//------------------------------// // Ignorance of the Sentry // Story: What If... // by Petalled //------------------------------// ''Thanks for having me over even if these tea parties are only between the two of you,'' said Twilight as she placed a teacup to her lips and took a sip out of it. ''It's not a problem at all, Twilight,'' Fluttershy responded, with a smile. ''You're welcome to join in whenever you like. We're all friends here. Isn't that right, Discord?'' Discord wasn't paying attention as he was busy experimenting with a cheesecake and an apple. ''Discord?'' ''Huh? Oh, yes. Very much indeed so, my dear Fluttershy.'' Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows but decided to leave him be for a while. She turned back to Twilight where her smile returned. ''Don't mind him,'' she said. ''How are you finding the tea?'' ''It's great,'' Twilight noted. ''Between you and me, your tea is probably better than Rarity's.'' Fluttershy giggled. ''I'm flattered you say that.'' Both mares picked up their teacup again and started sipping through it. “In other cases,“ Twilight added, “when are you not better than her?“ Fluttershy tilted her head. “Huh? What do you mean?“ “You know what I mean,“ Twilight said as she drank her tea. Fluttershy twiddled the cup in her hooves, looking down thoughtfully. “No, I don't.“ Twilight turned to Discord who was smiling big, and she gave off a blank stare. She then looked back at Fluttershy. “You're more graceful and have natural beauty whereas Rarity's beauty is forged. Remember the fake eyelashes?“ “O-Oh, I wouldn't s-say that—“ “And you're just so much more graceful than her, generous and nicer too. Hay, most of the time she doesn't even resemble her element, and instead other ponies/creatures do.“ “Well, nobody's perfect. Maybe's Rarity's just inspired by other ponies which lets her show her side of generosity. Like a lesson, you know? We did go a journey to learn about friendship after all, hence your tutorage under Princess Celestia.“ “Maybe she should be the Element of Inspiration,“ Twilight stated as she picked up a cookie from a plate on the table and dipped it in her tea to make it all soggy before taking a bite out of it. She ate the rest by drinking up her tea. Silence reigned between the three. ''Um, Twilight?'' said Fluttershy. ''If it's not too much to ask, can I ask you something?'' Twilight placed the cup back on the plate and put it on the table. ''Of course, Fluttershy.'' This caused Discord to grow extra ears to hear what his dear, sweet Fluttershy had to say. ''The last time we went to Canterlot, I couldn't help but notice you frowning when you passed by that specific, orange pegasus guard that you would always used to bump into.'' Twilight blinked and uncomfortably shuffled in her seat. ''You noticed that?'' ''Of course, she would,'' Discord mumbled. ''Anyone would.'' Fluttershy softly jabbed a hoof to Discord's sides before noticing Twilight's discomfort. ''If you don't want to talk about it then that's fine, I suppose.'' ''No, no.'' Twilight sighed. ''I suppose it's fine if I finally talk about this matter.'' She picked up her teacup while adding in some sugar and stirred it round and round like a swirling vortex. ''Anyway, the thing is he's weird.'' ''He's weird?'' Fluttershy repeated, perturbed by the lack of context. ''And why, do you think, he's weird?'' Discord asked, conjuring up a detective's uniform and writing down notes. ''Well, ever since I first met him we kept bumping into each other. I kept meeting him everywhere and, well, bumping into each other. He would either be at the Crystal Empire, Mirror World, or Canterlot... and we would always bump. I never had any romantic interests for him, even if ponies are suspicious that I do but I don't.'' ''Now that I think about it,'' said Fluttershy, ''he does seem a little weird. At first, since there wasn't really a stallion of choice standing next to you, I really thought this 'Flash Sentry' was for you so I found it cute that you had a first crush, but now I know that it's all a misunderstanding.'' ''I even tried to find a spell to get away from him,'' Twilight added. ''But nothing. It's like there's some sort of tracking device inside him.'' Fluttershy gasped. ''Twilight!'' Discord chuckled with mischief and glee. ''Oh, do go on, Princess Twilight!'' When Fluttershy sent him a glare, she turned back to Twilight. ''Well, is there somepony else that you've found a liking to? Anypony I know?'' ''Well... there is one,'' said Twilight, a blush crawling up her cheeks. ''We met when I met him. She wasn't very, let's just say, stable at the time but I managed to bring her good side around.'' ''She?'' Fluttershy gasped. ''I'm sorry! It's nothing that I'm against. I'm just... surprised. So who is she?'' ''She's...'' Twilight began to say. The door of the cottage slammed open as a blue pegasus flew in and made an appearance. ''Twilight! You're needed at the castle. There's this creepy stallion that is waiting for your—'' she cut off. ''Uh, you know what, just follow me!'' When Rainbow Dash flew back out the door, Twilight turned towards her two friends where Discord snapped his fingers and led the three of them to the entrance of the Castle of Friendship. ''What's going on?'' Twilight asked when she noticed an orange pegasus perched on top of her head. ''Oh, you gotta be kidding me.'' ''Yep. That's the one,'' said Rainbow Dash as a facehoof emerged from Fluttershy. Twilight magically got the pegasus off her head and straightly observed him. Then, out of anger, she clutched him by the shoulders. ''Who are you?!'' she blurted out, demanding an answer. ''Wow,'' he said. ''Hot.'' Twilight's eye began to twitch. Then it clicked. She gasped. ''Does my brother have something to do with this?!'' she said, mostly to herself. ''Was he that worried I was going to be single if I didn't put myself out there so he decided to create this... this thing!'' Fluttershy covered her mouth. ''Twilight!'' At that, Twilight began angrily shaking him upside down. ''Princess, what are you doing?'' he slowly, queasily asked. Then Twilight stopped. ''Well, at least he speaks something other than 'we gotta stop bumping into each other like this'!'' She ended with an imitation of his voice which surprisingly brought