Oh no, he's cute
Well, this was frustrating. Twilight Sparkle was lost.
The recently ascended alicorn wandered confusedly through the halls of the Crystal Palace. How had she managed to get herself this thoroughly mixed up? Maybe she should have turned left at the third fork, or maybe she was supposed to go up another staircase? The endless reflective surfaces were not helping her navigational skills to say the least.
As Twilight turned another corner without looking, she felt herself slam headfirst into a wall of metal and fur.
“Ow.” She quickly pulled back and rubbed at the side of her face with a hoof. “I’m sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going, and-”
“Are you doing this on purpose?” Twilight found herself interrupted by a familiar and very amused sounding voice. She glanced up cautiously to find Flash Sentry standing in front of her with a teasing smile on his face.
The embarrassed alicorn felt her face heat up as he stared at her. “I swear I'm not.”
“Is this something you do to all guards, or just me?”
“Just you.” She smiled awkwardly. “You seem to be a special case in that regard.”
He chuckled. “Well, I suppose I should consider myself lucky then.”
“At least until one of us gets hurt. At this rate, I'm going to knock you over.”
“Better me than you, Princess.”
That response was not helping her ever-increasing heart rate.
“So, is there a particular reason you're in this part of the castle?”
“Um, sort of, but not really. I’m lost.” She gave a sheepish smile and could see the young guard suppress a laugh. “I’m supposed to meet my friends in conference room three, but I have no idea where it is.”
“Oh, that’s no trouble. I'll take you there myself.”
“I could definitely use the help. Thank you.”
“No need for thanks, your highness,” he said as he led the way. “It’s kind of my job, after all.”
Twilight looked away as she felt herself blushing again. “Just Twilight is fine. I'm still not very comfortable with the titles.”
“First name basis with a princess? Don't I feel special.”
The purple mare laughed lightly, before continuing on timidly. “Your name is Flash Sentry, right?”
He looked surprised. “Yes it is. How do you know the name of a random guard like me?”
“Cadance told me after the second time I bumped into you.”
“And you remembered it.”
“Kind of hard to forget the stallion I've embarrassed myself in front of twice.”
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. But, it is three times now,” he teased with a wink.
The young princess averted her gaze again, as she was certain her blush was very noticeable now.
“So,” He continued after a moment. “Do you regularly get lost in castles?”
“No,” Twilight giggled, grateful for the subject change. “Just this one. I can navigate Canterlot Castle like the back of my hoof, seeing as I pretty much grew up in it. I haven't been to the Crystal Empire often enough to be familiar with this palace yet, though.”
“That’s understandable, then. This place is pretty confusing at first. I think the only reason I didn't get lost the first two weeks is because guards get a map.”
“Ah, so that’s the secret, you cheater.”
They both laughed. The atmosphere between the two of them was surprisingly comfortable, something Twilight was very grateful for.
Flash turned a corner and tried to lead the way through a set of double doors, only to find that one of the two doors was firmly closed when he smacked his face into it.
“Ow!”
Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof, half out of concern, and half to hide her smile. “Are you okay?” she asked, trying to keep the laugh out of her voice.
“Yeah,” the pegasus reassured while shaking his head. “That’s what this thing’s for.” He knocked on his helmet, which had actually taken some of the impact. He quickly moved around the door and laughed as he turned to look at his companion. “See, walking into a door in front of royalty is way more embarrassing than bumping into a guard. You have nothing to feel bad about.”
“Uh, I think your nose is bleeding.” Twilight bit her lip, still attempting to hide her amusement.
“Horsefeathers,” he muttered as he wiped at it. It was slightly difficult to tell under all that orange, and the fact he'd just hit his face, but Twilight thought he might be blushing a bit.
She laughed, glad not to be the only one making a fool of themselves today. “Here, let me help. I know a simple healing spell that should stop that. Just hold still for a second.” She stepped closer as her horn started to glow.
At this distance, it was much easier to see that he was, in fact, blushing. Though, their close proximity could be further contributing to that. She gently set her horn to his nose, and the small dribbling of blood dried up immediately.
“Better?” She asked as she stepped away.
“Much.” For just a moment, his voice was a slightly higher pitch than normal. He quickly cleared his throat and went back to his usual tone. “Thank you, Twilight. Um, the conference room is just this way.” He gestured down the hall, and she fell into step beside him again.
“That’s a pretty convenient trick, by the way,” he commented after a moment of awkward silence.
“Thanks. It’s just meant to be used for little things, like paper cuts, bruises, and when baby dragons scrape their knees.”
“Certainly helped me out. I would not have wanted to explain that injury to the other guards.”
Twilight laughed. “Oh, I’m familiar with how the royal guard likes to tease each other. My brother’s a captain. You never would have lived that one down.”
They turned right at the end of the hall and stopped in front of a large, oak door. “Here we are. Conference room three.”
“Thank you very much for showing me the way.”
