Chapter forty eight

Darkness surrounds the guard as he feels his body growing lighter and lighter by the second. Cracking a single eye open, the only thing Flash can see is the stars above him in the open night sky as he looks up. Turning his head to either side of him, all he sees is a mist making up the ground below, but any Pegasus would know what clouds feel like below their coat. ‘Clouds?’ Flash questions his surroundings as he puts a hoof through the water vapor cushion below him.

Rolling over on his stomach, the guard gets up on his hooves finally and looks around further out in to the distance, only to see miles of the puffy vapors there around him. ‘What is this place?’ he asks, ‘and where is-’ Flash’s sentence is stopped the moment the mare’s name come to mind. Glancing over his body, the only thing there he can see is… nothing.

No armor covers his body, no scars or marks from a fight, and no sword sticks out of him. The guard is left there speechless for the better part of a few minutes as his mind tries to race up with what he is actually seeing himself. Before he puts together that this is either a dream, or a horrible nightmare.

“Well…ahh…” Flash starts to poke and prod at himself as he feels around where he blade should have stuck in, “…this is just weird…”

“Mhmm… Hehe.”

He hears a slight giggle, a female’s tone, off in the distance. But from where? He continues to look about. In a force of habit, Flash reaches down to his side to take his sword out, before realizing that like his armor, it’s gone just as well. A slight chill comes up his spine at being completely naked without anything to defend himself for the first time in a long while. So without anything else to do, the colt calls out, looking for an answer.

“Hello?” Flash calls out to the mysterious mare, “can you hear me?”

“Of course I can, my dear…” the sweet sounding voice coos, soothing every sense he has.

“Do…Do you mean harm upon me?”

“If I wanted to hurt you, gentlecolt, I wouldn’t have brought you here…” from where ever she is, the sight of the cringing colt is clear on his face, as if the mare were right in front of him, “no need to worry, harming others isn’t in my nature.”

“Then…” Flash wonders, “What is your nature?”

“To help, to guide others lost on their path, or answer questions that one may come when they reach my demesne,” with every word she speaks. The guard can feel any worry in his mind mellowing out, and fading away to the back of his mind.

“I understand, miss, I’m just not sure what to think at the moment, thank you for bringing me to this…place,” he instinctively bows, considering that she must be greater than he. Flash isn’t sure where the mare is in this sea of clouds in the middle of the night, but where ever, she must be able to see him. “I just took a sword to the gut and-”

“You are a guard after all…” he hears another light chuckle from her, “…I know, Flash Sentry, I know. There is no need to bow, my sweet child.”

“Would you please then ease my mind, and perhaps, show yourself?” he asks, hoping that it isn’t in fact too much to call upon.

“It would be, my pleasure…” he hears the sincere voice call out to him. The darkness about him still apparent as he looks about hoping to see that who calls, but at first he sees nothing. Sentry starts to get worried as if this is some sort of game being played against him. The guard is in a mysterious place, with a voice that he does not know talking to him. Though at the same time whenever he hears her speak it’s like a soft melody being sung to a child to sleep.

‘You need not worry…’ he hears the voice in his head at the moment, ‘All is well…’

‘How do you know?’ he starts to talk to her through his mind by just thought, ‘how do you know all this?’

‘Let’s just say I’ve been here for a long, long time…’ he looks up to see a single star, glowing bright as can be.

Against the others behind it. The star starts to descend down closer and closer to the colt as Flash instinctively backs up for a few steps, to give whatever it is room. It halts just off the ground, or clouds in this case, and in a single flash of light, Sentry is blinded for a few seconds. Squinting to keep his eyes from the burn, the ball slowly darkens down so that he may witness that who has made their presence, though as the guard opens his eyes to their fullest. He is left in awe at what he sees.

A pure white mare, with a coat that rivals that of even a cloud in the day, stands there before him almost twice his height. Built like one that would strike even the strongest colt down off his feet, he takes sight of the beautiful mare. A long slender horn protrudes from her head as the back of her is occupied by a pair of glorious wings that have been clearly well kept. Preened neatly, and orderly, as old feathers taken out to make way for newer stronger ones. It’s obvious this has been going on for quite a while, as the feathers are longer than any he as ever seen before.