out its accuracy. ''Tell me, who are you really?'' ''Your Highness!'' he exclaimed, showing afraidness in his voice. ''I mean not 'Your Highness'. You're not a princess anymore and you didn't like being called by your title in the first place. But I'm Flash Sentry, a guard from the Crystal Empire and Canterlot.'' ''So. You're not a robot as I think you are?'' ''No, ma'am!'' Twilight eyed him further which caused her to disbelieve him even more. Then she continued shaking him upside down as he let out a yell. He tried to protest but it was no use as it was clear Twilight would not listen. She instead brought him to her castle and led him to her library. She trotted towards her bookshelves and pulled out one specific book which enabled the bookshelves to slide away from each other creating some sort of passageway. Twilight pulled Flash Sentry along with her magic as she entered the passageway and lit it up with the essence of her horn. Eventually, she found a door where she opened it and inside revealed scientific belongings. Laying the pegasus down on a table, she brought out some machines and x-rays to try and examine him. When she failed to find any data, she let out a groan of annoyance. ''I don't know why you think I'm a robot, prince—I mean Twilight.'' He frowned even if his head was not in Twilight's view. ''I thought we had a good thing going on.'' Twilight uncovered her face. ''Good thing?'' ''You know, love at first bump,'' he clarified. ''I really felt something, you know?'' ''Felt what? I didn't know robots could feel anything.'' Twilight eyed him skeptically. He sighed. ''I'm a living being too, you know? Ever since we had met, we would always bump into each other. If that isn't something then I don't know what is. I heard your friends teasing you about it, even the Princess of Love. She really tried to get me to see you more.'' So it was Cadence? ''Look, Flash.'' Twilight magically removed the devices off him. ''I'm sorry for thinking you're a robot. I'm sure you're a great guy. But I don't think we're meant to be, you know?'' ''I understand,'' he said, slowly nodding at the hypothesis. ''But I mean if we really want to know then I don't suppose we try it out?'' Flash looked up. ''What do you mean? Are you—'' At that, his words fell short when Twilight shushed him down by putting their lips to a close. After everything she had put him through, she finally decided to take it to the next level. Of course, knowing her, it's probably just another experiment. But Flash didn't want to waste this opportunity, he might never have it again, and so he began moving along with the kiss and feeling the taste, the passion, the lust, the... what?! Flash's eyes snapped open, seeing Twilight's eyes still closed and trailing the kiss longer. Flash had no sign of understanding in his body language but he decided to leave it be for a while and enjoyed his kiss with his mistress. His... what?! Flash shook his head sharply and tightly closed his eyes as he carried the kiss. Dozens of questions and umpteenth thoughts filled his head but his mouth was only dawdled, which was understandable considering it was in another pony's mouth— Flash finally silenced his inner self and tried clearing his head out of those thoughts. He dived into the kiss once more and deeply fell in love, making the kiss bold and saucy. He chewed Twilight's lip as he placed an arm around her and made their way towards a dead end, tightly clutching Twilight's lips for dear life. But then the kissing stopped and Twilight's eyes snapped open including his. ''Uh...'' was all she could say until she looked over her shoulder to see what they were standing close to. Her eyes widened as the timer was ticking and so Twilight wrapped her hooves around the pegasus and pushed themselves to the other side of the room before the machine began exploding a dozen replicas of paper Twilight had loads of information printed on. ''Oops.'' Flash tried to say when Twilight looked at him. ''Sorry...'' Twilight facehoofed. Twilight was back at her library after sending the pegasus off to his guard duties. She was frustratingly scribbling down on her note page. ''Dear Diary,'' she started, ''it turns out being too engrossed in lust could make a mess of things. I also realized that Flash Sentry is not a robot and, while he is beneficial for certain desires, I can conclude that he is not the one for me. Hopefully, I'm not single for that long to the point where my brother gets the idea of making a robot to desire me.'' She slammed her notebook closed and planted her face on top of the table. Little did she know that the mirror on the other side of the room began to ever so gently vibrate. Eventually, a golden alicorn with a fiery mane came out of it. Twilight's head perked up and she realized that the alicorn was her friend whom she hadn't seen in so long. ''Sunset Shimmer!'' she exclaimed as she rushed up towards the yellow alicorn and brought her into a hug. ''How have you been? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?'' ''I'm doing great, but the better question is: are you okay?'' she corrected. ''I got a message from your student Starlight saying you're Twilighting again.'' Twilight rolled her eyes. ''Not you too. But, uh, I guess she's partially right. You see, I ran a few tests on the pony version of Flash Sentry because I thought he was a robot and...'' She continued telling Sunset the whole story. Sunset was taken aback by the story in surprise. ''Wow. That's so like you.'' ''Like me?!'' she shouted. ''Running a few tests is definitely what Twilight would do,'' said Sunset after recovering from the volume of Twilight's outburst. ''But leading that to lust? Are you sure we're talking about the same Twilight here?'' ''Look, Sunset. I'm single and if that continues then Celestia knows what Shining Armour would do!'' ''You know what, I've been thinking...'' ''What?'' Sunset smirked. ''Well...'' She brought herself closer to Twilight and smooched a kiss above her muzzle. ''How's that? Are you still single now?'' Twilight froze for a mid-second before bursting out into a squeal of excitement. She pinned Sunset down to the floor and planted enough kisses that could last a lifetime. ''Okay, okay!'' Sunset tried to say but the giggles got the best of her.