Ch.6

The following day at school, Twilight sat in world history, taking notes about the Renaissance. She glanced at the window and saw that the usual blue sky was covered with grey clouds, and heavy rain poured down onto the Earth. 'What a perfect day' Twilight thought gloomily. 'Sun's out, everyone's happy, and not a frown in sight.' Twilight sighed and faced the front. Even her teacher, Mr. Sourcooks was being a little more grumpier than usual. In fact, it seemed that the class was being affected by this weather. They all were all gloomy and depressed, as if they didn't want to be here. Twilight took a deep breath and sighed, scribbling down more notes. She understood how they felt. The night when she came home from talking to Sunset, the rain immediately started. Twilight thought the rain came just as she felt her heart shatter into two. Never has she felt so emotionally unstable in her life. The worst of all, homecoming was coming up soon, and for once Twilight really wanted to go. She blushed a bit when she thought about Flash appearing at her house, all dressed in a tux with a single red rose in hand. Twilight smiled a bit at the thought, and looked out the window. As much as she wanted to go, she was worried that Flash doesn't like her and won't ask her out to the dance. Deep inside, Twilight, like other girls, wished for a happily ever after, much like the Disney princesses like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella.

Twilight sighed and brushed her hair off her face, continuing to jot down the notes. Across the room, Flash watched Twilight sulk in her seat. It wasn't like her to be like this. It's not like Twilight to be so sulky, so depressed. True, she was acting a bit weird the other day, but she smiled nonetheless. What had happened to the beautiful, smart girl he befriended?

"Mr. Sentry!" Mr. Sourcooks bellowed at Flash.

"Ma'am! I mean sir!" Flash exclaimed, a bit alarmed. Mr. Sourcooks glared at Flash and slammed his fists on Flash's desk. "Instead of eyeing the girls in this school, perhaps you would like to start eyeing the textbook!" he snapped. "Maybe you could learn some useful content that will save your grade! No wonder why you're an idiot." Flash frowned and sulked into his seat as the class chuckled at this. Flash hated world history. Never in his life had he had so much hatred for one person. But fate had a cruel way of karma (it's not his fault he "accidentally" shoved his little brother into mud and he scraped his knees) and ended up getting this horrible excuse of a teacher. Despite what others may think of him, he's actually a pretty smart student, especially in math. He glanced at Twilight, who was busy staring out the window to notice. Flash sighed and looked at the stout and chubby teacher in boredom, who was probably droning on and on about how the Renaissance effected Europe at the time. Flash inwardly groaned and prayed that the bell would ring already. Just that that moment, the bell rang and the class scrambled out as fast as they could.

"Don't forget to do page fifteen in the practice workbook!" Mr. Sourcooks yelled after them.

Flash ran after Twilight and took her hand. "Hey, Sparky, what's up?" he asked. Twilight didn't answer him, but a few tears were visible. "Hey, what's wrong? What's gotten my little Sparky so worked up about?" he asked, concerned. Twilight sniffed and wiped the tear away. Flash then noticed that she wasn't in her usual attire. Instead, she wore a black hoodie with a star on the back, black skinny jeans and black converse. "What's wrong?" he asked again.

"Nothing, Flash," she said, her voice cracking. "Don't worry about it."

"Did someone hurt you?" he asked. "Do you want me to do something about them?" Twilight smiled a bit but then frowned. "It's okay, Flash. I'll be fine, really," Twilight assured him, slipping her hand out of his grip. "I gotta get to class. Bye!" Before, Flash could say anything else, Twilight ran down the hall. "Sparky, wait!" Flash called out to her, but a hand touched his shoulder. Flash turned around and saw Candace behind him with a solemn look on her face.

"Flash, don't," she warned. "Twilight's going through some hard time. Now's not the time to talk with her."

"Why not?" Flash asked. "What happened?"

Candace removed her hand from his shoulders and frowned. "Get to class Sentry," she said, walking away. Flash remained in the hallway, confused, but reluctantly walked over to class.

---

Free period came by quickly and the girls were hanging out in the band room, just chilling. Rainbow strummed her guitar a bit, and looked at the other girls. "Does anyone know what's going on with Twilight?" she asked. "I mean, she's been kinda moody lately." Sunset shrugged and. "She did seem a bit moody. I thought I saw her cry during geometry, but I wasn't sure," Sunset said. "Flash and Twilight were talking in the hall, but she really didn't seem in the mood to talk."

"Not to mention her outfit!" Rarity added. "It was so gothic, I almost cried! Oh, the horror!"

