Chapter 6- Time with Pinkie

Flash walked out of the tent feeling eyes burying daggers in his back. The mares that he had saved some seats for were glaring at him even as he left the tent. The only one not glaring, seemingly plotting to kill him, was Pinkie she was trying to call him over before Skittles had elbowed her.

Oh well, I should get some sleep. Flash turned towards his tent and began walking towards it, but it wasn't long before he heard a chilling voice from behind him say, "Better not lose Mr. Fahrenheit, or else something just might happen."

Flash turned to face Slen, who was about twenty feet away, "Like what?"

"Ooh still feeling cocky, I thought that my warning would have been a little more effective. If there's one thing I won't stand for it's a lack of respect," Slen said as he walked forward covering the distance with only six strides. He stood next to Flash upon his hind legs, standing this way he toward above the stallion. "Now think for a moment, are you showing me the proper amount of respect?"

Flash replied without missing a beat and with a raised eyebrow, "Yes, I just wanted to know what you had in mind if I lost."

"Back up Flash, if you want to keep your skin," a scaly voice behind him said.

"Yes, yes, of course. Oh by the way Slen there's a mustard stain on your shirt." Flash raised a hoof and pointed to a spot on Slen's vest. Slen looked down at his shirt and immediately got smacked in the face by Flash going, "Whoop!"

Slen grabbed Flash by the neck and lifted him a foot of the ground. "Now, that was disrespectful." Slen picked Flash up and threw him into a nearby carnival game. The game he landed in was a duck hunt stand. Slen walked up to the stand with his bodyguards flanking him, He picked up a BB rifle and took aim at Flash.

Flash got up and looked up, above him was a wood roof instead of just cloth. Slen began firing, Flash ducked behind the targets covering his head till he was in the clear. Slen turned to Pop and snarled, "Flush out the target!"

Pop shot a ball of green fire behind the target. Flash backed away and shouted, "Shit! Really, enchanted fire? How is that fair?"

Chuckling, Slen replied, while never taking his aim off of Flash's cover,"Who said anything about fair, this is punishment."

The fire was quickly spreading towards Flash, there was little cover left behind him and every time he moved away from the flame there became less.

Thinking it was better to move before he had to, was a better plan than waiting till Slen knew when he was coming, Flash readied himself to vault the cover he was crouching behind. He counted under his breath, "Three, two, one."

He jumped over the stand and ducked immediately to avoid taking a shot in the eye. He dived and rolled towards the half wall Slen was standing behind. It was the only way out. Slen shot several shots at Flash, aiming at his head. They whizzed by Flash's head, Thanking Luna and Celestia that Slen had picked up one of the rifles with crooked sights. Slen jumped past Slen while he threw down the gun and picked up another. Slen twisted to see his prey taking to the sky and took aim at his left wing. He took two shots. Each hit Flash in the joint that connected his wing to his body causing Flash's wing to falter and he began to fall.

Flash covered his face as he neared the row of games. He tried to start flying again but to his dismay he couldn't stop the momentum he had built up on the way down. He managed to slow himself a little but despite his resistance he crashed into a tent. He tore through the roof and crashed through the cloth wall straight into the tent over. He came to a halt on the strength test and the weight only went up to wimp. Boy if that doesn't say all. And then he blacked out.

Waking up an hour later Flash got up to assess the damage. He shook his wings and found them a little sore but, still sore, especially where the BBs from the gun had hit him. One of his ribs felt cracked, his front right hoof was sprained and he suffered several lacerations. It could have been a lot worse.

He shuffled back to his tent and wrapped his ribs in tape. He lay down staring up at his roof and said, "This is Minotaur shit." Flash closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Following Pinkie

Pinkie woke up early and looked around the tent Twilight had conjured up for them to sleep in. She saw everyone else asleep in their sleeping bags. Twilight was at the back of the room sleeping next to Fluttershy. Rainbow was sleeping in her bag, set apart from the others, because she was a very active sleeper. Rarity was sleeping next to the tent flap in her homemade sleeping bag. It was a light purple with white trim. On the front it had a gemstone "R".

