V: Out Sick
Flash and Dewdrop left the house, headed towards the administration building. As the two walked through the streets, Flash noticed stallions looking at her. Some would just glance at her before going about their business, while others would stop what they were doing and stare. Rarely did they look at her face; their eyes seemed to be fixated on her rump and… other things. When Flash would look at the stallions, they would usually go back to what they were doing, but some just stared back and smiled. Flash slowed her pace and tucked her tail closer to her body. Moving closer to Dewdrop, she asked, “Dewdrop, why in Celestia’s name are all of these stallions looking at me?”
Dewdrop pondered the question for a moment, looking at the stallions around them to gauge their reactions. “I think they’re just curious,” she said. “I mean, it’s strange enough you’re not a crystal pony, but it’s a rare sight to see normal mares around here. That, and mares always tend to get a few looks from stallions.”
“Isn’t that annoying?”
Dewdrop hummed as she pondered the question for a bit. “Yeah, but I suppose you learn to ignore it.”
Flash did her best to ignore the wandering eyes for the rest of the walk to the castle, but the thought of all those stallions looking her over still bothered her.
When Flash was a few hundred yards away from the building, she stopped and Dewdrop came alongside her. “Alright, so here’s the plan. We’ll get to the checkpoint and I’ll explain I’m here to report my absence. They’ll have me escorted in, I’ll file what ever paperwork I have to, and I’ll leave. That simple.”
Dewdrop nodded, and the two ponies approached the guard booth in front of the building. The guard on duty took a few steps to get directly in their path. “Halt! No civilians beyond this point. Please turn around and go about your business.”
Flash cleared her throat. “Excuse us sir, we’re here because Flash Sentry, a member of the Royal Guard, was too sick to report in this morning.”
The guard eyed both of them for a moment before nodding. “In that case, please proceed to the receptionist in the lobby.” The guard stepped out of the way and snapped back to attention. “Proceed!”
Flash and Dewdrop walked into the building. When they were a few steps inside, Flash whispered into Dewdrop’s ear, “Told you this would be easy.”
The reception area was very open, with a green crystal floor and a single desk near the other side of the room where a light green crystal pony was working on paperwork. Near the desk was another set of doors and a guard standing at attention.
Flash’s hooves clopped louder than she would have liked on the slick surface as the two approached the desk. When they were a few steps from the desk, the receptionist glanced up for a moment before returning to what she was doing. “State your business.”
“We’re here to report that Flash Sentry is absent, ma’am,” Flash said in a formal tone.
The mare stopped and looked up. “Do you have a doctor’s notice?”
Flash shook her head. “No ma’am.”
The receptionist paused for a moment and looked Flash over. “Relation?”
“Flash’s sister, Flare Warden, ma’am.”
The mare glanced over at Dewdrop with an inquisitive look. “And you?”
Dewdrop smiled nervously back at her. “Umm… a friend?”
She turned to the guard behind her. “Escort Ms. Flare Warden to Sergeant Graphite’s office to take a statement.” She turned back and looked at Dewdrop. “I’m sorry, but this is a family matter, so you will have to wait here until Ms. Flare Warden returns.”
Dewdrop nodded and looked over at Flash with a bit of worry in her eyes. Flash gave her a reassuring smile before saying, “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
The guard opened the door with his magic and waited. Flash walked over and the pair made their way to one of the offices down the hall, hooves echoing on the hard surface as they went.
*Graphite, now where have I heard that name before?* Flash shook off the thought as the two continued. They were near the end of the hallway when the guard stopped, knocked on the door and stood at attention.
“Enter!” The door unlocked and swung open by a magical force. Flash turned her gaze from the guard to the Sergeant and froze. Dark coat, unicorn and a face that Flash clearly remembered. Both ponies just stared at one another for a few moments before Flash cleared her throat and walked in.
Flash couldn’t seem to keep eye contact with the stallion as she entered the room. The door slammed shut behind her, and Flash heard the deadbolt click. The room was still for a moment, and Flash could hear her own heart being rapidly.
The stallion gave Flash a devilish smirk and placed his forehooves on his desk to support his chin. “So… about that name?”
Flash chuckled nervously as she approached his desk. “I-It’s Flare Warden.” She sat down at one of the cushions in front of the desk. “Look, I know last night was a bit of a debacle, so… maybe we could just drop it and start over?”
“Alright, Ms. Warden. I’m Graphite, Sergeant Graphite.” His smile softened. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Despite his smile, Flash could feel the stallion staring at her features and not even making an attempt to maintain eye contact.
