of Flash said as Flash emptied his locker. “And let me tell you: it’s not supposed to go like that.”
“Uh huh,” said Flash, throwing his books into his bag. It helped to just agree with everything the pony said. Much easier to ignore him that way. Much easier to ignore his relationship issues too.
The pony spread his little wings and leaned his head forward, which was probably his way of sticking arms out to imagine something. “You’re supposed to talk about your feelings, not push them away. Hold hooves, take walks on the stormfront, fly a jet stream, you know. Find a way to unwind.”
“Yep.” Flash slung his bag over his shoulder and elbowed his way into the crowd getting out of fifth period. Just another forty-five minutes of sitting next to a pony in class and he could go home. A pony that breathed abnormally loudly and stared at him the entire time.
“I would know,” said the pony, “because I’ve had a lot of fillyfriends, Flash.”
“I’m sure.”
“Like, a lot.”
Flash sighed.
------
The pony sat on his desk during last period. On his book. Staring him right in the eyes. Flash tried to act nonchalant, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed and gaze straight forward. The pony, undaunted, continued to talk.
“—so I said, Static? If you’re gonna be so lame that you won’t cover my shift? I’ll just have to let slip who ate all the churros at Maisy’s last birthday party.”
Flash blinked so slowly he could swear he heard his eyelids creak. Who knew a talking pony could be so… banal. Even Professor Turner’s normal droning was heaven compared to this monotonous assault on his eardrums.
He looked down at the pony’s butt. Not for any reason. Just curiosity. He noticed something even more peculiar than the Parting of the Hallway before class. The book’s pages weren’t even indented by the pony’s hindquarters. The pony had no weight. No presence. The paper didn’t even crinkle when it wiggled around.
“And let me tell you, he covered, like, eight of my shifts after that. I think he has a thing for Maisy. Hey, speaking of girls lemme just say that that Sunset girl has some serious--”
Flash shoved the pony with both hands. It felt like smacking a teddy bear, in spite of the fact that the pony seemed like it should weigh the same as a large dog. It let out a tiny ‘oof!’ and went flying, hitting the student in front of Flash right between their shoulders with a squeak--a real, audible squeak toy squeak. It bounced like a rubber ball and collapsed beneath Flash’s desk.
Nobody noticed. Nobody turned and gasped or screamed or shouted ‘hey, what’s a talking crayon drawing doing in the classroom?’ The teacher kept droning on about something something science, drawing arrows back and forth between graphs and charts in limitless, blissful monotony.
The pony clawed its way back up, glaring at Flash.
“Uh, dude?”
Flash buried his head in his hands.
------
When the final bell rang, he grabbed his bag and sprinted for the exit. He shoved aside students and was out of earshot before he heard them hit the floor. He rushed past Sunset Shimmer as she called out, reminding him to dress handsomely tomorrow for passing out flyers to her class president meeting. He burst through the double doors into glaring afternoon sunlight and booked it for his car, pounding the pavement and ignoring how his backpack flopped around, digging volumes of sophomore Enlightenment poetry into his spine.
He didn’t care. He had to get home. He had to get away from the pony. The pony that wouldn’t shut up. The pony that dogged him since seven-thirty AM that morning. The pony that nobody saw but everyone scooted away from.
He dug around for his keys and almost scratched the paint as he stabbed the keyhole, feeling a cold sweat come over him.
“Flash?”
“YAAAAHHH!” Flash spun, weaponizing his backpack for a brief moment as it slipped down his arm. The momentum of eight hundred dollars’ worth of mandatory study material sent him spinning in a dizzy whirlwind, ending with a sudden collision with his car’s driver side window.
Sunset Shimmer stood unfazed, hands akimbo. Her lips jutted out in a perfect little angry pout, and her eyebrow was arched in a perfect curve. Everything about Sunset was perfectly curved, but there was bite behind those full, painted lips. Flash knew about that all too well.
“Flash,” she snapped, “why do you do these things to me?”
“Umm, things?” Flash whimpered as he peeled his face from the window. “I don’t do things, babe. Not unless you tell me to!”
“You ran away from me after the last bell,” she said, The Voice starting to bubble up beneath her svelte tones. “You literally pushed me into a locker and ran away.”
Flash went pale, and his knees felt weak. “I-I pushed you? Oh cheez-its, I’m so sorry, babe! You’re not hurt, are you? I’ve just been having the weirdest day and—”
“Everyone saw it, Flash. That’s my point. They saw you acting like a freakazoid fresh off the short bus. And of course I’m not hurt. Your upper body strength is too lacking. Have you been skipping the workout days I scheduled for you?”
“What?! No, of course not—”
“What’s this about a weird day?” Sunset sounded less curious and more demanding as she crossed her arms, putting her weight on one leg and sticking out one of her dangerously curvy hips.
“Uhh.” Flash tugged his jacket collar. She didn’t sound totally disinterested, unlike every other time she spoke to him. That in itself was encouraging, in a strange way. He pressed forward, forcing the words past stammering lips. “W-well, it’s like I was trying to say at lunch, babe. I think I’m starting to see things. Maybe it’s the stress of, I dunno, tests or something? You have that super-important class president meeting, I guess? And, well, I woke up, and in my closet there was this talking thing, like a pony, and it’s been, you know, talking at me all day and people see it but they act like they don’t but they do and—”
“Stop.” Sunset held up her hand, open palm right in front of his nose. “I believe you.”
“Uh, what?” Flash felt a flutter of hope tickle his tummy.
Then Sunset closed her eyes and sighed. “I believe that you forgot that you were supposed to touch base with Minty Green about getting the flyers for tomorrow made and you’re making up some lame excuse to try and keep me from getting angry.”
Flash flapped his arms up and down. “But the pony!” he sputtered, and immediately felt stupid for saying it. “Babe, I wouldn’t lie to you—”
Sunset’s hand curled into a fist, hard and fast enough he felt the brush of air from her fingers, crushing the next words out of his mouth. “Just. Don’t. Flash. Don’t. I’m too tired from a long day of planning our big announcement to try and explain why your behavior is so… weird. I don’t know where you’re from, but here on Earth, where all the normal kids live, ponies don’t talk.”
“But they—”
“Don’t. They really, really don’t.”
She sauntered up to him and placed her warm, soft hands on both his cheeks, smiling. It was not a nice smile. Not at all. Her smile was made of sharp edges and unspoken promises. “Sweetie, please try to remember that of the two of us, I pretty much make this whole thing work. If you really can’t handle the pressure that comes of being the former most eligible bachelor of Canterlot High, then please…”
She trailed into silence. Flash, cheeks slightly smooshed, glanced quickly back and forth.
“Try and… communicate with you?” he guessed.
“No.” Sunset gave his cheeks a single pat. “Never say a word of it, and let me handle the rest.” She sighed, melodrama and sarcasm dripping from her lips. Her breath was warm on his nose. “Student body president, prom queen, and now babysitter to a bundle of nerves. It’s a good thing you’re so cute, Flash.”
Flash felt something heavy shove him forward. With no warning his lips crashed into Sunset's with bruising, passionate force. Stars exploded behind Flash's eyes and the world went all fuzzy, but that was more because of the pain of their foreheads colliding than anything else. Sunset had the presence of mind to keep her balance, putting her hands firmly on Flash's chest to try and brace against his weight bearing down. Flash just kept trying not to bear down at all, but something round and firm had his head in a vise grip, keeping him firmly mashed against his girlfriend's face.
"Mmmff!" he said, trying to apologize.
"Ffffmmmhh!" Sunset said, demanding an explanation.
The pressure on Flash's head suddenly released, but the moment he tried to lean back, Sunset spun to one side. Her pushing became grabbing, then pulling, and then throwing as she judo-flipped Flash onto the asphalt in one swift go. The backpack took most of the blow, but then, his spine took the blow of the books inside, so it was a nasty trade-off.
"Ow, babe," he grunted, and in the face of her frazzled expression that bordered between severe confusion and volcanic fury, he opted for what normally worked: his trademark boy band smile.
"On any other day, I'd find that kinda hot," he said, quirking his lip up in a grinning smirk.
Sunset stared down at him in silence. One of her eyelids twitched.
Flash's grin faltered. He awkwardly turned over like an upended turtle, dusting his pant legs. "Heh, um, sorry about the... I don't know what could've—"
"Flash," Sunset said, her voice flat.
"Uh, yes?" Flash looked up with hope in his eyes.
"Just..." Sunset's lips bobbed open and closed like a fish. She stared off into the horizon. "Just warn me next time you're feeling... whatever that was."
She spun on a dime and marched away, shoulders square and gait stiff. About five feet off she stopped mid-step and snapped her fingers. The sound echoing across the parking lot. “Girls!” she barked, and a swarm of mini-skirted females swooped down from nowhere, filling the space around Sunset with vapid small talk as they receded into the distance.
“Uh,” Flash said, reaching out. “But. Wait. I don’t…”
And then he was alone.
“... Remember what the big announcement is.”
He sat there on one knee, arm out in desperate appeal, waiting for Sunset to come back and tell him just one more time what he was supposed to remember, that ponies didn’t talk, that he wasn’t going crazy. Even to just straighten out his posture and stop gawking like she usually did. Trying to come to intelligent, measured conclusions about what invisible talking horses meant was hard when Sunset wasn’t there to give instructions.
Sunset was really good at giving instructions. It was one of the things he liked most about her, on top of the curves.
Flash turned back to his car, feeling the crushing weight of guilt that he had disappointed her. It wasn’t his fault he saw things and didn’t know what to do about them. Almost nothing was his fault, because he didn’t really do anything at all, most of the time. He tried to do what made people happy, or at least satisfied. The pony just threw everything off-kilter, that’s all. It just… just happened to—
—be fluttering in the air right behind him. Flash supposed those wings had to be good for something. He was too angry for awe-struck wonder at the moment.
“Wow,” said the pony. “I don’t know what it is about that girl, but she gives me the feather ruffle something fierce. And that's not necessarily a good thing!”
"You!" Flash jabbed his finger in the pony's face. Its wings snapped open, and it plopped onto the hood of the car. "Did you do that? The pushing and the kissing and getting my butt whooped by my girlfriend?!"
"Of course!" the pony said, with a winning smile, quirking the corner of his lip up. Flash felt a sudden blush of jealousy. That was his trademark smile. The pony was wearing his smile. "She just called you cute, your faces were really close, what else was gonna happen? It's what I would've done. I'm here to help you, Flash, and if your fillyfriend is any indication, you need a lot of it. Fortunately, from what I can tell, we're pretty similar, you and I. Even got the same name!"
"No we don't."
"Yes we do, Flash Sentry. Ha ha, so weird to be calling you that when that's my name too!"
"It's not."
The pony ignored him, turning in a little dog-like circle on the hood of his car, staring at everything and anything with childlike affection. "So where am I going next, me?"
Flash narrowed his eyes. “You’re going back in the closet.”
Flash lived in a big house far removed from the squalor of suburbia. If kids had to visit, which they never did if they weren’t cleared by Sunset’s rigorous questioning, they had to drive up through the retail center at Auraria, which was full of high-end outlets and retail brands from Europe, then on up into the wooded hills at the city limits. The houses there had a commanding view of the rest of the city, and Flash could see downtown’s skyline and the hills outside the city just by driving a few hundred yards
He did not mention the house much to anyone, not least because Sunset did not usually allow him to talk at all. He just did not pay the house much attention. It was just a really big house, the kind that rich people lived in. If he was forced to by a mob of angry eighteenth-century revolutionaries out for wealthy blood, Flash might call it a mansion, but that made him feel rich. Flash supposed, compared to most people, that he was well-off, but he did not think of himself as rich.
Rich enough for a car and a guitar and a designer jacket from Italy, sure, but not the kind of rich that made him a fixture on the evening news for every invisible pony he bumped into. Not the kind that ran the world.
Definitely the kind Sunset took advantage of when she went on mall runs, though. Not that he minded. Flash was just happy to help.
“Go away!” he yelled at the pony in his backseat.
“I can’t, Flash!” the pony said, clinging desperately to the passenger-side headrest. “Not until I help you!”
Flash tore down the streets, weaving in and out of traffic. He drove at precisely four miles per hour above the speed limit, just enough to be in a hurry without catching the attention of a bored beat cop. Occasionally, he swerved hard enough to make the pony tumble around on the backseat, hooves flailing and feathers shedding all over the fine black leather. Somehow it made him feel better.
“Whatever you’re offering, I don’t need it!” he barked, screaming up the wide residential streets to his house. He swept into the driveway and leapt out of the car the moment it was parked. The pony poked his head out behind him.
“It’s for the benefit of both of us, dude!”
“Don’t ‘dude’ me!” said Flash, turning and jabbing a finger at the pony. “You are not my dude. You are not my bro. You are not my plus one, my compadre, my ally, or my confidant. And you’re not my friggin’ alter-ego. You are not Flash Sentry!”
“But I am!” the pony whined.
“What’s my favorite color?”
“Lavender.”
“What’s my favorite song?”
“Smells Like Colt Spirit, Neighvana. You sing it in the shower.”
“Favorite food?!”
“A hayburger.”
Flash’s eyes bugged. He felt a massive headache coming on, and pressed his palms into his temples. “What—I don’t even know what that is. You’re just putting horse things into my stuff.”
“More like you’re refusing to put horse stuff in your… things!” the pony said, pointing an accusing hoof at him. “And that’s ‘pony’ to you, bucko! You can’t ignore me forever!”
Flash grinned in what he hope was a threatening manner. It felt like a morbid grimace. “Watch me.”
“Flash, sweetie,” Flash’s mother said from the front door. “Mind moving the car? I will be fretfully late for my appointment at the spa.”
Flash spun on his heels, expanding his grimace to a rictus smile that stretched both sides of his face painfully. He made sure he stood directly in front of the pony, just in case its invisibility chose then to wear off. “Sure thing, mom! I was just on my way back out anyway! Just here to drop some stuff off and then I’m on the road again! Ha ha. Because that’s what I do, with my car. I drive it. Around. Heh. To places.”
His mother blinked once beneath her giant sun hat, her mouth just barely open like a dying fish.
Flash clasped his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels. “That’s what boys do with cars, you know?” he said, chuckling like a robot pretending to not be a robot. The noise trailed into silence.
His mother guffawed abruptly in the way mothers do when they pretend to know what their teenage sons are up to, tossing her head back and roaring with laughter. Her vividly green lipstick contrasted with her alarmingly white teeth, but she wore it because her skin was green too. She got that from her father’s side, so Flash heard.
“Oh, Flash, you boys and your antics! I swear I shall never tire of seeing you and your rip-roaring brothers tearing up the town. Come inside and have some lemonade before you go, darling, it’s so hot today! I don’t know why you insist on wearing that jacket everywhere you go, I swear I’ve seen you sleep in the thing—”
Flash ignored her as politely as he could, brushing past her with a struggling pony under his arm that she did not see or comment on. It felt like carrying a fuzzy duffel bag that could fight back. Wings whapped him in the face like an angry goose and hooves smacked his torso while the pony caterwauled about kidnapping, but he stormed through the kitchen with purpose in his step. If he moved fast enough, he’d make it to his room without any questions, especially if his little brother Pop Fly wasn’t there.
“Why do you look like the world’s angriest football player?” asked Pop Fly from his seat at the kitchen table, half a Pop Tart hanging out of his mouth.
“Huh?” Flash paused mid-step, trying to ignore the pony kicking him in the stomach.
Pop Fly pointed under his arm, and Flash’s heart skipped a beat. “You look like you got an invisible football there.”
“What? No, I… Not now, Pop,” said Flash, storming past him in a cold sweat. He thought better of it, and turned back to the refrigerator. He pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and calmly poured himself a glass, even as the pony squirmed and kicked and flailed. Pop Fly, for his part, worriedly watched his big brother flinch and twitch and grunt at nothing, as the pony’s hooves hit parts of Flash he never wanted hooves anywhere near.
Just concentrate on the lemonade, Flash. Lemonade always calmed the nerves before.
It seemed to calm the pony too, who went rapt with attention when the glass was full. “Oh, flutternutters. I love lemonade. May I have some?”
“No,” said Flash.
“Ooo! Do you have chocolate milk? Ponies love chocolate milk!”
“No.”
“No what?” asked Pop Fly.
Flash chose not to answer, because chugging down an entire glass of lemonade was more important. He slapped the glass down on the counter and ran for the stairs, chased by a reminder from his mother to be careful with the dishes, and a declaration from his little brother that he was the weirdest mayor that Weirdo, Weirdsconsin ever elected.
Flash threw open the door to his closet and dumped the pony inside, right back where he found him that morning.
“Wait, wait! I can compromise!” the pony squealed, waggling his hooves. “We don’t have to both be Flash Sentry. You can call me something else, whatever you want.”
“I’d like to call you a figment of my imagination,” said Flash.
“How about…” The pony spread his hooves slowly, grandly. “... Brad!”
Flash raised an eyebrow. “Brad.”
The pony nodded eagerly, reminding Flash of a little dog. “I saw it on one of your little flat gem frisbee things here in the closet.”
“You touched my DVDs?” asked Flash.
The pony gave Flash one of his patented smiles. “Brad. I like that name! It’s short and simple. Brad. The kind of strong, dramatic name you’d think of when you picture a big tough guy all the fillies like.”
“... Goodbye, Brad.”
Flash shut the closet door and walked away. He made it three steps before his phone rang. It was Sunset. He made sure to get out all of his resigned sighs before answering—he learned the hard way sighing with Sunset on the line put him on the fast lane for a harsh chewing out.
“Babe?” said Flash, in that cheerful, lilting voice that said yes, he was always happy to talk to Sunset, and did not mention at all that now was not a good time since the talking pony made him want to curl up and cry. A good boyfriend did those kinds of things.
“Flash, I need your car for a mall run. I don’t have anything in my closet that’s fit for a class president meeting. Ugh, I can’t believe I bought all those jackets with sequins on them. So last season.”
“The mall!” said Flash, his voice jittery with unabashed terror, which he tried to pass off as giddy joy. “Oh, the mall! That’s great, babe, just super. W-we just went there two days ago, though?”
