"You have done much good for those around you, Flash Sentry," Princess Celestia said. She stood still in one place. Somehow, Flash half-expected her to be pacing as she spoke. Instead, she kept her hooves anchored in one place while her wings extended. Between the majesty of her mane and the glamour of her polished horseshoes, it looked as though the ruler of Equestria veritably lit up the room. Perhaps she didn't intend for it—or maybe she did—but Flash felt like he was looking into an interrogator's blinding lamp the entire time she spoke to him. "My beloved sister has filled me in quite a bit. Villagers, entrepeneurs, soldiers, diamond dogs, and stewards all alike have benefited from the actions you've committed while on this side of the mirror."
Flash took a shuddering breath. "Well, I do try."
"You did in fact achieve... and achieved much—I might add. And yet..." She broke her words of congratulations for a melancholic sigh. "...it helps nopony to be dishonest."
Flash swallowed. "It helped me stay unnoticed longer."
"But do we know that for a fact?"
He bit his tongue. Flash's heart shook. He felt like he had just talked back to the school principal. What was more—and he trembled for this—he felt that he might talk back to her again.
"Your vacation into Equestria—as it were—went swimmingly until the truth caught up to you." Celestia looked in the way of the lavender shadow in the corner that Flash still refused to look at. "Granted, it wasn't just your truth that needed to be reckoned with. So, please know that I am not trying to blame you for the unfortunate imprisonment you had to endure. But, rather, I am wishing to get to the crux of the issue."
Flash hung his head again. "And that is...?"
At last, she moved. "In your world, the responsibilities at hand are different than they are for the Flash Sentry who is native to this one." Heavy-yet-graceful hoves glided in his direction. Flash's insides shook with every step. "You have a family. You have a home. From what I understand, at your age and station, you even have a school and a schedule and a curfew that you are obligated to keep." She scuffled to a stop, looming over him. His eyes squinted from her radiance, and he wasn't even looking at her directly. "Am I wrong to assume that—by your culture—you are indeed bound by a code to honor these commitments?"
Flash squirmed like a child being scolded. He leaned to his left side. He leaned to his right. He finally blurted, "I guess."
Something burst out of Celestia's muzzle—a laugh. And it was surprisingly high-pitched. "So he is a teenager!"
"Indeed," Princess Luna's voice droned. "He is."
Flash clenched his teeth. "Sonuva—" he mouthed.
Celestia spoke firmly once more: "As you may well know, Flash Sentry, my former student—Sunset Shimmer—is in constant communication with Princess Twilight Sparkle. This is accomplished through the use of a magical journal that they both use to write to one another across the fabric of time and space that divides our worlds."
Flash Sentry found the strength to speak. "I think I have heard of this, your Majesty." He winced, then corrected himself: "Your Highness." He winced again, then corrected himself again: "Your... Princess H-Horseness..."
Celestia's voice was hardly amused. "Well, are you aware that—over the past three days—Sunset Shimmer has done nothing but write Princess Twilight franticaly—non ceasingly—page after page... paragraph after paragraph filled with desperate, pleading, tear-stained entries concerning your sudden disappearance and unknown whereabouts beyond the portal?"
Flash wasn't certain his heart could sink any lower. Nevertheless, it plunged, and he dropped his heavy eyelids for counterbalance. In the dark fabric of his mind, he looked back at every moment he had ever slouched down the hallways of Canterlot High... or sat alone in the cafeteria surrounded by no one. On those occasions and more, he'd catch worried looks and sympathetic expressions from seven figures out the corner of his eye, but he always blotted them out—blotted everything out—just for savoring the pitiable bliss of his gray-shaded solitude. Once upon a time, such sacrifice felt noble. But now—cowering under the solar glare of a far wiser soul than he had ever met before—it felt downright pathetic.
Everything was pathetic. He thought he left that behind. He only chose to pursue it all the harder.
