Chapter sixteen

Tulips, is just as Twilight described it, and as Flash heard about it. Many of the patrons are dressed up in their Sunday’s best and out with that special pony for them. Adorned with ivy vines stretching up the pillars in the front and the grated canopy over head on the outside eating section for nights like this so the sky above can still be seen by those dining. The inside is done up with ambient lighting, courtesy of candles, large clear glass windows to see the sunset and even the soft sounds of a classic band playing up on stage while several ponies slow dance on the floor in front of them, the openness of the place allows even some of the dancers to extend outside as they hold their partner close under the night sky. Although for a moment the pony checking the reservists is stumbled when he sees the resident Princess walk up being escorted by a handsome young colt.

“Good evening, Princess,” the checker says with a light bow. “How are you doing on such a fine night like this?”

“Oh we’re doing just, fine,” she trails off as Flash calls on his reservation.

“It’s under Sentry, for two… outside seating,” he says to the checker as the pony now rummages through the lists of them all.

Finding Flashes, he takes two menus in hoof and calls over a waitress to bring them to their table. The waitress is all too eager to be seating Twilight and the colt with her. Having never met the Princess personally, it will make for a great conversation later when she is off work with her own friends. Bringing the two over to the table and pulling their chairs out for them, she lights the single candle in the center as they take their seats. “Well now it’s an honor to be here for you both,” the waitress says as she goes over the special. Smoked squash with fresh glazed carrots and a side of summer salad with tossed mandarin oranges in for good measure. “May I take your drinks down?” she asks as they look over the menu listing, “We have a rather large selection of wines and liquors, along with several virgin drinks for those ponies who choose.”

Twilight peers the wine list, considering it’s a sort of special occasion. She sees no reason she can’t enjoy this, and instantly picks up on one of Cadance’s favorites, “I think I’ll have a glass of your, Rose of Canternet, what would you like Flash?”

Although the choice that Twi picked does sound rather nice, the guard knows better, and although he may technically not be on duty once he got out of his other ‘suit’. He decides to go with something more virgin, “I think I’ll just stick with the Sparkling Cider, Thank you,” he says to the waitress, as she leaves the menus with them and goes to bring out their drinks.

When she leaves, Twilight can’t help but ask the guard about his choice, “I don’t want to sound rude with coming off and asking this” she explains first, “but do you drink?”

“Actually yes,” he pauses for a moment as he now explains his side, “Although I probably won’t around you considering I am your guard after all, and I’d like to remain somewhat coherent. Just in case.”

“Hmm… respectable answer-”

“…Plus I’ve had my own hoof full of experiences that I’m not all too proud of,” he starts to nervously cringe, but at the same time can’t hide the half playful smile on his face, all of which interests the young mare across from him.

“Oh really now…” she leans in slightly closer, rather intrigued with this information “oh do tell?”

“Are you sure you really want to know?” he asks just to make sure. The Princess nods at him as she folds her fore hooves and props herself up on one as she listens and gets comfortable.

“You aren’t the only one who has gone through a bottle to fast,” she tells him, feeling guilty the whole time those words leave her mouth, “I’ll show you my cards if you show me yours?”

“Hmm…like a game of chess?” he ponders, soon returning with a grin, “deal.” Flash says as he starts to explain some of the ‘wild times’ he had while as a young guard in the Crystal Empire.

There is a drinking age that he didn’t meet, though many of the bartenders will not take a second glance if a guard comes in with several of his buddies. Their own drinks have come out just in time for Twilight to hear Flash tell a story about once when he and a few others got a promotion and the evening that followed in the wake of one to many bottles of hard liquor… well… maybe more than one too many bottles. Throughout the story, Twilight has been giggling nearly the whole time at the antics of her guard in his early days. Which thanks to her mood, its lightening up the mood for him, now being even more comfortable to talk about this one subject.

“So you nearly lost your friend?” she tries to asks between gasps of breath as she laughs. The guard across from him nodding in confirmation.