“Flash,” said Sunset, The Voice creeping into her voice. “If you want to prove you’re going places in life, looking like it is half the battle. The other half is driving your car back to the school to pick me up right now.”
Sunset’s voice was loud enough to make the earpiece vibrate. Flash gulped. “Sure thing, babe.”
------
Flash never questioned why Sunset demanded they meet at the school. He had never been to her house, nor had he met her parents or discovered where her house even was. The only time he saw her was on or around the grounds of Canterlot High, standing alone and defiant in the middle of the concourse. She often stood near the equine statue, leaning on it or staring at it in silent reproach. One time, he spotted her kicking and yelling at it.
There was a lingering sadness to the way she stood in those rare times, when he saw her without her teenage escorts and outside the context of charming the teachers and ordering students around. Sometimes she stood with her arms crossed over her stomach while she glared at the ground, often with her hand on her hip as she stared wistfully at the sky. In the few seconds between spotting her and letting her into the cart, she looked strange. Small and confused. Usually he didn’t dare pry into what she thought.
A few months ago, on a very rainy day when she demanded he take her out to dinner, he dared. “Sunset,” he once worked the courage up to say, “how come I never pick you up at your house?”
Sunset crossed her arms and stared through the windshield, slick with rain. Her hair stuck to her shoulders and she had to be freezing, but she didn’t even shiver.
“Flash,” she said in a quieter voice than he’d ever heard her use. “My home is… troubled. Me and my, uh, parents? We don’t exactly get along. I prefer not to spend much time back home. Any at all, if possible.”
“But you have a house, right?” said Flash. “Somewhere to go? It’s just, it’s pouring today and you were standing out there—”
“I’m fine,” said Sunset. Rainwater dripped from her chin, soaked through her favorite red blouse. “It’s fine. My house isn’t too far from here. Practically walking distance. I don’t want to talk about it.”
And he never did. Flash remembered they had Italian that night, and she had ordered extra carry-out.
Today Sunset sat on the curb, knees curled up to her chest, chin resting on her arms. But when Flash drove up to her, she sprang up like a startled cat.
“Took you long enough,” she snapped as she hopped in the car. “Drive me to the shopping center in South Park. Everyone else is out of what I need.”
That was one of the ritzier places in town, but Flash didn’t mind. Sunset said, and he did. It wasn’t the driving, or the shopping, or the loss of money that he minded. A good boyfriend did those things. It was the waiting once he got there. South Park was a large mall, open until 10 o’clock to squeeze the last bits out of the more urbane shoppers on this end of town, and Flash wasn’t much of a walker. Sunset seemed to be born for walking, for movement in general. She practically jogged wherever she went when she wasn’t at the school, swinging her arms and swaggering her shoulders. She moved at a speed Flash liked to call “always one step faster.” Ahead of him, ahead of any other shoppers, she outstripped them all eventually. Never in step with the crowd or with Flash or anyone else She walked like the rest of them didn’t exist. It made her stand out in a way that both tantalized Flash in the curious, unknowable way teenage boys are tempted by girls, and left him deeply confused.
Inevitably, he fell behind. Most guys in school would kill to have a view of Sunset’s behind, but Flash had long since taken it as time to relax. If he wasn’t in Sunset’s line of sight, she couldn’t make him carry bags, and sometimes she left him in the dust until, an hour or so later, she would reappear to use his credit card.
He tried to keep up today, to show his loyalty to her cause. She didn’t seem to notice, even as he fidgeted under the reproachful gaze of mannequins wrapped in slinky lingerie, and middle-aged clerks who questioned why a teenage boy hovered so close to the skinny jean section. “Sunset,” he said, with his hands in his pockets. “I’ve, um, had a really long day. And I haven’t had dinner. If it’s okay, could I maybe go get something from the food court and I’ll just hang there until--”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sunset muttered, pulling out five spring fashion blouses at once. “Just don’t go too far. I want you to try on some things, too; my boyfriend will not look like a slacker.”
Flash hovered a few moments longer, kicking around a ball of lint. “Maybe Cheesecake Factory,” he muttered.
Sunset answered him by flouncing into the dressing rooms.
Ten minutes later he had a booth all to himself at the Cheesecake Factory attached to the food court, and a heaping slice of cheesecake doused in cherry syrup in front of him. The cheesecake had edges to die for, cut from its parent pie with laser-like precision. The rich caramel glaze on top gleamed like jewels. The warm orange light from candles on the table glimmered off the sugary surface, and Flash licked his lips. Here, now, with this perfect example of confectionery in front of him, he could finally relax. After his insane morning, he felt… peaceful. Pony-free, his butt sinking into a cushion, and his girlfriend satisfied if not happy. This cake was going to be the the capstone on his humble pyramid of mild contentment.
He picked up a fork, giving the cheesecake a toothy, seductive smile. “I am gonna eat you up,” he crooned. “And it’s gonna be the best dang slice of cake I’ll ever eat. This slice of cake will destroy all others for me. I will weep at the memory of it and wish I could come back here and eat you all over again, you sweet little--”
“Excuse me, sir,” a thin, wispy voice broke in. “If you wish to speak to the cake, I shall have a bite of it.”
“Ah! Oh!” said Flash, looking up for the waiter, but there was no one.
“Over here, sir.”
Flash looked down into the shadowy corner of the booth, across the table. A brown rat the size of his hand peeked from behind the saltshaker, beady eyes gleaming greedily. It was the pitious, forlorn greed of one who wanted much and got very, very little; the rat hugged the saltshaker like a warrior clung to his shield as if someone might attack him just for speaking up.
“... What,” said Flash.
“Oh,” sighed the rat, hunching his shoulders and bowing his head. “Forgive me for speaking, sir. I shall wait for the scraps. I just thought, presumptuous as thinking may be for us wretched rats, that a bright young man like yourself with a spark in his eye might have a heart for charity.”
Flash briefly considered how fast his reflexes were. Fast enough to see off a talkative rat by rapping his nose with a fork, surely. He just wanted to eat some cheesecake.
“... What,” said Flash.
The rat’s ears lifted. “Are you surprised, sir? I apologize. You have the look of one who is used to this.”
Flash dropped his fork and sank back into his seat with a weary sigh. Clearly, this problem wasn’t going away as soon as he hoped. “Only since seven thirty this morning.”
The rat tilted his head, lifting one ear and lowering the other.
Flash shrugged, seeing no more point in trying to fight the growing madness taking over his brain. “Oh, you know. I met a talking pony who claimed he was me. I thought locking him in my closet would fix things, but now…” He waved his fork at the rat, who shrank behind the wine menu. “Now I’m talking to a rat who appeared out of nowhere. How did you get here, anyway?”
The rat poked his head out, wearing a sly smile that made his whole face look sharper. “I am a rat, good sir. We pride ourselves on making sure nobody can answer that question. I am honored to be called Scuffles, Scuff to my friends.”
“Scuffles,” said Flash, raising his eyebrow.
“Yes, Scuffles,” said Scuffles, his smile eager and hopeful. “Scuff to my friends!”
“Okay then, Ssssscuff,” hissed Flash, leaning forward and jabbing the fork brutally into the cheesecake. He tore off a huge bite and jammed it into his mouth. It was delicious, and he liked it, and nobody was going to tell him otherwise. The universe could throw a whole rain of talking cats and dogs at him next, but darn it all if he wasn’t going to finish his cheesecake. “Since you can talk, then talk. I have a lot of questions about why today’s been so friggin’ weird.”
A full-body shiver ran down Scuff’s spine, apparently tickled Flash used his nickname. “Oh, I will answer any question you have, sir! Just so long as some of that sweet-smelling cheesecake is part of the conversation?”
“We’ll see,” said Flash, trying to affect the manner of an unscrupulous businessman. “First of all, why’d you speak up to me of all people if you can talk?”
“Oh, sir,” the rat sighed, shaking his head, “I cannot talk to everyone. Owls and cats are off limits, as one may well imagine, and I don’t speak to pigeons simply on principle, as well as most any human, save the ones who have the Sparkle.”
“The Sparkle?” asked Flash with a mouthful of cheesecake. He chewed it slowly, letting it melt in his mouth, and made sure Scuff saw every sticky bite. He watched the rat lick his lips with some satisfaction.
“The Sparkle,” said Scuff. “You have it all over you, like morning dew on the grass. I am surprised you did not notice before. But like dew, it gathers slowly and evaporates if you aren’t careful. Most humans aren’t careful, and why not, they’re big and clumsy enough they can just stumble through life without a care. No consideration for the elegance of a rat, they just step and stomp and squish and poison and eat cheesecake oh please please please can I have some—”
“Whoa!” Flash said, lifting his plate from Scuff’s grabby little claws as he lurched across the table. “I’m not satisfied yet, little guy. What’s the Sparkle and how did I get it?”
“Oh, I am but a humble rat, sir!” squeaked Scuff, going down on one knee and clasping his bitty paws together, straight out of a child’s cartoon. It was disarmingly adorable, like Brad. Flash thought it was strange why didn’t rats do this more often. People would break down and give rats their houses, let alone their food.
“And rats,” continued Scuff, “are not very knowledgeable of the Sparkle. I only know what I’ve seen, and what I’ve seen is that you have it. Perhaps you always had it and did not know it before, which is not unheard of, given most of man enjoys closing their eyes and ears to what they believe is impossible.”
“I’m still not convinced this whole thing isn’t impossible, and I’m just going insane,” said Flash.
“Well,” said Scuff, “nobody’s mind was ever changed on account of evidence. My poor uncle Beans insisted the new house we moved into wasn’t trapped, until he went and got himself killed by one—it was even one of the old fashioned snap traps, the kind a rat is embarrassed to be fooled by—and even then as he lay there with his neck broke he said it must have been his arthritis catching up with him.”
“Oh, how... tragic?”
“Oh yes, quite, sir. Now you said this didn’t happen until this morning when you found a talking pony?”
“Yeah, he showed up in my closet.”
“In your closet?” Scuff tilted his ears again. “Do ponies normally fit into a human closet?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“And this pony, what did he look like?”
“He has blue hair, like mine, and his fur and skin was all orange.” Flash shifted uncomfortably. “Like, uh, like mine. The skin, I mean, nobody has orange fur, and I don’t have fur at all.” He glanced away and muttered to nobody in particular, “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if I did by the end of this.”
“That would not be so bad. I like my fur,” said Scuff. “It is like wearing a blanket everywhere you go.”
“Oh,” said Flash, tapping his fork on his chin, “also his eyes were like, stupid big. As big as this plate. Pony eyes definitely aren’t like that. Little guy was all squishy looking, like a cartoon.”
“Well, well,” said Scuff, tugging his whiskers. “I’m sure I never heard of anything like that. Some years ago I heard rumors coming down the drainpipe of someone who had the Sparkle something fierce. They were practically made of the stuff, just exploding with it. They just appeared from nowhere and vanished just as quickly. The strange thing is, nobody just has the Sparkle like that, not even from brushing someone who already has it. But those are old rumors now, and whoever they were never spoke a word to us. Perhaps this pony was them?”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Flash, no longer hungry. He felt his mind creaking and groaning under the weight of revelation, or madness, or maybe both. He stared down at the cheesecake, which by now had lost some of its luster. Next to talking rats and ponies, and something called the Sparkle (really? Did they have to call it that? It felt so demeaning and girlish) ordinary cheesecake just seemed so… ordinary.
“I don’t deserve this,” he muttered. “My life was fine, right? I had everything going for me. I had the grades, and the car, and the girlfriend.”
“Hmmm?” asked Scuff, edging his way towards the cheesecake.
“I mean, is this all a dream? Has this whole day just been a mirage? If it’s really happening, why me? Why you? Why any of this? Is it...” He felt a headache surging up and gripped his temples. “This is making my head hurt.”
“Not near so much as the headache I’ll have after devouring this cheesecake!” said Scuff, triumphantly smearing the cherry syrup all over his face. Flash made no attempt to stop him, instead resting his elbows on the table and staring over the heads of other diners.
“What’s a rat doing in Cheesecake Factory, anyway?” he murmured distractedly. “Don’t you guys usually hide out in abandoned warehouses and trash heaps?”
Scuff licked his paws, already halfway through his meal. “We go where the food is, sir, and wherever there is less danger. Here in the mall, there is very little danger and much food. The people do not bother us, as they are too focused on shopping, and, well… recent events have allowed us to expand our base of operations, so to speak.”
Flash nodded, still considering the existential implications of the madness his life would become if he couldn’t sleep all this off. “Oh, yeah? What kind of events?”
“Well you see, humans don’t do so much to keep us in check as they think. Really it’s the rest of Mother Nature’s cruel web that does us in, what with birds of prey and cats and dogs ruining us just for the fun of it. But lately something else seems to have scared them out of town, or worse. All over the city, rats are whispering: Our time has come! Our enemies have been laid low, and now we can build nests in the very penthouses of Man’s highrises!”
“Sounds, uh, dramatic,” said Flash, who found it hard not to imagine a congregation of harmless but very excited rats squeaking inconsequentially.
Scuff smacked his lips as he chewed through a particularly thick layer of ricotta. “Oh, but it is, sir! I got a glimpse of it myself, whilst I was out and about. Just three days ago I went a-roaming on my usual rounds in the sewer pipes, thinking to myself what a treat the pickings from the new Italian restaurant would be, having a craving for capers as it were, and old Titan—”
“Titan?” asked Flash.
“The cat, sir," said Scuff, cleaning his whiskers. "Thought very highly of himself. Patrolled uptown’s alleys, and fancied himself the king of all things four-legged. Back in the day, he was a true terror, and even stray dogs wouldn’t mess with him. But he seemed very humble when I found him.”
“Pull his whiskers, did you?” said Flash, growing bored.
“No sir, his head. Something pulled his head clean off.”
“... Oh,” said Flash, slightly less bored.
Scuff stopped eating, leaning back and staring into the distance. His eyes went wide and glassy. “Yes, and it was a fresh death, too. Flies had barely begun to congregate and the blood on the walls was still red, his guts all leaking out through the great gaping hole his head left when the beast plucked it off like a ripe cherry—”
“You can skip ahead,” said Flash, feeling the single bite of cheesecake churn in his stomach. "Uh, no pun intended."
“Something had thrown him into the sewer like so much garbage. It hadn’t even eaten old Titan’s head; I saw no signs of a struggle or teeth on the rest of the body. Whatever it was came upon old Titan and killed him for the sake of it, then tossed away the rest without a care. It just grabbed and pulled, sir. Just… grabbed and pulled.”
Flash gulped. The atmosphere in the Cheesecake Factory suddenly seemed subdued and sinister.
“But that’s not all! Other dead things have been found by my brethren. Titan was just the latest in a string of them, all starting, oh, two weeks ago now. The larger animals are all in a tizzy. It started in the suburbs far out near the woods, but the bodies are in a trail leading further into the city. Dozens of them, stray cats and dogs, raccoons, and even a raptor or two. The humans don’t notice.” Scuff grinned as if he shared a private joke. “They look at such things and believe we animals have committed such cruelties upon each other, and that’s that, mystery solved. But a cat will kill for sport, and a dog will kill for rage. These poor creatures… killed for no other reason than they were there, and in the queerest and cruelest ways.”
He leaned closer to Flash, and gestured with a paw for Flash to come closer. Against his better judgment, Flash did, and was forced to peer deep into the eyes of a rat who knew primal fear. It was a strange thing, to see another living being in the throes of ominous, mortal terror, while their face was smeared by cheese and syrup.
“But if you ask me, don’t look at how they were killed. Look at what’s been killed. Dogs, cats, raptors, all things with teeth, all things with a keen nose for hunting and sniffing and searching, and this thing, this Beast? It’s moving with purpose. It’s killing the hunters and the seekers, the strong and the powerful. It’s looking for something, too… and its pride demands it eliminates the competition.”
------
That evening, exhausted by the tall tales of rats and carrying half a mall’s worth of clothes, Flash returned to his room. His father and older brothers ignored him, absorbed in the big game, and Pop Fly was playing video games. Mother was out socializing.
He closed his door behind him and locked it tight, then went to his closet.
The pony sat inside, reading his comic books. Because of course he was still there. Too much to hope that it was all a dream.
“Brad,” said Flash, his voice flat and tired and resigned. “I saw a talking rat today. It told me I have the Sparkle, and that a bunch of animals have been killed by something moving through downtown looking for something.”
Brad blinked his dinner plate-sized eyes. The comic book dropped from his nerveless hooves.
Flash kept his phone hidden beneath the lip of the long conference table dominating the room. It was a simple trick, leaning back just far enough to look relaxed, occasionally flicking his eyes down to the screen. He did it all the time in boring classes like math and history. But today he only dared a peek or two every few minutes, and didn’t lean quite so far back. Sunset would catch on far too quickly.
“I think we need to focus on preparations for the Super Spring Splash,” Sunset said, folding her hands together. She sat the head of the table, staring down the long lines of teenage supplicants before her. “Minty Green, did you bring the spreadsheets?”
“Right here, Sunset,” said a young reddish-skinned girl with shocking green hair, flipping open her laptop. Flash rolled his eyes. Minty Green was always too eager to please. “Abacus and I crunched some numbers and ran opinion surveys. After last year’s success we expect an attendance rate approaching seventy percent of the student body.”
“Nice,” Sunset said with a predatory smile. “Okay, so, theme ideas. It runs past six o’clock, so I was thinking something centered on sunsets…”
Flash took a peek downward, scrolling through the search results as the others droned on. Brad had been very specific when he described the monster currently haunting downtown. Hearing the perky pony speak of it in haunted, dreary tones was unsettling.
Finding it on Google? Downright uncanny.
“Think, people!” Sunset snapped. “How do we get these kids to part with their money?”
“Kids love accessories,” one of the girls spoke up. Baton Switch, blue-haired and bouncy, part of the marching band. Loved accessories. “Stickers, bracelets, those can be high-profit items.”
Sunset jabbed a finger at her. “Get on it.”