"Your friends on the other side found your belongings... your articles of clothing left before the mirror," Princess Celestia explained. "Sunset Shimmer knew it could only mean one thing. In a scientific world mostly-deprived of magic, this left her with the burden of having to trace your movement. Sunset, you must understand, does not have the luxury of informing everyone on her side about Equestria or the nature of Equestria... despite the fact that—no doubt—she would greatly desire to. This remained true even when your parents began their own frantic search. Did it not occur to you that your very own family would be worried? Sunset Shimmer states that there is currently a so-called 'Missing Persons Search' involving the 'Local County Police' on your side of the portal as we speak. I do believe I have an inkling as to what such a thing involves, but no doubt you're more capable of understanding it in human terms."
Flash Sentry's eyes clenched harder. His teeth was gritting to the breaking point as his body shook.
"Flash Sentry... as Princess of the Sun, I am charged with the protection of all of my subjects. This includes pony and non-pony alike. Even if the Crystal Empire did not join the Equestrian Union, I would still feel obligated—by my innate respect of harmonic virtue—to do everything in my power to uphold the safety and security of those who dwell within this realm. With all of that under supreme consideration, I must tell you that—no—you are not a threat to my subjects. You were never a threat to my subjects. If nothing else, as corroborated by my sister and those who have associated with you over the past week, you have been a tried and true blessing to all those whose lives you have touched. It is not their livelihood that I am concerned with. Rather... it is yours."
Weakly—feebly—Flash Sentry finally looked up.
When he gazed up at Celestia's expression, it didn't burn him like he expected. Nevertheless, there was undeniable intensity flickering behind those compassionate eyes of hers as she spoke: "You have abandoned your obligations as a citizen and a student. You have vanished from the midst of your family. You have left behind a mother, a father, and a fellowship of terribly worried friends. Most of them don't know where you have gone. A good portion—as sad as it is to contemplate—may very likely think that you are dead." She took a calm breath. "This is the dishonesty that has troubled me. And—I would hope—it would worry you as well. While you have done much good for this world, I fear that you have only done worse for your own by disappearing. Now—I ask you, Flash Sentry—is it high time that you make amends? If not for your sake directly, then for Sunset's... for your friends'... for your family's?"
Flash sighed out the side of his muzzle. "I... I guess you're right, Princess—"
"Flash Sentry..."
Flash looked towards Princess Luna.
She was gazing back at him. Sharply. "I assure you... there will not be another time to be more direct than you have received right now."
Celestia's eyes darted between them. "Please, Flash, if there is something that weighs on your spirit, it would do us all well to share it."
The third figure in the distant edge of the throneroom shifted.
Flash noticed it—noticed the vulnerability. Perhaps—in some morbid way—that's what gave him the strength to stand up tall and speak firmly: "You say that those back home might think I'm dead...?"
Celestia gave a somber nod. "That is quite right. Even Sunset herself expressed great concern."
Flash seethed. "Princess Celestia... when I spent my days back where I come from..." His teeth gnashed. "I wished I was dead."
Neither Celestia or Luna said a word. They simply gazed upon him and listened.
So he continued, shivering. "Morning to sunset... surrounded by so many damned idiots... wading through filth and... and ugliness and... and... and apathy..." He shook his head, fighting the urge to hyperventilate. "I just couldn't even function... much less stay sane! And after so much in my life had gone to shit with so many people misunderstanding me and prejudging me and postjudging me and... and... and..." He winced, his eyes almost trailing towards the corner of the room. He brushed against the lavender shadow and shot back towards Celestia with a frown. "It was either this or a cyanide sandwich. I sw-swear..." That last exhalation was a shuddering one, as even he had to recover from the weight of those words being ripped off his tongue. "Je... Jesus Christ..." He stifled a whimper and ran a hoof through his mane. "One day or another... I... I just wouldn't take it anymore..."