Though what really draws the colt’s attention is the long and flowing red mane. Draping and fluttering through the air like the wind is blowing constantly even though he cannot feel it against his own coat. The same as is her tail, stretching almost twice her body length, long past the quill and inkwell on her flank. Her eyes remain closed at first, but as she opens them, Flash finds a wonderful set of sky blue irises calmly looking down upon the Pegasus in her mists without anything but compassion and kindheartedness in them.

At first she is silent, though as her lips start to up turn, a gentle smile appears on her face while her body seems to radiate a glow about her that illuminates the area around her. “It’s nice to meet you, Flash Sentry.”

“It’s… a pleasure to meet you, as well…” he stumbles, not sure how properly address her, but still trying to maintain the utmost of respect, “Umm…I’m afraid I don’t know who you are exactly though…”

“Hehe,” the alicorn chuckles, “I wouldn’t have expected you to… I get that a lot from those that cross paths with me. For the sake of things though, you can call me, Faust… for now however,” she starts to stroll on the clouds under the moon light, “Walk with me, let us talk…”

Seeing as he doesn’t really have a choice right now in this matter. The guard takes her up in the offer and flutters his wings to hover off the ground, and catches up to her side as he lands. So many questions buzzing through ones mind, can over work a pony to no end. Though thankfully, he doesn’t even have to say a word to her, for the mare to know that the colt among her wishes to have a few things answered.

“I know you have something going on in there… please, speak your mind, my dear,” Faust lowers her head ever so slightly to seem less imposing to the colt.

“Ahh… okay,” Flash tries to think where exactly to start, something simple, “Well I’m assuming that I’m not in Ponyville anymore?”

“Or Equestria for that matter…”

“Then I guess my first question will be, where exactly am I?”

“Eh… not the first time I got that question, though it diffidently won’t the last,” she sort of expected that to come up as a first, “this is where creatures go who have, crossed over…”

It takes a few seconds for those words to register in the guard’s mind fully, but when they do his head starts to snap back and forth looking around for any others, “Wait… you mean this is…?”

“You can call it what you will… it has many names depending on the culture,” Faust holds a gentle hoof over his mouth to calm him, “I prefer to call it, home.”

“Well… in that case. If I really am dead, what happened to Twilight? Is she alright?” he asks concerned over the princess and her wellbeing, seeing as the last time he saw her she was being carted off to Celestia knows where.

“Sadly,” the alicorn for the first time frowns a bit, “That I can’t answer…”

“Why? How do you know that all will be alright, if you can’t tell me?”

“Well I can, but you need to live it for yourself, Flash…” the mare remarks to his surprise while he tries to think of how this will work.

“I’m dead though, how can I live it for myself?” Sentry poses the question to one that clearly knows more than he.

All the mare does at first is chuckle at him without so much as a word, “…Don’t worry now, your friends will help you with that.”

Answering him in yet another cryptic riddle, she puts a gentle hoof on his shoulder while using her horn to part the clouds beneath them for a glimpse at the land below. Looking down upon them. Flash recognizes the place instantly… from the bright lights of Manehatten, to even the wide and green lands of the center of the nation, to the deserted Badlands to the south.

“This is the nation of Equestria, Ms. Faust…” he mutters, knowing his home from anywhere, “My home…”

“And it’s in great danger,” she reminds him painfully.

“Don’t remind me…” the reminder only makes him recall the wicked pair still running amok down there, and what they could do if no pony manages to stop them.

“Though so much more is at stake for you…” Faust witnesses the issue going on in his head. Though as she peers in to the colt’s heart, the white mare notes who it truly beats for. It isn’t his nation, it isn’t the guard, and it isn’t even his princesses that lead Equestria. It’s the one alicorn that he shares his life with already, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, she has a special place in your heart, doesn’t she?”

A light, but truthful smile passes on his face as the colt blushes, “more than she may ever know…”

“Oh… but she does know,” the alicorn lifts his spirits a bit, before covering Equestria again in clouds, “Twilight was taught by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna none the less, and even before that was an intelligent one… she will know what she has to do, when the time is right.”