Flash blushed slightly and tried to angle her flank away from the stallion’s gaze. “D-do you think we could probably tone down the staring there buddy? You’re making me uncomfortable.”
The stallion smirked. “I’m sorry, it’s just so rare to have a mare in here. An out-of-uniform, very, very attractive mare. I mean, just look at how toned and slender your body is,” he said as he continued to examine her form.
Flash pointed a hoof to her face and said, “H-hey buddy, eyes up here!” For the first time since she entered his office, he finally made eye contact.
“Look, you’re creeping me out.” Flash looked away and rubbed one of her hooves over her foreleg. “I just want to report that my brother, Flash Sentry, was too sick to report this morning. I’ll have someone bring in a doctor’s notice to confirm this later, but that’s all I’m here to report.” She looked back at him. “So if you don’t mind, I’d like to leave now.”
Graphite took a long sigh and sat back at his desk. “Well you’re no fun.” Graphite stood up and paused for a moment. ”I need to file this first before you go, so make yourself comfortable while I get this together.” The stallion walked over to a nearby file cabinet. Flash turned away immediately, still feeling uneasy about what had just happened. She continued to look away while the stallion rummaged around in a few other file cabinets.
Flash’s attention was snapped back to the desk by the sound of a file and some forms slamming down. “Alright, do you have any other information? Other than he’s sick offsite?”
“Umm… no, he’s just really sick and didn’t have the energy to get out of bed.” Flash sighed. ”Look, I’m sure we’ll have a physician’s report to attest to this later today. I don’t have one right now because there just wasn’t enough time.”
“Calm down, Ms. Warden. I just have to file the report with as much detail as I can.”
Flash relaxed after Graphite spent the next few minutes filling out the form, seeming to have lost interest in her. “Okay. that’s done. One will go out to his commanding officer, and this copy will go into his file…” Graphite opened the folder and paused.
Flash tilted her head. “Is there something wrong?”
Graphite shook his head slowly while looking at the file. “Not really wrong, just weird.” He pulled out a photo of Flash’s cutie mark and showed it to her. “You two have the same cutie mark. Not to mention the same mane and coat colors.”
Flash chuckled nervously and her ears wilted. “W-we’re identical twins, I mean really identical! And you know most twins have very similar cutie marks. Ours just happen to be very… identical.” Flash gave a toothy grin.
Graphite raised an eyebrow and looked back at the file. He continued to stare at it for a moment before he gave a soft grunt and closed it. He looked up at Flash, but there was something different in his eyes now. He was calm and professional, like a completely different stallion than he was only moments earlier.
Graphite’s horn briefly light up with a small magical pop. Flash’s ears twitched, and she staggered to her hooves and slowly backed away from the stallion. “I-I should probably go now. I mean you have your report, right?”
Graphite smirked and picked up the file. “Before you go Ms. Warden, I do have one question.” At that moment, the guard that had escorted Flash into Graphite’s office teleported next to Graphite. ”According to his records, Flash Sentry is an only child.” The unicorn guard’s horn light up as Graphite spoke, “So who are you–?!”
Before the guard could act, Flash spread her wings and took to the air with a strong thrust, flinging herself against the closed door. The door shattered and broke off of its hinges, and Flash skidded into the hallway, lifting off from the ground and flying away as swiftly as she could. Her mind raced. Reinforcements were undoubtedly on the way, and she had to get herself and Dewdrop out of the building fast.
The unicorns were caught off-guard by the sudden outburst and took off after Flash. The guard leading the way entered the hallway, and his gilded hooves lost traction with all of the debris on the floor, causing him to faceplant into the wall across from the office. Graphite slowed down, grabbing the door frame before glancing down the hallway. By then, Flash was nearly gone.
~~~
Moments earlier, Dewdrop was sitting on a cushion in the visitor area reading a magazine when she heard a high-pitched sound. She looked up to discover that the unicorn guard who had been standing at attention near the hallway was gone.
She slowly went back to reading her magazine, but she couldn’t dismiss the nagging notion that something was wrong. There was a crashing sound from down the hall. Dewdrop dropped the magazine, looking around wildly for the source of the noise. A yellow blur crashed into her and pinned to the ground.
Dewdrop looked up and saw Flash getting up, muttering under her breath. She quickly grabbed Dewdrop and pulled her back to her hooves. “Dewdrop! We have to go, NOW!”
Commotion had already started breaking out in the office. No one seemed to know what the issue was, but Flash had no intention of sticking around long enough for them to find out.