Celestia's next breath had a motherly tone to it, and somehow Flash already knew where she was going. "You are at a delicate and tumultous point in your life, Flash Sentry. I can't imagine that things could be as horrible as—"
"With all d-due respect y-your Princess-ness..." Flash tried to sound tough, but he stuttered the sincerity outward like a gatling gun. "But you can't imagine anything... because you're never there. It's just not your world. Sunset Shimmer might understand... but that's different. But you?" He shook his head. "You couldn't understand. Just like I couldn't understand anything about this world. But then I explored it! I did something awesome for once in my life and I accomplished something." His lower lip quivered. "All I-I ever wanted was to be useful to someone. And now I am useful to someone... to somepony. A lot of them. Equestria..." He grimaced, but squeaked it out. "I make a difference here."
"You can make a difference back in your world."
"No." Flash shook his head. "Not the way it was going. Not the way... I-I allowed myself to rot in there."
"Flash, please, if you just consider—" Celestia began.
"Sister..."
Celestia looked at Luna.
Luna's gaze was intense but her voice was calm. "I have seen his mind. It is not all hyperbole."
Celestia sighed. "He has obligations there, Luna."
Luna nodded. "And your former student still has obligations here. But she has accomplished much on that side. Admirably so—has she not?"
Silence.
Flash continued staring at Celestia. He was shaking where he stood.
At long last, Celestia looked at Flash again. It took her a while, but when she spoke again, her voice sounded exactly the same. "You have a family in your world, Flash. Despite the circumstances that brought you to this point, do you not think that you would m—?"
"Will you force me to go back there?" Flash asked.
"My child, I am simply saying—"
"Will you force me to go back?" he asked, eyes sharp as knives.
Luna glanced between them.
Princess Celestia leaned back. She exhaled slowly, her eyes melancholic—but gentle all the same. After an interminable period of regal contemplation...
"No."
Now that I think about it I don't see why Celestia doesn't order her former student/daughter figure to return home.
If she doesn't plan to force him back then I think we may have to hold our tongues for a bit.
Cause it would've been stupid with Sunset getting to stay in his.
Oh boy this is getting heavy on the feels
Whoah...
--Shocked Spade
She might force him to go back at least long enough to let his family know he's not dead
8867350
Indeed
Flash risk falling into the same depressing routine that he was before and coming to Equestria was a breath of fresh air that he sorrily needed. Celestia was understandably doesn't know anything about his previous situation that he was living, and so guilttriping him into going back there wouldn't help him get have a new out look on things. Still I wonder what will happen next, Luna sure seems to have taken a liking to him.
I don't often quote lines of text in comments (unless they are a typo), but I need to quote this one.
Luna hits it out of the park. She links the two stories together and shows Celestia that where one has been allowed, so must another.
Bravo.
Yeah, Celestia really knows nothing about this.
While Sunset and the Main7 of his world may feel Sympathy for his plight, they have done LITERALLY nothing to help it.
This is ESPECIALLY egregious on the behalf of Sunset, as she is the reason he is essentially alone and she knows this. The TV show makes this big thing of forgiveness, but I think we all know Teenagers aren't that forgiving. Flash burnt almost all his bridges for Sunset....
And Sunset, even after her redemption, left him on the island she helped him build with nothing more then sympathetic looks.
Likewise guilt tripping someone back to an environment that has them depressed, is literally the worst way to do it. People who are depressed guilt trip themselves. They blame themselves constantly. Going, "People are worried" is fucking meaningless, as in the mind of the depressed is going, "they may be worried, but in time their life will be better off."
He blames himself for his parents failing marriage for example.
WITH ALL THAT SAID, his parents need to be dealt with. He may have no friends, well that one band mate that still liked him, but thats about it....(Sunset, suddenly growing a heart excluded. Jesus Christ, you don't get points for crying now when you did nothing while he was falling.) but his parents will be devastated if they don't find out some answers.
That needs a solution.
it is funny and vary sad but i know how flash feels.
to be ridiculed and judged for thing that life has thrown at you and know one understand why you reacted the way you do.
a excellent 4 chapters.
I think my favorite part of this chapter is how Luna gets it, but Celestia doesn’t. Then again, maybe Celestia does get it, and she’s trying to force him back because of how painful it is to lose someone to the portal. Nothing says that she wants Sunset Shimmer to stay on earth, after all.