“And what might that be?” he asks, worried about the mare, and what may be done to her as she is kept by the king and queen, “What will she have to do?”

“Something that only her coltfriend can help with…” the greater one explains briefly to the still bewildered colt, “Flash Sentry, you yourself will have to help her in this, a sacrifice. Though only your strength of heart will save you.”

“How?” he feels a painful twitch in his heart, quickly holding a hoof over his chest as it normalizes after a few seconds.

“Don’t worry,” she smiles whole heartedly at the young colt, “you will know when you see it…” she watches the same effect happen to him as his body twitches again. It isn’t the first time she has seen this happening in ones who have visited her. Though Flash still can’t help but feel safe in her presence, even with all the things going about his mind, it is oddly enough at peace at the same time.

“You…” Flash feels the pain in his chest come back once again, “you remind me of Princess Celestia.”

“Oh I’ve gotten that a lot more than even the first question,” she laughs lightly at the comment while she brushes it off on a whim, “though that makes sense, as Luna has taken after Stan more than myself, well personality wise at least… to some extent.”

“Stan?” it perks his interest at how the princesses may know them, and how they all may be connected, “who is he?”

The alicorn grins, remembering the fond memories that the name brings up. Realizing that she doesn’t see him nearly as much as she would like to, “Oh… he, well that alicorn has always had an attraction for the darkness and everything that falls under as such… oddly enough though, he pursued me,” Faust goes off rambling at first without even realizing it, “Be thankful though, if you saw him then you probably would be burning up right now…” she looks down strait past her feet.

Another surge of pain hits his whole body now as Flash starts to twitch again, each muscle contracting as it almost forces him to lose his footing. “Are you…” something starts to click at the moment inside his head as some pieces fall in to place, “Are you and… Stan? Celestia and Luna’s…” he stops while watching her grin at him, answering the colt only with a single wink.

With that realization of who he is in the presence of, Flash feels another surge come across his form. None stop at this point as every single cell in his body seems to vibrate and twitch. Though soon enough he looks below him at a glowing light, getting brighter and brighter with every second as the colt starts to sink in to the cloud and away from Faust.

“Take care, Flash…” the loving motherly alicorn calls to him as he sinks in to the cloud and away from her, “you aren’t ready to see me, quite yet… and do tell Celestia and Luna that I said, ‘I love them’…” the mysterious alicorn watches the colt fade away in to oblivion. Out of her domain that remains hers, and now thankful that she has a little messenger, to relay something to those back in Equestria.

____________________________

“Clear!” a unicorn nurse yells out in the med ward while she shocks the guard with a simple electric spell. Meanwhile the royal family, along with right now the mane five plus Spike stand watch as Sentry’s body jumps up and down after each shock.

“Hit him again!” Nurse Sterile yells to the unicorn, as she even starts to shake her head.

“It’s no use Sterile, he has lost far too much blood,” the nurse tries to reason with her superior, “the wound is fine, but there may just not be enough fluids in him to kick start the pump.”

“And I said,” her face grows more and more serious with every word that parts her lips, “hit… him…again!” she almost breaths down the subordinate nurse’s neck, as she nods finally and charges up the spell for one last go. ‘Come on, Mr. Sentry,’ Sterile says to herself, ‘you are far more stubborn than this…’

“Clear!” she calls out as the jolt hits the still guard, causing him to jump one last time. After a few seconds of nothing to report, a steady beep comes across the heart machine now finally as the pulse starts to pick up repetition. Growing faster and faster with every second, until Flash himself, can’t stay out much more.

“Twilight!” Flash yells out while laying down in bed.

His eyes fidget left and right as the hormonal drive kick starts him to rise. All around he can see the shocked, stunned, and overall relieved faces of those ponies that stand around him at hooves length so as to avoid getting shocked themselves. Even now as his eyes adjust from his slumber, he sees two more standing there. “Shining Armor? Princess Cadance?” Flash sees finally the white stallion and the pink princess as they stand next to the others, while they get a spot to watch his recovery.

“Flash, you’re alright!” the pink alicorn yells out, even extending her own hoof around the guard’s neck and pulling him in to an embrace.

“Glad to see you pulled through,” Shining places a hoof on his shoulder while the others fall in.