Applejack rolled her eyes at Rarity and dusted off her Stetson. "Speakin' of Twilight, where is she? Ah haven't seen her all day," she said. Pinkie Pie then rushed in with an alarmed look on her face. "YOU GUYS! YOU GOTTA COME SEE THIS!" she screamed.

"Pinks, there's no reason to yell!" Rainbow dash shouted. "And what are we seeing?"

"Flash got into a fight with Twilight's big brother," Pinkie explained. "Well, Shining Armor started it, but-"

"Wait, what?" Sunset yelled.

The girls ran out and followed Pinkie down the hall, where a crowd was forming. They pushed their way to the front and saw Flash on the ground, coughing, and Shining Armor glaring at the boy. Candace was next to him, clearly furious. "Shining Armor, stop it! What did he do to you?" she yelled.

"What did I do to you?" Flash asked.

"Listen, I'm telling you this once: stay away from my sister," Shining Armor growled. "I could care less if she's the girl of your dreams, I don't want you to be around her. Ever since you took her out, she's been different."

"I took her out on one date and you gang up on me?" Flash shouted, getting up and wiping the blood off his mouth.

"Flash!" Sunset yelled. "Just walk away! What if Twilight sees this?"

Flash sighed and stumbled away. "That's right, walk away, Sentry. Walk away to that demonic devil of a girl named Sunset Shimmer!" Shining Armor snapped. The crowd went off and Flash stopped. Flash clenched up his fists, turned around and punched Shining Armor right in the face. "Let's get something straight," Flash growled angrily."No one, and I mean NO one, talks about Sunset that way." Shining Armor smirked and punched Flash in the gut. Angered, Flash returned the punch, and the next thing you knew, a fight had broken out.

"Shining Armor, stop it!" Candace yelled. "This isn't right!"

The boys tumbled to the ground, and got rougher by the minute. By now, Flash had a black eye, a bleeding lip and a bruised cheek. Shining Armor's lips were also bleeding, as well has his cheek, and also had a black eye. Shinig Armor got up, and shoved him into the bank of lockers. Candace tried to pry him the boy, but Shining Armor wasn't the school's new quarterback for nothing. And boy, was he strong!

"Shining Armor, stop it right now! You can't just start a fight with a guy who's only hanging out with your sister!" Sunset yelled angrily.

"Stay out of this, Candace! This is between me and Sentry!" Shining Armor snapped.

"But-"

"Shining Armor?"

Candace, Shining Armor, Flash and Sunset looked over to the person who interrupted. The crowd parted and Twilight walked toward the beaten up boys, an angry and confused look on her face. 'Her eyes were red from the crying she did,' Sunset noted. She looked over at the shambled up boys and stepped back. She didn't want to get involved in this. "Let him go," she ordered. Shining Armor reluctantly obliged and harshly dropped the blue-haired boy to the ground. Twilight ran over to him and helped him. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. Flash smiled at her compassion towards him and smiled. "Eh, I've had worse," Flash said, glaring at her brother while leaning on his for support. "Any longer and your brother would have killed me." Twilight handed Flash to Sunset and Applejack and glared at Shining Armor. He had expected her to start yelling at him or slapping the back of his head, which he was used to. But he was completely caught off guard when Twilight did something not even Candace expected.

Twilight slapped Shining Armor.

And it wasn't just a petty slap, either. This slap whipped Shining Armor across the face, the hand mark burning at his flesh. He stumbled back and held his cheek, looking at his sister in shock. "That's you get for starting a fight with Flash," she said. She then lifted her leg and jammed it where the sun did not shine. Shining Armor cried in pain the crimpled down. "And that's what you get for hurting him. Sure, Shining Armor, you can gight with Flash. It's not like I have enough problems as it is!"

"Well what did you expect me to do?" Shining Armor yelled. "He was the one who was getting too close to you! I was only looking out for you!"

"Looking out for me?!" Twilight yelled angrily. "Flash is hurt over here because you came over and punched him because he was there for me, and you're saying you're looking out for me? Yeah sure, and practically killing him is the answer to all this! Are you serious?"

"Why do hang out with him?" Shining Armor demanded.

"Why is that any of your business?" Twilight shot back.

"Because I'm your brother, and I'm trying to protect you from getting hurt!"

"I'VE BEEN HURT FOR YEARS!"

Shining Armor silenced himself and stared at his sister in shock. Twilight was now crying, but her eyes had a raging flame dancing around. "You want to know why I've never had any friends, Shining? Because I was bullied!" she confessed. "I was picked on because I was a nerd, a geek… a freak. I didn't choose to isolate myself from the world, they forced me to."