Pinkie slipped past her friends and outside. Pinkie took a deep breath of the chilly morning air. She closed her eyes and hummed her favorite song, "Smile". She bounced down to the tents looking for anypony. She called out, "Yoo-hoo! Anypony out and about?"

"Goddess, shut up!" shouted an annoyed voice from behind a counter of a cotton candy stand.

Pinkie leaned over the counter and saw a grey stallion holding a pillow over his head. "Hey there I'm trying to find my friend, Flash."

"Go away I'm trying to sleep!" He rolled over and kept the pillow over his head.

"Can you tell me where Flash's tent is?"

"Ugh, since you won't leave me alone," he raised his hoof and pointed down the path and said, "Go that way turn left as soon as you can and look for a patchwork tent smaller than the ones around it."

"Got it, thanks Mr.?" She wondered what his last name is.

"Sapiens, and don't you forget it."

Pinkie bounced down the road and began looking for his tent. She saw tents of all sorts of colors all the size of a small house. She saw a gold one standing high above the rest. She stopped a moment to admire the tent. It had a design made into it. It looked as if a thousand gold feathers had been used to build it. At the entrance she saw a mean looking minotaur and she swallowed with an audible gulp. He was glaring at her threateningly. Pinkie just looked away and walked away, after getting a good bit away she started to bounce along again.

She then saw a little tent roughly the size of a small room. It was made of basically stitched together potato sacks and sticks. She walked up to the entrance and poked her head inside she saw a little cot in the center of the room. In the cot there lay a stallion, to be exact it was the stallion she was looking for, Flash. She went over and saw Flash sleeping and thought, Like a burnt out angel. She giggled at her inner joke. This giggle turned to a chuckle and was about to turn into a full blown laugh attack till she realized that Flash was twitching in his sleep, and that he was about to wake up. She went over to his bed and stood over him and shook his shoulders.

View Change- Following Flash

Flash woke with a start to a pink pony in his face, "What the!"

The pony tilted her head and said, "Good morning Flash! How'd you sleep? I slept great well except one time my friend Twilight, the purple unicorn, kicked me and then I woke up. I had a hard time finding your tent but somebody told me which way to go! Why do you live in a little tent while everyone else has a big tent?"

Flash just got more confused with every single word coming out of Pinkie's mouth, and without registering anything she said he stuttered still groggy from the night before, "What? Wait, Pinkie why are you in my tent?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes at Flash and said, "Duh, because I wanted to hang out with you, but we didn't get to last night."

Flash rolled over onto his belly and out his hoof on his head to support it and said, "Yeah, well sorry about it, I didn't think your friends wanted me to intrude upon your group."

"Don't worry about it, besides I think that they were just being mean. Rarity tried to explain that they were just having a friendly competition."

Flash thought to himself, Sure, if you call death glares from five mares friendly.

Pinkie continued on, "I still thought it was just mean, so I wanted to make it up to you, by hanging out with you today!" She finished her sentence and punctuated it with a high jump.

Flash got up out of bed and said, "Well Pinkie I still have to eat breakfast and I wouldn't mind some company." Flash smiled at her.

Pinkie shouted, "Hooray!" and followed Flash out the tent to a fire pit. Flash crouched down and began to light a fire. Pinkie asked, "So Flash what do you want to do after we eat?"

Flash turned away from the sticks he was arranging and said, "How about we…" Flash stopped and thought before asking, "Pinkie what time is it?"

"Well I'd say about six. Now six and one second and now six and four seconds and…"

"Six was good enough but thanks Pinkie," Flash said stopping her from continuing, "Well the games should be up after we eat, so do you want me to show you around?"

"That would be great!" Pinkie sat down on a log near the fire pit as Flash finished starting the fire. Flash said, "sorry but all I've got is a can of soup. Is that ok?" Pinkie just nodded. Flash poured the can into a pot and let the pot to cook on the fire.

