BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Twilight Sparkle groaned, reaching an arm out to slam off the alarm clock beside her. Without a thought, she grabbed the edge of her comforter and pulled it up closer to her neck, letting out a deep breath. A minute passed.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

“Dang it!” Twilight squeaked, her hand snapping out again from under the covers to thwack the device. In an instant, the purple girl bolted upright and let out a long sigh before throwing her legs off the side of the bed to the floor. As she stood up, Twilight’s hand wandered across her bedside table, shutting off the alarm and picking up her glasses. Her lips curved as the blurred smudge of a world in front of her came into focus. She stretched out her arms above her head for a moment.

“Mmmmffff,” she mumbled, tilting her neck. “Okay, let’s see...” She looked around, spotting her phone on the nightstand which she picked up and woke up with a button. There was a little notification that indicated she had a text, but before she could read who it was from or what it was, her thumb was already at work swiping and tapping to unlock the device. Her eyes scanned the screen, catching a familiar name in bold at the top, having sent her the most recent message.

“Sunset,” she murmured. Twilight tapped the name, and it was replaced with the message Sunset had sent her.

Hey twilghihr, im trslly sorryu avour ear;oer,im porvagly nor hoinh to;obe at shcppl tomoeoq maubw we can tlsk afrwe shool'

Twilight blinked, and shook her head—but when her eyes focused back on the screen, the message still read the same. No, that was exactly what Sunset Shimmer had texted her, warts and all. Well, it wasn’t quite accurate to call them warts when the whole thing was... how it was. Twilight took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

She did more after I left.

Twilight didn’t know that for a fact, of course, but it was pretty obvious from... whatever that message was supposed to be. She put a hand to her temple, and tried to just breathe. To stay calm.

What am I going to do with her?

She stood there in silence for a moment, before suddenly remembering what time it was and what she was supposed to be doing. Grumbling, she flicked off the phone screen and slid the device into the pocket of her pajamas. Then, she opened her bedroom door, stepping out in the hall in the noble pursuit of Breakfast.

Twilight’s sneakers squeaked on the hallway floor as she ran. Oh, she wasn’t supposed to run—she remembered every time she’d seen other students reprimanded for the same thing—but the halls were almost empty, and she was running late. Even just thinking those two words was almost enough to make her stop and shudder, but she had no time for that; she just had to move. All would be fine—so long as she just kept going. She hoped.

Ducking past a bewildered student, she rounded a corner and, past the rows of lockers and a few stranded stragglers, the door to Twilight’s physics class came into plain view—and it was open! Cheerilee always shut the door at the beginning of class, right before taking attendance, so she had just enough time to get in before—

The door started to close. Twilight gulped but kept going; she had to get into class, she couldn’t be late. And it looked like she was about to make it too. And that’s when she smacked face-first into the window on the door with an unceremonious thud.

Seeing stars, Twilight stepped back, cradling her head with a hand. A moment passed and the door swung back open, and behind it was exactly who Twilight had wanted to see.

“Oh, Twilight! I am so sorry!” Rarity said, her eyes fraught with worry. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Twilight said, though she winced. “Don’t worry about it.”

Rarity did not look convinced, but she stepped aside to let Twilight walk into the classroom. Most of the students weren’t paying much attention yet—class hadn’t started, so many were on their phones, but Cheerilee at the front raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, Twilight, thank goodness,” the teacher said quickly, looking down at the attendance sheet on her clipboard. “Let me just mark you down as present...”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh. She’d never been late at Canterlot High—nor Crystal Prep—and it felt kind of... weird to her that a teacher would help artificially preserve that. Still, she wasn’t complaining. She just shuffled past the eyes of her classmates—all on her, she was sure, though she couldn’t bear to look up at them—and settled into her chair on the right side of the room, right next to Rarity’s. As Twilight pulled her things from her backpack, Cheerilee up at the front marked something on her attendance sheet and set it back down on her desk, looking up to the class as she did so.

“Alright, so, with that taken care of... would someone like to volunteer to read the beginning of this chapter? How about you, Lily?”

“Ugh, okay. ‘Beep, beep, beep...’”