“He wasn’t used to it either, heck none of us were,” Flash elaborates on his part, “…although he probably did have more than the rest of us combined. We ended up paying our tab and rushing out of the bar, to only go and check the other bars that we hit that night to see if we ‘miss placed’ him while we bar hopped,” Sentry chuckles remembering the moment, well as much as he can recall that is.

“Did you find him eventually?”

“Oh trust me…we did,” he rolls his eyes, as he recalls the position that his buddy was in when they finally came across him, “… we found him in the Crystal castle, along with a mare maid as well in a rather, undesirable, position…” Flash finishes off.

Both he and Twilight pause for a moment looking at one another with a serious face, until they can’t keep it up any more and both start to laugh hysterically at the night that Flash wound up in. Twilight can only imagine the look on the guards face as Flash and the others looking for him came bursting through the door.

“Was… he surprised?” she manages to get out, wiping a tear or two from her eyes.

“You could say that, he didn’t even know that we were looking for him actually. We went back out on the town after getting him, and even the maid tagged along oddly enough,” he goes in to the details, “apparently he had met her at the first bar we went to and then hooked up with her after that little visit. Going in to the castle where she gave him a tour of the palace… before she gave him a-”

Twilight cuts him off, finishing his sentence “…tour of her own flesh?” she says with a wink as the Princess sits back and sips her glass of wine.

“You said it,” he finalizes doing the same to his cider.

“Well I won’t say that I’ve had the same experience with drinking…” Twilight explains as the waitress comes around and refills her glass, and starts to take their orders. Twilight goes for the special that was brought up earlier. While Flash decides on the pasta and mushroom linguini. Once the mare has left to put their order in though, the Princess goes in to her own excursion. “…however there are a few that I can recall when I was out with my friends. I’m not the heavy drinker, really…as you may guess from the book worm type,” she picks up her glass to prove a point from the large amount still left over, “if I have any more then maybe three of these I might start to sing and dance on the table.”

“As funny as that may sound,” Flash says getting a lighthearted scowl from her, “let’s keep you sober tonight.”

“Good idea… anyway, that said though there are the occasions when I would like to let loose here and there. I may be a Princess, but if I had to act as such all the time. It’s safe to say I would have lost my mind by now,” Twilight goes and tells him how one night her and her friends had broken open a few bottles of their own.

The occasion being that Rarity had been dumped by a colt she was dating and left completely devastated, and having a pony like Pinkie around, it goes without saying that there was a party in their mists soon. Being thrown at Sweet Apple Acers, AJ's home. The gathering of the friends was out in the barn on the farm while all sorts of sweet and treats were brought by Pinkie herself.

On the down low though, she also brought out some ‘party’ drinks, being mixed cocktails for the bunch. Those, plus the hard apple cider that Applejack is fond of making, made for a very interesting evening. It wasn’t long before all of them were fairly well lit up on their own choice of poison, even Spike was by this point, able to take flaming shots without snuffing the fire out first. Seeing an intoxicated pony is one thing, but a drunk dragon is a whole new story as Twi tells him about something interesting that had happened once both the dragon and the beauty queen herself were well sloshed.

“You mean you saw both of them-” Flash gets cut off though.

“Yep…” Twilight grins while continuing the story, “Apparently his forked tongue is longer than it lets on, and Rarity can attest to that one. After all from what I saw it hit every part of her mouth, and then some.”

“I did see something between those two when I first met them…” Flash says to her.

While Twi can’t help but wonder, ‘you notice them after meeting for more or less the first time… yet the mare right across from you is tripping over herself and you can’t see it?’ she internally chuckles at the sad, ironic fact while he still talks.

“…a pony and a dragon… who’d of thought,” he finishes.

“Well they are usually tight around the subject, and honestly once he hit his growth spurt and got to face level, along with his wings. The two have seemed to spend more time with one another than ever before,” she explains. Considering for the longest time, Spike remained pint sized, even though his crush on her kept growing. Once he reached her height though, the two can be seen on many occasions with one another out in town, just the two of them. “Though nothing has been said of it by either of them. Best I’ve gotten from Rarity was, ‘we are just very, very good friends'’’…” Twilight even does the quotations as best as she can with her hooves, getting the point across to him.

“That seems to be apparent,” he leaves off with while their food comes out.