Flash picked one of the search results on his phone and glanced through the text. He could pass off a talking rat as a delusion. A pony following him as a symptom of stress. But this just creeped him out. He couldn’t pass this off as his subconscious mind dredging up a random fact for his imaginary pony friend to spout. He knew he didn’t know this.
“And don’t forget,” Sunset said, “we need to nail a motto. Shorter the better. Make it catchy, make it snappy. What do we want kids to think of when they hear this phrase?”
“The Kindly Ones,” Flash murmured under his breath.
“Did you say something?” Sunset snapped.
Flash slammed the front of his chair down and turned his phone face-down onto his knee. “No,” he said obediently. At Sunset’s raised eyebrow, he said: “I mean, well, we want kids to think it’s… kind? … Kinda cool?”
Twelve other teenagers, Sunset’s combined student body council, gaped at him in awkward, pitying silence. Flash bit his lip, racing for an alibi. “Yeah. Kinda cool! We want kids to think this whole event thing is kinda cool. Like…” He made guns with his fingers and pointed at Abacus, seated across from him. “Hey, kid. This Spring fling is kinda cool,” he purred, winking and throwing in his trademark Smile to sweeten the pot.
Even the silence seemed louder than the rush of blood to his ears as everyone continued to stare, not speaking a word.
“... Right,” Sunset grunted at last, and went back to haranguing the others for ideas.
Flash blew his cheeks out with a sigh, and excused himself to the restroom. Nobody noticed when he left, or at least they pretended they did not. In the hall, he slumped against a row of lockers and opened his phone again. The hideous monster looking back at him seemed to laugh through its ugly grimace.
Erinyes. The infernal goddesses. The Kindly Ones. That’s what Brad called them, and refused to call them anything else. Such a nickname helped keep them from knowing where you were. Speaking their true title aloud gave you away. It let them hear. Let them see. Names, Brad said, were powerful, and uttering the true name of the Erinyes opened doors that really should just stay closed.
“Is this gonna be much longer? I want lemonade. You promised lemonade,” Brad said, sitting bored and lonesome next to the door, his hooves curled up underneath him.
“I promised we’d get lemonade after this meeting was done,” Flash said, glancing through his phone. “And frankly I don’t think you deserve lemonade for bringing a monster to downtown. Titan the cat is dead because of you.”
“I said I was sorry!” Brad whimpered, throwing up his hooves. “I didn’t know something followed me through the portal! It’s not like it’s an exact science, Flash. You don’t just lock the door behind you and throw away the key.”
Flash hunched his shoulders and glared at the pony. “So what made you desperate enough to try it?”
“I already told you, it’s to help you, Flash! The Kindly One had nothing to do with me, I swear! I don’t know why it’s here, or why it’s roaming this town. But it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Flash groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Right. Okay. Let’s start with what you do know. The Kindly Ones, according to Google, are monsters with a serious grudge against people who cause grudges. Right?”
Brad nodded fervently.
“And we think it is one because in your weird sparkly world where everything is happy and nice, there’s still wizards who can summon them, and their calling card is leaving dead animals because they’re bored and want to freak their mark out, but they can’t kill the wrong person, right?”
Brad nodded again. “I mean, that’s technically the rules? But they’ll break them. Oh, ponyfeathers, do they break them.”
“What happens when they break the rules?”
Brad's gaze trailed down to the floor. “The world gets a little less sparkly."
The chill down Flash’s spine felt like a worm made of ice. He put on a brave face to ignore it. “Okay… Leaving aside the existential question of how two different universes can think up the same monster, is there anyone who would have a grudge against you in particular?”
“Oh, geez, that’s pretty much nopony,” Brad said, laughing. It was a bubbly, giddy noise that chased away the terror of monsters in the night. “I have, like, zero enemies, and absolutely nopony who dislikes me would set a monster on me.” He giggled to himself and waggled his hoof. “Feathers n’ sticks, the mere thought of somepony going so far out of their way to summon a Kindly One just to do away with little old me? I’d be flattered if that wasn’t terrifying.”
Flash’s eye twitched. “You are just…”
“Yeah?” Brad chirped, eyes literally sparkling.
“... way too happy. About everything,” Flash decided. “Stop smiling like that.”
“Like what?” Brad said, smiling with the dazzle of glitter and the wonder of a small child.
“Like that! With the dazzle of glitter and the wonder of a small child!” Flash growled, rubbing his temples. “Look, Brad, a talking rat has told me an actual monster is roaming around looking for something, and it’s killed like a hundred cats and dogs. We need to find out what it’s after so we can tell the police!”
Brad tapped his chin. “Well, if it’s not after me, it has to be after something else that came through. There’s no reason it would go after someone from this world. Heck, apparently you guys are literally blind to most magical stuff, or this ‘Sparkle,’ as the rat called it. I can’t imagine living like that. Is that why everyone I see here has this kind of look on their face like--”
Brad scrunched his face up and pouted out his lips, in a close approximation of a puppy doing its best to scowl. “Like this,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s really pretty sad.”
Flash’s stomach turned. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the term ‘masculine’ was quickly losing meaning. “Dude. You are literally the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life. You’re cute on a metaphysical level. Like you were designed that way by some cosmic toymaker. It honestly makes me want to punch a locker and scream death metal to try and feel manly again.”
“That’s what the ladies always tell me!” Brad said, buffing a hoof on his chest. “I’m, ah, pretty amazing with ‘em, you know.”
“We’re getting off topic.” Flash nodded down the hall, taking off at a brisk stride, and Brad fell into step alongside him. “So this creature came through after you did, in presumably the same way. How, exactly, did you get here?”
“I walked.”
“From where?”
“From home.”
“To where?”
“To here!”
Flash gestured emphatically. “Focus, Brad. You need to tell me exactly how you came to our world.”
Brad demurred, fluffing his wings as he walked. His smile lost a little of its verve. “There was a mirror. I went through it. That’s how it happens. A magic mirror that connects to different worlds.”
Flash squinted down at Brad. “That’s it? That’s… almost suspiciously easy.”
Brad rolled his wings. “Well, you know.”
Flash did not know, and he did not like it. “So anyone can use this magic mirror?”
Brad nibbled his bottom lip, trying to keep pace even as his gaze drifted here and there. “Eh, kind of? It’s in the castle, but nopony really keeps an eye on it. Almost anypony could, in theory, get a hold of it, but it’s behind some locked doors.”
“So how come you were able to use it?”
“I had the key.”
Flash waited for Brad to elaborate. He did not. They walked on in awkward silence, turning down the school’s main hallway. They were halfway to the doors before Flash spoke again. “... Okay, why did they let you have the key?”
“Oh! Well that’s a funny story.” Brad took to the air, facing Flash as he fluttered backwards. He flung his hooves around as he talked, drawing wild patterns in the air. “So first of all, I’m a member of the Royal Guard. Basically a really big deal. That’s also how I know so much about monsters. We have this little field guide: A Pony’s Guide to Magical Monstrosities and Arcane Calamities. Required reading in our line of work.”
“Lucky us,” Flash grumbled.
“I joined after I got my cutie mark and everypony always told me, ‘Flash, you’ve got a lot of potential, but it’s gonna take a lot of work.’ So I say ‘Great! I love hard work!’ And they put me on Luna’s detail I guess as a trial by fire because wow Princess Luna is scary, she has this pet possum that just comes out of nowhere if you aren’t paying attention…”
Flash rolled his eyes as Brad nudged the school’s main doors open with his flanks while he gabbed, leading them into the chilly evening air. Even though it was a fine spring day, the sun still set somewhat early. It wasn’t even six o’clock and the sky was exploding with orange and pink and purple. The concourse was totally empty except for Flash and the pony at his side who refused to stop talking.
“... There’s a big door that squeaks really loudly and I think it’s supposed to scare ponies, and I heard it’s an enchantment to make the door actually talk but only in a voice that certain ponies understand like a really weird alarm system, because it didn’t squeak when I used the key but they probably just oiled it because Glaive Runner likes to mess with me…”
Flash found himself walking towards the equestrian statue at the center of the concourse. Thoughts of Erinyes and Sunset’s angry, disapproving stare filled his head. The statue reared above him, blithely happy. It stood above everything and everyone, while Flash stood at sea level with a pony babbling in one ear and a girlfriend barking in the other. He hated the statue. It was wild and free, not even knowing it was rooted in one place. It had no right to be happy.
“Geez, today sucked,” he muttered.
His phone rang. He winced, wondering if he could let it go to voicemail, but he already knew who it was. He answered it. Sunset’s voice easily drowned out Brad’s aimless babbling.
“Flash!” her voice snapped like a whipcrack. “Where the heck are you?”
“Just taking a walk, babe,” he said, keeping his voice neutral.
“A walk? The meeting is almost over and you haven’t even given us ideas. Do you even care about making the Spring Fling work?”
Flash pinched the bridge of his nose. “I do, babe. You know that. But you got, like, a whole team of experts with charts and crud, and I wasn’t even contributing that much so I thought--”
“I told you how important this is to me!” Sunset cut in like a knife. “I need you to be here for this!”
Flash blinked, mouth agape. “Uhh… wow, really? You need me?”
“If people don’t see you supporting me, rumors are going to fly, Flash,” Sunset growled. “Not even my inner circle is immune to gossip. You know how this works. I have worked too hard for too long to let that all go up in smoke because you conveniently forgot something again.”
The brief flash of hope disintegrated in his stomach, like crumpled paper in a fire. “Uhhh.”
“And don’t forget the big announcement! It’s going to happen at the Spring Fling and there’s going to be a lot of people there, so get your head on straight! I won’t need a ride home, Minty Green is carpooling. Try to be on the ball like her next time, alright?”
Before Flash could say another word, the call ended. Flash’s hand dropped to his side, and he stood in morose silence in front of the statue.
A hoof touched his shoulder. The gentle thrum of flapping rested over his shoulder.
“Flash?” Brad asked, his voice small and quiet. “I’m sorry I brought all this trouble. I really didn’t mean it. I wanted to help you.”
“How?” Flash muttered. “How can you help me? What even made you think you can make a difference? You said you’re me, right? Have you even looked at me? I got the car, I got the girl, I got the dough. And Sunset still isn’t happy.” He scuffed his shoe on the sidewalk. “I’m still not happy.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t try to be happy just because Sunset is.” Brad shuddered. “I don’t know a lot of things but I know when I see someone who isn’t happy. And that girl isn’t happy.”
“I just want to be a normal boyfriend. A good boyfriend. A good guy.”
“You should focus on being a better Flash!” Brad cheered, twirling in midair and spreading his hooves wide. “That’s exactly what I’m here for, dude! I’m here to help you. I don’t know what we can do about Sunset or anyone else, but hey, you’ve been focusing on her for way too long! You need to decide what’s important. You can go back there and try to do everything Sunset tells you to do, get to the bottom of her checklist, and finally erase all your obligations to her. And then she’ll write a new list of things for you to never finish, because nothing you’re doing is helping her be happy. Or you can try to help me figure out this Kindly One business, and maybe save someone’s life, and then I can maybe get to the real business of making you the kind of pony I know you can be.”
Flash leaned against the equestrian statue, at the front of the pedestal. “You’re all about that self-affirmation thing, aren’t you?”
Brad stared at the statue’s pedestal as he hovered. He appeared lost in thought. Flash raised his eyebrow as the silence stretched on, and on, and the gentle sound of flapping wings became nothing but background noise.
“Dude?” Flash asked. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a Kindly One.”
Brad blinked and shook his head, tousling his perpetually slicked back mane. “Oh, uh, nothing. Just… thinking about that statue.”
Flash smirked and reached up to give one of the horse’s hooves a tap. “Yeah, he’s a weird one, huh? I never liked looking at him. There was always something strange about it, you know? Why a horse? Why even Canterlot High? Who even thinks up names like this?”
Brad cleared his throat and turned away. “Uhhh. I… wouldn’t think about it too hard. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that some doors shouldn’t be opened before you’re ready.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing. If the mirror’s in a castle, and the castle has other guards, how did the Kindly One slip past everyone including you?”
Brad opened his mouth to answer, but another, scratchier voice cut in.
“Who the heck are you talking to?”
“Nobody!” Flash squealed, jumping off the statue and spinning in place. His hands came up in a faux-judo stance, ready to ward off Kindly Ones and meddling traffic officers alike.
A young girl perched on a scooter squinted at him from beneath a mop of messy, bright purple hair. Her gaze had the vague hostility of someone staring at something horribly embarrassing and refusing to be contaminated. “You’re weird,” she decided. “But you’re Flash Sentry, aren’t you?”
The feeling of being recognized was a powerful thing. It settled Flash’s frazzled nerves and he quickly returned to leaning on the statue, putting his hands in his pockets and assuming the trademark Smile. “Well, uh, yeah! Yeah, I am that… guy. I’m Flash Sentry. And you, you’re…”
He made finger guns at her. She continued to stare at him.
“The… kid.”
“... Scootaloo,” she said. “I’m Scootaloo.”
“She seems nice!” Brad whispered. Flash waved him off.
“Whatcha doing out here, Scootaloo?”
She glanced down at her scooter, then back up at him. “Scooting,” she growled, trying to put some extra scratch in her voice. She puffed at a strand of hair dangling in front of her nose, but quickly gave up when it refused to budge, assuming a disaffected posture much like Flash’s. “What’s it to you? You’ve got a car, right? You can go anywhere you want.”
“Ehhh.” Flash waggled his hand. “Not as free as you think, kid. I’m waiting on my girl. She’s got a meeting about school president stuff. I decided to pass on it and take a walk. I’m no good with numbers and big plans. Honestly goes over my head sometimes.”
“So you ditched your girlfriend?” Scootaloo asked, squinting hard as she leaned closer. “You ditched Sunset Shimmer, the most popular and important girl in school?”
Flash pressed his back up against the statue, tugging at the lapels of his jacket. “Uhhh. Well, I, you know, it’s not exactly ditching ‘cuz I’m still here--”
“Nice,” Scootaloo said right over his mumbling, grinning viciously. “I don’t know how you can stand her, she’s such a jerk sometimes! If I were in your shoes, I’d take a long walk and just keep on walkin’!”
Flash grinned along with her, chuckling nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Ooh, ha ha, she’s not all that bad when you get to know her--”
“She kind of is,” Brad said.
“--Really I was just bored. Really.”
Scootaloo went back to her semi-condescending, semi-baffled stare. “I wasn’t here when you two hooked up, but it must’ve been something. I mean, you’re supposed to be really hot, and Sunset is too, and you’re both apparently rich because Sunset flaunts basically everything she has, and you’ve got that car...”
“You have dreams of licking it or something?” Flash grumbled.
“I’m just saying, not even Rainbow Dash has a car, and she’s way cooler than Sunset Shimmer.” Scootaloo smirked and waggled her eyebrows, pretending she wasn't throwing bait in the water like an expert chum fisher. Flash rolled his eyes.
“Rainbow Dash? You mean that weird girl heading the junior varsity team? Dyes her hair, shouts a lot?”
Scootaloo pouted, stomping her foot. “She’s not weird, she’s awesome! And her hair color is totally awesome and totally all natural!”
“That’s totally frightening.”
“Whatever,” Scootaloo grumbled. “You’re not as cool as I thought anyway.”
“Coolness is in the eye of the thermometer, kid.”
“Stop calling me kid! I’m a teenager like you, you know!”
Brad nudged Flash’s leg. “Whoa, dude, dial it back. I know you’re in a tough spot, but you don’t wanna hurt her feelings, do you?”
Flash sighed heavily and pushed off the statue, staring off into the darkening sky. Tonight wasn't the first Sunset abruptly told him to buzz off. She did that a lot on meeting nights. She liked stretching out how much time meetings took, ostensibly to have more reasons to avoid going home. If only they hadn’t already made plans to go out. Spending time with your boyfriend seemed to him a good way to forget home troubles. He hadn’t forgotten those plans, but Sunset didn’t care about what he remembered. Only what he didn’t. Deficiencies were like honey to her.
Scootaloo glared at him, fuming, pouting, spoiling for a fight. She looked like Brad if he was trying to bite someone. He knew why Sunset stayed after hours. But this pipsqueak? She should’ve taken the bus home hours ago.
“Look… Scootaloo.”
“Yeah?” she grumped.
“Scootaloo. I’ve had a rough day.”
“Join the club.”
”But. I’m not gonna try to be a jerk. I know Sunset dishes out a lot more than most people can take. I’m trying to balance that out. Karma, or something. So let’s start over. Yeah, I’m Flash Sentry. I have a car, I have more money than most kids my age should even be touching, and I am the boyfriend of Sunset Shimmer. That said… I am definitely more than that. Just like I’m sure you’re more than your scooter. I just have trouble remembering that sometimes, since it’s…” He shrugged, kicking the ground to gather mental fortitude. “Well, it’s basically all anyone talks about when they mention me. But, you know. I got time to talk about all that other stuff.”
Scootaloo’s vivid purple eyes darted around, to the ground, to the sky, anywhere but Flash’s face. Gradually, those eyes softened, and her shoulders slumped.
“Well,” she muttered, smaller, more contrite. She wrung the handlebars of her scooter. “I guess that’s cooler than calling me kid.”
Flash smirked. “You gotta keep that from getting to you so easy, kid. Trust me, there’s way worse than not being grown-up enough.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
Sunset’s scowling visage flashed over his mind’s eye. “Being a grown-up in a school for kids.”
“I guess. I dunno,” Scootaloo said. She suddenly sounded weak and uncertain, like a flag failing in sparse wind. “I saw you out here and I thought it was weird you’d just be lounging around talking to yourself. I’m not scared of Sunset, you know.”
“Nobody should be. She’s not scary. Just…” He tsked, shrugged, spread his arms helplessly. “She’s just Sunset. There’s way more scary stuff out there than Sunset. Sunset’s just… grrr. The really spooky stuff is like...” He grabbed his jacket and fanned it out, imitating the wings of a very, very pitiful bat. “Grrrr!”
Scootaloo snorted, seemingly charmed by his turn to self-aware silliness. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Uhhh.”
“Lions!” Brad chirped.