As their classmate began to read out loud, Twilight glanced over towards Rarity—who luckily was already looking her way, so she didn’t need to get her attention. But on her face, her friend wore the strangest expression. “Soooo...?”

Twilight blinked. “Erm... so...? Huh?”

“How did it go last night, with Sunset? I notice you’re late to class, and you are never late.”

Twilight grimaced, and at this Rarity’s face fell. “Maybe we can talk about that later. I still need to think about what exactly... happened.” Rarity perked up again, but let Twilight go on. “I did mean to ask, though... um, you said that Flash Sentry and Sunset used to date, right?”

Rarity blinked, and a grin started to creep onto her face. “Why but of course, darling, they were the talk of the whole school for months! Canterlot High’s cutest hunk dating... well, the queen bee!”

Twilight snorted. “Well, do you know where I might find him? I kinda wanted to talk to him about something.”

At this point Rarity’s grin was ear to ear. “Twilight... are you going to ask his advice on dating Sunset Shimmer?”

“What? No!” Twilight said, a little too loudly which earned her some looks—though, weirdly, Cheerilee turned a blind eye. “I mean... no, no, not that at all. Seriously, Rarity, I told you we’re not a thing.”

Rarity pursed her lips. “Alright, darling, but if you ever are... you know I just must be the first one to know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Rarity smirked. “Delightful. As for Flash... most days you can find him at the skate park during lunch period. He, um, goes over there to smoke.”

Twilight blinked; this had caught her off guard. “Really?”

“Mmm, yes. Means I must be cautious when I go talk to him—don’t want to get that stench in any of my good linens, you know how it is.”

“Riiiight.” Twilight looked nonplussed. “Well, thanks.”

Rarity sighed. “Guess we shan’t be seeing you at lunch, then?”

Twilight Sparkle just smiled, sheepishly, as she finally turned to the book in front of her and, as she usually did, started paying attention in class.

Canterlot High had an open campus—meaning that when students weren’t in class, they could leave and return as they liked. But as Twilight Sparkle walked through the warm, unrelenting rays of the noonday sun, she was reminded of why she never took advantage of it; outside sucked. Not that she was completely opposed to the concept on its own, but as summer was approaching... a shut-in nerd like her wasn’t all that used to it, and with her pants and long-sleeved shirt she wasn’t exactly dressed for the weather. She made a mental note to reorganise her closet, soon; surely, her friends would want to be hanging out outside more, and she didn’t want to be melting all summer.

As she neared the far sidewalk, Twilight also noticed that very few of her fellow students seemed to be taking advantage of the nice weather. A few people she recognised had been standing around and chatting near the door, but as she stood waiting for the cars to stop at the crosswalk she couldn’t help but notice that nobody was walking around on the sidewalk near her, and in the distance she could only see a few people dotting the parking lot, standing by their cars. All of this left her mind as she crossed the street, however; her destination was in sight.

Twilight had never been to the skate park, only seen it from afar the few times she’d visited that neighbouring playground as a child. It looked somewhat out of place there—a weird, old relic of a decade or two ago, sticking out like a sore thumb next to the recently-renovated school and the more modern homes with clean-cut lawns that lined the opposite side of the street. As she crossed and grew closer, Twilight could see wide swaths of tall, illegible graffiti letters hugging the curve of the concrete bowl as it dipped down into the earth.

But the one thing she couldn’t see was anybody skating. There were no whoops of joy, no wheels clacking as they rolled down the side—just the thrum of cars passing and students talking in the school behind her. Twilight’s head swerved around as she approached the side of the bowl—and, as she reached the edge, that’s when she saw him.

Flash Sentry sat cross-legged at the bottom of the basin, wearing that same stupid sports jacket he always did, and he wasn’t alone; across from him, with her legs stretched out in front of her, sat a girl with a slender frame. Her long, pastel-pink hair reached down her back all the way to the edge of her spring-green skirt. Both teenagers had cigarettes, Flash’s held between his fingers and Fluttershy’s on the concrete beneath her spidered hand. Their twin plumes of smoke rose up above, into the air.

Flash looked up in Twilight’s direction as she approached, and his eyes lit up in recognition. “Hey, Twilight!” he called, grinning. “How’s it going?”