“Wh… what is going on?!”
“No time to explain!” Flash said as she pulled Dewdrop towards the exit. But before they could escape, Flash gasped, screwed her eyes shut, and bit down hard as a blue glow engulfed her. Flash thrashed in the magical embrace, but was unable to unable break free. “You have to get out of here!” Flash said while gritting her teeth.
Dewdrop turned back and saw a dark unicorn panting in the doorway, horn lit up. Without a moment’s hesitation, Dewdrop used her magic to grab a potted plant that was directly behind him and hurled it at the unicorn, striking him in the back of the head. He collapsed to the floor like a rag doll.
Flash plummeted to the ground, panting and shaking for a brief moment before scrambling to her hooves and grabbing Dewdrop. Flash had pulled Dewdrop only a few steps before Dewdrop felt a searing hot burst travel from her back all through her body. For a moment, it felt like her entire body was on fire, and then nothing. She let go of Flash’s grip when her body went limp and crashed to the ground.
“Dewdrop!” She felt Flash wrap her hooves under her barrel and pick her up.
The room was spinning as she rolled onto her back. Dewdrop could hear Flash yelling something, but couldn’t make it out. She blacked out for a moment; when she came to, she saw Flash standing over her, wings flared and shouting at somepony she couldn’t see. She tried to look in the direction Flash was yelling at, but found she could only turn her head slightly.
Moments later, she saw Flash’s body crash down next to her as several earth ponies pinned her down. She felt somepony holding her head down by her horn and another putting pressure on her back to keep her pinned, while another restrained her. Dewdrop heard Flash yell, “Hey! Don’t hurt her!” just before a knee came crashing down and pinned Flash’s muzzle to the floor. Not long after that, Dewdrop drifted into a heavy sleep.
~~~
“Dewdrop?”
“Uhh… my head. Where…” Dewdrop’s eyes went wide when she saw Flash across from her. Her front hooves were chained to the wall and her wings were strapped to her body with some kind of harness. “Flash!”
She tried to get up, but found she too was chained to the floor. She closed her eyes and started to concentrate when she heard Flash yell, “Dewdrop! Don’t!”
Dewdrop’s concentration was broken; she opened her eyes and saw a relieved expression on Flash’s face. “That’s not a normal magic suppressor on your horn, it’s a reflection ring. If you try to cast anything too large it’ll knock you out.” Flash chuckled and moved one of her hooves to rattle the chain. “I think we made an impression on the guards earlier, don’t you?”
“What happened, Flash? And what happened to your muzzle?” Dewdrop asked in a worried tone as she surveyed the cell they were in.
Flash looked the other way to hide the red mark that was still on her muzzle. “Well, after you went down I did the only thing I could do: stand over you and try to defuse the situation. I was hoping they would just take us into custody, given the circumstances. But things got out of hoof pretty quickly after they realized they couldn’t stun me.” She sighed and shook her head. “I still had defensive wards cast on me from my last shift, so I was able to resist most of the attempts to stun me using magic. The paralytic aspect of the spell didn’t work, but they still hurt like hell.
“When they saw they couldn’t subdue me using normal methods, they dogpiled on me and restrained me.” Flash brought a hoof to her red cheek. “When I saw the way they were roughing you up, I sort of lost it.” She sighed and lowered her head. “I kept telling them that this was a terrible misunderstanding. As you can see, they clearly listened to me.”
“So where are we? Is this the stockades?”
Flash looked up at the walls of the cell they were in. “No… they threw us in the dungeon. Which is kind of impressive really, given they only throw the worst of the worst down here.”
“Why would they do that?!”
“Perhaps they thought we were part of some some botched espionage or assassination attempt on the princess.”
Dewdrop deadpanned. “You’re joking, right?”
“Dewdrop, we’re chained up in the lower levels of the castle dungeon. We’re the only ones here.” Flash’s voice echoed from the cold, bare walls. “Why else would they go to such extreme measure?”
“How long do you think we’re going to be here?”
Flash lowered her head before answering, “It won’t be long until the Princess is notified that there are new prisoners here. She could just leave us down here,” she added under her breath.
Dewdrop’s eyes went wide and she shook her head. “She wouldn’t!”
“Think about it. She didn’t see you when she had the chance, and she didn’t even explain anything to you earlier! If she really wanted to be helpful, she had more than enough opportunities. And I was stupid enough to lend a hoof in it. Why else would we be down here?!”
“Yes… why indeed,” said a voice that echoed from the hallway.
