Chapter twelve

Removing the rest of his armor and placing it in the corner of the bathroom, Flash turns on the water and steps in after a few seconds when it warms up. Scrubbing off the remains of the scuffle out in the court yard, he washes out the cuts and scrapes, and also checks the bruises to see if they even hurt. ‘Just superficial damage and nothing more,’ he concludes as Flash feels the tenderness of the areas where the training weapons found their mark, even starting to chuckle to himself, ‘a nice little past time. Should make for an interesting talk if we run in to more of her friends again.’ Taking out the rest of the dirt, grime, and dust from his coat with a touch of shampoo and some more scrubbing. Flash finishes up in the shower in a few minutes after cleaning away the day’s work of a guard and swipes a towel to dry off quickly, tossing it over his shoulder so he can use it to attend to certain other matters of image. Before putting on some cologne that was sitting next to the sink to cover any of the musk of a colt. He pulls his armor out in to the room, taking the towel off his wing and uses it to wipe the dust off his suit of armor to return some of its shine…

The suit is something special to him, that’s for sure. After working so hard to get to where he is now in the Equestrian guard, it’s more than just a uniform, it’s a sense of pride that only one who has gone through the same thing can understand. He has fought in a few petty squabbles, although he may play them off as really nothing, in the past. The armor has been touched up and repaired over time thanks to the skilled hooves of those smiths who created it. However, those repairs only cover the outside. If a pony were to look on the inside they could see all the past marks and wounds that it has accumulated over a history of uses. Hammer marks to take care of imperfections, filing done to remove further damage, and even areas that have been dented too much to be fixed, have been patched up with a second sheet of metal overtop to cover. Flash has always tried to keep it presentable, keeping it in top shape if it’s needed for a fight, or just presentation.

In the end this is his suit, and he’s earned it.

Putting the finishing touches on the suit, wiping off its own crest on the breast plate to show off his rank. Flash is duly satisfied with his work, and with a simple nod of approval that his reflection returns from the chest piece, slips the suit on just as a knock comes to his door.

“Flash are you still in there?” Twilight asks standing outside the door.

“Yes, Twilight,” he says straightening out the plates on him, “you can come in if you’d like.”

Twilight doesn’t wait a moment to second guess herself as she walks straight in and sees her Sentry freshened up in his armor. The suit has been cleaned off, but still has a few dings here and there, as one would expect. Never the less, the fresh smell of whatever he put on hits her nose as it twitches for a second to analyze it. “Ahh… well your suit looks better that’s for sure,” she points out, trying to start some sort of talk.

“I try my best to keep it looking its best, then again with Discord’s little test, it was somewhat of a surprise,” he cringes as a slight chuckle escapes his lips from the prince’s actions, “I was expecting a simple day of you studying, when I got a lesson of my own.”

“It looks just fine Flash, don’t worry,” she eases him a bit, “with that prince running about the castle, things can never really be expected around here. However, let’s not keep Celestia waiting…” Twilight waves it off as she starts to head towards the door. Soon enough her guard following her out.

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Rosebud and Havoc sit across from one another with their parents between them at the head of a long dinner table that stretches nearly from end to end of the hall. The dining hall itself has windows stretching all along its walls allowing for what light there is during the day to shine through, while at times like this though, the moon light can be seen clearly through the crystalline windows and give almost a eased night glow to the room to add to the magic lights above. The table has been set with an assortment of fruits and pastries, along with several pasta dishes and baked goods, the latter being a particular favorite of the kids. Everything smells just wonderful while the aroma wafts its way around the room, and the taste is even better. Though most of that is lost on the eldest princess as she presses her husband’s buttons.

“Say it,” Celestia says eying her husband next to her while he tends to Rosebud.

“No.”

“Awe… please?”

“I already said it to him.”

“But you didn’t say it to me.” Her eyes go wide, as her lower lip starts to purse up.

“Why must I?” Discord rolls his eyes at her, but after seeing the pout come over her lovely, soft face. He can’t say no to her any longer, “…fine… he’s impressed me, and yes I’m glad that he is here to watch over our dearest Twilight.” Discord spits it all out to her ears.

The look on Tia’s face immediately turns around once she knows she won that little dispute. Beaming with pride, while even biting down on her lip, it’s rather hard to hide the smugness in her tone to her husband. “Thank you, Dissy.”

“You know I can’t say no to that look you gave me.”