Both dishes smelling stupendous as they are placed before them, and Twilight takes a single refill of her wine before calling it for the night. The squash tastes just marvelous as she savors every bite in it, the smoky flavor filled in it from the slow cooking process that took place. Having it on the same plate as the carrots allowed for the glaze to mix in as well, only enhancing the flavor. As the carrots to their own part and give their own distinct taste to the dish.

Flash’s dish is far better then what he is used to in the galley. On special occasions, or when he just wants to get out of the castle, he would go to another eatery in the empire. More often than not though he finds himself grabbing a quick bite at the mess hall to fill his hunger needs if he wasn’t out traveling with the guard.

Each mushroom was left in the pan to simmer, as it caramelized in its own natural sugars, giving it an almost nutty taste in the end product along with a distinct shine. While at the same time the tomato sauce he can even tell has been made fresh that day from the earthy tinge to it as he rolls it over his tongue. The linguini is done perfectly, even better than many of the places that he has gone to in the Crystal Empire. Which is surprising none the less for the guard that has gotten to try many different dishes when it comes to travel with the army.

In due time though after getting a good taste for their food, it doesn’t take long for them to pick at their meals and chat with one another yet again. Now just going back and forth as the guard and the Princess get to know one another more with simple Q&A.

“Okay… favorite past time that you could have had when you joined?” Twilight asks him while sipping on the glass, “I know you focused a lot on your career, but I’m sure you had something to do?”

“Hmm…” Flash thinks back to his earlier years, which weren’t all that long ago, “I enjoyed going out for a good night with my coworkers and just having a good time,” he watched as the Princesses brow raised before he explained further, “no, not drinking all the time… I don’t do it that much anymore. I had my fun during my early years… but usually we would hang out in the Empire and enjoy ourselves. Trying to stay out of trouble, as best we could,” he awkwardly chuckles, getting an immature laugh from the Princess.

“Well you seemed to do quite well, and still seem to be. Now your turn,” she passes the torch to him.

Flash thinks in the back of his mind something to ask, “What’s the most embarrassing thing you have done? While being in Ponyville.”

That’s actually a tough one for the Princess to think of while she becomes hard pressed to find an answer for it, when one is found though. It hits her like a brick, “Lost my mind when I thought I had miss placed a letter for the Princess and didn’t have anything to report to her on that week, so I ended up going around town to basically ‘make’ my own lesson… which let’s just say ended with Princess Celestia having to fly in and save the day…” she nervously scratches the back of her head, “the look on my face when I saw Celestia there probably was priceless to some, but as far as I’m concerned I could have died.”

Flash sits there blank faced across from her as he bites down on his lower lip, feeling the pressure build up in him before he starts to laugh at the image of Twilight losing her mind. Seeing the red look on her face as she slowly shakes her head at the memory, her guard gets himself under control.

“Sorry about that… but seeing you on the boarder of insane is kind of funny,” Flash sheepishly admits.

“Don’t be sorry,” she assures him while sharing in the laughter, “trust me I think the same thing when it comes to mind.”

“What did you learn that time around though?”

“Simply that ‘it’s okay to lose your mind every once in a while’…” she rolls her eyes at, remembering that letter, and also Cadance’s mention of that lesson not too long ago in fact.

“Aint that the truth…” he answers finishing off his meal and the glass to suit before saying another word, “your turn though.”

Now Twilight is the one left thinking. There are a million things that she could say to him that would probably either explain a lot, or give a little closure when it comes to her thoughts. Though she settles on something simple, “Would you mind if I asked a personal question?”

“Is that the question?” he playfully responds.

“No silly,” she foalishly brushes a hoof back through her hair, “but that doesn’t answer me.”

“Of course you can,” he informs her.

“Well… if you say so,” she tries to think how to word this without sounding too curious about the subject. A subject that she has wanted to ask about, but never really had a good time to do so. That is until now, “you spent a lot of time getting to where you are now… and already said there wasn’t a special pony waiting for you back in Empire, a Marefriend?”

“That’s right,” he confirms, waiting to see where she could be going with this.

