Radish approached a row of bushes along one of the palace’s many walkways, wary of a rustling noise from within. A juvenile hognose snake slithered out.
“Hey, there. You lost?”
It flicked its tongue, then nodded.
Zero flew over them. “Root, Shining Armor wants to see you.”
“Oh? Should I take a train to the Crystal Empire, since that’s where he lives and works now?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s hard to miss a guy who won’t leave. He’s at Barrel Roller’s.”
“Could you see this snake to the visitor center?”
Zero looked at it. He grumbled.
Radish entered his captain’s office. His former captain was at his captain’s desk. His captain was nowhere to be seen.
“Ah, Root. Good seeing you again.”
“How can I help you, Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire?”
“I wanted to ask you something personal. About Twilight. Are you still pen pals with her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m worried that she may play a bit too loose with protocol now that she’s a princess. She may be openly discussing things with her friends that are supposed to be classified.”
“I thought all of AG1 is at Clearance Level Five.”
“Yeah, but you’re not. Has she mentioned anything strange lately?”
“Strange for her is relative, sir.”
“Even stranger than usual. Anything about, say, her crown? A mirror? A… school?”
“Not that I can recall.”
“Good.”
Twilight had. She had written him a long letter describing a mission undertaken by her and Spike that was so bizarre, Radish first thought she was pranking him. It was not a prank, however, and the implications were staggering and terrifying. However, Twilight’s major takeaway from the experience seemed to be a rather personal one.
“By the way, do you remember a pegasus guard named Flash Sentry?” Shining Armor asked. “He was one of the transfers to the Crystal Empire.”
“Oh, sure. I remember him.”
“What did you think of him?”
Nice guy. A good starter boyfriend for Twilight, until the distance and lack of common interests force them into an amicable breakup. She'll probably end up with some sensitive Ponyville boy and be fine. Without your meddling.
“He was a skilled and intelligent guard, and I feel honored to have worked with him.”
Don’t say I never did anything for you, Flash Sentry.
Shining Armor seemed skeptical. Radish couldn’t resist saying what he said next.
“Actually, sir, he had many of the same fine qualities that you have, both as a guard and as a stallion. I think the two of you are very much alike.”
Shining’s eye twitched. Radish bit the insides of his cheeks to keep his expression neutral. He had to keep pushing.
“Sir, is there something I should ask Twilight about Flash Sentry? Or vice versa?”
“No. Dismissed.”
Radish left the room and made his way down the hall. As he walked past a burgundy marble column, he heard a whisper from behind it.
“Psst!”
“Hi, Twilight.”
Twilight poked her head out from behind the column. “Did he ask about Flash?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you say?”
“Why am I a part of this?”
“Is that what you said, or are you saying that now?”
“Twilight, if you like Flash Sentry, you should just go and talk to him.”
“I can’t! I don’t know if I do or not. I’m totally in the weeds with this kind of thing! How did you know the first time you liked someone?”
“She appeared on my flanks.”
“Oh, right. What about the second time?”
“She sent me here to pursue the first.”
“Right. I’m almost afraid to ask about a third.”
“Oh, her? She confronted me in this hallway and said I should be defenestrated.”
“Who on earth was-”
Twilight looked around the hall. Her eyes bugged out and she stumbled back.
“I… I…”
“I’m kidding.”
“Well, don’t! I can’t handle that kind of kidding right now!”
“Sorry.”
“Please, Radish. I don't know what I'm doing. I didn’t care about making friends for most of my life. I never even gave any thought to dating! I’m way behind in this kind of thing."
"But isn't this Princess Cadance's exact area of expertise?"
"She, uh, already asked me about him, and I told her there was nothing to tell."
"But is there? I thought the Flash you got to know is a whole different guy from the Flash I knew."
"That's the problem. The Flash I knew was a great guy. He was so kind, and sweet, and charming..."
"Aww."
"But I'll probably never see him again."
"Oh."
"But, when the pegasus Flash touched my hoof and looked into my eyes... well... I kind of felt a... similar connection."
"Ooh."
"I'd like to know why. Could you tell me about him? What was he like?”
"Well, he was a sky patroller, so I didn't spend a lot of time with him. But I was there when he caught Luna after Chrysalis threw her off her balcony.”
“So he's a hero! What else?”
“He was in the wrestling league.”
“Ah, so he was a valorous athletic contender, who reveled in honing his skills and matching his wits in vigorous simulated battle?”
“I pinned him in like five seconds.”