Both Dewdrop and Flash froze as they heard the echoes of two sets of hoofsteps approaching the cell.
The two ponies stopped and looked into the cell. Dewdrop’s eyes went wide when she saw who was standing on the other side of the bars. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you have been causing me the last two days, Dewdrop? The Princess has been riding my flank all day trying to find you after you left the castle. And I’ll be honest dear,” she took a moment to look around at the cell. “This was the last place I thought about looking. But when a report came to my desk about two mares that were locked up down here, and one of them had an Erlenmeyer flask cutie mark, I had my suspicions it was you.” Her face softened and she smiled. “But at any rate, I’m glad you’re not hurt.” She looked over at the guard, who nodded and opened up the cell.
“How did you find out?”
Check List smirked. “I am the keeper of notes, filer of minutes and the wrangler of expense reports. I know far more about the mundane comings and going that happen in this kingdom than the Princess does.”
As the guard was unlocking the restraints, Dewdrop asked, “What about my friend?”
“You have an audience with the Princess. Your friend does not.” Check List paused for a moment before continuing, ”But I’m sure you can bring it up after you finish whatever it is you needed to talk about.”
Check List glanced back at Flash before the three of them left. “If you want some free advice dear, don’t eat the food.”
Flash frowned. “I’m well aware.”
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FINALLY. Dewdrop is gonna get to talk to Cadence. And Hopefully Shining Armor is made to sleep on the couch for at least a month. I am still of the mind he uses his authority to find out when Flash has reservations or anything else relating to dates planned and forces him to work because Flash maybe turned down Twilight in the past and upset her, thus making everything that has happened, originally, his fault.
Nice job updating so quickly. This was funny to read. Go Flare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best of luck with the next chapter. I hope it comes out soon.
Pfft, I wanna see the effects be permanent because of some freaky time limit or something.
... I just don't like Flash Sentry the best...
4416143 Flash hasn't had enough screen time to give a reason to be liked, I'm hoping that he keeps those toned flanks too.
4416363
I know... It's unfortunate. He's not a bad pony or anything, but people associate him with Brad and then want to skin him alive (or at least that's my hypothesis on it).
4416425
Thank you! I was hoping to have three done when I started releasing them but the next chapter shouldn't be too far off. And to be honest I've been looking forward to this next chapter sense the beginning!
4416556
Naw, it's actually because of the most fucktarded way they introduced him into the series. Love at first sight, my ass. But in the land of magic ponies, and that Celestia could in theory save the alicorn race, anything is possible.
I guess you might want to know what I think too Cloudy.
4416363
4416583
Ah yes... not a fan of the whole love at first sight thing either. Twilight never crushed over any other pony before so the whole thing felt forced, to say the least.
4416750
And the worse part is...
*Whispers* She doesn't mention him again...
4416787
It would not surprise me if Hasbro originally wanted to do more with Flash in season four, but back down after they saw his general reception was terrible.
4416822
Yeah, but now that I think about it I feel like I've heard Twilight mention him a few times.... I don't know where though, that's the problem.
4416849
You know... now that you mention it I'm pretty sure it has come up. But I'm drawing a blank as to when.
4416893
... I feel like... Was it the freaky chaos vine thing? And Flash came by to help? Why do I feel like that's what it is... But it wouldn't make sense... No wait! I think it was at the beginning and he was the one who warned Twilight about the Princess Problem... I think.
4417176
I sort of pictured this scene in my head as if a civilian walking into the pentagon armed, and only after the staff figured out something was wrong did they also realize this civilian was also armed.
If that wasn't bad enough, having a member of the staff assaulted by this pair would also escalate things quickly.
Yeah, Flash really should have dyed her mane/cutie mark and been a more distant relative. That was a big oversight.
Good to see that Dewdrop is finally going to see Cadence, that should really help get things ironed out for Flash.
4416583 Getting a crush or blushing and being awkward around an attractive person/pony is not love at first sight. And since it never went further than blushing and being awkward it's safe to say that it never became love, either.
That's just not how love works.
4417285
SCREW YOUR LOGIC, IT'S WHAT THE SITE MADE IT.
4415926
Wow. You are looking way too much into this.
4417406
Well, there is the fact that it has been stated every time Flash has set up any kind of date with Dewdrop, Shining Armor has, uncompromisingly, made him work during those.
I think it's perfectly appropriate for Princess Cadance and her guard to be worried about changeling infiltrators. And that would be my first guess when meeting a pony claiming to be a nonexistent sibling of a prominent pony.
Well, that escalated quickly. :D
It makes sense, though.
fun story
All this hate... b-but...