"I… I didn't know," Shining Armor mumbled, feeling guilty.

"Of course you didn't know. How could you? You're too busy making googly eyes with your girlfriend to see your own sister breaking down," she said. Shining Armor looked at her, then at Flash. "And you're going to let him in?" he asked. "Don't tell me you're falling for him." Twilight blushed bright red, but her glare still remained. "So what if I did? Are you going to punch me too if I told you I liked him?" she spat. Flash blushed at this, but smiled nonetheless. The crowd murmured and looked at the fighting sibling

"Sis-"

"No. Just no!" Twilight shouted. "Just… leave me alone, Shining. And for your information, you're just making the situation even worse. Because you're right. Why not start a fight at school while your sister is trying to get over the fact that our grandmother passed away last night at the hospital?!"

"Twilight," Flash said.

"And just what is going on here?!"

The crowd looked to see Principal Celestia walking towards them, an angry look on her face. She took in the scene in front of her: two students all beaten up and bleeding, and one student was crying her eyes out. Twight couldn't take it anymore; she broke down crying and ran away from the scene. 'High school drama,' Principal Celestia moaned in her head. "Mr. Sparkle, Mr. Sentry, my office. Now!" Sunset looked at Flash and hugged him. "Thanks for sticking up for me," she said. Flash smiled and returned the hug. "We're friends, It's what we do," he said. He pulled away and took his guitar and backpack. "When you see Twilight, tell her to call me later tonight."

"I'll do that," she said. "You must really like this girl, huh?"

"What can I say? She's beautifully unique. I can't ignore that," Flash replied, then walked away with Shining Armor and Principal Celestia. Sunset looked at the girls and they ran to the bathroom. They walked in and saw Twilight crying over the sink. "Oh, sugarcube," Applejack said, hugging the sobbing girl.

"M-my grandmother passed away last night due to a stroke she had," Twilight sobbed. "I found out the other night, after Sunset and we were done talking."

"Twilight, I'm so sorry for your loss," Fluttershy said.

"We feel really bad for you, Twilight," Rainbow added.

"Truly, darling. We feel really remorseful," Rarity said, taking her hand.

Twilight sniffed and wiped her eyes, smiling a bit. "Thank you girls. This means a lot to me," Twilight said timidly. Pinkie Pie, who was quiet the whole time, smiled brightly and pulled Twilight into a hug. "I know what'll cheer you up," she said, lifting her up. "SLEEPOVER AT MY PLACE!"

---

That night, Twilight was having a blast at Pinkie Pie's house. After school, she packed up her stuff and informed her parents where she was going. Twilight had even introduced her parents to the girls, and they were thrilled to know that their daughter was finally going to hang out with other people. She even introduced Fluttershy to Spike, now knowing that Fluttershy was an animal lover. It was now nine forty five, and the girls were spraying whipped cream on each other, laughing. It all started when Sunset was trying to put whipped cream on her ice cream, but she accidentally sprayed it on Twilight. Smiling mischievously, Twilight smushed her face in a handful of whipped cream. Soon the others had gotten involved, and the kitchen was soon a whipped cream wonderland.

"Okay, okay," Sunset giggled. "Let's stop before we make a mess."

Twilight agreed and wiped her whipped creamed hand on her cheek. "There. Now we can finish," she said. The girls went up in Pinkie Pie's room and sat on the floor. "Anyone up for Truth or Dare?" Pinkie Pie asked. The girls agreed and smiled. "Hmmm, Rarity, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Rarity said.

"Who was your last crush?"

Rarity rolled her eyes and began painting her nails. "Prince Blueblood. Honestly, If I knew that boy was a self-conceited, arrogant fool, then I wouldn't have wasted my time," she said with a huff. Rarity then smiled. "Hmmm, Fluttershy. Truth or dare?" Fluttershy hid her face in the pillow but took a deep breath.

"D-dare," she said in a brave tone, though she was scared of what she had to do.

"I dare you to call Big Mac and say 'Big Mac, you are one finely toned hunk.'"

Flutterfly turned dark red and hid her face in her pillow. "I-I take it back. I-I take truth," she stammered. Applejack patted her reassuringly and glared at Rarity. "That mah brother yer talkin 'bout," she hissed. Arity ignored her and handed her Fluttershy's phone. "Call him," she ordered. "Put him on speaker." Fluttershy tentatively took the phone and dialed his number. She held up the phone and looked at the girls as it rang.

"Eeyup," a deep voice said.

"B-big M-mac?" Fluttershy whimpered. "I-I have something to tell you."

