"Good morning, gents," Flash said while walking into his change room later that morning. Sentinel whispered into Optimus' ear, and the two of the chuckled without saying anything in reply. "Wait, what's going on?" Flash asked skeptically.
"Oh, nothing," Optimus replied.
"Yeah, it's an amazing morning, isn't it?" Sentinel replied.
"What were you two laughing about?" Flash asked.
"Like I said, Flash, it was nothing."
"Only, it's everything," Sentinel said.
"What the hay are you two talking about? Tell me!"
"Nothing, dude. We're just joking around," Optimus said back.
"Hey Flash, are you and Twilight all right?" Optimus asked, leading to a confused face on the orange pegasus. "That must've been a pretty epic fight you two had," Optimus added. "And by the sound of her yelling, Twilight was winning."
"Again, what're you two talking about?"
"Your fight up on the cloud in the middle of the night. At least, that's what we assumed it was. It was pretty loud," Sentinel answered.
"Fight up in the cloud..." Flash mumbled to himself while trying to think about the so-called fight that he had the night before. "Well, I did see Twilight that night, and then we-" Flash turned a bright shade of red. "Oh Celestia!"
Optimus added, "From the look on your face, I think I know what really happened. Should've been more discreet, buddy."
Flash could still feel the hot feeling of the blush on his face. He was so focused on his alone time spent with Twilight outside of the Canterlot Castle on the cloud that he probably forgot to think that there were other ponies up at that time.
"Did you two... hear us?"
"Oh yeah, Flash. We heard everything. Didn't we, Optimus?"
"Buddy, sounded like you two were having quite the time," Sentinel added.
Flash, with his face still red as could be, put his left hoof over it to cover the shame he felt at that moment. Now his brain was racing. If Sentinel and Optimus heard his and Twilight's intimacy, who else did?
"Did anypony else hear us?"
"I don't think so," Optimus answered.
"Please... don't tell Shining. He'll kill me," Flash pleaded.
"That's probably the least of your worries right now," Sentinel said. He trotted around Flash, continuing, "But we're both proud of you. Getting some royal flank is not an easy task."
"Don't you two have a post to attend to?"
"Yes," Optimus said. "We were just about to go. We just wanted to tell you how proud we are of you first."
Flash wasn't too impressed with the two of them. If they were sarcastic or not, he still did not feel comfortable knowing that two stallions whom he felt were his enemies knew something that could very well be used against him.
"Just... go. Please."
"All right," Optimus said while leaving.
"See you later, Celestia," Sentinel teased.
Flash shook off the teasing from his two coworkers. They weren't really good for anything else, after all. The stallion started to put on his suit of armour for his morning shift. Just as he finished putting on his golden horseshoes, he heard hoofsteps, which stopped at the door.
--------------------------------------
Twilight came home from one of the best night's of her life with a smile on her face. When she walked in the door, she saw Spike just beginning to wake up. He tossed and turned, eventually opening up his eyes and looking at the princess, still half asleep.
"Twilight? Are you just getting home now?" he asked while wiping his eyes.
"Yes, Spike. I just needed a walk outside to calm my nerves. I ended up falling asleep outside."
"Oh okay," he said while leaning back down on his bed to fall asleep again. Something interested him, though, and his eyes shot open. "Twilight? What on earth happened to your mane?"
Twilight's eyes also opened up at the potential that she was caught. She went over to the mirror, and looked at her reflection. Spike was right to be concerned. Her mane was a mess. The entire style she had was gone. Individual hairs shot shot out everywhere. It looked as if she had been stuck in a giant windstorm.
"I actually didn't notice, Spike. It was probably because of the high winds when I walked outside on the castle bridge."
"As long as you're okay, that's all that matters to me."
"I'm perfectly fine, Spike. I had a nice, quiet night to drown out my thoughts. I feel so much better."
"That's good," Spike replied. He let out a yawn. "I hardly slept last night."
"Why? Are you worried about things too?"
"No. You kept me up most of the time, and then soon after you left, when I was about to fall asleep, I heard some ponies shouting. It sounded like they were having a party or something."
"Do you know when that was?"
"Not exactly," Spike said. "It was probably about an hour after you left."
Twilight could feel blood rush to her face. She felt hot and flushed with embarassment. She thought they were quiet while on the cloud.
"Um, Spike? How loud were the ponies having the party?"
"Pretty loud. Loud enough to keep me awake. I think it was late enough that most ponies had gone home, though. Probably the guards stopped the party, because the noise only lasted a few minutes."
Twilight could clearly feel the blush on her face growing more and more red. If Spike heard all the way over here, who else heard? The mare worried desperately, and felt severe embarassment at that time. But her situation was about to get much worse, as she heard a knock at the door.
--------------------------------------
"Flash, what the hay was that last night?"
"Captain Shining Armour, I'm not sure what you are talking about," Flash answered with a salute.
"Flash, I don't even know where to begin," Shining started. "First, you seemed to have left your shift early last night, and then there was a whole bunch of noise reported to me from quite a few ponies. You should have been the one taking care of that!" Flash could feel his heart sink. Shining countinued, "And second, you were spotted walking and flying around privately with my sister. So, not only were you not covering your duties, you are exposing your relationship with a princess to others. A date at the gala is one thing, but the more you are seen with a princess, the more suspicious ponies will get."
Flash knew that Shining wasn't taking the reports lightly, but the guard also breathed a sigh of relief. Shining didn't seem to be aware of what really happened that night. "Is that all, sir?"
"What do you mean 'is that all'? You didn't take your job seriously last night, you didn't keep the grouds quiet, and you are playing a very dangerous game by openly dating a princess. Those are some things that should worry you, Flash."