“Well keeping that in mind, I was just curious,” Twilight starts to cringe at even her own question. Feeling the blood rush to her heart as her breathing gets slightly heavier, “have you ever had a Marefriend before?” she asks dropping that bombshell of a question.

“Honestly…” he pauses before turning a slight shade of red, “never.”

The Princess almost drops her glass after hearing this fact. Flash Sentry, the guard that has entrapped her and made herself question her own feelings regarding things past simple friendship. As sweet as they come, the picture perfect example of a gentlecolt in her mind, and one that she would imagine filly after filly would be knocking his door down to get to. Has never even had a Marefriend himself, this news alone is shocking, although it’s also ironic by the fact that he isn’t the only one…

“Many of my coworkers don’t know that,” he tags on with, running his hoof through his mane to take away some of the tension in the back of his mind, “… and I’d like to keep it that way if we are ever around them in the future.”

Twilight finally brings herself to say something to him after finding out about this little fact, “Oh…don’t worry, your secret is safe with me… but if I may ask, how come? There has to be some reason, I mean you had spare time on occasion to hang out with friends. So it would seem you could have made time for a mare,” she mulls over, running her hoof around the edge of her glass before taking another sip. After all that fact does makes sense to her, and Flash can’t even deny it that there isn’t as much on his plate at there used to be. “What’s stopping you?”

“Well… how can I say this?” The guard twiddles his hooves together while sitting there wondering the best way to answer this, “I’ve just never met one that has taken me that seriously that I would consider the idea,” he says bluntly to her, knowing full well how Twilight feels about him, mostly wanting to gauge her response.

All she does is nearly choke on her own drink at the answer. ‘Please tell me you can see me across the table? Or am I invisible!’ she almost screams at him, and herself all in her head while he continues with a simple tag line that makes her think even more.

“…well… that is no pony that has told me anyway,” Flash tacks on, and with that simple line Twilight almost swallows her tongue.

Vague ideas of leaping across the table and spilling everything to the colt come to mind, along with a few of hurtling her glass in his face to get the point across. ‘…no that’s not practical…’ she tells herself, ‘though it does sound like it would do the trick,’ snapping out of it. Twilight brings herself to say something finally.

“Flash…” she says tenderly.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“While we’re in a talking kind of mood… there is something I should tell you…” she says getting her own heart strings in line.

‘Is she going to say it?’ he asks himself, while she does something similar.

‘Should I tell him the whole truth?’ she asks herself before deciding against it.

“I’ve never had a Coltfriend myself,” she answers ashamed by that fact, “or for that matter even had my first kiss, on the lips, by another colt.”

It may not have been the news Flash would have sought after to hear, but it’s never the less astounding. This one of a kind mare across from him has never had a Coltfriend, let alone her first kiss… “You’re joking?” he says in disbelief.

The Princess shakes her head to confirm what she just said, “As I told you before, I wasn’t very sociable growing up. So even getting friends wasn’t that important to me, a Coltfriend is a whole new story. After moving here that didn’t change as I studied under the Princess, and having her as a mentor makes for a very intimidating pony to have around to any colt who would want to try… although…” she sighs for a second “none ever tried…”

Twi pouts thinking how the colts she has run across in her time have never even taken the chance to try and be closer to her. For the longest time she threw it up to that she either wasn’t attractive, or was just socially awkward, but eventually it became a lost cause for the young mare and pushed it all off to the side. Her drearier moment though is broken when she gets a hoof covering her own on the table, looking up to see a gentle smile on her guards face.

“Hey… I’m surprised that you never have had a Coltfriend. Granted you told me you weren’t that sociable when you were younger, and busy now a days. However, as far as I’m concerned, what’s not there for a stallion to like?” he says flattering her. As Flash now goes on about everything that would have another colt falling over the Princess, even if she may hope the only one that does is the Pegasus before her. “You are a very young, beautiful Princess. Both smart and talented in your own right and more than just what you let on… having probably lived more than many other ponies your age will in their whole life time… and even though you may be a Princess, you’re still pretty independent on your own. Something that just from you telling me about your past experiences, I can tell you are more than…”

He trails off for a moment longer, before seeing the look on her face grow with every word. Looking down with his hoof over hers, he catches himself and jerks his hoof back on to his lap. Although he may know that Twilight feels for him, and he certainly does the same for her. There is a time and place to try and flatter a mare, and for a guard talking to his princess. A public restaurant isn’t the place to do so, “…I’m… ahh sorry about that… Didn’t want to keep going, or at least didn’t plan on it.”