Immediately, the girl across from him jumped, loudly meeping. Fluttershy’s head jerked around to look and her eyes grew wide upon seeing her purple friend. “T-Twilight. Um... hi.”

“Uh, hey guys,” Twilight managed to get out. Her cheeks felt hot from the sudden attention. “I’m... I’m fine, how are you?”

“Pretty good!” Flash said, cheerily. He took a drag of his cigarette, and Twilight squirmed as she watched him exhale. Fluttershy just stared at Twilight, clearly mortified. “How come you’re out here, anyway?” Flash asked. “I didn’t realise you skated!”

Twilight let out a nervous laugh. “No, I don’t. Too dangerous. Actually, I, uh, was looking for you.” Upon seeing the light blush on Flash’s face, though, she quickly added, “N-not like that! I just wanted to talk to you about something, something I had, um, questions about.”

“Heh, sure.” Flash’s smile quickly shifted to something a little more nervous. “Should I come up there, or...?”

“Alright if I come sit down there?”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Flash tapped the ground next to him.

“Be careful coming down,” Fluttershy said. “It’s kind of sli—”

“AAAH!” Twilight’s loud cry cut her off; the girl’s sneaker had slipped on the slope, sending her running down the concrete faster than she could handle. Fluttershy shrieked, scooping up her cigarette from the ground as she gracefully moved out of the way. Flash leapt up, too, but instead he moved quickly in front of Twilight, reaching his arms out and bracing himself.

THUD!

For a moment, Flash’s legs threatened to give way—but they held, and he was able to steady Twilight enough to let go within a matter of moments, before it became awkward.

As she stepped away, Twilight could hear Flash murmur under his breath, “We’ve gotta stop bumping into each other like this...” She rolled her eyes but didn’t press it, and with a shrug she sat herself down on the concrete. Flash did the same, sitting down close but not too close. But the pink-haired girl, cigarette still burning between her fingers, remained standing.

“Say, um... Twilight, you just need to talk to Flash, right?” Fluttershy asked, gazing with inquisitive eyes over to her friend. Upon Twilight’s nod, she continued: “I was thinking that maybe I’ll just leave you two to it, and I, uh, could go run an errand.”

“Sure thing, Flutters, why don’t you go do that?” Flash said, and Fluttershy’s lips curved ever so slightly into a smile.

Then, Twilight watched as her friend slipped her backpack on and nimbly climbed up the side of the bowl, soft footsteps pattering her past the faded green graffiti and out of view. “She seems... on edge.”

Flash sighed. “Yeah, she... she didn’t know how you’d react. To seeing her smoke, I mean. She’s been worried about it for ages.”

“Oh.” Twilight gritted her teeth. “Yeah, I... I didn’t know.”

“And it bothers you, yeah?” Flash phrased this like a question, but he meant it as a statement; Twilight could see from the lines of concern on his face that he could tell. “And I’m assuming you don’t like seeing me do it, either.” He sighed. “I can put this out, if it would help you feel more comfortable.”

“N-no, you don’t have to!” Twilight said quickly, as Flash had motioned to extinguish it on the concrete. “I mean, I don’t mind, just do your thing. I don’t want to interrupt.”

Flash’s eyebrow raised.

“I mean, yeah, of course it bothers me,” Twilight continued, “but that’s something I want to get better about. I have to... accept that people are going to do what they want to or have to do. And it’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into here—Rarity told me where you were, and why.”

Flash had raised the cigarette once more to his mouth and he pulled it away, releasing another puff of smoke but carefully turning his head so it wouldn’t blow towards Twilight. “You just didn’t know that Fluttershy would be here, did you?”

Twilight gulped. “Yeah, uh, I didn’t. N-not that I have any problem with it, but... it caught me off guard, I will admit. I just want what’s best for my new friend... you know?”

Flash Sentry chuckled. “It’s funny how much like her you are.”

Twilight blinked. “Like who? Fluttershy?”

“No, the other Twilight.” He paused, tapping his chin. “Not that you aren’t different, ’cause you totally are,” he hastily added, “but that need to care for your friends, to help them, to see them through to what’s right... that fits Twilight to a T.”