“Lions!” Flash said, spinning and pointing at Brad. He caught himself a split-second later and swung his arm towards Scootaloo instead. “Lions. Are more frightening than Sunset. Annnnd…” He wagged his finger, smirking at the younger teen. “Tigers?”
Scootaloo stared slack-jawed. Flash almost saw the gears working in her head until, with a visible click, a gasp and a grin lit up her whole face. “And bears!”
Flash slapped his forehead, grinning even as he raised an accusing eyebrow at her. “Oh! Oh, man! You're how young, and you still watched that dumb old movie? Awww, come on, I thought we were cool kids here.”
“Pffft, I’m not the one who quoted it, dork!” Scootaloo shot back, brushing off his little jabs with a flippant hand wave. “I was forced to watch it in like, middle school as some art appreciation thing. Back when I really was a kid.”
“I was terrified of that movie! I thought the talking trees were gonna eat me!”
“The trees?” Brad giggled along with Scootaloo. “Dude, we got quarray eels and dragons. That’s way worse than dumb trees.”
‘We’ll talk about that,’ Flash mouthed at Brad before turning back to Scootaloo.
“Trees,” the young teen said, trailing off with a little sigh. “Nah, like, I wonder if we really do have bears and lions and junk out here sometimes.”
Flash froze. Something in her tone made his brain jerk to a stop. A heavy, ominous feeling draped itself over the veranda. “What makes you say that?”
Scootaloo jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, pointing directly down the street from the school. “Oh, I was just scooting around up near 5th Avenue, right? Some prime trick country there, uh, bro. And I went by that abandoned brew factory, the one that’s been rotting forever. But there was this smell, like something actually was rotting. I took a peek over the fence and there was a dead dog, right there on the ground!”
A strand snapped taut in Flash’s mind, pulling his gaze over to Brad’s. “A… dog? Dead?”
Scootaloo looked way too happy to be reporting on random dead dogs. A macabre kind of joy, the kind shared by exposing the most disgusting and vivid details of a trainwreck, had swept her up. “Yeah, it was like, still red and bloody! But it wasn’t even eaten! I’m no expert, but it looked like something just tore its throat out! I saw guts and stuff all over the ground, I nearly threw up! Gross, right?”
“Scootaloo!” Flash exclaimed, unable and unwilling to hide the sternness in his voice. “This is important now. Did you see anything else? Anything at all?” Scootaloo shrank back, suddenly keenly aware she was reporting a possible crime to someone old enough to do something about it.
“Uhh, no? No, I didn’t. Didn’t hear nothin’ either. But it was fresh, like, not rotten or anything. Kinda sad now that I think about it.” She slumped, and the pout returned full force. “Geez. Poor dog. What even would do that, just kill something and leave it? Oh shoot, what if it wasn’t another animal? Oh man, what if we got some freak running around?! That was only a mile away!”
Her breath stepped up from ‘quick’ to ‘hyperventilating.’ Flash held up his hand to forestall any more panic. “Okay, whoa, calm down, kid. Nothing bad’s gonna happen. If it’s some weirdo, he’s probably miles away by now trying to get away from the scene of the crime.”
Scootaloo didn’t look convinced, anxiously wringing the handlebars of her scooter and glancing around like a frightened squirrel. The sun was almost completely set now, and twilight was starting to reign. “Uhh. Yeah. Miles away. I-I’m really far from my house right now…”
“This is bad,” Brad whispered. He somehow looked pale even beneath that solid coat of fur.
Flash pulled out his phone and quickly dialed Sunset.
No answer.
He dragged his hand over his face. This was just what he needed. Why did he even think to call Sunset? She was driving home with Minty. Did he really need her to tell him what to do about a monster she would think was his imagination? But he definitely didn’t have any ideas, like usual. He thought he had more time. Time to think, time to plan. Time to… what?
Do what? his mind asked. Keep pretending he was stable and happy? Keep pretending a car and money made him cool? There was a young girl about to flip out right in front him, and he had an actual, factual monster on his hands. It felt so weird, so distant at first. But now seeing Scootaloo’s very real fear brought the danger crashing home. It was only a matter of time before someone ended up on this thing’s dinner list.
“Flash,” Brad said. “We can’t just leave Scootaloo.”
“We’re not,” said Flash. His mind flashed through a hundred possibilities before settling on the only one that didn’t make him feel like a jerk. “Scootaloo, I’ll drive you home.”
“Wait, really? In the car?”
“Yes, in the car!”
The moment the word “car” left his mouth, Scootaloo made a squeak that reminded Flash of Brad more than he liked. The terror fled from her face and her whole body suddenly tensed with eager energy.
“I’m gonna get to ride in the car? With Flash Sentry?”
“I thought you said I wasn’t cool?” Flash said, hands on his hips.
“That was before you offered me a ride in your car! Heck yeah I’ll go in that instead of scooting around with some rabid panther or whatever's out there! Let’s go!”
She was literally bouncing, now. Vibrating, almost. Brad joined in too, for reasons Flash couldn’t bother to fathom right now. He felt trapped, in that resigned, hapless way of a parent with two small children, or maybe two lunatic dogs that got their first taste of coffee.
“Okay, okay, calm down! It’s right over there.” He pointed across the veranda, to where his sleek little ride still loyally waited.
Scootaloo slung her scooter over her shoulder and zipped away before Flash could get another word in. “Woohoo! My friends are gonna be so jealous!”
Flash watched her dash off, smiling. Then he realized he was smiling and wondered why. “Score one for the car, I guess,” he muttered, and kept his eyes on Brad while he walked. “Brad, we should go check out that place Scootaloo mentioned after we drop her off.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Way I see it, if magic things are invisible to most people, the Kindly One will be too. She could’ve walked right past it and never knew it was there. She could’ve died tonight, Brad. Anybody else we ask to go looking for it could die and never even know what hit them.”
Up ahead, Scootaloo fawned over his car, touching the sleek lines, drooling over the hood and what could have been inside. He thought he heard something about “Nascar” and “borrow the keys.” He shook his head and sighed; the kid was worse than Pop Fly. First he was weird, then he was the most amazing thing ever. Admittedly, Pop Fly never really reached that second stage.
“I’m not gonna let anyone get hurt over this, Brad.” He turned to look down at the pony, his gaze firmer than his convictions felt. Deep inside terror wormed its way around the righteous anger of protective loyalty. Being the only defender against a magical menace felt a lot less heroic than he thought. “If this is the only good thing I can do, I should do it, right? And dragging more people into this will only get them killed since they can’t see the darn things, so we keep it on the down low. Nobody can know about this magic stuff.”
“Then you know calling the police won’t do any good,” Brad said quietly. “I don’t know if anything in this world will affect the things from mine, and that includes guns. But don’t worry, Flash. I got some ideas.”
Flash blew out a long, discouraging sigh. “So do I. And I like exactly none of them. We need to find some rats.”
Scootaloo fought him for control of the radio the entire way home. She turned the volume to the maximum. And she sang along to every station. Badly.
Flash broke his plan to find the rats into three easy steps.
Step one, a slice of cheesecake purchased from a local bakery. Step two, a lot of plaintive calling into holes in the walls. Step three: the cover of darkness. The mall parking lot was abandoned this late at night, and security consisted of a single person asleep at the wheel of his truck. The way Flash figured it, if nobody saw him squatting in bushes with a slice of cheesecake and asking holes in the wall for help, then nobody could call it strange behavior.
It didn’t keep him from feeling stupid though.
“Are you sure this is gonna work?” Brad asked, hovering nearby. “I’ve circled this place twice and not a single rat to be seen.”
“I’m telling you, the cheesecake is key,” said Flash. “Once they smell this stuff they’ll come running.”
“Oh, you do know us well, sir.”
Flash and Brad later denied that their squeals of fright sounded anything like a suddenly deflating balloon, but Scuff only twitched his ears and kept his eyes on the cheesecake. He perched on the corner of an open dumpster, and behind him cowered a dozen pairs of hungry eyes.
“Is that for us?” asked Scuff, pointing at the cheesecake. He seemed mesmerized. A dozen rats spilled out behind him, all their gazes locked on the cake. They followed its every move with disturbing precision, as if possessed by one mind. A very cheesy mind.
“For us?” the other rats chirped and squeaked and chittered. “Is it for us? Can we eat it? For us! He brought something for us!”
Flash stood up, holding the confectionary close to his chest. “It can be,” he said, “if you give me an audience with, uh. Your ratty kingdom, or whatever.”
“We rats,” Scuff said proudly, cleaning his whiskers, “do not subject ourselves to the authority of kings and queens. There were a bunch of chaps who called themselves rat kings a while back. Nasty business to get, hehe, tangled up in.”
“Say what?”
“Never mind. What is important, sir, is that you came back! You came back to speak to us lowly rats! And you brought a…”
Scuff regarded Brad with a look that could only be described as “disgusted confusion.”
“A pigeon horse?” he wondered.
“Looks ugly,” said one rat.
“Looks fat!” said another.
“Hey! That’s ‘pegasus’ to you little rodents!” Brad snapped, putting his hooves on his hips and flicking his mane. “Calling a pegasus a bird is really frowned on back where I’m from, buster! Like, literally, the Princesses will frown at you, and it’s super embarrassing. Also you have to spend a weekend at Compassion Camp.”
“Speaking from experience?” Flash deadpanned.
“No, I totally am not!” Brad squealed, in the way of those who meant ‘yes, I totally am.’
Flash turned back to Scuff. “Back on topic. We have a problem in the shape of an angry monster that may or may not also be an ancient goddess of death and retribution and we need your help to track it down before it kills someone.”
Scuff blinked. “Goodness. You have been busy lately.”
Flash sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I find it’s best to just take these things as they come. Anyway, I’m the only human who can see it and nobody will believe me if I tell them. I have no idea how to find this thing, so I figured you guys are my only option. So far it’s only killed cats and dogs and other animals, so I guess that it won’t bother with rats since you’re…”
Flash felt a sudden blush and clamped his mouth shut. Scuff crossed his arms. Every rat behind him followed suit.
“We’re what?” Scuff asked.
“Yes, what?” asked a dozen other rats in chorus.
“Uh.” Flash coughed and stuttered. “You’re so… s… small? Small! And yet so ubiquitous! Not, you know, unimportant or anything. Because you are so important. When you guys have your little rat revolution or whatever, I’m definitely siding with you.”
Flash used his free hand to make a finger gun. His Trademark Smile was a little shaky, but it seemed to work.
“Is that so?” Scuff wondered, a sly glint in his beady eye. “You can talk to animals and yet you come to rats bearing gifts and promising friendship? You wouldn’t feed us to the local cats when you are done?”
“Well, I mean.” Flash shrugged. “I’m not really a cat person anyway. I almost dated this girl with purple hair once… Rarity, I think? Obsessed with fashion. We had some pretty sweet chemistry, up until her cat took a chunk out of my leg while she was fitting me for a tuxedo. ‘Either the cat goes or I go,’ I told her.”
Brad winced. “Dumped for a cat? Ouch.”
“Actually, she chose the tux.”
“Say no more, good sir,” Scuff said, holding up his paw. “Honestly, you had us at ‘not a cat person.’ Having a human with the Sparkle who does not destroy us on sight could be an investment with many great returns. Give us the cake and for tonight our services are yours.”
“Hold on a second,” Brad said. “You seem pretty confident you can help. How are you going to find this thing?”
“It is a creature with the blood of dozens on its hands,” Scuff said, wiggling his nose. “If there is one thing that rats know, it is the smell of blood. We shall spread the word as quickly as we can. Every clan shall know: for this, a human promised friendship to the lowliest of creatures. We look for a dangerous beast for you, Flash Sentry. We shall expect recompense.”
“You’ll get it,” Flash said. “Start at the abandoned brewery on 5th avenue; that’s where it might have been last. I’ll meet you there.”
“It shall be done,” said Scuff, and with a chorus of squeaks, the rats and the cake disappeared in a flash of fur and naked tails.
---
“You said you read a book on this kind of thing?” Flash said when they hit a red light.
Brad didn’t answer at first. The pony leaned his head against the car window, where street lamps illuminated his shockingly blue mane. A queer feeling coiled in Flash’s stomach like a snake. Driving his car helped with that, usually. It did not help tonight.
In the ten minutes since Scuff scurried off with the other rats to wherever rats scurry, Flash had time to think about what his plan. What he agreed to. He had made a pact with rats—rats!—to help hunt down and banish a demigod murder beast. He was a high school student with decent grades and a hot girlfriend. He had a car and money and sports scholarships in his future. He had good looks and a sick electric guitar.
What exactly in that list made him think he was at all capable of doing this?
“Yeah,” said Brad, tracing circles with his hoof on the cool leather of his seat. “I never saw a Kindly One face-to-face. But there’s procedures on how to deal with one.”
“You guys get a lot of those?”
“A lot of everything.” Brad smiled in a strange way. “The Guard has to handle a lot of stuff in their spare time. When the Princesses are busy we’re the first line of defense against monsters from every corner of the world. We help ponies no matter who they are or where they’re from. Everypony knows you can depend on us to be there when you need it.” He looked over at Flash and waggled his wings. “That’s why I’m here, Flash. I think you needed it.”
The queer feeling in Flash’s gut intensified. “Right. So, about the Kindly One…”
“Never say their true name, obviously. It’ll bring it right to you. Always have a clear route of escape. If possible, ask what it’s taking vengeance for. If possible, resolve the problem yourself.. The Kindly One must withdraw if there is nothing to avenge.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. Well, I mean, I never saw it, remember. And I haven’t the faintest idea who or what it’s looking for here.”
Flash pursed his lips. “So, really, we don’t even have to fight it? We can just talk our way out of this if we convince it there’s no need to kill anyone.”
Brad hesitated, mouth open, eyes searching. “Well… I guess so? I’ve never actually talked to one, but I have read reports where things were resolved peacefully. Usually it took a really really really smart pony like the Princesses to do that, though. But I do know it won’t kill without cause… it’s just that the ‘cause’ can be anything from getting between it and its prey to just annoying it.”
“And the times it wasn’t resolved peacefully?”
“Honestly, I don’t think we have a choice but to do whatever we can to stop it. It’s a monster made to hurt things, Flash. You know the story behind their creation, right?”
“Yeah, the god Uranus got his joystick snipped off by his kid Cronus, and when it fell, the Kindly Ones were born from the blood that rained on the earth. Hard to forget a story like that,” Flash said, smiling. Reciting the research he did made him feel smart.
Brad blinked, his mouth hanging open in disgust. “I… what? No, that’s not it at all! That’s disgusting! What kind of crazy person would write something like that?”
“The Greeks, apparently. They had a lot of crazy stuff going on.”
“No wonder everyone here wears so many layers, they’re clearly paranoid,” Brad muttered.
“Ha! Yeah,” Flash said, squirming uncomfortably. Hopefully the ancients felt as awkward as he did. “So, that story…”
“Right. Well, Cronus is a thing, I think, or maybe it’s got a different name, or a lot of different names. But anyway, the Kindly Ones were born like, a bazillion years ago, back before the Princesses, and some say before even ponies, but then you have to ask ‘how would ponies know if we weren’t there?’ But anyway, Cronus’ kids were grazing in a field, and one of them got all uppity and started eating all the other grass before it could grow back. He ate and ate and ate until all the earth was barren and brown. Now the other siblings were angry about this, but Cronus wasn’t there to mediate, since it was and is the Void That Hears, so instead of telling their brother to share, they got super mad and decided to ruin his next birthday party.”
Flash blinked. “Wait. Wait, what was that with the, uh--”
“And they stuffed his birthday cake with firecrackers, and theologians debate where those came from if the other brother ate everything--”
“--the Void That Hears?” Flash said under his breath.
“--but of course,” Brad tumbled on, “being a god that just made him real peeved, and there was some stuff about a war of gods or whatever, but it got so bad Cronus appeared again and said, ‘Because you have been total jerks to each other, the very next thing that grows from the ground shall be of your jerky-ness!’”
Flash squinted, hard. “Yeah, I have a hard time believing Cronus talked like that.”
Brad shrugged his wings. “Well, I cut out about eighty-seven verses of pontificating from the original text. But yeah, sure enough the very next thing that sprouted was the Kindly Ones themselves, full of all the revenge the children of Cronus spilled on the earth with their tit-for-tat squabbling. So now anyone with a grudge can draw them to him, and that’s where we get trouble.”
“News flash,” Flash grumbled, “humans carry lots of grudges. The Kindly One is the only link we have to whatever drew it here. Can we just, like, ask it why? Would it tell us?”
“We’ll only find out if Scuff pulls through.”
They pulled into the empty lot surrounding the abandoned brewery. It had once been a mark of booming potential decades ago, built in a park-like area next to a stream that led to the woods outside town. But fickle fortune dictated the city expanded away from the brewery, and after imported alcohol became all the rage, the entire operation shut down. No new buildings had gone up near it, giving the place its own little private buffer zone, and thus, an air of isolated mystery.
Only hobos and teens with nothing better to do hung out here, along with the occasional criminal, all of them using either the old lot or the trees nearby for shelter. While the rest of the city saw an economic upturn, nobody even considered buying the property for renovation. It continued to rot, and might one day be an anthropological curiosity. The entire building suffered a slow decay, teetering like an old man falling in slow motion. Blotches of rust stained every chimney, every tower, every wall, and broken windows gaped monstrously.
It seemed to Flash the building dared people to come inside. Abandoned places always seemed to, and never for wholesome reasons.
“What an ugly place,” Brad remarked as he hopped out of the car.
“Yep,” said Flash, keeping a tight hold on the door before he shut it. A tiny part of him wanted to keep it open, in case he needed a quick getaway.
“I like it,” said Scuff, somewhere around Flash’s left shoe. “It’s got many things going for it, like rust and shadows.”
“Gah!” Flash jumped, reflexively covering his head with his arms. “Don’t do that, man! There could be a monster here!”
“Oh, there isn’t,” said Scuff. “We already swept the area, and determined the beast is currently going south through the sewers.”
Scuff smirked and snapped his claws; something Flash didn’t realize rats could actually do. It struck him as remarkably human, and the familiarity of it frightened him. Did rats always do such things when he wasn’t looking? How much were they hiding, and why?