Flash though gets a hoof over his lips in a simple gesture by the Princess herself. His kind blue eyes grow wide as he watches her soft lavender eyes blink a few times slowly. The guard’s heart rate is racing faster than his mind, trying to think what the Princess may say. He can’t imagine why she would be upset with him for saying those things, although she is formal herself on occasion and may have seen something like that said best behind closed doors.

Though he still has to learn how the Princess’s mind truly works.

“You should probably know by now that there really isn’t anything you can’t say to me…” she starts off saying as she brings her own hoof back. “I meant every word I said back in the house last night, about you. I’m more surprised that you haven’t managed to sweep a young mare off her feet by this point with the sweet talk that you have had with me,” she starts to chuckle. Although that last comment only worries the guard more that Celestia was right, it is really that obvious.

“Have I been over doing it?” he has to ask.

“I said you were sweet for a reason there,” she points out reminding him of that statement earlier. “I will admit that when I found out a guard was going to come I was quite nervous…and although I may not need you here to protect me,” she stresses the last part, “I am more than glad that you came along in to town for the task… and I mean that as well.”

Flash though is more than glad to hear the fact that Twilight welcomes everything that he has said. He knows that at heart he won’t be able to hold back what he truly thinks of her forever… and he hopes that he doesn’t have to be the first to say it. Never the less though, Sentry is ready to stand there by the Princess’s side. Not because it’s an order, but because he wants to.

Slowly bowing his head at her, he acknowledges, “I wouldn’t like it any other way, Princess,” he says to her as they both get the same plastered look on their face of a warm hearted smile.

The time they have presses on, and as Twilight finishes her own dish. Eventually though as new patrons start to file in for the night and old ones start to leave, they decide that it’s probably time to get going. After paying the bill, and leaving a good tip for their waitress, Flash catches up with Twilight who was standing outside waiting on him. The Princess still has no idea about the play that he was going to catch, and doesn’t notice him looking down at his watch for but a moment. ‘Seven thirty five… there’s time,’ he tells himself.

Though as he thinks about it more and more it doesn’t take long for him to mentally slap himself remembering a key detail, ‘Damn… why didn’t I get tickets previously,’ he says to himself as they make their way down the street. Twilight remaining happily wrapped up under his wing, for a little warmth of course, due to her dresses design.

“I had a lovely time Flash… the whole night, was just… perfect,” she says, indirectly thanking him for the meal, among other things, although Twi does end up a little confused when he returns with an awkward smile, “what’s that look for?”

“Well,” he starts off as they are about to pass by the town hall. To his surprise though the sign out the corner of his eye doesn’t read sold out, and there is only a few ponies there in front waiting to get in, “the night is still young… and I did have time yesterday to look in the paper to see what else there was to see in town,” he stops at the hall. While Twi stops with him at the same time.

Its takes her a few seconds to realize what he means by that statement, looking at the bill board over top his head that displays the events going on and back at him in slight disbelief, “you didn’t?” she says to him trying to figure it out.

“Well I didn’t get them in advance if that’s what you mean, just looked to see what was playing.”

“You planned this out?!” she almost jumps with enthusiasm at what this night is to behold.

“I'm in the military, I’m great with planning… and needless to say, also making it up as I go, it goes with the territory,” he says, taking her hoof as they pick up their tickets after waiting in line for only a minute or so and go to get their seats.

The chairs around them soon start to pile up with other guests as time to curtain closes fast. Little did Flash know, and which he quickly learned after Twilight explained, she has wanted to go out and see this play for quite some time now. Though she couldn’t get any of her close friends to make it. Spike had the library to reorganize (something that takes him far longer to do then it took Twilight). Pinkie wouldn’t sit still for long enough. Fluttershy would have been scared of the fighting scenes. Rarity isn’t one for plays, oddly enough. AJ had work on the farm, and lastly Rainbow Dash in her words isn’t one for ‘sappy love stories…’ Even though Twilight herself can enjoy one here and there.