“Well at least now you know where the kids get it from,” she winks at him as her student and her protector come in to the hall. Both of the newcomers walk down to each of their places down at the end of the table next to the royal family as Twilight and Flash take a seat next to one of the kids each across from one another.

“Good evening Celestia, Discord, and of course the little ones,” Twilight lights up at the sight of the kids, just as they do the same when they see her.

“Twilight,” Rosebud grabs her attention after swallowing what food is in her mouth, “your guard really knows how to kick some major ass.”

Twi and Flash just sit there holding their own tongues. Mostly from biting down on them to stop from laughing up a storm. Though the mother of the bunch slowly cranes her neck around to the father as he takes a bite out of a crumpet innocently. “Discord," she nearly hisses at him, "what have you been teaching our kids in the terms of vocabulary?”

“That one wasn’t me,” he responds while looking at her straight in the eye, “if you start hearing them talking about things that rhyme with ‘crape’. Terms that infer a mare is ‘easy’, or ‘loose.’ Or at the very least another name for a ‘rooster’. Then you can yell at me.”

“And who should I have to thank for the synonym of ‘flank’?”

“Probably your sister, she can get quite vulgar with her game,” Discord blames the sister in law before turning his attention to the guard. “What our daughter meant was, you’re good at what you do.”

“Thank you for the letter of approval,” Flash nods to both the prince again from his words earlier, and the young princess upon her less than stellar way of putting it, before he and Twi indulge in the meal before them.

As the food from the table starts to diminish and day turns to night, the royal family with their guests stay at the head of things and chat with one another. The kids have been put to bed while the adults stay up, allowing them to relax a bit for the evening. Wine is brought out upon Celestia’s request as she and Twilight share a bottle with one another. The younger Princess doesn’t drink often enough to get any sort of tolerance, so in order to keep her head on her shoulders. She limits herself, never refilling her glass as she sips the bitter, but wonderfully flavored beverage.

“Where is Luna?” Twi asks after fully noticing the lack of another special pony in the room, “I would have expected her to join us by now when dinner was served.”

“My sister is… recovering…” Celestia answers, rolling her lovely eyes to her sweet heart as he does the same, “she takes this game of hers very seriously. Today she shot another guard in the eye and ended up making another look almost like he was attacked by hornets with all the welts on him.”

“Sounds like Luna likes this game, Splatter Spell,” Twilight starts to think of the game.

It does sound rather fun to being with, would it be so bad to break loose from the norm as the ‘studious pony’ and do something exciting. Albeit painful that is, never the less though, Twilight makes a mental note to give it ago sometime.

“Well trust me,” Tia jokes, “By ‘recovering’ I meant she is now sitting in her room for the night on that blessed video game of hers. Colt Slayer 3, or whatever it is. Though she better pray this bottle doesn’t last me long.” The Celestial princess waves the half full glass in front of her muzzle before taking another swig.

“And why would that be?” the student asks, though pretty sure why already.

“Because if she keeps teaching my kids like she does now, then only an inebriated mare will keep her from a rather sore plot later on.”

Meanwhile…

Discord and Flash have been talking amongst themselves about the actions he saw in the ring. The master of chaos is more impressed then he let on, even drawing on some of things Flash did. “Using the wings you have to make a dust cloud was rather smart,” he puts a claw to his chin as he thinks back to it again, “I mean that’s one way to fights multiple adversaries at once.”

“Truth be told Discord, you didn’t give me much of a choice,” Flash says taking a sip of his cider. Opting for a virgin drink, to keep a level head as well. “I mean there isn’t much else I could have done in that case at least.”

“Meh, point made,” the prince starts to feel guilty about throwing him in to the ring against the odds, “sorry about that little test though. If I knew you already were tested in real life I wouldn’t have asked much more,” he tells the young guard, following up his explanation of why he even offered it, “I just wanted to be sure the guard that was picked for Twilight would be up to the challenge… and trust me, you proved it.”

“Glad I could do so, Discord,” Flash waves off the little test, “though it was fun on my part too I guess you could say. A little sparing match never hurt any pony.”

“Tell that to some of the guards earlier that you faced,” the prince notes, “Though if you’re up for another sometime. I sure wouldn’t mind going against you.”

For a moment the guard pauses as he considers the idea. Knowing full well already that Celestia will have her own input on the matter, as will Twilight likely, “I’m up for it. Though you might want to check with Celestia on that first.”

“What she doesn’t know, won’t hurt me.”