How much of his own world was Flash really ignorant of?
The sound of rustling grass and tiny feet scampering over concrete and metal distracted him. All around seethed a black carpet of wriggling, squeaking bodies, convulsing and writhing over one another. The constant motion made counting them impossible, and Flash recoiled at the thought that maybe, just maybe that was as deliberate as Scuff snapping his claws. Maybe they didn’t want people to be able to count them, after all they did so many other things on purpose he hadn’t even considered before…
“That was awful fast,” Brad said, squinting at the rats. “How many do you have working on this case?”
Scuff puffed his chest and squared his shoulders, looking eminently pleased with himself. “Many little eyes and many little hands, flying horse. And squeaks travel far down pipes.”
“Squeaks!” squeaked the other rats. “Squeaks in pipes, squeaks in pipes!”
“Hoo boy,” Flash said, his skin tingling from the stares of a thousand and one beady, gleaming, so very intelligent eyes. “Lucky us. And you guys have checked out the brewery too?”
“Empty of monsters with the Sparkle, sir,” said Scuff. “Though drenched with the smell of blood and anger. The Kindly One has been here more than once, possibly as a base of operations. It is old, and mostly private, and is centrally located within city limits. Incidentally, also a perfect place for our kind to muster.”
“Perfect! Perfect!” the other rats echoed.
“If this is where it’s been hiding out,” said Brad, “we might be able to figure out more about it. Even lay a trap!”
“Like, antagonize it?” Flash wondered. “I thought you said these things could be talked to.”
“If by ‘talk’ you mean ‘Kindly Ones can use words,’ then yeah, I guess they can be talked to,” Brad said, tucking his wings tight to his sides. “But there’s a lot more procedures on how to get rid of them than talk to them.”
“There is, I must add, a little snag,” Scuff said, wriggling his snout. “We could not get a favorable picture of whatever lair the creature might have made for itself. There is another smell underneath the blood and anger. Something worse.”
“Worse!” the chorus sang behind Scuff. “So much worse!”
“A cat,” Scuff hissed, amplified by a thousand other little throats hissing and spitting and saying remarkably creative curses about the questionable parentage of all felines.
“There’s a cat in there?” asked Flash.
“Yes!”
“... Like, just the one?”
“Working for the monster! A monster to keep the company of monsters!” Scuff said, clenching his wee little paws over his heart. “Probably a guard to chase away spying eyes like ours! We cannot go in, sir, it must be you and your pigeon horse to remove it! Or we can no longer help you!”
“That is an extremely dramatic way to ask someone to shoo away a cat,” Flash said, jamming his hands into his pockets, “but uh… okay. I can handle one cat. Does it, uh… is it feeling, you know, talkative?”
“No point talking to cats!” Scuff spat. “They only ever growl and hiss and bite, and sometimes make ugly comments about our hairless tails!” He grabbed his tail and hugged it. “Hurts our feelings something awful, it does. Not our fault we don’t have fur on them.”
“We’re wasting moonlight,” said Brad. “We going in, or what?”
“Yeah,” said Flash. “Even if the Kindly One isn’t here, we should check this place out, learn something about what we’re dealing with.” His voice was thick and distant-sounding, like a whisper through heavy fog. They were really going to do this, weren’t they? Yes they were, and his legs were already moving and his mind already made and he couldn’t stop himself if he tried.
A thin wire fence surrounded the building, but other enterprising teens had already cut through it. One of many doors left ajar by those previous occupants let them slip inside without trouble.
They stood in the middle of a large, dark room. The bare walls echoed with the slightest movement.
“It’s dark,” said Brad.
“Yeah.” Flash pulled out his phone to light the way.
Getting inside had been easy. Staying inside got more difficult every second. Everywhere Flash stepped, something crunched. Everywhere he looked there loomed shadows of abandoned equipment and furniture. Ugly graffiti caricatures that looked comical in the daylight now leered at him in the gloom, staring with forever-open eyes and warped, screaming mouths. Every room they passed swirled with dust, as if disturbed by the breath of some huge, sleeping thing.
Brad kept close to Flash’s side. “A Kindly One isn’t really known for being subtle, but this one’s already shown to be pretty sneaky given it finds a place to hide and doesn’t go on a rampage. And they like to go high up, because, you know.” He fluttered his wings.
Flash glanced up the nearest set of stairs he could find. They were the ugly, frightening kind, concrete flights laid on top of each other so you couldn’t see the next floor until you got there, yet echoed with noise until you didn’t know what lurked above or below.
Flash peered through the gap between flights, up to where his light vanished. They had at least four more floors to climb. “Then I guess we’ll find its roost up there,” he whispered, but didn’t know why. It wasn’t like anyone could hear him. He hoped. “Might find that cat, too.”
“Yeah. Careful, now.”
“Uh huh.”
Brad licked his lips. “You wanna go first? You have the light.”
“Sure.”
No one moved.
Flash’s hand made a fist. Opened again. Closed again. Nothing was up there. Something could be up there. Something with claws and teeth to rend him limb from limb until his own mother didn’t recognize him.
“You know,” Flash said, “I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?” Brad said.
“What if we…”
“Yeah?”
“What if we just died?”
“What if we what?”
“What if we died?”
Brad chewed his lip, scrunching his face in an adorably thoughtful expression. “Well, I guess that means we’d be dead.”
“That sucks,” Flash said. “I kinda want to graduate before I die.”
“There’s lots of things I wanna do,” Brad said. “Like... go on a date. With mares that I haven’t gone on dates with yet, because I’ve been on a lot already.”
Flash nodded. “But if we don’t go up there, then other people might die.”
“Will die,” Brad said. “Kindly Ones don’t give up.”
Flash remembered Scootaloo, wondered what it felt like to be there with that dead dog. Probably stood mere feet away from a monster she couldn’t even see. Too young to even understand what kind of danger she was in, and the terror he saw when she realized it.
He took a deep breath. Let it out.
“Right.”
He put his foot on the stairs and started walking. Brad followed close behind.
Flash ascended the stairs with the reluctant bravery of a worker called to his executive’s office, praying for anything but an important meeting. He didn’t hope to find the monster, or anything else. He hoped to reach the top, look around, climb back down, and go home to get some sleep. He still had school tomorrow, and tomorrow was only about forty-five minutes away. At least tomorrow was Friday. He enjoyed weekends more than anything else. Sunset usually liked going out on weekends.
He reached the top of the stairs.
The smell hit him first.
Something like syrup and something like sulfur. Something like ash and rotting wood. It made his gorge rise and his eyes water. Brad wilted beneath his wings, putting a hoof over his mouth.
Flash ventured into the hallways and followed the smell, which grew along with his dread. He reached a long hallway, and at the end, an open door. He shined his light into the room beyond.
At first glance it was like all the others: large, dirty, dark, and dusty. Windows lined the opposite wall, overlooking the city outside. Flash felt momentarily comforted by the sight of downtown’s vibrant skyline, glowing with lights and city activity, so far removed from the morbid brewery. It was a reminder of other human life, at least.
“Flash,” Brad whispered, staring at something behind them. Flash turned.
His heart dropped into his stomach, and then his stomach dropped into his pants as he beheld the grisly scene. The Kindly One had set up some kind of storage rack with the skins and viscera of various animals (please let them just be animals) along a section of pipe jutting from the wall. All bloody, all rotting.
“That is disgusting,” Flash would have said if he didn’t immediately drop to his knees and heave loudly.
“I agree,” Brad would have said if he didn’t immediately go pale and swoon straight to the ground.
“Oh come now,” a third voice said with a gentle, rolling purr. “It’s not as if humans do any better to their four-legged friends.”
Flash turned away from the rack of dead things and cast his phone light around, looking for the source of the noise. A shadow darted between two crates and leapt up to some exposed pipes near the ceiling. Flash pointed his phone at it, and two bright lights stared back. When his vision stopped swimming, the shadow coalesced into a charcoal-grey cat.
“But I am curious what a child with the Sparkle and a bug-eyed horse with wings are doing in the lair of my associate,” she said.
“You can see the Sparkle?” Flash asked.
“Of course,” the cat purred. “It outshines your flashlight tenfold. But not blindingly so, no… the Sparkle is… well. You notice it more than see it, I should say. My associate will be terribly interested to know a holder of it dropped by, and a human no less…”
“You mean the Kindly One,” Flash said. He reached over and shook Brad until the pony stirred, rubbing his eyes. “You must have chased the rats out, too.”
“It wasn’t difficult.” The cat licked her paw and spat. “They’re disgusting vermin that crawl around in the dirt, scavenging off humans. Cowardice is in their blood.”
Flash managed to stand on shaky feet, dusting himself off. “Well, uh. Ahem. I don’t really have an opinion on inter-species tensions, miss…?”
“Jenny,” the cat said, sharply. She hopped down and walked between them with a dramatic strut. “And don’t forget it. Ignore the collar.”
Brad looked at her collar. “Jennybeans? Your name is Jennybeans?”
Jenny squinted at him. “Are you kidding me?”
“Unfortunately no,” Flash said with a helpless shrug. “He’s pretty much the real deal.”
“My name is Jenny,” Jenny said through clenched teeth. “My cover is Jennybeans, when I’m with my human.”
Brad pointed at the cat’s nose. “Okay then, Jenny, we’re gonna need you to start talking and then start walking! What’s the Kindly One doing here, and why are you working with it? Also stop eating rats! They have feelings too, you kn—OW! She swiped me!”
Jenny smirked and pulled her claws back before retreating to the top of a filing cabinet. “The one you’re looking for is a tougher customer than you two jokers could ever hope to be. And I don’t eat rats. They’re disgusting, stringy little things. I get my food curated and delivered by humans. They give me only the best.” She took a moment to admire her little paws and primp the fur on her cheeks. “As for why I’m in this dingy hovel? My associate and I have come to an understanding. I keep an eye on this place and keep it free of spies and vermin, trot about town to places she can’t take the risk of visiting, and in exchange…”
She flicked her tail and sniffed. “She doesn’t rip out my spine like all the others.”
“‘She?’” Brad said, tilting his head. “The manual doesn’t say the Kindly Ones even call themselves that.”
Jenny snickered. “What, did you think her job is her whole life? She’s not a monster, just very driven. Rather like us cats, actually. She’s not letting anyone get in her way, even me.”
“You’re being held hostage?” Flash asked.
Jenny flicked her tail ambivalently. “I wouldn’t say hostage so much as compelled guest. I ran into her when she was on one of her nightly murder-sprees, and unlike her unfortunate victims, I know how to talk fast enough to cut a deal. When I heard she handles grudges, I might’ve let slip I have a grudge or two against a few nasty alley-cats myself...”
“Disgusting,” Brad spat.
Jenny shrugged. “Opportunity kicked down my door and I made it a guest. And anyway, once she’s done with her business here, she’ll be nipping back to whatever shadowy hole she crawled out of. It’s really no difference to me as long as she does it quickly.”
Flash crossed his arms. “And what is her business, exactly?”
Jenny purred and smiled, revealing her sharp canines. “Retribution, of course.”
“For who?”
“For someone powerful enough to put her on a leash and send her between this world and whichever one she came from. I don’t know the specifics, but even my associate feels her cause is just… enough that she won’t stop until she’s done. Something about a jilted lover, a runaway, and a pony princess? All very high-profile stuff. But my associate has found this place… difficult to move around in. Her target is a lot more difficult to find than she assumed, and she’s getting… frustrated.”
She turned to Flash, narrowing her eyes to slits. “In fact, she mentioned that her mark was also a pony supposed to be dripping with the Sparkle, and here you are with shining with Sparkle and a pony-thing at your side… what an astonishing coincidence, eh?”
“I have absolutely no idea what you mean,” Flash said.
“Yeah, me neither,” Brad said.
Flash raised an eyebrow at him.
“What?” Brad squawked. “I really don’t! If the Kindly One is here for a pony, I think I would’ve seen them by now! Not like you can hide one in plain sight in a world like this.” He blinked and glanced to one side. “I mean, not from me, who is another pony, but from humans without the Sparkle, yeah, I guess it’d be pretty easy to hide—”
“Ha!” Jenny yowled. “Did you boys really come up here without a plan, without weapons? What were you going to do if she was here? If she showed up right now?”
Flash cleared his throat uncomfortably. He’d come here to question a cat, not get talked down to by one. “Uh, scream and die horribly, I guess. Brad here hasn’t been very forthcoming with the specifics on how to fight mythological monsters.”
“Hey!” Brad squeaked. “I have training! I’d be able to fight! It’s not my fault I don’t have my guard equipment.”
“The point is,” Flash said, “I didn’t come here because I wanted to. I came here because I don’t have a choice. I have the Sparkle, I’m the only one I know who has it, and since everyone else is blind to it, through some incredible cosmological coincidence I’m the one saddled with the responsibility to find where this monster is and stop it!”
“Oh, please, dive right into the details of your dull human life, Sparkle-boy,” Jenny said, sprawling on top of the cabinet. She looked as bored as a plank of wood. “As if my associate doesn’t do enough crazy ranting. You’re just another small fish in this city’s big pond.”
Flash’s eye twitched. A thrill of old anger swirled inside him like a hungry shark.
“I knew cats were jerks,” he spat, “but you have to realize what we’re dealing with here. This monster isn’t going away until it kills someone.”
“Yeah, and that someone is going to be you and your freaky pony if you don’t skedaddle,” Jenny yawned. “Face it, kid. Even with the Sparkle you got nothing to bring to the table.”
Flash clenched his fists. “I don’t have nothing.”
“He’s got me!” Brad said, puffing out his chest. “He’s my friend. And where I come from, friendship can do anything.”
“It can get friends killed,” Jenny said with a pitying sigh. “You guys are in over your heads. My associate will come back soon. Leave here now and I won’t even tell her you were poking around. That’s me putting my life on the line for two kittens I don’t even know. So be grateful and…” She waved her paw to the door. “Get.”
“We’re not leaving until we know why the Kindly One is here,” Flash said through gritted teeth. “I’m not having someone dying be on my conscience.”
“Oh, you think just because you can talk to me that elevates you above what all the other common house humans are?” Jenny said with a tsk. “You think that makes you a hero, because you’re too dumb to have a danger sense? I’ve known some tough tomcats who thought they were heroes. One got run run over, another eaten by a dog, another keeled over from spoiled meat. You just scurry back to school and be like all the other kittens of your kind. It’s really all you can do.”
“And that’s another thing!” Flash said, pointing up at the cat. “You might be okay with ignoring my capabilities, but even if I can’t stop an evil monster, I’m still doing more than most kids I know! I play the guitar, drive a car, take my girlfriend out, the works! But after all that, what do I get? Magic I didn’t want, responsibility I don’t need, and now I have to deal with the idea that I might not still be here tomorrow all because I didn’t attend your stupid student council meeting and bumped into that stupid kid on her stupid scooter and felt guilty about her stupid scared face!”
His voice echoed back at him in the ensuing silence.
Jenny’s tail flicked, the only sign of agitation at Flash’s outburst.
“... Student council meeting?” she asked.
“Long story,” Brad said, helpfully.
Flash cleared his throat, muttering behind his hand. “Yeah, uh. No idea where that came from. Like, none whatsoever. She’s not even here, Flash, get a hold of yourself…”
“Look,” Jenny said. “As painfully boring as this has been… my neck’s on the line if I don’t at least report you two were here, and that a human has the Sparkle. It’s not like I want the death of a human and a whatever-that-guy-is on my conscience, but she’ll kill me just for thinking about covering for you. The deal still stands. Leave now, and forget you were ever here, and I won’t have to bring her home.”
Flash shook his head. “I’m already here, lady. The Kindly One will murder someone if I don’t back down.”
Jenny stared at him a long, long time. Her eyes were bright. Mirthless. Pitying.
“You really mean it?” she said. “You’re gonna see this through because you’re too brave or too mind-numbingly stupid to just walk away?”
Flash jutted his chin out, having no idea why he was justifying himself to a cat. But then, he had never met one that actually expressed the sociopathic hatred he knew all cats had so clearly.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. I mean all of this is real, right? It’s really real. And if the Kindly Ones are real, so is everything else. There’s a lot more monsters than just those around, and… People could die. They will die. And I’ll be the only one who knows why. I can’t do that. I won’t just sit back and let it happen.”
Brad reached up, putting his hoof on Flash’s pant leg. “I’m proud of you.”
Flash nodded, trying to put on a stoic front in the face of the pony’s shimmering puppy-dog eyes. “Thanks.”
“... Wait.” Brad’s eyes widened as he turned back to Jenny. The grip on Flash’s pants tightened (how did he do that without fingers?). “Bring her home? You can summon her here? She actually told you the true name of the Kindly Ones?!”
Jenny smiled as sharp as a knife. “Oh yes. I do know how to make an erinyes come calling—”
“DON’T SAY IT!” Brad shrieked, dropping to the floor and covering his head.
Flash held up his phone like a weapon, and the beam of light was his sword. “No no no no—!”
The echo of Brad’s shout trailed off to silence. The light revealed nothing but dust.
Slowly, he lowered his little light again.
“Well,” he whispered. “I guess that part… doesn’t actually happen?”
Jenny blinked, put a paw to her chest. “Oh. Ohh! You thought erinyes was their true name? Oh, no no no! Kids. Come on. Just saying erinyes isn’t much more than a poke at the edge of their psyche. If you really want a girl’s attention, you don’t say ‘Hey! Girl over there!’ You use their name.”
She stared straight at Flash one more time. Her eyes widened, and her pupils dilated. Flash knew that look. Rarity’s cat gave him that look before she jumped him.
A predator ready to pounce.
“I didn’t want to do this,” Jenny whispered. “But it’s a dog-eat-cat-eat-rat world out here, kid. But at least you’ll know who pulled your head off... unlike old Titan.”
She craned her neck forward, and Flash saw every one of her little white teeth. “And her name is...”
“Brad,” he said, shoving the pony away from him. “Brad?!”
“Flash, RUN!”
“Alecto.”