Flash though is more than happy knowing that with a complete shot in the dark, he made a good pick with a play. Now listening to Twilight before the lights die down. “I don’t know how you did it… but you sure as heck know how to show a mare a good time.”

“I think I’ll thank planning with the dinner,” he grins off to the side, “for the play, that goes to luck.”

“Well luck seems to be on your side then,” she winks at him while the lights dim, and the show starts.

The Drama club that puts on such attractions are very well endowed with great actors and actresses. All of who practice on their characters almost to the point of really believing they are who they pretend to be. All the stage effects are courtesy of the various unicorns back stage and the Pegasus ponies carrying props above where they can’t be seen almost like puppets on a string flying though the air. All of which adds to the effects of the war torn life of a soldier after a battle. Broken and forgotten as he fights to avoid those who would want to do him harm as he struggles to make it home to his love.

The gasps and many ahhs that come from the audience while the time ticks by comes to no surprise by the rollercoaster ride of a story. The protagonist of the story having to elude soldiers, wizards, creatures only found in the forest past dark, and even after eventually being captured, struggles to maintain his strength as he is beaten in to submission.

Twilight goes through her own motions when it comes in to taking in the moments of the play. However, with every passing moment that causes the mare to jump a bit, she leans in closer and closer to the guard next to her, and by this time there are a lot of those. It gets to the point where she is so in to the story that she even finds herself clenching his hoof, and as other moments pass the Princess ends up resting her head on his shoulder without a single care in the world.

Flash though just sits there and lets Twi do what she wants, finding it strange that not too long ago he was nervous about complementing her… but at this point it seems rather obvious that it really doesn’t matter what he says, so long as he is there, Twilight will be happy.

The hero finally reaches his dearest, just in time to find her being held by the very enemy leader who has been trying to catch him all this time. After a vicious fight to the death, the captain is brought down with a single mighty thrust of a sword and has the fatal wound delivered to his chest, in true hero story climax setting. Allowing the couple to rejoice with one another that it is all over, and they are together. The curtains close just long enough for the cast to come out while they all take a bow in front of the applauding audience from their performance. Every one of them standing as they clop their hooves. Of course Twilight is amongst them as she has the whole play goes over in her mind, finding even more reasons to keep giving a standing ovation as she whistles with glee from the performance.

The Town hall clears out, and lets the ‘couple’ go out in to the night while the Princess rambles on and on of why she’ll have to drag her friends there by their hooves to see it. “I was expecting it to be good, but that was incredible!” she beams while continuing in a rant that Pinkie would be proud of.

All the while Flash stands there agreeing with her. He never has been one to go out and see a play, mostly using such an event to relieve a little stress when it came to dealing with the duties as a guard, though he was very impressed.

“I couldn’t have said it better… the actors never missed a line at all and timed everything perfectly,” he watches the foalish expression on the princess's face grow, “Id see it again, and that’s for sure.”

“They sure do practice a lot for this all” Twilight says following up as they walk towards her house from the center of town, “although tomorrow we have to be up early to get to the empire,” she starts to frown in the realization that their day is coming to an end here shortly.

“Well look at the bright side,” Flash tries to lift her spirits, “We said we were going to have a night out, and we sure did.”

Twilight agrees with him entirely, “we’ll have to do it again sometime, although when we get back I can think of a few ponies, and a dragon that would want to tag along,” they both start to chuckle, recalling what Applejack said about getting together when they get back sometime. “Though I’ll have to revise my statement from earlier…” she says, getting a blank stare from the guard at first.

Affectionately the princess rubs her cheek in to the side of his warm neck as they walk along the path, Twilight grows ever so more comfortable with showing her true colors with him, as she nestles herself there in him for what seems like the longest time while she catches his breathing picking up. Still holding the position as she enjoys the thoughts running through her head for the time being, “… now… tonight has been perfect.”