“It was my pleasure, Twilight,” Flash pronounced with a bow. “I'll see you around.”
“Definitely,” she replied, as she opened the door behind her. “Bye.”
She backed into the room while watching him walk away. Once he was out of sight, Twilight quickly shut the door and slumped against it. “This is bad,” she moaned nervously.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked with concern. Her entrance had attracted the attention of her five friends, who had, of course, managed to find the room before her. They were crowded around a large, round table in the center of the room, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who was flying next to one of the high-arched windows that lined the wall.
She covered her face with her hooves and whined, “He’s really cute.”
There was a collective laugh from the other ponies in the room.
“I don't quite see how that’s a problem, Twi.” Applejack commented with a grin.
“Since when has meeting a cute stallion ever been a bad thing?” Rarity inquired playfully. “Unless of course you aren't attracted to stallions. It never occurred to me to ask.”
Pinkie laughed. “Of course you wouldn't have asked, Rarity. It would be really rude to just walk up to somepony and ask them whether they're into mares, stallions, both, or neither.” The excitable earth pony continued to giggle at the idea of such questioning.
“It’s a problem for a number of reasons. The first of which being he’s Flash Sentry, and thanks to all that mirror world nonsense trying to ask him out would be really confusing. I mean, how do you explain that to someone? Do I just not tell him? That would probably feel too much like lying, and you should never start a relationship with a lie. And what if I go into it thinking he’s just like the other Flash and then it turns out he’s not? I barely even know the guy, so is it okay to try and ask him out? I've never had a coltfriend before, so I have no idea what the proper etiquette is for dating. When is it okay to kiss each other? How is kissing even supposed work? What if I ask him out and he says no? Or we do go out, and I totally mess it up somehow. What-”
Twilight was abruptly silenced by Rainbow Dash’s hoof covering her mouth. “Wow, you are way overthinking this.” She paused thoughtfully, then added, “Not that I should be expecting anything else from you.”
“Rainbow’s right. This ain't as big a deal as you're making it.” Applejack nudged her pegasus friend’s foreleg away so she could properly converse with the frantic mare. “Let’s just forget about that mirror junk for a minute. What do you think of this pony from what you seen of him?”
“We've only talked a couple times, but from what I have seen, he’s nice, and funny. He makes me smile.”
“Making you smile is one of the most important things to look for in your special somepony.” Rarity imparted sagely.
“And you did just say he’s cute!” Pinkie piped up. “So did you mean cute like he looks cute, or cute like he did something cute?”
“Um, both, I guess?”
“Sounds to me like you like the boy,” Applejack continued with a nod. “So, unless he’s given you some reason to think he dislikes you, I don't see no reason why you shouldn't ask him out.”
“But what if he says no?”
“Why would he say no?” Fluttershy wondered quietly. “You're a princess, Twilight. Nopony could say no to a princess. You've certainly got a better chance than I do with my crush.”
“You have a crush?” Rainbow questioned in surprise.
“No!” she squeaked, as she realized her mistake and shrank in on herself.
“Well, you and I will certainly be discussing that at our next spa visit,” Rarity intoned definitively. “But right now we're talking about Twilight’s problem.”
Fluttershy shrunk further against the floor, terrified by her promised interrogation.
“I know the fear of rejection can be quite daunting,” The unicorn went on. “But if you simply run away from this, you could be missing out on something that could make you very happy. You'll never know though if you don't take a risk, darling.”
“And you'll figure out kissing and stuff as you go,” Pinkie chirped. “It’s really easy. And fun!”
“At least give it a try, sugarcube.” Applejack placed an encouraging hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
Twilight stared nervously at the floor. “Okay, girls. I'll think about it.”
Before anypony could say anything else, someone outside attempted to open the door, only to have it bump into Twilight, who was still standing in front of it.
“Oops, sorry,” Cadance apologized, and poked her head in once the smaller alicorn stepped inside. She assessed the crowd in front of her and asked in a tone of amusement, “Am I interrupting something?”
“Nothing!” Twilight screeched shrilly, quickly running to the conference table in the center of the room, and refusing to make eye contact with her old foalsitter.
“We were just talking about Twilight’s crush!” Pinkie exclaimed with a wave.
“Twilight has a crush?”
“No I don't!” Twilight yelped, sounding panicked. The other girls walked to the table as well, now that all members of their meeting were present.
“Is this about that guard?” Cadance inquired knowingly.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Rarity!”
The interrupting mare glanced away in mock-innocence.
Twilight growled. “Can we not talk about my crush in front of the Princess of love?” She immediately tried to change the subject. “Besides, don't we have something important to talk about?”
“Oh, we’re talking about this later,” Cadance assured. “But for now, yes. There are other important matters.”
Twilight dropped her head to the table with a groan. Was everypony she knows going to get involved in her love life? Did she even have a love life? Well, she supposed she'd have to test the waters later and find out.