Keening noise erupted all around them, as if the shadows themselves were screaming. Flash spun, unsure if he had been struck or just fell in a panic. The light from his phone illuminated something huge and dog-headed rushing towards him, claws outstretched, with a mouth full of teeth and eyes full of fury.
Something hit Flash in the side hard enough to knock him over. Then he hit something even harder, and realized it was the floor. He covered his head as something huge and dark and screaming passed over him.
He rolled away, somehow keeping a tight hold on his phone, and shone the light in every direction. Dust swirled in the little beam like ghosts, his whole body shivered, his eyes couldn’t focus. He felt like he was about to eject his bowels hard enough to propel him out the window.
“Intruders, Alecto!” he heard Jenny yell from far away. “Intruders in your home!”
“Βανδάλια! Κλέφτες! Θα τρώω τις καρδιές σου ωμές!!” something answered her, in a voice that shook Flash’s bones.
Flash turned to run, except he didn’t have his feet under him so he just flopped like a fish. Blinded by stinging grit, he had no idea where up and down might be in the maelstrom of dust.
“Stupid,” he chanted. “Stupid stupid stupid—”
“—stupid!” Brad said as he lunged out of the whirlwind and grabbed him around the shoulders, carry-dragging him toward the stairs. “Get up, Flash! Get up, we gotta go!”
“Εισήλθετε στο σπίτι του θανάτου!”
A large hand closed around his ankle like a vise, dragging him back. Flash cried out as iron-hard fingers strangled his veins and squeezed down on his flesh. It felt as if the creature might squeeze his leg until it popped. He clawed at the ground, refusing to look back. If he looked back, he knew he wouldn’t escape.
“Get off him!” Brad yelled, grabbing Flash’s arm and pulling the opposite direction. His wings buzzed like a hummingbird’s, lifting both of them clear off the ground. Flash wailed and cartwheeled his free limbs, suspended in a remarkably painful tug-of-war between a pony and the face of certain death.
“Ένα πόνι! Βρήκα το σημάδι μου!”
The grip on Flash’s leg jerked to one side, tossing him and Brad like dolls. Brad, bless his heart, was still trying to fly with all his might, and the added momentum sent them both crashing into the nearest wall. Brad had the presence of mind to coil around Flash’s head like a pillow before impact, and bounced off the wall with a toy-like squeak.
“Ow,” said Flash, since the entire rest of his body had just collided with solid concrete. He managed to put a grateful inflection on it, given Brad had just been his crash cushion.
“Ow,” agreed Brad, who did not enjoy being a crash cushion at all.
A huge clawed hand on each of their necks crushed any attempt to breathe. Crushed the idea of breath.
“Ple…” Flash sputtered with the air left in his mouth. He spasmed as the Kindly One crushed him against the wall.
Alecto stood before him in all her righteous anger.
A massive dog’s head like none Flash had ever seen poked through strands of shadow draped over that hideous visage like hair, coiling and twisting with a mind of their own. She was the color of ash after hours of burning, and her eyes bulged with absolute fury. They had no whites, no pupils, only a solid coat of crimson that seemed to glow in the dark, drenching her face in blood-red light that felt hot on Flash’s face.Her pointed snout opened to reveal a maw lined with ugly, snarled teeth, and hot breath washed over his face as she clamped her jaws shut right in front of his nose with a loud clack.
Something wet and sticky splattered from her mouth onto Flash’s face. He prayed it was saliva instead of blood.
The shadows around her head slithered forward like snakes, raking across his skin. He felt something sharp bite into his flesh, and Alecto’s eyes somehow bulged even wider, her nostrils flaring.
“Έχετε τη λάμψη!”
Flash shivered. The Kindly One did not just speak—she roared. Fear answered from inside him, deep-seated, self-loathing, cowardly fear. The kind of fear that ran from knowing every wrong they had ever done was about to exposed, every shame laid bare, every guilty secret exposed in the searing light of Alecto’s vengeful eyes.
“Why are you here, glowing boy? I was told only a mare would carry the spark! Yet here I find you, and a stallion quivering like jelly. Speak!”
The hand around his throat relaxed, just enough for a sliver of air to reach his lungs.
He let it out with a squeal of pants-wetting terror not unlike a deflating balloon. It was abruptly silenced by another squeeze from the Fury’s hand.
Alecto snarled and turned to Brad.
“Does the colt have an answer?”
“You can speak our language?!” Brad wheezed.
Alecto bared her teeth in a grim approximation of a smile. “I have hunted across eons, child, across kingdoms uncounted and long-forgotten, and I spoke the language of them all. It is useful to hunt the guilty with the tongue they use to profess their lies. Now you will answer me in your tongue: I was told to hunt a pony mare of great magic, yet I see a pony colt and a human child, carrying a spark like a guttering flame. This vexes me.”
The talons on her fingers flexed, and Flash shuddered as they pricked his skin.
“I do not like being vexed.”
“Look, m-miss mighty and p-powerful creature,” Brad squeaked, “we know it is in your nature to hunt and destroy the guilty when you are called upon! We know not who you seek or why. It is our wish to help you in your errand by redressing the grievance so we might have peace!”
“Peace?” Alecto snapped. The very word seemed to make her angrier. “Peace?! The Hooved Folk speak of Harmony yet breed more chaos with their unconditional mercy. One of your own is what I seek, and I will destroy any and all who get in my way.”
“B-But the Princesses—!”
“This wretched place is not your world, child. Your Princesses have no power here.”
She dropped them both. “Now, speak quickly. Why do you possess magic?”
“I don’t know!” Flash gasped out, massaging his bruised throat. “I really don’t. This all started just a few days ago. I woke up and Brad was in my bedroom, and then I started talking to rats, and now I hear you’re going around my town and people are going to start dying!”
“Only the deserving, and those who obstruct my revenge. But you cannot simply have the spark of magic. This world has muted it, trampled it. Its absence is a hole in the earth. Did mighty Kronos never touch this plane? Did Harmony never take root?” Alecto sneered, waving her claws. “Bah! No matter. I sense no fiction in your tale. You are either an unlucky fool or an ignorant thief. Magic settled upon you by chance from somewhere.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Or someone.”
She turned back to Brad. “You! What portal did you tear asunder to reach this place?”
“I didn’t tear anything asunder! My hooves aren’t good for tearing!” Brad said, holding up his little legs. “I just found the door and walked through!”
“Where?!” Alecto roared, spreading her shadowy wings until they stretched from floor to ceiling. Her shadowy hair twisted wildly.
Brad curled into a ball, covering his head with his hooves. “In the castle, okay? In Canterlot!”
Flash squinted. “... Canterlot?” he whispered.
Alecto growled. Her claws twitched impatiently “Where did the portal lead?”
“To this world, same as the one you’re in!” Brad cried.
The Fury roared aloud and swiped her claws, gouging furrows in the wall directly above their heads. “To what place, you simpering idiot?!”
“Stop yelling at me!” Brad whimpered. “I’m speaking Equestrian as clear as I can, lady!”
Alecto’s eye twitched. She slowly turned back to Jenny, who had been watching in stoic silence. “You called my name to deal with these fools?”
Jenny gasped indignantly, putting a paw over her chest. “What, I’m supposed to grade the prowlers who break in now?”
Flash, who was trying not to think about how close he had just come to being decapitated, suddenly realized something. He sat up, turning to Brad as Alecto and Jenny bickered.
“... Did you say ‘speaking Equestrian?’” he whispered.
Brad peeked out from between his hooves. “Uh, yeah? That’s the language we’re all talking in. You know, pony-speak.”
Flash blinked. “No. No, we’re speaking English.”
“English? What’s English?”
“The language we’re all talking in!” Flash hissed.
Brad narrowed his eyes. “No, we’re definitely speaking Equestrian.”
Flash scoffed, gesturing aimlessly in confusion. “That’s… what… Dude. Are you saying back in your world all the ponies speak human?”
Brad shrugged. “I just assumed all the humans here spoke pony.”
“ENOUGH!” Alecto roared.
A blast of pure, kinetic force radiated out from her as she screamed, knocking everyone else onto their backs. Flash felt not just force, but rage. Pure, focused rage that coursed over and through and around him like an emotional tidal wave.
Alecto extended one long claw and pointed down at Brad. “Do not toy with me any longer! What is the exact location your portal led to, pony?!”
“I can’t tell you!” Brad whined. “We can’t give you info, we need to get info to stop you from killing someone!”
“Killing people is bad,” Flash said.
Alecto stood statue-still for a long, precarious moment. Her claw withdrew to tap her chin, and she grinned wide enough to nearly split her head in half.
“Yes,” she purred, in a manner disturbingly cat-like. “You are in luck, children. Killing is not on my mind right now.”
Her talons snatched Brad by the tail and dragged him forward, kicking and hollering. He was stilled by five deadly claws pressing lightly against his fur, trailing down his neck.
“But I am very good at knowing how far to go before death takes you,” she said.
“No!” Flash yelled, standing up before being abruptly sat right back down by a buffet from Alecto’s wings.
“I am as old as stone and have the patience of a roaring fire,” Alecto snarled down at Brad, who had no choice but to whimper in her grip. “If you will not tell me willingly, then let pain be your motivator.”
“You…” Brad made a show of struggling, helplessly whacking his hooves against her hand as she splayed it against his chest and pinned him to the ground. “You’ll never make me talk!”
“No,” Alecto said, baring her teeth in a smile almost grossly affectionate. “But I will make you scream, little pony.”
Flash scrambled to his feet. He took the whole scene in. Alecto, standing over Brad, ready to dig into wherever hurt the little pony most. Brad and his futile struggling. He was helpless. Frightened. Terrified.
And Alecto was smiling.
She had the twisted grin of a predator that knew it had all the time in the world. That knew her prey was going nowhere, that was so totally, utterly confident in her own strength that Brad’s helpless agony only confirmed her own place in the world. She stood like a rock, immovable, unchanging. Content with her life. Happy with it, even. Happy to hunt and hurt. Happy to control and dominate and sneer at the lesser things around her. Whoever Alecto was hunting would end up right where they were, and then they would die, and the Fury would feel nothing but contentment.
The sight of Brad’s muppet-like face scrunched up with mortal terror dug at Flash, dug down deep and hit something way down at the bottom of his heart. Something that remembered other times he felt the same way, powerless and hopeless and sad. Something that remembered another person who scoffed at the pain of others.
A fissure opened. Inside of it was rage. The red-hot rage of the impotent. The helpless. The weak struck with the desire to be strong.
Flash did not think, or speak, or blink. He moved.
He sprang off the floor and charged Alecto head-on. On the way he grabbed a loose piece of masonry and raised it as high as his arms could reach, aiming for the writhing mass of snake-like shadows atop Alecto’s head.
Alecto’s ears swiveled towards him. The rest of her didn’t turn fast enough.
Flash slammed the concrete down as hard as he could. It hit Alecto’s skull with a resounding crack and split in two in his hands, scraping his fingers as it fell apart. Alecto’s head went down. Brad gasped, Jenny howled, Flash…
Flash backed away, eyes wide.
Alecto reared back up to her full height, completely and totally unharmed. Her shadow hair wriggled and writhed. Beneath the squirming mass, her eyes shone red, bulging with rage. She looked distinctly unimpressed.
“Uh,” Flash said, backing away slowly and holding up his hands. “I’m, uh. I didn’t really… that was… Are you…?”
Out of any other options, Flash went for the one thing he always knew he could fall back on.
He flashed Alecto his Trademark Smile, and made two shaky finger guns at her.
“Are you the only one seeing stars?” he asked, giggling in pure terror. “Cuz’ girl, you are lookin’ stellar.”
It was then Flash Sentry earned the distinction of being the first human to know what it was like to be slapped by a Fury. He did not know what it felt like, because she hit him so hard he mostly just remembered flying through the air, wondering why his best material was being wasted on such an ungrateful audience.
The next thing he knew he was lying on top of a broken table across the room, and wood splinters were jabbing into his back, and the entire right side of his face felt dented inward.
Alecto strode across the room towards him. She raised her hand again, this time pointing all of her claws at his chest.
“Magic child or not,” she hissed, “you interfere with retribution. And now you will die.”
Flash didn’t reply. He was still dazed by being smacked by a monster and then landing on a table. The world swam and his body ached and he suddenly felt very, very tired, as if the mere act of speaking or standing was just too much trouble. He had a vague notion something horrible was about to happen, and the rage he felt before had dried up like a creek in summer. Of course, trying to be angrier than the literal incarnation of fury herself was an exercise in futility, but Flash figured he had to at least try.
Alecto planted her taloned foot on his chest, holding him down for the killing blow.
That’s why he did all of this, wasn’t it? He wasn’t much of a doer or even a succeeder. He was a tryer. Flash knew, deep down, that he was pretty unremarkable. He had no plans. No real future in mind. No real direction apart from the one Sunset was trying to steer him in. But he at least tried to rise above it. He knew how to play the guitar, that was something, right? He had the car and the hot girlfriend. He had magic and a talking pony for a friend.
And he was about to get stabbed to death by an ancient furry goddess of bile and hatred. Who else could put that on their obituary?
Being such a tryer, Flash still tried. He took hold of the fur on Alecto’s leg with a groggy hand and pushed. He put on a brave face that was more nausea than fear.
And like all the other things he tried, it didn’t make a difference.
Or it would have, if Brad didn’t suddenly return Flash’s favor by slamming his rear hooves into Alecto’s face.
“This kid!” he shouted, zipping away before Alecto could react and bouncing off a nearby wall.
“Is not your prey!” he said as he rebounded, ducking a swipe of the Fury’s claws and slamming his hooves into her stomach next.
“He’s my FRIEND!” he finished with a devastating uppercut to Alecto’s chin. Flash heard the brutal strike, and winced, which made him wince again now that feeling was coming back to his face, along with nerve-screaming pain.
Alecto stumbled two steps backwards. She stopped and slowly raised her face. Smiled.
“Then,” she said, licking her lips, “you may die together.”
Brad charged her, moving faster than Flash could blink. Alecto moved faster, spinning away and catching his tail as he went by, hurling him into the wall with a wretched smack that left spiderwebs in the concrete. Flash winced as Brad flopped to the ground.
“Are you done, pony?” Alecto asked. “Please say no. You are no match for me, but I revel in prey who can fight!”
“Stay down,” Flash croaked, or tried to. He tried to sit up, but pain flared through his back, through his face. He managed to roll onto his side. Something felt broken. Everything felt broken. Was this what a concussion felt like?
Brad staggered upright, bleeding from a cut beneath his ear. Tears cut angry rivulets in the ancient drywall stuck to his fur. He tried to flap his wings and take to the air again, but one of his wings failed to open all the way, and he cried out in pain as he fell to his knees. He tried again, gritting his teeth. He fell once more, and settled for glaring daggers at the Fury.
Alecto flared her own wings in response, spreading her arms wide. Welcoming another round.
Flash stared at the absurd sight. A little pony half his size, facing off against a monster larger than a grown man. A mortal marshmallow creature assaulting a divine being. Knowing he had no chance. Knowing this was just a pathetic last stand.
For the sake of Flash.
Nobody else had ever done that for him.
“Is your poor wing hurt?” Alecto cooed, her voice seething with sarcasm. “We may need to amputate!”
Flash saw the claws of Alecto, raised up high and ready to cleave Brad in two. He saw Brad, frozen up with pure fright. He saw Jennybeans watching, stoic and disinterested. He saw the shard of particle board next to him, which he grabbed in both hands. He forced himself to stand, planting one foot in front of the other as he hurried to intercept Alecto.
He did not see how his fingers sent sparks and glitter flying like confetti. He did not see how the lightning bolt symbol on his favorite t-shirt suddenly lit up like a spotlight. But he felt something. As Alecto stooped down to swipe Brad’s life away, Flash felt something beyond fear, or hope, or anger, or anything else.
He felt friendship.
He dropped to his knees and slid between Alecto and Brad, holding up his pathetic little plank of wood.
No. His shield.
His bright, burning shield, eating away the darkness with radiance that blinded Flash even as he huddled behind it. Alecto’s claws struck the golden surface like the hammer of an angry god, screeching with the sound of bone on metal, or maybe just a roar of frustration. An angry flash of lightning answered her, and there was a noise like thunder and a triumphant shout. Flash felt the impact almost shake his arms to pieces.
The light glared through his eyelids, bursting into color, and all Flash saw next was gold. Gold and green and glory.
Do you know that feeling of laundry fresh out of the dryer? When everything is clear and clean and warm? When the fabric is so fuzzy it just reaches up and hugs your face when you bury your cheeks in towels and blankets, and you just take a big whiff and fill your nose with the smell of comfort?
Flash felt that, except all over.
Gold and green light filled his eyes, the air, his nose. He smelled the light. It smelled like lemon zest and dog breath.
No, wait, that last bit was just the screaming Fury.
Why was she screaming?
Oh, right, the magical shield he held in his hands that kept her from killing him.
Why did he have a magical shield?
He didn’t have the slightest idea.
“Impossible!” Alecto shrieked, and Flash was inclined to agree. Alecto recoiled from the painfully bright light, shielding her eyes with one arm and cradling the other against her chest. Had it hurt her, striking that deific radiance? A wounded monster might be ten times as deadly.
“How?!” the Fury shouted as the light finally faded from ‘terrible glory’ down to ‘annoying sunlight creeping around the rim of your sunglasses.’ “How can you have done this?”
“Done what?” Flash asked, not lowering the shield one inch. It frightened him to hold onto, but it had proven itself against a Fury’s claws so he wasn’t about to let go.
“Do not play coy with me,” Alecto snarled. “You wield the magic of old, the sinew of ages. The power that binds the bones of the earth.”
“Sounds like energy drinks the night before a final,” Flash muttered. “Look lady, I’m new to this whole magic thing! All I wanted was to protect my friend!” He stood up, peering over the shield’s rim as he held it over his chest. “But if that let me cast a spell like this, I’m not complaining.”
“That is no mere spell, boy,” Alecto spat. “I smell the air and it sizzles with power. This magic is a seed of Harmony itself. From high atop Canterlot has that light shone for a thousand years and more.”