The thing here is that Celestia has no good answers because the scenario doesn't really leave her with any.
You can't force him back. Doing so would be hypocritical and if you did you might have to put Flash on suicide watch because he looks to be suffering some real problems.
Guilt tripping him is almost as bad because he's already depressed as all hell.
And letting him stay in Equestria is actually kind of bad as well because he has some serious problems to work through which take time. And the longer he's missing from home the worse it'll be.
I'm really glad Luna made him speak up like that. I get the feeling Celestia was under the impression that Flash was being immature and angsty when he ran away, and was treating the situation as such. It can be really hard to recognize when a person has real problems and needs actual help. It can be even harder to accept. Good people want good things for the people around them, and people see what they want to see.
By the way, was Twilight still in the room? How will she handle hearing that Flash is/was suicidal?
If Sunset really cared so much she could have come herself to search for him.
And it is funny that Twilight didn't say a single word in this chapter.
I see three outcomes.
He stays.
He goes.
Pony Flash goes
I see a lot of long discussions and venting sessions in Flash's immediate future.
8867440
Did she know how Flash felt? Did Flash give her any sign that he was feeling this way? Was there any sign of Sunset using her amulet on him, if we're past Legend of Everfree at this point?
The events in this chapter played out better than i thought they would. I was practically sure that Flash would end up pushed back into the mirror. i mean, yeah, he has a few things left to sort out there that should be sorted out, but there's no reason to send a borderline suicidal person back into the situation that made them borderline suicidal on a permanent basis.
Flash has a lot of mental health problems to deal with. Forcing him back into the environment which generated all of those problems isn’t going to do anything except make those problems worse.
Princess Luna probably recognizes this. That’s more than likely the reason she didn’t outright tell her sister and Twilight that he was here in Equestria when he first showed up.
However… Flash is going to have to face a few ghosts of his past before he can move forward. And I have a feeling we will see him face one of them in very short order.
8867440 One thing to remember about Sunset, the rest of the huMane7, Flash's band mates, and almost everyone you mentioned:
They're just teenagers themselves.
A lot of people make mistakes when they're teenagers. I would hazard to say no one makes it out of those formative years without at least one somewhat serious blunder. Flash has proved himself to be mature, by my reckoning, in that when he knew he was going to make a potentially deadly "teen mistake," he did something about it. It might be running away from the problem, but that is a choice that may have saved his life. In essence, he maintained an allostatic state by doing this (though it wasn't truly stable, he pushed himself onto the path that gave the greatest chance of reaching stability, to him).
Flash's parents have a little less excuse. It is a parent's duty to ensure their offspring can reach adulthood with the least possible dangerous mistakes, and they failed in this aspect. I still feel for them, but they are not teenagers, they are not as easy to forgive a mistake that might have cost somebody their life.
"Will you force me to go back there?" Flash asked.
"My child, I am simply saying—"
"Will you force me to go back?" he asked, eyes sharp as knives.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw22jwGgs3o
Last time I got faced by that problem, I locked up for three days and only broke out of the self reinforcing Catch 22 psychosis through dehydration overriding it.
If all you have is drama, crisis and slapdown, then there are no level playing fields, certainly no steps up, all you have is the self reinforcing gravity pit to destruction and oblivion.
Yo, Luna with the save! Oh my god, things are getting tense now. I don’t want him to go back, but I have a feeling by the end of the story, he might??? It’s hard to tell.
But they will certainly guilt trip the hell out of you in order to convince you to go back, and honestly for pretty good reason to. An active lost teenager investigation is only going to conclude when it's lasted long enough they suspect you're dead or otherwise unfindable, and that would be pretty cruel to do to your parents. Either that or someone will figure out if that Sunset or the girls are hiding something, and that would turn really ugly for them.
Now Celestia will screw things up with Flash, he will become a villain, and then they let Twilight deal with it. That's how Celestia made peace with Sunset Shimmer and with Luna before that.