Both of the males share a laugh with one another, much to the completely oblivious mare’s demise. That is until another note is brought up on the prince’s wife, “However, Celestia said after we told her that she was going to have the body brought up to Canterlot, to be examined. Perhaps finding his origin.”

Celestia overhears the guard talking about the corpse to be examined, somehow missing out the earlier comments, and steps in on the conversation to shine a little light on it. “Actually, Flash, the body was brought here earlier. I received a message just before dinner. Though I didn’t want to bring up such a subject while we were eating, or even in front of the kids for that matter.”

“How long will it take them to learn anything?” Twilight asks, sipping on her glass.

“Patients my student… this will take some time,” Celestia reassures her. “Although I’m sure the creature was just like Flash and I suspect, a rogue soldier out in the town looking about. It can happen.”

Although Twilight certainly trusts Flashes opinion, and diffidently her own mentor’s. She can’t help but wonder herself. ‘If he was just a rogue soldier… then he would probably be looking for valuables, something to trade for, seeing as he now has no army to support him,’ Twilight summarizes, thinking about it more and more in her head, ‘if that’s the case though. Wouldn’t it have been easier to look for such things in another house, and not go directly to the house of a Princess?’ something’s not adding up in her head. Yet at the same time, she may just be overthinking it all. He may have not had time to take anything as they walked in as he started, her balcony door was open after all. On top of this he may have not known it was Twilight’s house, and could have simply chosen it because it was farther away than the other houses. Both reasons can be true, but this may just be something that Twilight is worrying about more than she actually should. The examination by Canterlot coroner should give some insight on their unexpected guest.

The long day is taking its effect as they all can feel the weight of it all resting on their shoulders. Discord is the first to slide his chair out from the table and stand up, cracking joints that he didn’t even know he had. “Well I think I’ll call it a night for now,” he gives his wife a tender kiss atop her fore head, “I’ll go say good night to the kids again, I know there is no way they are asleep after all… not just yet.”

“That’s for sure…” Celestia grins at him, before turning to her student, “Twilight would you like to see them again? I’m sure they would love to see their aunt before bed again.”

Twilight can’t pass up an offer to see the little tikes again. Excusing herself from the table, she tells Flash that she will be only a moment as he now sits there at the table with the older Princess near him. Celestia though has been almost waiting for this second to themselves.

She easily has seen what Cadance meant when she said the two ponies had a mutual attraction between them. Only being around the two together for the day she caught on quickly, seeing it for herself in only a short time. Celestia decides to cut to the chase once her husband and Twi are out of the room, seeing as she doesn’t know how much time she’ll have, and opens it up with a simple question.

“So, Flash,” the princess refills her glass, “how do you like working with Twilight so far?”

The guard didn’t expected to hear such a thing from Celestia herself, then again she is the princess’s mentor, “well it’s certainly a more interesting assignment then being a guard in the Crystal Empire,” he answers her honestly.

“Oh I can just imagine,” Celestia starts to chuckle, “being moved from a whole empire to a little town such as Ponyville can be a surprise in itself. Cadance never told Twilight who was going to come.”

“And as you may have guessed she didn’t tell me who I would be with either,” he says nonchalantly.

“Are you…happy about the assignment?” Celestia asks him, trying to get any sort of reaction out of him that she can measure.

The look on Flashes face goes from casual to uncomfortable, almost to the point of him choking on the air as he breathes, “Ah… I would say I’m, pleased,” Flash manages as his face tells ever more and starts to flush red.

Seeing that response, Celestia knows this is her opening to delve further. Rolling the glass around, and the dice, with the last ounce of wine in it she continues to open the subject even more. “That’s quite reassuring to know, Flash. After all it does seem my student is rather… fond, of you.”

The guard pauses for a second wondering where this could be going. Celestia is telling him that Twi is fond of him, but then again fond can mean a few things. It could mean that she simply enjoys his company, perhaps she is just comfortable around him, even something as humble as the princess is pleased with having him as a guard. Before he says anything that might make him look like a total idiot, he asks a simple question, playing dumb almost, “what do you mean Princess Celestia?”

The sun goddess raise a brow to him. Her face portraying the simple ‘some colts are really that blind’ look. “You are a capable guard, I’m sure you know what I mean, Flash. Twilight is very affectionate towards you, and she shows it quite often. I would be surprised if you haven’t noticed by now.”

His heart nearly leaps through is throat as he hears those words come from her mouth. The Princess of Equestria herself is telling him that Twilight holds him higher than he knew, or could have hoped for. For a split second he wonders how she put this together, until he remembers it’s Celestia he’s talking to, she is amazing at reading another pony when need be. In this case, it just answers what he has asked himself here and there on many occasions.