Twilight Sparkle still wasn’t sure how to feel about this other Twilight—and how she knew Flash felt for the other girl. But, after a few uncomfortable moments, she was able to mumble something like, “Thanks, I guess.” Flash just nodded, and an uneasy silence settled between them. Twilight watched as the last of Flash’s cigarette burned, and then he finally crushed the butt on the ground.

“I’ll pick it up, I promise,” Flash assured her. “I always do—Fluttershy reminds me if I forget.” He paused. “So... why exactly did you come down to talk to me, anyway? Just got the urge to hang out?” he asked, snorting.

“Oh, uh...” Twilight shifted nervously. “Actually, I kinda wanted to talk about... Sunset.”

Flash’s brow rose, his eyes widening; she’d obviously caught him off guard. “Oh, yeah? What about her?”

Twilight brushed a lock of hair from her face. “Well, you two used to date, didn’t you?”

“Rarity tell you that, too?” Flash looked a little irritated, but upon seeing Twilight nervously biting her lip, his features softened. “Sorry, sorry. It’s not by any means a secret, and things are pretty okay between me and Sunset now, but... I dunno, I never really liked Rarity getting all up in my personal stuff like she has a habit of doing.”

“She just mentioned it offhandedly a while ago while me and the girls were hanging out as a group, she didn’t really—”

“Haha, no, it’s fine, really,” Flash assured her. “Why do you ask, though? Does somebody have a little crush, maybe...?”

“No!” Twilight, flustered, shot him a dirty look as Flash snickered. “This is serious. Big time.”

“Okay, okay,” Flash said, waving his hands in front of him. “Gotcha. I’ll stop messing around. Serious time.” He stretched his face muscles, and then settled into an oddly stoic look.

Twilight took a deep breath. “Thanks. Okay. Uh... hum, let’s see. When—if you don’t mind—when did you start smoking?”

If Flash was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it; he merely leaned back with his hands splayed out behind him on the concrete, holding up his relaxed frame. “God, that’s a good question... guess it woulda been around eighth grade or so? Maybe the summer right before?”

Twilight goggled. “That young?”

Flash gave her a nervous laugh, and raised a hand to scratch his head. “Yeah... looking back I wish I hadn’t, but it was kinda one of those things where all my friends were trying it out. They got me into it, and once I started I didn’t stop.”

Without thinking, Twilight went on. “Where’d you get them?”

“Eh, there was always a way. Bum smokes off older kids who didn’t give a shit, or one of my friends would steal from their dad or something. Most of those friends ended up going to a different high school, so it was a bit rough for a bit... but I managed here and there. Then, in the last year... Fluttershy.”

Twilight gasped. “You got her smoking?”

Flash blinked at that. “What? No, haha, but we did end up kinda becoming friends because of it over the last coupla months, hanging out here and talking. She already did, though I never actually figured out where she got them from before. But then she turned 18 last month, and it got easy.”

“Oh, I see.” Twilight nodded slowly; she was still shaking a little with anxiety, but she was calming. “Wait, are you not 18, then?”

“...Couple more months.” Flash grinned, but then his smile faltered. “But, uh... what’s this gotta do with Sunset, though?”

Twilight took a deep breath. “Did... did Sunset ever smoke?” Twilight asked, the words tumbling out quickly.

“No,” Flash replied, “or at least not that I ever saw. Obviously I did around her sometimes, and sometimes it seemed like she wanted to, but that’s the one thing she never did. Never asked, either.”

A knot was forming in Twilight’s stomach. “The... one thing?”

“Yeah, uh...” Flash scratched the back of his head. “For a while there, I was doing all of the big three, and she was right there along with me. Sex, and drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. N-not anything that bad, I swear,” he added quickly, upon seeing Twilight’s mortified expression. “Just weed and beer mostly—the guys I was in a band with were all into that stuff, and then I was too. And Sunset would come to practices and stuff, so... yeah.”

Twilight nodded, slowly. “Was it, like... for a long time?”

“I mean... not really,” Flash replied. He bit his lip between sentences. “We practiced every weekend we could, and she was there for most of them, but... it was really only a few months. And me and Sunset broke up not long after that, too.”

“Hmm,” was all Twilight had to say to that, and Flash watched as the girl across from him pulled a finger through her hair, twirling it around. “Did it ever get... I dunno, out of hand?”