He saved every one of us!
4416583 Thank you, Class xD
4417271
You know... that probably would have helped some. But the moment he looks at that file it's sort of game over.
4418222
Thanks for sharing the youtube link!
I would love to see a picture of Flash Sentry on a rocket cycle surrounded by griffons; would be hilarious! Griffons look like hawk men right?
4417621
4418097
4418100
Thanks!
4413746
She is a fun character.
Jeez, talk about over doing everything. those guards take their jobs way too seriously
i can see a lot of guards getting into toruble with the princess when cadance finds out they not only arrested and beat up one of their own, but they imprisoned her like the worst criminal. that will be very fun to watch
4416556
Just me or are the fans far more critic with male than with female characters? take Blueblood for example: his worst crime was to be a pompous, sissy jerk with Rarity at the Gala, and the fandom depicts him on some point of the scale between a self-centered useless waste of air and a depraved, hungry power villain with money and politic connections. Then Trixie goes Mussolini on Ponyville yet she is considered a poor, misunderstood woobie.
4419188
Probably for the exact same reason nearly everypony in the early fandom was taking turns in saying what a horrible pony Celestia was for being mean to poor Princess Luna, solely based on Luna's one line and tears in the pilot. (Nevermind she'd basically attempted genocide as Nightmare Moon, nevermind that all it would have taken for Luna to still be evil and live to fight another day was pretend to be sorry for a bit...) They saw something in her that stirred their sympathy.
Same with Trixie. In her first appearance, she was arrogant and boastful, but she had her cart destroyed and ended up running off with nothing. But... to be fair... she did so only AFTER at least trying to stop the Ursa. So I think that triggered the sympathy button either. (Speaking personally, though - I came into the fandom just before the end of season one and watched everything up to Party of One in a big binge - I would have barely remembered her as anything other than a villain-of-the-week were it not for the fan obession.)
Blueblood, on the other hand... Never gave anything to like, never gave any depth. Let's face it, he was basically nothing more than a caricature with which to make Rarity miserable (indeed, had he shown any depth, it would have undermined that intention). So people treat him on the scale of asshat to evil because... That was basically his whole character - a one-dimensional obstacle for Rarity to overcome.
Flash, similarly - the pony anyway - was given two lines of dialogue aand we known nothing about him. We can infer he might be a bit like human Flash (who seemed to me to be fairly inoffensive, if a bit bland, but basically a decent bloke, a bit like Jeremy from Phineas and Ferb)... But I'm not even sure the voice actor was the same, was it? I've only seen the movie once, but I came away with the impression pony Flash had a deeper voice and somehow I didn't think his design was very analogous to human Flash, unlike the rest of the ponies. So Flash the pony has given no real reason for the general viewer to care about him, so the thing he's most notable for is being related to a maybe-slight crush Twilight had on human Flash.
I think THAT gets irritiation partly because it really was the tired old "romance interest of the week" on the one hand, and on the other...
I think there is an undercurrent of a bit of "lesbians are hawt (sic)" in the fandom - something I think is probably inevitable with a primarily female main and supporting cast. I.e. where, as you say, male characters do get held to a different standard because then they can't "get in the way" of the female on female shipping. It's basically the same sort of thing in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fandom, except that at least pony is modally tolerant of shipping that isn't your cup of tea, where as if you even include poor Yuuno in a story - much less a romance, even if it's with not a major character - there will be some people lining up to rip off you head and spit down your neck...
(Let it be clarified, lest the above sound like a denigration, that I personally have no preferences, really, on shipping pairings: I speak purely analytically - nor, considering my own foray into fanfic, would I have any legs to stand on if that were the case!)
Gilda, conversely, doesn't seem to get quite so much the same treatment and is closer to Blueblood's, and I suspect only what she does because we have enough context to postulate she's unhappy with having to break off her friendship with Dash and not just a one-dimensional asshat.
In fact, thinking about it, I really do think it's all about context. Blueblood never gave the impression that he lacked for anything and that he had any personal issues and we haven't seen enough of Flash to give us anything to go on.
4419583 I could swear this is copy-pasted from another comment on another fic... I know I've seen it somewhere else before.
4420017
Thank you! It's a fair guess it will be done near the end of the week. As of right now 1.4k of the next chapter has been written, so I imagine in the span of about three days the next chapter will either be posted or in proofreading/editing pipeline. I still have a bit of work to do but it's moving along at a good pace.
4420113
Thank you! Glad your enjoying it.
I lost all will to read this.