Flash awkwardly scratches the back of his head as he feels the heat rising in his face, “umm…permission to speak freely Princess?”

“Flash… you may do so as you please,” Celestia assures him. Trying to make this as easy for him as possible to talk about, “by all means, speak your mind.”

“Thank you, Princess… I have to say that I have noticed how Twilight acts around me,” Flash still cringes as he tells the pony, who over all is his boss, about what he has experienced with Twilight. “It’s rather hard for her to hide it in fact, and to be honest,” he takes a deep breath before saying this to her, “…I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fond of her either.”

He bites down on his tongue slightly and closes his eyes. Half way expecting to get at least a lecture by the Princess herself at the idea of fraternization. How could he tell her something of that sort? This is Twilight's teacher, Princess Celestia of all ponies. The younger alicorn has almost treated her like a mother ever sense she started as her personal student under Celestia’s guidance. Yet when a few moments pass without a word, Flash opens his eyes and sees something he wouldn’t have expected given the subject at hoof.

Celestia sits there with a kind, gentle smile stretching from ear to ear on her face. Not even saying a word at first, the guard catches the glimmer of a tear building up in her eye before she hastily wipes it away. Not even giving it the chance to fall. “You don’t have to be worried about saying this to me Flash,” she bolsters him, “Twilight can tell you that I’m more understanding than most. As for Twilight herself, I could have guessed what your answer would have been.”

“Is it really that obvious?” Flash asks with his ears splayed pack against his head.

“Only to the trained eye,” she starts to explain to him, “Princess Cadance assigned you here not only because you fit what Twilight happened to ask for, but also because she knew there was something in Twilight’s heart for you, and suspected the same out of you.”

‘The Princess of love, should have guessed,’ Flash thinks about it more and more, seeing how Cadance of all ponies would have been the one to see it first hand before any pony else.

Celestia rises from the table, as the fellow guard does the same, “I wanted to have this moment to talk to you about it, that’s all. I like to see Twilight happy, and what makes her happy is you… I can see she has the same effect on you as well,” she points out, eyeing the flush redness on his face that gives it all away so often, “My point exactly.”

“Princess Celestia, you know Twilight more than I do. Why would she have not said anything about this to me before?”

“Ah… Twilight wasn’t the most sociable pony,” Celestia tells him. All while Flash remembers Twi saying that before coming to Pony Ville, she didn’t really have friends. “You can imagine how hard it would be for her to admit something as foreign as an ‘infatuation’, when it was so hard to let ‘friendship’ in to her heart. Give it time, and with that time, she will open up,” she rests a heartening hoof on his shoulder before parting ways, “…Trust me.”

As Celestia starts to walk down the hall, Twilight comes back and passes by her. Giving their goodnights to one another quickly. Twi meets back with Flash in the dining hall. “Well the kids are now asleep and happy that they got to see their aunt,” she says taking note of the smidge of a smile on her guards face, “what did you and Celestia talk about while I was gone?” she asks him while they make their way down to their respective rooms.

“Oh… nothing really, official business, coming from the Crystal Empire to here,” he plays it off while blatantly lying to her face as they soon reach their rooms.

“Well,” Twilight stands there trying to think how to close off this evening without doing anything foolish. Over all it has been a great day, Flash earned the approval of her mentor and Discord, she got some good studying in, and of course… she was around him for the better part of the day. What more could the love struck mare ask for?

“I guess this is good night?” Flash says with a slight pout about him.

“Until tomorrow that is, and soon enough after that we’ll be off to the Crystal Empire once again.”

“Oh?” Flash says quizativly as his hears perk up.

“Yes…” Twi nods while she starts to explain, “Celestia has tasked me with a few books to get and a spell or two to practice, neither of which she has here, or at my own home.”

“You mean you don’t have them in your own extensive library?” Flash asks jokingly as the princess just giggles and nods to him, “Well then sounds like a busy few days.”

The more she thinks about it, the more he is right, it will be a hectic few days then. But that doesn’t mean they can’t break it up a little somehow. “Perhaps we should have one of those ‘Casual moments’ with one another?” she suggests while waving a hoof about, “I mean it would break up the days then at least.”

“You make a great point, Princess…” he emphasizes her title. Especially with his new found knowledge of what she thinks, “How does… dinner, sound?”