Flash shrugged. “I’m not really sure what you mean by that, I guess. I mean, yeah, sometimes she got a little too drunk, and I remember once having to hold her hair back as she... well, you know. But nothing really out of the ordinary.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, her expression unreadable. “Thank you, Flash,” she said, looking at him more directly. “I appreciate it.”

“Why are you asking, though?” Flash asked, looking legitimately confused. “Like... is something up? With Sunset?”

“N-no,” Twilight lied. She coughed. “Not... as such.” She let out a deep breath, and then recomposed herself. “Well... okay, no, I’m worried about her. I’m... not exactly sure what’s going to happen, not yet, but... I want to help her, and I’m just trying to work out how.”

Flash Sentry let out a long, drawn-out sigh, before his face turned into a frown. “That... that makes me pretty worried, not gonna lie. It's been a long time since Sunset and I dated, but she’s still a friend, you know? I want... I want what’s best for her.”

Before she quite knew what she was doing, Twilight reached out a hand and took Flash’s in hers. “I’m going to make sure she’s okay. I promise. I... don’t quite know everything right now, but I’m going to work to do what’s best for Sunset.”

Flash gulped, nodding slowly. “Thank you, Twilight. I... yeah, I dunno. Give her my best, okay?”

Twilight smiled. “I will.” Letting go of Flash’s hand, the purple girl stood up and brushed herself off. “I’m gonna go back to school so I’m not late for my next class, but... thank you, Flash.”

Flash’s cheeks reddened. “Ah, really, it’s no trouble. Happy to talk to you, especially since we haven’t gotten much of a chance to since you started going here. And I just want the best for Sunset, you know?”

“I-I do,” Twilight said, gulping. She looked up, forward, out of the skate park. “And I hope I can help her get there. I’ll see you around, okay?”

“See you around,” Flash said, though Twilight was already moving toward the edge of the bowl—but she looked over her shoulder to give him a nod and a smile before carefully pushing herself up on the concrete. Within a minute or two, she was out of sight.

Sunset Shimmer could taste bile in her throat.

Well, not bile exactly—she’d tasted bile, and it was much more acrid than this—but all she could think of as she lay there with her eyes shut was how off everything tasted. Lazily, she moved her tongue around—but when that didn’t seem to do anything, she let out an ugly, weary groan and opened her eyes.

The room wasn’t dark, not quite; the faint rays of light that assumedly were the sun did their best to filter through and poke around her curtains, to little avail. But even in the low light she could see where she lay—not on her bed, looking over at the window, but staring up from the carpet. That explained why her shoulder blades hurt like hell, at least, but not how this had happened; she couldn’t remember ever have woken up on the floor before, and she couldn’t remember how she ended up there this time. Though she did have some pretty good guesses.

“I swear to Celestia,” Sunset let out, though her lips were cracked and her throat was raspy. She moved her hands in front of her face just to prove she could move them at all, and she could—so she let them fall. “Uugggghhh... what am I doing...?”

The world didn’t reply, of course, so the girl just lay there for an indeterminate amount of time staring up at the ceiling. She could almost make out shapes in the spackle, but not quite... they just sat there, above, swirling around randomly like porridge.

Almost unconsciously, Sunset reached her hand out to her side, grabbing a hold of her phone. She brought the device to her face—cutting off her view of the ceiling—and clicked it on. She winced at the light as it shone right on her face, but pressed on. With a few taps, she unlocked the device, and she was staring at the last text message she’d sent.

“Oh, fuck,” Sunset murmured. “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck...”—she glanced up at the corner of the screen, noticing that the clock read 1:13pm—“...oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Fuck!” The last one she yelled, and it reverberated all around the walls of her room.

Sighing, Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath. And as she lifted herself up, pulling herself to stand upright, her joints and muscles ached. Her teeth gnashed as she stood there in the almost-darkness, but somehow she willed herself to take one step... and another, and another, and another. She didn’t want to, not at all, but she had to move, and quick—for in just a few short hours, Twilight Sparkle would be there once more, and Sunset would have to have answers.

Answers she wasn’t sure she had.

Author's Notes:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jfu2Axjj3cc