“That’s… what? Why bring that up?”
“Uh… oh! He was in a band. He played guitar.”
“That makes sense! The human one was an accomplished guitarist, so of course the pegasus one would be!”
“Is that how it works?”
“It seems to be. Did you ever talk about me?”
“Uh… no. Sorry.”
“Did he have a girlfriend?”
“He was popular with the ladies, but he was excited to transfer, so I don’t think he had any ties here.”
“But he likes mares, right?”
“I don’t know. The other one liked mares, didn’t he?”
“Well, at least one- Sunset Shimmer.”
“Right. The criminal you let go.”
“Let’s not get into that now, please.”
"Are you sure you want to date a guard? Our hours are long, it's dangerous work, and we only get five weeks of vacation each year."
"And what if somepony had said that to Light Fantastic?"
"Lots of ponies said that to Light Fantastic."
"And it's a good thing she didn't listen to them! She'd be missing out on being with a great guy!"
Radish looked at his hooves. "Oh... that's really nice. Thanks, Twilight."
"You don't want me to miss out on being with a great guy, do you?"
"No... no, I don't. Twilight, I think you and Flash Sentry would make a nice couple."
"Thank you, Radish. Now I just have to figure out how to approach him."
"Okay. How about this- you could go up to the Crystal Empire…”
“I just came from there. Shining Armor will get word that I suddenly went back. He'll be suspicious."
"What's Shining going to do? Fire him?"
"I just don't want him involved, okay?"
"Okay, so tell him you need to use the Empire's library..."
“That’s perfect! He’s never interested in what I find in libraries. His eyes will glaze over the minute I mention it.”
“…and then you slip out and find the Empire’s music scene. Check out the venues, and Flash will either be there playing or watching. Then just go up to him and say, ‘Oh, hi, I was just in the neighborhood. I didn’t know you liked this band, too. Tee hee. They’re great. Say, you wanna get some ice cream? Oh, is this your place? Oh, Flash Sentry, you’re so strong…’”
Twilight gave Radish a shove. He splat against the wall.
“Ow.”
“Ooh, sorry. I’m still getting used to how powerful my body is.”
“Make sure you tell him that, too,” Radish said, climbing to his hooves.
“Radish!”
“Look, all I know is that you don’t want to be asking yourself what could have been. Give it a try, and if it doesn’t work out, you can move on.”
“Do you think he’d like me?”
“You’re a flippin’ princess. A heroine of the realm.”
“But none of that has anything to do with two ponies connecting romantically. Do you think he’d like me? Me me? Am I… good dating material?”
Radish put his hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight Sparkle, you are cute as a button, tough as nails, and sharp as a tack. If he’s not crazy for you, he’s crazy.”
“Ohh, you...”
She gave him another shove. Radish dug into the carpet, and her hoof dented his chestplate.
“Twilight, my armor!”
“Sorry!”
She uncrumpled it with magic.
“So… you good?” Radish asked.
“Eh, no. I need my guy friend for backup. Could you come with me?”
“Fine. Maybe Fanny’ll want to come, too.”
“That’s perfect. If you’re with her, Flash won’t mistake the two of us as dating.”
“You’re giving this more worry than most villains you fight.”
“Villains are easy. Boys are terrifying.”
Nice
P.s. merry Christmas
A snarky Radish is the best Radish.
Flash: "I'm sorry. I transferred because I am in love with Shining Armor. If I help you take Radish from Fanny, would you help me get Shining away from the hussy Cadance?"
I don’t know whats worse… The concept of the conflict of this arc centering on Light believing the conspiracy theories, or the idea that Twilight is gonna blab about the mirror and other high security secrets to Light. Those mirrors are secret for more than just the existential crisis they could cause. Semi-canonically, the comics set down the idea that using the mirrors too much can lead to very horrible consequences for the universes involved.
If Light tries to market humans, she might actually get arrested.
Indeed Twilight... Conflict with the villains and monsters is basically just an average tuesday for you and your friends, usually wrapped up in an half an hour or so. But dealing in the matters of dating with the member of the opposite sex? That's a problem. Heck, even our people are still a mess about that, and getting even messier in some places.
Despite the movie setting up Flash as an imminent love interest, the show never touched him. I thought the whole "two worlds populated by the exact same people, just different species, despite having drasticly different settings" was deeply dumb. Don't get me wrong, I grew to like Equestria Girls just fine, but when it tried to tie into MLP things just break down with deep existential questions with depressing implications for free will and fate.