Flash sat next to Pinkie and she turned to him and said, "Hey wanna play a game?" Flash nodded and said, "Sure, what game?" Pinkie smiled and said, "Well, I don't have a name for it yet, but we take turns asking questions and the other has to answer truthfully."

"Ok you go first."

Pinkie tapped her chin for a second and said, "What's your favorite baked good?" Flash said, "Easy, I love cinnamon rolls," He put extra emphasis on the love. He then thought for a moment then said, "What do you do for a living?"

Pinkie said, "That's easy I'm a baker! Hmmm… Ooh when's your birthday?"

"My birthday's April, fourteenth. What's your favorite thing to do?"

"I love to throw parties and make friends. How…" Pinkie Pie was interrupted by Flash, "Hold up I said favorite thing to do, not favorite two things." Pinkie thought hard, you could see the strain on her face, "Well I guess, even though my special talent is throwing parties, I really like meeting new people."

"Ok, is that why you're hanging out with me now, to have as many friends as you can?" Flash sounded hurt, but not surprised.

Pinkie turned to him with a slack jaw and said, "No! Why would you even think that?"

Flash looked down at his hooves, "I'm sorry, it just no one has ever been this nice to me." He sounded like he was about to cry.

"Didn't your parents treat you this nice?" Pinkie Pie's head tilting at the idea of her being the first to be kind to Flash.

"I don't know. My parents were killed wh-when I was just a foal." Despite Flash's resistance a few tears escaped Flash's eyes, he squeezed his eyes shut like a bear trap.

"I'm so sorry I didn't know," Pinkie said as she wrapped her arms around Flash. She herself began to cry like a waterfall. Flash finding the tables turned tried to sooth Pinkie, "It's ok Pinkie, you didn't know almost no one does, I never talk to anypony about it." He hugged her tight and held her head next to his chest. Her hair smelled like gumballs.

Flash hoped this hug never had to end, it was nice. It was true no one had ever been this nice to him. Of course there had been a few ponies along the way that treated him nice, but always they held back for fear of Slen. Pinkie though she was done crying, didn't want to let go of Flash. She had gotten enough hugs in her day to know that this one was different, she just felt like she belonged there.

Suddenly, Flash said, "Oh shit!" Pinkie backed away and looked at his violet and said, "What?" Flash jumped up next to the fire and said, "We forgot about the soup." He reached in and pulled the pot right out of the fire and looked inside. The soup was burnt, all the ingredients charred to a crisp. Pinkie walked up and was about to touch the pot to look inside, but Flash pulled it away and said, "Don't Pinkie, it's really hot."

Pinkie pulled her hand back then said, "But you're holding it, it can't be that hot."

"But it is. I'm just not affected by heat like other ponies."

"Why not?"

Flash sat the pot down and stomped out the fire. He then tried to explain as much as he knew, "I don't know why Pinkie, but I can that's why my cutie mark is flames on wings."

"Oh," said Pinkie his explanation not helping very much.

"I'm sorry Pinkie but I don't really understand it myself." Flash felt guilty at not being able to explain things to Pinkie. He continued under his breath not particularly wanting Pinkie to hear, "If I did maybe I could get out of here."

"Hmm… wait you don't like it here?"

Flash sighed and said, "No, I'm treated like shit and constantly physically abused." He showed her some of the scars on his legs and some of the new lacerations. Pinkie gingerly ran a hoof down one of his scars

"Then why don't you leave?"

"I can't because I don't have anywhere else to go to. I barely have any spare money, because of 'Room and Board' fees as my boss calls it." Flash kicked the ground in frustration, "It's not like I haven't tried it before. Every time I leave I always end up crawling back, because of some freak accident gets me fired or evicted."

Pinkie said in a hopeful voice, "Well, maybe you could come back to Ponyville with me…" Flash turned to her and picked her up in a giant hug. This one didn't last as long as the last, but it still made both Flash and Pinkie feel warm inside. Flash asked, "Can I?" Pinkie smiled a large smile and said, "Of course! I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."

Flash hugged her once more before saying, "Come on let me show you around."