Flash Sentry throughout his work as a castle guard member had been quite tiring, but it was still a job he respected and appreciated doing and having, he also always made sure he did things to the best of his ability, and on the bright side, he got to see royalty quite often in his place. However, throughout the years of Flash Sentry's Career as a castle guard member, he soon found out some issues within his job.
Apart from watching the Crystal Empire and doing escorts for the Princesses, he didn't feel like he was doing anything of "Major" importance, and felt like he was just another guard there to fill up the slot and make up the numbers as they come, and even though he did get to see Princess Twilight a few more times, he never actually got an opportunity to properly interact with her, and ever since Twilight got her new official title as "The Princess of Friendship", she started becoming more and more busy in Ponyville, and every time a Major conflict came up, he either would somehow miss it thanks to the events of Lord Tirek's Temporary Takeover where he drained all of the guards' Magic, or getting knocked out by an Undercover or disguised Changeling, and then waking up to find out all of the important ponies were taken, and Flash was still beating himself up for missing out on that opportunity to do something worth while and exciting, Flash slowly by slowly, was beginning to lose motivation and he started to think to himself if it was actually even worth it to be doing his job, cause it wasn't exactly how he dreamed it would be like.
Then he remembered, there were two ponies in Canterlot, whom he could always talk to and get advice from, and Flash then started feeling better and got a bit excited, he then went to Princess Luna and asked her if he could get a week off, she thought about it, and considering Flash had never missed a day of work, she allowed him to, Flash thanked the moon Princess and then went straight to the train that took him to Canterlot, eagerly waiting to hear from the two ponies who had taken care of him all those years ago, after a few hours, Flash finally arrived at his old home city, and then he started to look around the city to find the house where he knew Mr. And Mrs. Shropsharp lived in.
Finally, after a little while of looking, he found the place where they lived at and Flash knocked on the door then, waiting for them to open, but to his surprise, some other pony was now living in that house.
"Oh, Hello, sorry, I was looking for two ponies named Mr. And Mrs. Shropsharp, do you know them or heard of them?"
"Yeah, I've known them"
"Great, can you tell me where to find them?"
"They passed away a few years ago"
Flash was surprised and shocked to hear that news, he had come all this way to see them, only to find out that they had passed away, his surprise, turned into disappointment, and then just sadness.
"O-oh, Okay, thanks for letting me know"
"Your welcome, sorry for that news"
Flash Sentry then walked around Canterlot with his head held down and in the slumps. Flash was not sure what he wanted to do next at that point, but he knew he needed to have a talk with somepony who could understand where he was coming from,
Shining Armor.