I assumed that Twi discovered she had a kink for xenophilia. Pony Flash just didn't excite her like sexy alien Flash did. Thus why she never showed romantic interest in anyone but a previously unknown species of partially bald ape. Twilight should be looking for griffons, zebra, diamond dogs or others. She loves to learn new things, it follows that a romantic partner with a drasticly different culture and body would interet her.
Thus I have infected you with my headcanon, have fun.
11459231
Nah, SunsetSparkle for life. Blame FanOfMostEverything.
Bro I wish i got that much.
11459231
See, I always assumed that while everyone looked weirdly the same, there were in fact very few people who were actually the same because the settings were so drastically different. Guard Flash is fundamentally different from kid Flash and so on. I figured there was something similar to Doctor Who’s fixed moments in time, and that meant the universe itself kinda corrects or nudges a few select moments into happening, but that everything around said moments is free to turn out however people want or need them too. If Twilight confronting Sunset with the Elements is a fixed moment in time for the AU, then the alternate universe had to provide some form of potential elements. The path of least resistance is nudging things so the AU version of all of Twilights friends happen to be there and more similar to her real friends than the AU would normally have happen, but the fact is all that is essential there is a potential set of Elements for Twilight to try and latch onto. If Dash had gone to that high school with the Shadow Bolts because of her competitive nature or something, the AU would have supplied a potential replacement who may have worked better or worse all to set up that fixed conflict—and it would be the conflict that’s fixed, not the result, thus Demon Sunset versus Elements needed to happen, but who the elements were, who won, and whether or not Twilight forgave Sunset Shimmer if the elements won are all things about the conflict that aren’t set in stone.
Aww, so sweet.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah
11459223
Fighting monsters is all about keeping things out. Dating is all about letting people in. Very different skillsets.
Didn't he hide her successfully from everyone and did not see her from start of invasion to dream after being drained/awakening after?
11459348
Yea, supposedly she slept through it all in the barrel. Either somethings wrong here and the author simply forgot about that little detail, or something is really really wrong and shits about to go down again or something.
From The Wedding Part 7:
“Because it wasn’t easy pickings! You fortified the tower so well, even a squad of novices held it. The changelings never got to Luna- she slept through the whole battle! It was really clever to have her sleep in a cask in her wine cellar. No one went looking for a princess there.”
“Right. I’m almost afraid to ask about a third.”
“Oh, her? She confronted me in this hallway and said I should be defenestrated.”
“Who on earth was-”
11459348
11459462
This happened in The Wedding Part 3.
“Villains are easy. Boys are terrifying.”
Awwww....
11459569
hehehehehehehehehehehe
Yea, Flash is a good first boyfriend material for Twilight but ultimately they don’t end up with each other though it’s interesting that Sci-Twi is dating Timber Spruce till Hasbro cancelled EQG for more focus on G5… I have to wonder that maybe if Hasbro had allowed for one more film that was meant to bring the human Sunset and there was a hint that Flash and Sunset might try again that we could had seen a ending with Sci-TwixTimber still together and to suggest that maybe pony Twilight could end up with a Timber but leaving it for more speculation than Confirmation.
Who knows I barely seen anyone in the community ever written a Timber Pony story because either people forget Hasbro allowed Sci-Twi to have a boyfriend or there isn’t much love for Timber when I think he was written much better when Flash was in the first film.
11459770
Dude, they forgiven each other so we can move on.
11459215
Light won’t sell humans but probably sell statues or arts of humans
11459935
It is a shame the mirror happened without Root nearby. One of the potential plots I saw as plausible for this arc was him going through the mirror after Twilight, popping out as an adult and being unable to really help Twilight directly in winning the spring fling or whatever it was, he'd get stuck playing dad, signing her up for school, getting shelter and housing, and having to deal with a completely different Celestia who is not a godly princess even if she's still married to her job. And gosh, that would just be sooooo amazingly awkward, because he could end up having such a weird internal conflict over wanting to stay.
11460169
Gah, another miss opportunity arc for Radish… like Bean went into EQG with Twilight… you are definitely right and not sure if that’s what Radish would do? But I would assume that EGQ Celestia would have known a Radish which I would be interested what Human Radish is like.
Bash the protagonist trope went into a literal phase here.
I just love deadpan humor Radish makes me laugh everytime.
Also uncrumples is a funny word.
The tee hee sells it, lol.
Oh geez, only five weeks? Man, that must be soooooooo rough.