"Eeyup?" he said.

Fluttershy looked at the girls and took a deep breath. "B-big Mac, you are one finely toned hunk," she said. The girls had to cover their mouths from erupting into laughter, and waited for Big Mac to respond. He didn't say anything, but a loud thud was audible on the other line.

"Ah think you made mah brother faint, Fluttershy," Applejack said. Fluttershy cowered in the blanket and buried her head in the piilow. "Now I can't face Big Mac for a week," Fluttershy said. Rainbow patted her back and nudged her. "Come on, we all know you were thinking that," she teased.

"Rainbow!" Applejack scolded her. "Her business with mah broher Is none of your concern!"

Hoping to get the attention, Fluttershy looked at the cobalt haired girl. "Twilight, truth or dare?" she asked. Twilight smiled and shrugged. "Truth," she said. The girls smiled mischievously and leaned forward. "Do you have a crush on Flash Sentry?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight's face turn dark pink and she looked away.

"Come on, Twilight," Sunset teased.

"Um," Twilight said, giggling nervously. "Well… yeah. A little, kinda, yeah."

"Awwwwwww," the girls said.

Twilight hid her face in her hands and rested her head on Sunset's shoulders. "You guys are actually cute together," Sunset said. "You would be the ideal couple of the school." Twilight blushed a deeper shade of pink and shoved her. "D-don't say that!" she exclaimed. Rarity stared at Twilight for a while then smiled. "You know, Twilight, you should run for homecoming queen," she said.

"Why?" Twilight asked.

"Because, why not? Trying something new is fun," she replied. "And who knows, maybe a certain blue haired fellow might ask you to be his date, or more." Twilight smiled and looked away from her friends. "I did have an intention to go, but I was waiting for Flash to ask me to be his date," she confessed.

"Twilight, you sly fox you," Pinkie teased.

Twilight blushed and giggled nervously. The bell rang and Pinkie Pie jumped up. "Pizza's here!" she exclaimed, running out. The girls smiled at her enthusiasm and followed her out. Twilight smiled at Pinkie came in the kitchen with two boxes of pizza, and blushed when she saw the delivery boy.

"F-flash," she said.

The girls giggled and walked out, leaving the two alone. "Hey, Sparky. How are you?" he said. Twilight smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. "I'm okay," she said. She saw the bruises on his face and felt the tears coming. "I'm so sorry about what my brother did to you. I hope you didn't get in too much trouble."

"Nah. I mean, I won't be at school tomorrow. Suspended," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "But I had to do something. No one talks about my friend like that and get away it it. I had to do something."

"Well, what you did was sweet. Even if you did get in trouble," Twilight said. Spike ran over and barked at Flash. "And who is this little guy?" Flash asked. Twilight smiled and picked her puppy up. "This is my dog, Spike," she said. "Spike, this is Flash. He's the sweet and cute guy I was telling you about." Twilight stopped when he realized what she said and looked at Flash, wondering what he would do. He caught on to what she said, but decided to spare her the embarrassment. He picked up a bag designed with balloons and handed it to her.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A get well present," he said. "I didn't want you to feel sad, so I got this for you." Twilight peered in the bag and took out two stuffed animals. One was a white teddy bear with a red bow, the other was a purple pony plushie with violet eyes and a colbalt mane with a pink and purple streak. A pink six pointed star was on its stuffed flank.

"I didn't know which one to take, so I got them both," Flash said.

Twilight also took out a card and opened it. Inside it read "Get well, Sparky. A smile suits you better. No matter what, your grandmother is in your heart. Just like you're in mine." Twilight blushed and placed Spike on the ground, then tackled Flash with a hug. "That's the sweetest thing anyone had done for me," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you so much. Flash smiled and pulled away, looking at her sparkling eyes. He wiped her tears away and smiled gently. She blushed and rested her hand on his. They stared at each other and leaned in, closing their eyes. The tiny space was nearly filled, when…

"Ahem."

The two jumped and looked to see the girls staring at them with a smirk. 'Oh, don't mind us, darling. Just continue to what you're doing," Rarity teased. Twilight blushed and looked at Flash, pulling away from his arms. "Um, I gotta go. Pizzas to deliver, you know," Flash said. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, then walked out, closing the door behind him Twilight's eyes grew wide and her face turned pink. She touched the cheek where she felt Flash's cool lips and squealed uncontrollably.

'He kissed my cheek! He kissed my cheek!' she giggled inwardly.

The girls watch her jump up and down and smile. "Oh, she's totally crushing on him," Rarity said.