The word ‘Canterlot’ stung Flash’s ears. Another match, like him and Brad, the pony that had his hair, the mark on his butt that matched the one on his car, and now that word. Connections. Ties that bound their worlds together, and more appearing every moment.
“Canterlot?” he asked. “What’s so important about Canterlot?”
“It’s the most important city in the world,” Brad said, lifting his head from the floor. His voice trembled. “The home of the Princesses. The origin of every good thing in the world. It’s amazing, Flash.”
“Okay,” Flash said, “first of all, Canterlot is my school, and it’s never been more than a cinder block of disappointment. Secondly, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you were about to claw off my friend’s head. In my book, that’s more than a foul, that’s just wrong.”
”Your school?” Alecto said, sneering. “You are no pony, child, though you might wield magic as one.”
“He means Canterlot High School!” Jennybeans called. “It’s not far from here, near midtown!”
Alecto stepped back, tapping her chin with her claw. “Canterlot High School,” she purred. “What are the odds? Perhaps Kronos did graze upon this horrible world once before. And there, there!” She pointed at Flash’s shield. “The pony’s cutie mark! Could it be?”
Flash looked at the lightning bolt on the shield. Then the one on his shirt. Then the one on Brad’s flank.
“Cutie mark?” he whispered. The name sounded too absurd to be true, but to hear it from Alecto’s own mouth made him a believer. Too many other weird things were going to trip over syrupy-sweet terminology.
“A boy and a pony,” Alecto murmured, and started to pace across the floor, her talons clicking as she went. Her predatory gaze remained fixed on Flash, and he shivered under it. “A school and a palace. A cutie mark between worlds. Two places joined together with a thread of magic. Your Canterlot…” She pointed at Brad, and then swung her claw around to Flash. “And his.”
“Canterlot High School,” Flash whispered. The color drained from his face and the shield quivered in his grasp. He turned to Brad, eyes wide, mouth agape. “The door you came from… is in my school?”
Brad gulped. “I’m sorry Flash,” he said. “I didn’t know any of this would happen. I swear I didn’t. I was going to tell you, really I was! I-I even said so, I said I was you, and--”
“That doesn’t explain anything!” Flash snapped. “If pony magic is at my school, then--”
“Then that is where I will find my magical mark,” Alecto cooed, her expression one of keen, revelatory ecstasy.
“No,” Flash tried to say, but Alecto’s wings were already open. “No!”
He rushed to intercept her, flailing the shield madly. The Fury cackled, a noise as sharp as broken glass on his ears, and the light blazing from Flash’s shield fizzled and died in a wave of darkness that spooled out from Alecto like unfurling threads. She leapt over his clumsy attack and flew for the nearest window, and as she passed over him Flash caught a last glimpse of Alecto’s face, her teeth bared in a rictus grin, her eyes bulging with hateful glee. The sound of her leathery wings blasted through the halls with a loud whoompf as she soared into the night sky and vanished with a triumphant, wolfish howl. Jennybeans yowled and ran the moment she found an opening.
Silence fell like a blanket.
Flash stared into the vortices of dust left behind by Alecto. The shield fizzled out of existence with a slow, sputtering noise, burning away into golden embers that floated away on the breeze.
Flash didn’t even blink when the last mote disappeared.
“Flash,” Brad said, crawling from the shadows. “I am so, so sorry. I didn’t know any of this would happen.”
“You knew you’d find me here, didn’t you?” Flash asked. “You knew I would be here before you even went through that portal. You knew all of this was here. You really did come looking just for me.”
Brad hung his head.
“Didn’t you?” Flash growled.
“... Yeah,” Brad said. “Yeah, I did.”
Flash clenched his fist.
“And you wanted to help me? You wanted to make me a better person, give me advice or something?”
“... Yeah,” Brad said. “Yeah, I did.”
“Well,” Flash said, staring into the darkness where Alecto had vanished. “I got some advice for you, Brad.”
Brad gulped. “What’s that?”
“Put on your seatbelt. We’ll be skipping a few lights.”
“Get your driving straight!” Brad squealed, gripping his seatbelt like a lifeline as Flash swerved around another late-night driver. They were gone before the driver’s honking reached them.
Flash knew how to drive and do it well. He also knew how to drive fast—never so fast a pegasus on the wing would even notice their mane flapping in the breeze, as he never committed the crime of speeding. But somehow, down here on the ground, Brad never felt closer to dying as Flash careened around corners and revved the engine on straightaways. It was loud and disorienting and Brad decided he did not care for the sound of a car engine at all, no sir not one bit.
“You came from a place called Canterlot Castle,” Flash said, frighteningly calm. He took a sharp turn and barely missed running a red light without blinking.
“Yep!” Brad squeaked.
“And in this castle there’s a portal that leads to the statue outside my school.”
“Pretty sure!” Brad said, clutching his seatbelt. Tires squealed and streetlights strobed past the windows.
“You knew about this portal, you knew about this other world, you knew about me. Why did you do it, Brad? Why did you come here, really?”
“It’s kind of hard to talk when you’re flinging this death machine all over the street!”
Flash stepped on the gas to run a yellow light. He didn’t question how his good fortune kept any sharp-eyed cops off his tail. “Give me the abridged version, man! Lives are on the line!”
“I can’t!” Brad squealed.
“Why not?!”
“It’s embarrassing!”
“Brad, my life is embarrassing!” Flash said, slapping the steering wheel. “Haven’t you seen what it’s like the last few days? I have money and nothing to spend it on, a car and nowhere to drive it, a girlfriend who doesn’t respect me in the slightest and no backbone to do anything about it, and one of these days I’m gonna have to fess up to my parents I have no idea who I am or what I’m doing with my life!” He accelerated, flattening Brad into his seat. “And right now I’m so confused and angry about everything I’m pretty sure I’m driving straight towards a raging demon of death for all the wrong reasons! So stop with this ‘too pure for the world’ crap and be straight with me, man!”
“Okay, okay!” Brad squealed. “Flash, you know how Equestria is a really neat and cool place where ponies get to be whoever they wanna be without judgment or disapproval from others?”
“Can’t say I know how that feels,” said Flash. “Earth isn’t big on the whole ‘live and let live’ thing.”
“Okay, well, sometimes…” Brad gulped, looking around as if he expected someone to jump in and stop him at the last moment. “Equestria isn’t like that. It’s really not like that at all. That’s why I’m a Royal Guard, to try and keep it safe. And it’s pretty dangerous and cool, except sometimes, there’s some really lame ponies who just can’t get it together, you know? And it’s not really their fault, they just don’t have the lung capacity for long patrols or the upper body strength to wear armor twenty-four-seven like mister ‘Shining Armor’ over there—”
“Brad!”
“Sorry! Sorry. So let’s say, hypothetically, one of these deficient ponies just maybe kinda sorta couldn’t fit in no matter what they did, and you’d think ‘wow! I’m a magical horse living in a magical land of sparkles and friendship, surely something will happen that will fix me’—uh, them. And it doesn’t, and things just get worse and worse and their commanding officer would get really mad at them and say really mean and uncalled for things."
Flash blinked and opened his mouth to comment, but Brad talked right over him, eyes tightly shut and a humiliated blush on his cheeks. "And then they’d have to worry they’ll lose their job, and then they’d have to tell their family what a failure they are, and after a lot of yelling over dinner they’d stare at the ceiling all night wondering where it all went wrong and how nopony respects them and they’d just feel so, so frustrated with themselves that maybe leaving forever might not be such a bad idea and my apartment is lonely at night and it sucks Flash, it really really sucks, and I’m not going back, okay?! I’m not going back until I finally prove I can do something with my life!”
Flash hit the brakes. The tires screeched in protest as boy and pony leaned forward and then thumped back into their chairs as the car ground to a halt. Overhead loomed the dark shadow of Canterlot High School. One of the second-story windows had been smashed open.
Flash stared straight ahead, gripping the steering wheel. “You came here to make me a success… because you think that will make you a success?”
“I just thought, you know, we have the same name and hair and everything, we’re basically the same person…”
Flash slowly turned to Brad. “Are you really a Royal Guard?”
Brad peeked out from between his hooves. “Uhh,” he said, grinning nervously, “well, I mean, technically I was when I left, but I might also, sorta, maybe, have been put on…”
“On what?”
“... Probation,” Brad squeaked.
Flash raised his eyebrow. “So you’re not here for some big magical reason of ultimate destiny, but because you were grounded by the army and it made you feel bad.”
Brad nodded miserably.
Flash sighed, sinking into his chair. “Yeah,” he said. “It figures my fairy godmother would be on the verge of washing out.”
They sat in uncomfortable silence for several long minutes.
“What do we do now?” asked Brad.
Flash drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I was kind of hoping you would tell me. You’re the monster expert.”
“Well, I personally can’t cast any magic spells. And the book says that protocol is to wait for the Princesses to sort it out, and failing that we lay down a magical trap specially tailored for Furies. To lay one you need to draw specific runes on certain surfaces. Now, I do know how to draw one of those, but it requires magic to actually be in the area for it to work. Quite a lot, I imagine, to hold a Fury.”
“And I’m guessing there is none of that to be found around here.”
Brad tapped his hooves together, staring at Flash.
“What?” asked Flash. “You’re saying…”
“You have the Sparkle,” Brad said. “You summoned that shield. I have some magic, but it’s… it’s personal, you know? I use it to fly and be adorable. But you, Flash? I’ve never seen that before.”
“What, that?” Flash scratched the back of his head. “Nah, that was… I didn’t really mean to do it. It just kind of happened.”
“That makes it even more special! I haven’t seen anyone just naturally summon a weapon like that apart from our most powerful wizards!”
“Look, man, I’m not gonna say I can do that kind of thing on command now,” Flash said, shrugging haplessly. “And it would be stupid to depend on it. That monster just kicked our butts from here to Timbuktu. My face is going to look like an overripe avocado for weeks! And is your wing doing okay?”
Brad flexed the injured limb, wincing. “I can fly, but it’ll be hard. Don’t worry, I’ve flown on worse back in boot camp.”
“That’s not super comforting.”
“Well, neither was boot camp.” Brad slipped outside, with Flash close behind. “We need to get inside, find the Kindly One, and neutralize her. There are symbols, Flash. Sigils you can inscribe that will take in ambient magic. And unfortunately, the only magic we have is… yours. The lines you draw kind of channel it. That’s about all I understand apart from knowing they work.”
“And you can draw those symbols?” Flash asked, exiting the car.
“You got a marker?”
Flash tossed him one.
“I can draw those symbols,” Brad said, holding the marker with confidence.
Flash tilted his head. He stared at the marker. He stared at Brad’s hoof. Mostly, he stared at the way the marker seemed to grip Brad’s hoof more than the hoof gripped it.
Flash pointed at Brad. “How are you, uh…”
“How am I what?”
“How are you holding that without fingers?”
Brad stared at Flash. Slowly, his eyes turned to his hoof. “I’m just… holding it? Like a normal pony?” He turned his hoof upside down. The marker stubbornly clung fast.
Flash gawked. “But you’re just… it’s not even attached to anything, man! It’s freaking me out!”
“But it’s attached to my hoof!” Brad said, his eyes wide and innocent.
“It is clearly not…” Flash pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting the oncoming headache. “No. No. Just… forget I said anything. I’m finding a way inside.”
“Would it help if I did this?” Brad said, curling his wing feathers—feathers Flash knew could not in any way bend like that—around the marker instead.
Flash threw his hands in the air and stomped away.
“Never mind, Brad!”
“Look, I’ll just write stuff down with my mouth instead. I put it against my tongue like this and--”
”Never mind, Brad!”
----
The inside of the school was cavernous enough during the day, when huge banners spilled from high-vaulted ceilings and its halls echoed thunderously with the sound of stampeding herds of teenagers.
At night, the halls seemed to go on forever; endless conduits running into maws of gaping darkness. Lights shone like islands in the pitch black, but instead of comfort they lent a terrible air of unknown habitation to the place. Flash had already learned the only thing more frightening than an empty building was finding it not so empty after all.
“She could be anywhere in here and we’d never even know it,” Flash said, searching a locker-lined hall with the thin beam of his phone light.
“We usually just follow the screaming,” Brad said.
“If there’s any screaming we might be too late,” Flash sighed.
“Shouldn’t we have waited for the rats?” Brad asked.
“They know where we’re going, I shouted it at them on the way out,” Flash said. “If they’re as duty-bound as they say they’ll be here. They specified ‘for tonight,’ and the night’s not over until it’s over.”
The thought of reinforcements should have been comforting, but all Flash felt was cold dread sitting like a stone in his belly.
“We need ideas on how to draw the Kindly One to us,” Brad whispered.
“Well, I can’t say I’ve enjoyed a lot of your ideas lately, considering where they’ve led me,” Flash said, with a meanness he didn’t really intend.
Brad shrunk away, ears wilting. “I know I don’t really deserve a lot of trust right now, Flash. I came here without thinking. I came here without a plan. Without even knowing what the consequences might be. The Kindly One is my responsibility. I see that now. And I may not be a real Royal Guard… I guess by now they’ll know I abandoned my post and discharge me in absentia or something… but I know Guard material when I see it. You’ve done way more for me and this whole situation than anypony ever should.”
“Don’t I know it,” Flash grumbled. “Look, enough with the sappy talk, okay? The more I think about this the less I’m willing to go through with it. Let’s just get She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out of the way first.”
Flash stopped in the middle of the hall.
“Hey, speaking of, if we say her name she knows where we are, right?”
“Yeah,” Brad said. “You think if we say it enough it’ll annoy her off the trail of her target?”
“It’s all we really have to go on, dude,” Flash said. “We need a way to draw her out into that marker-trap thing you’re gonna draw. Is there anything else you can tell me about them? Anything else that will make her show up?”
“Uhhh…” Brad squinted thoughtfully. “Well, we know that there’s magic rituals that can summon creatures from the Gaian Abyss—”
Flash shuddered. “Why does so much pony stuff sound terrifying?”
“—but they don’t really teach Guards the specifics,” Brad continued. “The book did say that Kindly Ones feel a particular compulsion to appear to those who have a score to settle.”
Flash ran his hand over the walls. “So one of us has to have a beef with someone. A situation dire enough that it needs a Kindly One’s attention. We need some raw, red-hot hatred.”
“Yeah, but I don’t hate anyone,” Brad said, horrified at the very thought. “That’s like, the opposite of being a pony.”
Flash closed his hand into a fist, and thumped it against the bricks.
“... What if my beef is with her?”
----
Drawing the wards took less time than Flash thought. Watching Brad zip around like a hummingbird, slashing strange symbols any mother would think were from the devil and rock concerts into the linoleum, was oddly calming. It helped him stay focused. He needed that right now.
Brad tried to talk him out of it at first. Being the bait for trapping a goddess of fury wasn’t exactly conducive to one’s well-being, or continued existence in the mortal plane. But Flash was insistent. It had to be him. Of course it had to be him. Of course it was Flash Sentry, the cool kid with nothing going on behind his pearly white teeth and his beautiful car. The kid who had everything and deserved none of it. Of course he’d be the one to see magical creatures. He had everything else that other people didn’t.
Flash was more attentive than his peers thought. He heard the rumors. He heard what people whispered when he wasn’t looking. Who is that guy, anyway? Does anyone really know him? Is there anything to even know? Why does he get to be Sunset’s boyfriend? Why does he get the mansion outside town and the girls pining after him for no reason?
He knew why nobody tried to steal him away from Sunset. They weren’t afraid of her. They were afraid the illusion would be broken. If they got too close, they might find something worse than Flash not being cool. They might find a normal boy. They might find someone... not special.
And that’s why he was the bait.
“We’re ready, Flash,” said Brad.
Flash entered the arcane circle on the floor. “So I just stand here, and my Sparkle-magic will power the whole shebang?”
“Pretty much. Remember to say the words like I told you, and then back out of the circle as fast as you can. And try to get angry. Really, really angry.”
Flash took several deep breaths. He tried not to think, which just made him think even more. He was standing in the middle of a school taking on a monster that could cut through concrete. More than that he was about to offer himself to it on a silver platter.
What would they all say now, those kids who whispered behind his back? If they saw him here, risking his life for them? Would they like him? Respect him? Throw him into the trap themselves?
If he died here, and everyone came in tomorrow to find his guts strewn over the walls, how many people would care that he died, and not Flash Sentry the icon?
Oh, no. What would his family think? What would his mother--
“Alecto!” he shouted into the darkness. “I am heartsick with remorse! My soul cries out for reparation!”
The shadows in front of him shifted, murky tendrils swirling restlessly. Was she already here?
“Alecto!” he called again. “A spiteful villain has injured me beyond the ken of mortal sphere! I seek the oldest justice in the world! I seek hateful vengeance and her Furies!”
Nothing but darkness. Flash felt his humiliation rise along with his gorge. His fist clenched, squelching the cold sweat on his palm. The terror mingled with anger into a heady concoction that made him feel faint.
“Alecto!” he squeaked. “There is, uh… there’s a…” He glanced over at Brad. “... Line?”
“An insult that ten ages gone by cannot cover,” Brad supplied.
Flash shouted the words down the dark hall.
Nothing.
Flash huffed. Now the anger started to overtake the fear. Here he was putting his life on the line and Alecto wasn’t even going to show up? Here he was getting actually heartsick with the terror of willingly confronting a monster, and she thought so little of him she just brushed aside his heartfelt plea?
Eff. That.
“ALECTO!” he shrieked, stomping his foot. “I got a bone to pick with you, woman! Get your raggedy dog-ass out here because it’s you I got a grudge against, you hear me?! It’s you! You and your ugly face! You and your horrible breath and the way you dragged a grudge across the universe into my life! Into my school! You hurt my friend, you threatened my classmates, and you don’t even care?! That is just messed up! I hate the way you smile when you hurt people! I hate the way you swagger around thinking you’re sooo great, you’re sooo right about everything that nothing you do can possibly be wrong when everything you do is just… just the worst possible thing you can do to people! And I’m sick of it! You hear me?! I’m sick right here!” He jabbed a finger into his chest.
“Now you get out here! You get out here and let me tell you to your face what a wicked witch you really are!”