Hey, what if the missing person search leads them to find the missing original human Sunset Shimmer, who has been lost for years and no one knew to search because the horse Sunset Shimmer replaced her as soon as she went missing?
8867552
If he goes, there will be trouble
And if he stays it will be double
8868081
He should just send a letter in his own hand writing back across the portal. Telling everyone he is okay and that he run away for resins. It wont fix the problem but it will atleast tell everyone that he is okay. Which is something atleast, then people wont freak out so much, but would still worry no doubt.
It's always funny when I get to the end of a chapter like this and then read the comments and discover that I disagree with basically everybody.
Flash is a teenager. A minor. He has parents that are legally responsible for him and local authorities that are trying to find him for them. On the other hand, by Equestrian accounting of time Sunset is almost certainly an adult. If she wants to stay in EQG-land and cosplay as a teenager, that's weird, but after ten years or so of being missing there's likely no responsibilities in Equestria that she is still needed for. Luna didn't call Celestia out so much as bring up a different situation that's not one to one comparable.
Of course it's Flash's choice in the end.
Luna has a great point. Personally I think flash has his own right to choose where he can reside. I know people are going to complain he is a minor but i have seen in my time on this world many types of people and of varying degrees of "maturity" and i will need to reread the beginning but for now i would like to think flash is mature enough to deside which world he wants to live in. Yes some things may be "unfinished" on earth world but i think the world he is in now will do him alot of good
8867571
This story is set past the "Legends of the Everfree" story, as we know thats when Sunset told Flash to let Twilight go.
As for if she knows...This is a difficult one. On one hand, she does witness serious critical signs that something is seriously wrong (him selling his car, him leaving his band, and we see at least 1 fight in the chapter Tomorrow that occurs in front of the Main 7 where someone is attacking Flash for something she convinced him to do. Sunset would have had to be blind to miss the basic lack of reaction to Flower Print's declaration that no one liked him )
She will also have, at least out the corner of her eyes, seen the injuries he has taken.
But she is only human. Its VERY easy to miss and dismiss these signs. Its quite possible that had he hung around a BIT longer, she finally would have stepped in. In fact I am convinced she would. I suspect that the fight in Tommrow started her looking into wtf was going on with Flash, and she effectively blames herself for not stepping in sooner.
This does not make her faultless. As someone trying to redeem herself, she should have been paying MORE attention to those her actions hurt. People who she pulled down should have been on her watch list, to see if they needed help. And if she had been watching out for Flash, she would have stepped in earlier. The signs would have been there....the loss of car, the change in personality, his obvious lack of anyone talking to him during lunch. Instead it took a huge argument to bring it to her attention.
Her failure is not a failure to see signs many Teens, let alone adults would have missed. Her failure is not being 100% sure that the damage SHE caused had all been fixed. From all we can see, she paid next to no attention to Flash at all. And this in turn is why she has reacted so bad. Because I can bet after seeing how far along Flash has fallen....she blames herself.
8867892
Oh I agree (as I mentioned in my other reply) teens and adults make mistakes, and many people would have missed this. The reason I still think she should take more blame then a regular teen is because if she was taking 'Twilight Sparkle's course on Friendship' (like Starlight Glimmer is) one of the first lessons would be to make up for and apologize for your mistakes.
Twilight would have instructed Sunset to look at everyone she hurt closely, and see if she could repair that damage or if their was something that was her fault that the rest of the school blamed on someone else. Sunset has clearly failing to do this.
It is likely that Sunset hasn't paid much attention to Flash (apart from telling him to let go of Twilight) till the argument with Flower Print. If we got to see Sunset's side of the story, I suspect in that moment she began to look into just how things were in Flash's life, and this is why the pages Twilight recieves are tear stained.
Because from Sunset's perspective (and it wouldn't take long to find out) Sunset destroyed basically every friendship Flash had. While Twilight's existance certainly was the stone that broke the cammel's back, and that is critical so we shouldn't blame Sunset utterly....Sunset's actions are what meant that when the events surrounding Twilight broke his heart, he had neither friends, nor family to catch him.