“What…How?” he starts to question, last thing he remembers… well, in Equestria. He had just gotten in a fight with the king and took a sword to the gut. Something that would have killed him on any other occasion, but something happened this time.

“It was Twilight, fare Flash,” Princess Celestia explains to him while he sits up in his bed, both nurses stepping off to the side for a second and giving him room to breathe. “Before whatever happened to her happened, she cast a protection spell on you…”

“Sphere of rejuvenation, to be exact,” Luna steps in to fill in some of the blanks, “while it may have not helped the blood that was already lost. The spell took hold in her absence, and patched you up entirely.”

“I didn’t even have to give you any stiches, or put a single bandage on…” Sterile remarks off to the side, placing the very blade that hit him on the counter.

“Though… all that said, what did happen?” Luna persists.

“What happened to Twilight?” Rainbow asks, while she and the girls lean in.

Flash can only shake his head at his own failure from his duty, it is his fault, that the princess is now gone. “King Sombra… When we got back to Ponyville, Twilight realized that the changeling who attacked us on our way to the caves, was impersonating a pony she knew. So when we got back, naturally she wanted to check on the mare.”

“That’s how we found ya Flash…” Applejack explains that bit of how they came across the already half dead guard at the time, “news spreads fast in a town like that. ‘nd when we found out that Twilight and ya found Sunflower to begin with, we just had to come by and see what had happened… sure glad we did.”

“We tried to knock at first,” Fluttershy whispers, “but when there wasn’t an answer-”

“I blew the door down with my cannon!” Pinkie jumps for joy at the fun she had with that one. All the while the guard even in his state can only shake his head at her antics.

“…As I was saying…” Flash picks back up, “after finding what was left of Ms. Sunflower, we made our way back to Twilight’s home. That’s when Sombra was there waiting for us…” he can barely even look at the brother of the pony he was supposed to protect, knowing full well that he has failed in his one job that he had, “during the fight, he pinned Twilight and hurtled her sword at me… stabbing me in the gut. I bled out there, as he took her,” Sentry slowly shakes his head, “I’m sorry, sir… there was nothing I could do in my state,” his eyes remain lowered out of pure guilt. That is until he feels a reassuring hoof placed on his shoulder, beckoning his head to rise.

“You did what you were ordered to do, soldier,” Shining reminds him, giving his counterpart a small but warming grin, “there is nothing I could have asked from you more than that…”

Nurse Sterile hooks up another bag of blood to the guards IV, while Flash returns a grateful smile to the captain before him. “Thanks to the princess, that spell that she cast healed the wound up fine, along with the cracked rib… again, and after you get some more plasma in you. Then you should be more than able to get up,” she watches at the guard in question starts to twist his leg as if ready to get out of the bed already, “don’t you even think about it!” Sterile holds a hoof pointing straight at his face while a few of the others in the room, jump slightly at her demanding tone, “I will not have Princess Twilight coming after me when she is brought back, because you decided that you were ‘okay’, and wanted to get up on your own… you will stay in that bed mister, for at least two more bags,” she narrows her eyes at him, “am…I…clear?”

“…Yes… Nurse Sterile…” he bites down on the lower part of his own lip, as she turns back to her normal self.

“Good…now I will go and get those bags, stay put,” she trots off while they all turn to the guard in question now as Sterile leaves the room.

“What did you do to piss her off?” RD asks the obvious.

“Let’s just say… I don’t have the best track record in this med ward when it comes to that particular mare,” he scratches the back of his head while trying to put it all together in his mind of what’s going on. All of them in fact doing the same as well.

“Twilight’s gone…” Celestia starts.

“…Sombra has taken her…” Luna continues.

“…Queen Chrysalis and he are working together…” Discord contorts.

“…they have the Elements of Harmony…” Shining adds on.

“…and we have no idea where they are,” Cadance caps off with the obvious so far, though the princess of love does try to leave it on a positive note, “On the bright side however, me and Shiny have arrived with a full battalion of soldiers. So in combination with the royal guards already here, we should be no match for them if this goes hot.”

Discord clenches his talons, “and it’s going to go hot, one way or another,” at that moment a guard knocks on the door. Opening it slightly just a crack and peeking his head in.