Twilight almost drops to the ground after hearing that suggestion. So abrupt with the proposal, and he is going along with her idea of another moment together. ‘This is going great!’ she screams at herself, ‘it’s almost a date after all.’ Although she knows that if she runs in to another one of her friends while out, whoever it is, they’re going to see it as such no matter what she may try to tell them. For now, she will leave it as just a night out… although she would like it to be more.

“That sounds just… lovely,” she says cheerfully beaming as they both back up towards their rooms without letting the other out of their sights, “Oh… I wanted to say this earlier,” Twilight says quickly after almost forgetting for the night, “…it was… ah, rather sweet how you talked to Havoc when we first got here,” she says. Chuckling a bit when she sees the reddening of his cheeks on his face in response.

“Well,” he stammers, “what can I say? I like to make another pony happy. However, goodnight, Princess Twilight” Flash keeps the formalities for the moment as his door starts to close.

“Good night, Flash Sentry…” Twilight says as the door latches and she holds a kind hoof over her gentle heart, “my Sentry.”

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A stretcher is pushed in to a blank white room of the castle. Further down in the structure than most others. This is another branch of medical in the castle that is used primarily for research that may be done in the castle. Seeing as something’s are either too dangerous to be done at a normal hospital, or need at times to be kept under wraps as best as possible. Having some of the best medical staff on hoof when the Princess makes a call comes in handy quite well, considering the circumstance. Two unicorn ponies stand across from one another on either side of the stretcher.

“Well… what do we have here?” the younger mare asks her fellow colt counselor in the medical field.

“Well, we have an interesting task at hoof right now,” the colt brings the sheet that covers the stretcher down, revealing the creature underneath.

The mare almost jumps back when she sees the changeling laying there, a few of the wounds festering now from the germs doing their work, blank stare on its face like it had as it fell, with jaw open and tongue flopped out to the side.

“Is…Is that what I think it is?” she ask covering her mouth, “oh dear, I was here when they tried to invade Canterlot. They certainly smell worse dead then they ever could alive.”

“That much your right on, sweet lips,” the colt snickers at the young pretty mare. All the while the colt brings out his scalpel and goes to work.

“I thought I told you not to call me that at work,” she grins while taking out a steel plate for any evidence they may find, “besides you and I both know we have to keep that out of the work place.”

“It’s just us down here now my dear, and I doubt this one will talk,” he answers while using the blade to open up the chest cavity, exposing the internal organs. “Besides that hasn’t stopped us before, the bed in the office was quite comfortable that one time after all,” the colt responds, pulling out the stomach and placing it on the plate as she takes it off to the side with her own tool to check it. Cutting the membrane open as the last meal that the creature had spills out.

“Ugh… this thing is must have been starving,” she coughs in to her hoof while she turns it inside out, “seriously… nothing more than a few choice forest edibles and hay here and there.”

“Well they do feed on love more than anything, and really only go for real food to sustain them when they can’t get any affection. Although malnutrition certainly wasn’t the cause of this changeling’s death,” he brings out the heart looking it over, “From what I heard he got kicked off the side of a balcony and broke its neck on impact.”

“Certainly looks like it,” the nurse takes a glance over to the creatures twisted, mangled neck.

“This things heart looks like a machine, must have been a real fighter,” the colt says almost admirably as he sets the toned muscular organ down and goes onwards to the lungs.

Removing the pairs of air sacks he places them gingerly on the table next to the whole corpse and slices expertly in to them, cutting both in half in only a few seconds. Once they open though, he sees something peculiar. Fine granulated powder, with almost a sparkle to it, caked around the walls and inside the soft tissue of the organs. “Well I have to say where ever this guy lived certainly wasn’t the best conditions that could have been hoped for. If he stayed there longer then he may have just died from simple soot and liquid build up in the lungs.”

“Let me guess… you found some crystalline looking minerals in the changeling’s lungs?” she asks looking over her shoulder.

“How’d you know?”

The mare brings the stomach over to her colt friend so he can take a look for himself. Inside are a similar mineral build up, but this is more intact and even has pieces that take the shape of small stone. The colt takes a pair to tweezers in his magic aura and takes a piece out holding it closer to view while bringing a magnifying glass out from a desk drawer.

“This stuff was everywhere. To the point that it even managed to get in to its food,” the mare remarks as she looks at the colt examining it, “What do you make of it?”

“I’m not sure,” he answers quickly looking at it even more, “it will have to get looked at an actual geologist. I’m not that kind of doctor after all.”