Because lets be clear here....his parents do care for Flash. From what we gather, they started to fight AFTER he fell into depression, as a result of blaming each other for his fall. Its not that they are terrible people....its just like many parents, they are completely unequipped to deal with complete emotional and mental breakdown of their child.
And in their fear they do the WORST possible thing.
((This does not make them blameless. Nor does it make them completely terrible parents. However while I am hesitant to label them the worst parents ever, they aren't going to win any 'best parents of the year' awards either. THEY should have talked with their friends and Flash's Grandparents at least, as I refuse to believe that no one they knew had been through this problem before.))
IF this was set in the US, I would blame a lack of money at this point. Because the best thing they could do is either send him to therapy, OR take him on a holiday. (either treat the mental sickness, or get him out of the situation so he can learn to manage to be human again.) However its hard to be 100% sure if his image of the darkness of the world is just how shit his world actually is (cause he does say some fairly dark, if accurate things about the world) or if its Teenage exaggerations of the nation he comes froms issues.
i don't see why flash couldn't just stay on the equestrian side of the portal. As long as he at least find a way to leave a message to make his family sure that he is ok.
if he truly burned all the bridges there , and they can't be repaired , nothing stops him from having a new start on the equestrian side.
8867360 I suspect Sunset is the only reason she isn't.
8867440
This. When you're suicidal like he appears to have been (or God forbid, still is) that kind of argument won't work. Either that's already stopping you, or you'll convince yourself their lives will improve once you're gone. It's a horrible mental trap that's incredibly difficult to overcome.
8868275
He's in a world where "his" people address one another with 'everypony' and everything is a horse pun. And he's nervous as all heck.
8868142
While I don't think he'll actually become a villain (give Luna and Sunset some credit for their former evil), the part about handing things over to Twilight is very much relevant. Because in this case, doing so is doubly problematic. Princess Twilight, or rather the care she showed for him at around the time of Legends of Everfree (i.e. none) is one of the factors that pushed him so far.
I'm a bit late to the party on this comment, but I actually only heard this just recently. On the note of Robin Williams' suicide, it turns out he may not have killed himself for the reasons we thought. If that makes Flash feel any better.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-lewy-body-dementia-gripped-robin-williams1/
Under those circumstances, I'd probably have taken an easier way out too..
Gah, you guys are too hard on the characters. first of all Celestia actually didn't know that he is depressed so from her point of view he is just shirking his responsibilities thus her response is appropriate, Then when she learns about it she is not stupid to force him to go back, because while he Should go back it would only be worth it if he dealt with his problems instead of just wallowing in them more. Sunset in this story takes on the role of a bystander and the story is not very clear on how obvious Flash's depression would be to other people also the chapters where we learn about Flash's decent are narrated by him so it should be taken with a grain of salt of how bad his situation actually is.
Wait, I thought he was persona non grata among the student body...
If I had disappeared as a teenager in school, the quiet, outcast, oversized nerd entombed in a stack of books as I was, not one of the student body would have noticed or given a rat's ass. My family, yes. But not the students. And only a bare few were bullies. The rest stayed clear to avoid them. If I was actively despised by the class at large, it'd probably spark celebration akin to when one of them moved away.
Even ignoring the bit about Sunset suddenly being frantically concerned about him, instead of just a "Hey, Twliight, have you seen Flash? We think he may have gone to ponyland" note, Sunbuns is making a mighty big assumption about his so-called "friends."
*snorts irritably*
Sorry. I can feel for this Flash. Shared experience is a bitch.
8886403
I know this is old, but I was one of those people that noticed if the outcast was upset. I liked to give new students and students at the bottom of the pecking order attention.
It wasn't out of pride or anything. I just can't stand creulty and isolation. I was bullied a lot myself, but I was lucky... Not lucky, I worked hard on my friends.
Anyhow. Simone almost always notices, even when you don't.
8868893
That's true, but would he even send a message if he hadn't been confronted by the Princesses?
No. Probably not.
Whoo! Go Luna!