“Ahh… Princess Luna,” he mumbles, grabbing her attention.

The night mare excuses herself for a moment as she steps out to the guard so she can hear what he has brought her. All of them watching the door for now as they see her leave them, and turn their attention back to each other as she departs. It only takes a few seconds, but even as the mare of the moon steps back inside. It’s easily apparent that there is a new uplifted pep in her step, and on top of that a rather smug look on her face.

“What is it that you know, sister?” Celestia questions, knowing the expression of ‘I know something you don’t know’ on her face, all too well.

“Oh…” she starts to grin uncontrollably, “just the location of the enemy, that’s all…” she shrugs her shoulders as the others almost drop their jaws to the floor.

“You’re joking…” Discord doesn’t even believe her.

“Would I lie about that? Besides my trackers are very, very good at what they do,” the smug look about her face is showing her cards already. “They did do their job in the end, and right now they know where the enemy is.”

“And where might that be?” Cadance asks the obvious.

“Oh… that I’ll explain later…” she turns to her sister, “though wouldn’t you say it’s time to get an army ready for war?”

The all too eager smile lights up on the sun goddess’s face, “I thought you’d never ask…”

“And when Sterile gets back with those bags…” Flash cracks his neck, “I’m coming with you all.”

“Well Flash-” Shining starts to say, before getting a hoof held up by the lower ranking guard himself.

“Sir… with respect to your rank,” he starts off, so Sentry can get his two cents in, “No matter if you say I did my job or not. It’s not complete until Twilight is back here, safe and sound… and those responsible are brought down, one way or another. So no matter what happens to me, I will be going out there to battle.”

“Good to know. I wasn’t going to say anything to discourage you…” Shining answers him, watching Sentry trip over his tongue as he just made a fool of himself at the moment.

“…Oh…” Flash face hooves himself.

The captain simply grins at him, before picking up the sword that belongs to his very sister in an aura of magic and brings it over to the guard, resting it on the table next to Flash, “in fact… when the nurse finishes up with you, come find me. I’ll help you suit up.” In a silent nod, they both agree on that.

At that moment all but the royal family leave and go to prep for the battle to come now. Even if some of them may not be experienced in the tides of war, they will cover oceans and move mountains to see their beloved Twilight Sparkle back safely. Discord, Celestia, and even Flash are filled in on where the king and queen reside now by Luna finally though as the others leave. Not that it’s a big secret, though this news could just spark more talking and less action.

“So the Queen was so close to begin with from Twilight, when they were sent for the elements all along!?” Celestia almost thrusts her metal hoof in to the ground below.

“Easy now, Tia…” Discord tries to calm her down, “you couldn’t have known.”

“I know… it’s not that I wished she was found sooner, I just know that if Chrysalis’s location was known at the time. Than Twilight and her friends would have likely tried to go then and there,” Celestia straightens out her tiara after her hissy fit, “who knows what she would have done to them.”

“Though with them being in our childhood home, we do have the home field advantage now,” Luna grins at her sister, “We have to get Twilight out of there, and secure the Elements before the Queen can fully use them… I think I know a colt who will be more than willing to help with that one…” her eyes gaze over to Flash laying there in bed.

“At your wish, Princess…” he salutes them as the husband and the two regal sisters start to walk out of the room, before something finally hits the guard. “Oh! Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” he calls back to them, watching as all three turn around, “losing that much blood can kill a pony as you might expect…” he watches Celestia nod to him, “…it can also take you to some, interesting places…” both the sisters eye’s grow narrower, as they try to figure out where he is going with this, “… all I was told was, Faust says, she loves you both.”

With that message relayed the guard watches as a single tear builds up in both Celestia and Luna’s eyes as they hear the name being spoken. A silent but sincere ‘Thank you’ is passed between the regal sisters and the messenger as they now part the room.

Discord leans down in to his wife’s ear as they step out and walk down the hall, “Whose Faust?” he asks, as he doesn’t recall the name ever coming up in his history with Tia.

“Oh… you’ll meet her one day dear…” Celestia passes off with just a peck on his cheek, “…one day…”

Author's Notes:

If you're wondering... yes, I had to throw a Fausticorn in here.