Have a good day.
4420528
It wasn't copy-pasted, I can say that much! Though granted, I have espoused some of these ideas (especially the Luna point) on several occasions before - not that I could tell you whether it was even on this site or my local pony thread, much less a specfic story. So it is certainly possible you have encountered me making such comments in the past; though when I do repeat myself, I do tend to speak anew or very actually directly quote myself. (Liking the sound of one's own voice/sight one one's own textx is sort of a Lich thing...)
If someone else said something similar, I can only assume great minds think alike...!
4415926 Check yo' speaking privilege's dawg, I'mma bout to drop some explosive ideas on yo' collective ideology! (jk, jk)
Seriously though, if anyone were to sleep on the couch, it should be Cadance because of the way she handled this situation. The sacrifice of her privacy would have saved this entire situation from happening, benefiting both parties. Honestly, I feel as though Shining was the only sensible pony in this whole ordeal.
4420582 lolz get rekt scrub. No one said you had to read it, bub.
4421262 No, no one did, but I always find it nice to inform the author when they wounder why you suddenly stopped commenting.
4418432
No problem-o! Also; you've seem to have forgotten to update your avatar, I remembered you mentioning that... Now only if I could remember deadlines...
4421472
Just one question before you go if you don't mind, did you just lose interest in it? Or was there an event that put you off? I'm just curious.
Methinks you're missing a "had" or "was" there.
4423608
Thanks for the heads up, that's fixed now.
4421959 Well, mostly due to the reactions of the guard, and how Flash... "handled" it, it made me snarl pretty heavily, I mean I may not have winced at the thought that they would throw two ponies into the bottom of the dungeon due to them being suspiscious.
4424175
Alright well thanks for the input.
I do hope this continues. There may be some iffy parts but the story as a whole is awesome. Keep up the good work!
While I can't blame Shining for giving Flash extra work (I doubt he knew Flash had a girlfriend), I do have Flash gets the courage to speak up to him and tell him how the extra work ended up nearly costing him a relationship.
4421262 Well, I don't think Cadence should be punished either, since she's not entirely at fault here. She did tell Dewdrop, specifically, that she wasn't suppose to drink the tea (and logically, not have anyone else drink it). Dewdrop was the one to start the problem by disobeying the instructions of her boss/ruler. That being said, things only escalated because Cadence didn't warn her of the consequences after realizing she broke those rules. I think Cadence was trying to emulate Celestia in the whole "let things happen so a lesson can be learned" method of ruling, but she never considered any possibility outside of Dewdrop drinking the tea, nor did she listen to Shining and reason. So Cadence is at fault, just not the one to put all the blame on. And on the flip side of things, she was the one to request Dewdrop for making the tea (I think), which is how Dew realized Flash was telling the truth about being loaded with work, thus saving their relationship, sort of.
As for Shining, while it is kind of insensitive that he's caused Flash to skip on his dates, it's not his place to learn everything about his troops and their personal lives. He likely doesn't know that Flash has a mare-friend, and it's likely a moot point in the long run since Flash is a guard. It's his duty to put the crown and country before him. Flash understood this and accepted it begrudgingly, but Dew clearly didn't (though to be fair, she's not in the military).
4427014 So much fucking this right here.
4424629
Thanks! I was hoping to have stuff in the editing / proofreading pipeline by now, but I've been sick in bed for three days.
But I'm better now, so I should be continuing here shortly.
4431523 Oh dear, I'm glad you're better. Getting sick is The. Worst. Possible. Thing!
Rule 63 done right.
Good show.
4432107
I couldn't agree more.
4434061
Thanks!
4417621
A changeling infiltrator would the absolute last person to pretend to be someone that doesn't exist. They can shapeshift! A changeling would have walked in as Flash Sentry, not pretend to be his sister, that's just stupid.
Of course, the demonstrated level of competence from the Guard, Shining Armor included, hovers somewhere between a cheese sandwich and a toaster, so this is perfectly in character.
4427014
Shining does know he has a marefried, Flash told him when he sprung the surprise shift on him, and he made him do it anyway. And this is clearly not the first time that's happened either, if Dewdrop's comments are any indication.
It's a bit too much of a coincidence that the well-being of crown and country require this one particular guard to be pulled away from dates with his marefriend repeatedly. Yes, this sort of thing happens in the military, but if it happens to the same guy for no reason while the CO has a possible reason to hold a grudge against him, it doesn't take a hyperphysicist to smell a rat.
4431523
i know that feel bro
This story is bordering on very silly!
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