He almost fell over, staggering against the wall. His breath failed him. His legs felt like lead. He had a headache.
Brad put a hand on his shoulder.
“... Sorry,” Flash mumbled. “I didn’t mean to—”
Wait. A hand?
“If you want my attention that badly,” Alecto purred, leaning over him and baring her teeth next to his head.
“You just needed to say please.”
Flash saw her claws rush up to his face.
He saw them stop in midair, arrested by a chain of sparkling lights.
The grip on his shoulder did not tighten.
Flash threw himself over the edge of the circle, which erupted with a powerful white light that lit up the hallway like a beacon. Brad stood next to him, smugly capping his marker.
“Trap. Sprung,” he said.
“Is that it? Did we get her?” Flash asked, his heart hammering against his ribs.
“Pretty sure!” Brad chirped. “Wow, that was easy!”
“I almost died,” Flash said.
“But you didn’t!” Brad answered with a dopey smile.
Flash rolled his eyes and stood up, peering back into the blindingly bright light. Even with the brightness of the magic cage, it wasn’t hard to spot the massive shadow that was the Fury, frozen like a statue, midway through a lunge. It was only now Flash saw her truly. Muscles bulged over a body the color of pitch covered in patchy fur that reminded him of wisps of smoke. She was easily two heads taller than Flash, larger than any grown man. He already knew the massive wings half-unfurled behind her could easily spread across the hall. Long ropes of drool hung from lips, peeled back over long white fangs trapped in a rictus grin, tangles of shadow-hair falling around her face like snakes in their death throes.
“... So, what now?” Flash asked.
“Hm,” Brad said, tapping his chin. “You know, I don’t really know.”
“What?!” Flash barked, whirling on the pony. “What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’ We can’t just keep her here!”
“Flash, Flash, relax!” Brad said, raising his hooves. “There’s no way we can banish her, but with her trapped, we have all night to search the school and find out what she’s here for. Then all we need to do is solve whatever needs solving, and the Kindly One will be compelled to leave.”
“You say that like it’ll be easy,” Flash grunted.
“Well, we already got the trap covered, right? By the way.” Brad fluttered up to his shoulder and punched it. “You were amazing.”
Flash scoffed, but he couldn’t hide his smile. “Yeah, I guess. I wasn’t really expecting that to be all we had to do, though—”
“Hrrrrkkkggh.”
They froze. The noise, a wet, ugly cough, had come from Alecto. Her crimson eyes, bulging from her head with sheer rage, turned towards them.
Brad took a step back. “That… that’s not—”
But then, through some terrible effort, Alecto’s jaw twitched. Her bones cracked and groaned. Her entire head swiveled slowly, jerkily, like bad claymation from an old movie, until she faced them.
“G-g… goooot meeeeee?” she rasped. “No. Got… you.”
The claws on one hand twisted and turned, pointing to Flash.
“Figured… you… out!”
“Why is she moving?” Flash demanded. “Brad, why is she still moving?”
“She’s strong,” Brad said. “Very strong. There might not be enough magic to hold her. We need to find out what she’s after before she breaks out!”
Alecto’s jaws sprang open. Cartilage cracked like a gunshot. The Fury licked her lips, though the rest of her stayed immobile.
“No need to look far,” she purred. “I’ll tell you.”
Flash and Brad shared a look.
“Tell us?” Flash asked. “What, so you can kill time until you break out?”
“Little child,” Alecto tutted, “I am the daughter of a god. If you want to match me, you should have brought an army, or perhaps an alicorn or three. I can snap this paltry cell like matchsticks. But if there’s one thing I enjoy more than vengeance… it’s irony. And you are as drenched in it as you are in magic you cannot use. Your persistence in distracting me from my mission is…” She seethed. Her eyelid twitched, and a growl like grinding stone rumbled from her throat.
“... Captivating,” she hissed through gritted teeth. The sheer hatred in her gaze made Flash step backwards. “If I must kill you, I shall tell you the truth of why I am here. Call it professional courtesy. You do not defend one who is worthy.”
“She’s just wasting our time, Flash,” Brad said, tugging his jacket. “We need to get going, now!”
“You won’t find what you’re looking for in time,” Alecto said. “I will break free very soon no matter what you do, and you will die none the wiser. I will gift you the name of my target, and even why she is hunted. Honestly, you won’t be able to fix what she broke, even if you were on the other side.”
“Flash,” Brad said, tugging more insistently. “Come on! Don’t listen to her!”
“No,” Flash said. A chill came over him. A sense of dread foreboding. He stared into Alecto’s eyes. They held many things: anger, horror, disgust; murderous, all-consuming rage. But dishonesty? He didn’t get that vibe.
“I’ll hear her out.”
Alecto chuckled. It was a horrible noise, like the closing of tomb doors. “Then let me tell you a story.
“Long ago, in the land of Equestria, there lived a mighty wizard obsessed with the exploration of the arcane. Like all wizards, he thrived in solitude, and though he was no madpony, he was never happier than when he was surrounded by books, delving into the bizarre, the unknown. A lonesome pioneer he was, saddled with knowledge only he could truly understand, for he sought one of the greatest spells imaginable: opening doors to other worlds, to use energy from across the cosmos for miracles beyond imagining.
“His work was unparalleled, his accolades unmatched, yet all his discoveries came with a price. The wizard paid it gladly at first. First his friends, then his family, and finally… his love. All were considered distractions at best, and useless frivolity at worst. One by one, they left him, or were turned away, until at last the wizard realized that in raising himself up, he had abandoned all he once knew. He was showered with praise at every turn, and yet he found it meaningless prattle, and insulted anypony who even came near him. Desperate to rediscover meaning in his work, the wizard returned one day to those he had wronged, and asked forgiveness of them.
“He found nothing but scorn and broken hearts. Burning with shame, he left Equestria even as his fame reached its peak. He retreated to a keep he built with magic, and there buried himself deep in his work, for it was the only thing left he could truly say he loved. For many years he remained thus, a prisoner of his own making. Even news of a runaway from the Princess’ own care, a Princess whose glory he once worked to elevate, failed to move him.
“Until one night a young unicorn filly stepped over his threshold, seeking shelter from her travels. The wizard let her in, at first intending only to let her sleep in the foyer. But chance remarks caught his interest, and he realized she was intelligent. Extremely so. Remarks became conversation, and conversation became fulfillment. For the first time in ages, the wizard found someone who understood what he spoke of, who pushed boundaries at any cost, whose intelligence rivaled his own. She reminded him of himself, one of the highest compliments he could think of.
“Thus she remained longer than intended. Days. Then weeks. Inquiring endlessly. Joining his experiments. Understanding his work innately. Intimately. And gradually, the wizard dared to feel hope. Perhaps, he thought, just perhaps, here he might find salvation; to nurture a prodigy, and turn her away from his self-destructive path. Weeks turned to months and his affection for the first real friend he had in years grew. When pressed for why she left Equestria, she said only that her former teachers had failed her, and Equestria no longer offered her anything she desired. And the wizard thought, perhaps here was one who would understand him. Perhaps one whom he could let stand close to his heart. Even, perhaps, call her more than a friend. Out of desperate compassion, he gave her more. More time. More care. More books. Yet ever she pressed him about a particular section of his library: the one where he kept his notes from his old work of other worlds. But these he would not give her, for the shame was still too close.
“But one night, a soldier of Canterlot came, asking after his guest. But she was one step ahead of them all; the moment the soldier arrived she had broken into his forbidden archives. When the wizard found her she gladly revealed she was the fugitive he had heard about so long ago, and had used him for shelter and to increase her knowledge of magic without the eye of the Princess over her shoulder. In truth she knew who he was the moment they met. And like the Princess, she would take the power given to her and use it for her own vision. In the end, she attacked him. Their clash was mighty and heart-rending. During the struggle a fire caught hold and spread through the tower. As he ran to save his home, there she left him, to die or to weep, she cared not for his fate.
“By the time the blaze was under control, most of the wizard’s house was razed, the mare had fled, and his books were destroyed. On the path outside, he found the tome she had stolen… and the stumps of torn pages. From a section he remembered well: his old work in breaching the gates of other worlds. All the formulas, all the things he hoped to keep from the wrong hooves, the sum of his greatest achievements stolen away, and his last refuge from the world naught but ash and cinder. In a single night the mare had abused his kindness, destroyed what was left of his happiness, and taken the greatest of his secrets. In opening his heart, he had only welcomed ruin and confusion.”
“Wow,” Flash grunted uncomfortably. “Talk about your hashtag relatable.”
Alecto sniggered. “You have no idea. The wizard’s grief was great, and so he called upon the darkest powers he could imagine as a balm for his grief. He called on the ancient blood that screams from beneath the soil, the anguish dulled not by time or distance. The wolf-howl of blood-red rage. He called for one whose heart was as cold and empty as that of his betrayer.”
Her lips split into a savage grin. “He called for a monster. And so… here I am.”
“Wait a minute!” Brad yelped. “You’re saying this is the mare you’ve been chasing, the mare who came here, and if she’s the same one who ran from the Princess—!”
“Oh, I thought the boy would realize it first,” Alecto groused. “Though technically, I’m still right.”
And then Flash knew.
“Sunset,” he said, and her name parched his tongue.
“Poor child,” Alecto said, her voice as cold and pitiless as iron. “I hear the pain in your voice. You must care for her as the wizard did. To love a deception is one thing. To know you are not even the first? Hmm, hmm! Your sorrow has such tang to it!”
“Flash,” Brad said, but his voice seemed to come from far away. His steadying hoof not even noticed. “Flash, stay with me.”
“It all makes sense,” Flash muttered, staggering against the wall. His vision blurred and his stomach roiled with nausea. He put out his hand and didn’t even feel the lockers he leaned on as he bent over double. “Only seeing her in school. Never answering personal questions. Talking about her home troubles. I… I’m such an idiot. I knew she was hiding something, but… but this, I… Oh, god. Oh, man. Oh god, oh man...”
He covered his face with his hands, trying to breathe, to sit, to run. He didn’t know which way was up or down. The light from Alecto’s cage hurt his eyes. It dimmed as he sat heavily on the ground and hugged his knees to his chest.
“Flash!” Brad cried, shaking his shoulders. “Snap out of it! The cage! It’s failing!”
“Oh, god,” Flash hissed. “I kissed a friggin’ teddy horse.”
Brad whimpered as he turned back to the cage. Alecto furrowed her brow, and her eyes flicked to her hand. With only a little effort it seemed she flexed her fingers and pushed. They heard a sound like glass crinkling underfoot. The light around her seemed to flex, to bend, to give way as Alecto strained bodily against it. Then, with an almighty crash it shattered and flew outward in a shower of dust-motes of light, sparking and fizzling away to nothing.
Alecto stood over Flash, flush with wicked triumph.
“Now tell me, boy,” she whispered. “Is your grudge really still against me?”
Flash gave no answer, clutching his head in his hands.
“What?” Alecto said. “No mighty battle cry this time? No appeal for mercy?”
Flash shuddered, his breathing uneven.
“No friendship to warm your heart and make a shield between me and the mare who trampled on your feelings?”
Brad spoke up to say something. Alecto swatted him like a fly and left him dazed on the ground, her eyes never leaving Flash.
“As I thought,” Alecto said. She reached down and wrapped her claws around his head, jerking his face up to hers. Hot breath washed over his face, sharp with the scent of old blood and tears. “You have the magic of aeons within you, but you are too fragile to use it. You do not even understand what happened to you. You are an unworthy heir to divine power. A small, cowering thing, who can only be brave when he is backed up by sweet sounding lies. There is no true friendship in you, nor in any of your meager, magicless kind. I can see why she picked you. You’re like a little pup, begging to be counted among far greater peers, strutting about with glamour you do not truly possess. Now just lay there and let Alecto solve all your problems for you, little boy. I will find her hiding hole and visit fury on her. As she has torn others… so I will tear into her.”
She roughly tossed him aside and strode down the hallway, idly dragging her claws across a row of lockers. The metal shrieked as she scored it with long, jagged grooves.
“One day you will know this is mercy,” she said over her shoulder. “This way… you needn’t do anything for her ever again.”
“No,” he said.
Alecto stopped. She turned her head.
“... What.”
“I said no,” Flash said, standing up. Rising through the ache in his legs and his chest. Rising through the horror and fear and confusion. Standing where nothing made sense, but it also didn’t matter.
“I’m agreeing with you, by the way,” he said, speaking quietly. Comfortably. If he raised his voice the crawling snake in his gut would scream with him. “About not doing it for her. I’m not doing this for Sunset. I’m doing this because…” He raised his arms helplessly, and let them drop back to his sides.
“Because I know helplessness. I’m a teenager. I know what it feels like to be confused and powerless and scared all the friggin’ time. And… And I met a kid earlier today. A kid who saw your handiwork with all those dogs and cats and stuff. She was so scared of what she saw she didn’t even know to be scared. And I helped her out and she was actually kinda cool. And man, thinking of her getting killed by you? By some smack-talking furry cosplayer?”
He shook his head. A tingly feeling grew around his fingers, spreading up his arm. “That just doesn’t fly with the Flash. I’m already scared of the future. If I can keep someone from being more scared than they have to be… well, that’s just what I’m gonna do. Because that’s just who I am.”
“She lied to you! Manipulated you!” Alecto shrieked, grabbing a locker and tearing it from the wall to let it clatter to the floor. “She deserves everything I am about to unleash!”
Flash scoffed. If he looked, he’d see his arm starting to glow. “I already told you I’m not doing this for her. If I’m gonna start doing things for myself… I guess this is where I start. I’ll deal with Sunset my own way. In my own time. Not the way you think is best.”
He was still talking when Alecto lunged at him.
“For all the kids in this school--HOLY CRAP!”
He fell backwards, raising his arms instinctively.
The world exploded with golden light as Alecto’s claws shrieked over his shield, materializing just in time to keep his arms from being torn to ribbons. It didn’t save him from falling right on his butt, or from scrambling backwards while screaming like a frightened rabbit.
Brad raised his head just in time for Flash to grab his mane and yank him away from Alecto’s rampage. The Fury screamed obscenities in her old tongue, calling down dark curses from another age. Brad screamed with unholy terror. Flash yelled at him to shut up as he swung the shield wildly. Alecto lunged to bite his neck, but his mad flailing caught her under the chin.
Her howl of rage almost loosened his bowels as he turned and ran.
Flash heard her bellowing as he pelted through the halls, clutching Brad under one arm.
“You do not understand what you wield!” Alecot said. “I will tear it from your chest and return it to the world from whence it came!”
Flash didn’t stop running. He hurtled between islands of light in the dark hallway, never looking back. Brad, bundled under his arm and facing the rear, had no choice in the matter.
Each light they passed seemed to bring Alecto’s snarling visage closer. First she was on the ceiling, then the floor, loping like a dog, now in the air, beating her massive wings. One moment she was at the other end of the hall, the next she was right behind them, her arm rising between flashes of light, ready to come down--
“DODGE!” Brad yelled.
Flash threw himself at the nearest set of double doors, feeling Alecto’s claws catch on his jacket and slice through the fabric. They protested with a mighty crash as he slammed into them and led into an even darker hallway than the others. Flash didn’t care. He just ran, on and deeper into darkness and down stone corridors, until Alecto’s screeching faded to silence.
He slumped against the wall and clutched Brad to his chest. His heart thumped like a sledgehammer. No breath in the world was big enough to get air to his lungs. He dropped all the way to the ground and still his legs protested, jittery and shaking with excited terror. His shield clattered as he dropped it to the ground; for an agonizing moment he thought Alecto would hear it, but she did not appear.
“How are we still alive?” he whispered.
“The Kindly One was mad,” Brad answered. “Really mad. But she must think killing us is a waste of time or she would’ve tried harder. Or maybe she was scared of the shield.”
It was the only light in that dark place, glowing like sunlight through a window, bloomy and forgiving to look upon. Brad put his hoof reverently on the polished metal.
“This baby is a life-saver,” Brad said, caressing itl. “I’ve never heard of anything short of an alicorn spell that took a Fury’s claws dead-on and survived.”
Flash stared down at the lightning bolt engraved on its surface. His eyes turned to Brad’s cutie mark. It glowed with the same calm radiance as the shield, but the pony was transfixed and did not notice. Was his chest tingling, or did Alecto’s claws rake his skin? He looked down at his shirt. In the light of the shield it was hard to tell but he thought he caught a glimpse of candy-wrapper gold there, too, shining from the lightning bolt on his
“Where are we, anyway?” Brad asked.
Flash shrugged. “Some halls that go to the boiler, probably meet up with the kitchen. School’s big and has lots of staff so they get their own warrens to run around during the day. There aren’t many of them though. If Al-... if the Kindly One wanted to, she could find us in a few minutes. I’m surprised that door wasn’t locked either. Not ungrateful, just surprised. I didn’t think janitors stayed this late.”
“Maybe they just forgot?”
“Probably,” Flash said, shrugging. “Either way, we need a plan. Or at least somewhere to hide. The shield is nice, but it’s not like it’s a great offensive option.”
“Well then,” Scuff said from behind him. “Perhaps a new approach is needed.”
The rat did not flinch as boy and pony hurled themselves against the opposite wall, squealing loudly and holding the glowing shield in front of them.
Scuff stared like one who had seen the divine, eyes wide and whiskers twitching.
“Oooooh,” he said. “That is the Sparkle, plain and simple. It shines like cat eyes in the night. Dangerous and alluring.”
Flash sighed. “Do you mean to sneak up on people and be vaguely creepy about everything, or is it just a rat thing you guys do?”
“We only go where our friends go, my friend,” Scuff said, bowing without taking his eyes off the shield. “It’s a good thing we rats can run so fast, or you would be out of options. The Fury rages through the school, hunting for a hint of the Sparkle. But we found it first.”
“How long have you been here?” Brad asked, narrowing his eyes, but Flash talked over him.
“You found pony magic besides this?” he said, holding the shield up.
“Only a taste,” Scuff murmured, tilting his head. “Like dew on the whiskers, or the faintest whiff of old cheese after the trash is long gone. It is… exquisitely fragile.”