Flash had a quick sigh of relief. Even though the news was bad, it could have been much worse. "I'm really sorry, sir. On my final tour around the castle, I found Twilight on the bridge, just thinking to herself. She seemed down, so I wanted to comfort her a little. I felt like that was more important than my guard duties."
"Flash, if she was down, what you should have done is just spoke to her for a few minutes, and contacted either myself or, preferably, Princess Luna at that late hour. She would have known what to do." Shining paced around the room, thinking. "Maybe I'm a little hard on you. I know you were just looking out for my sister, and I appreciate that. You're a really good stallion. I just want to see you at your best when you're at work. So, promise me this: no more distractions at work?"
"No more, sir."
"Good. I'm happy that you're making Twilight a very happy mare. I think you're good for her. Just make sure that your work life and your private life stay apart. We don't want any scandals or anypony from the media to know too much about your relationship. Now, get to your post. You're already late."
"Yes sir!"
As soon as Shining Armour left, Flash was able to have a quick sigh of relief once again. He hadn't brought up the intimacy between Flash and Twilight, and he seemed to go easy on the guard. The meetup went a lot better than expected.
--------------------------------------
"Oh, Princess Celestia? Do we have a meeting this morning?" Twilight asked as the princess stood at the door.
"Not exactly, Twilight. Could I please come in?"
"Certainly."
Princess Celestia visited Twilight's room. After kicking Spike out, not literally, unfortunately, she went over to the younger princess to have a heart-to-heart talk. The two of them sat down on Twilight's bed, which sank on the side of the white-furred princess, simply because of her size.
"First of all, Twilight, your mane is just horrible today. You should really use some Neighbelline when you take a bath. Second, the real reason why I came here was that... well, it's hard for me to say it to you, because I love you like you were my own daughter. Even my own daughter didn't respect me like you did. But I'm really disappointed in you."
"It's because of last night, isn't it?"
"Yes. Princess Luna told me in the morning that she had caught you getting intimate with Flash while she was flying around the castle. She wasn't mad. and neither am I, but we are both a little disappointed in you."
"I'm really, really sorry. I got caught up in the moment."
"I understand that, Twilight." Celestia put a hoof over the mares shoulder to show her that she wasn't too mad. "The reason why I'm disappointed, though, is because you are a princess now. As a princess, you are a role model for ponies young and older everywhere. Many ponies will look up to you for thousands of years to come. I know you will have desires. Even I have them from time to time, but it's best to try to hold them in, at least until you two get married. That way you won't have any 'surprises' to tell the kingdom about, because that would be far more embarassing for you. It would also be a bad influence on many other ponies."
"I understand, princess. I'm really sorry. It won't happen again," Twilight responded, looking down.
"Not to worry, Twilight. I still love you, and you are still doing an amazing job. I just want to make sure that you are doing your best."
"I promise, something like this will never happen again."
Celestia reached down and gave Twilight a comforting hug.
After the hug, Twilight asked, "Please, princess, don't tell my brother. He seems to really like Flash, and I don't want that to change. It was one mistake, and I want to just forget about it. Please..."
"All right, Twilight, I won't tell him."
"Thank you."
"But I can't promise he won't find out in other ways, though."
"I know. I just pray he doesn't. I don't know what he would do."
"Whatever he would do, though, it would be for your safety."
"I guess..."
Twilight and Celestia finished up their conversation, with Twilight fully knowing what she did wrong, and what to avoid in the future. After the older princess left, the mare sat on her bed, saddened by her mistake. Twilight, with feelings of guilt starting to come, gripped a pillow tightly and leaned down on her side on the bed.
"Um, Twilight, can I see you for a second?" Twilight heard from a crack in the door.
"Yes, come in, Flash."
Flash did just so, and as Twilight sat up on her bed, Flash came and sat down beside her.
"So, did you get in trouble too?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, by your brother."
"Oh gosh."
"Good news is: he was just mad that I stopped guarding. He didn't find out about us... you know."
"Oh, that's great to hear. Celestia did find out about us because Princess Luna saw. But she wasn't too mad. She just said that I need to be better as a role model. Thankfully not too many ponies heard or saw us."
"Thank Celestia for that. That was a mistake, Twilight, and I'm sorry."
"Well, it was a wonderful mistake."
Flash chuckled. "I was really on my game, wasn't I?"
"Yes, you were."
The two of them looked at each other and blushed.
"Hey, Flash, do you want to... go for another round?"
"Right now?" Twilight nodded her head with a smile. "Um... I don't think this is a good idea. It'll show that we really didn't learn anything."
"I guess you're right, Flash."
Flash lightly kissed Twilight on the cheek. "That's all you'll get for today," he said.
"That's good enough for me."
"My break is just about over, but do you want to go out for dinner tonight?"
"That would be lovely."
"pregnancy and marriage" the sequels? Did I win?
I died of chuckling .... Imma jezuz ... Yay keep doing your work the way you do best
Brohoof /)
2916773 Haha. No, that's not actually what I was hinting at. The two things I was hinting at were just simple comments by Celestia. But those two ideas may come...
2916773 Pregnancy was the one that poped up here. also I think one might be about celestia's real daughter? gave some knowledge but we didn't get anaything else about it. who was she? when was she....
2916801
aw shucks, I blew it. Can I still have a cookie?
2916812 Sure! *Hands cookie through computer screen*
2916804 Yep. Ding ding ding! Hint #1. Possible future backstory, or even an entire spinoff story in this series. Again, depends on how much material I have.
The second one may be hard to find, but it's my idea for a 3rd story.
2909631 Breathe
[quite]
[just]
i do so hope she gets pregnant. i LOVE sticky situations and reactions
after I read that I was like "aaaaawwwwwwww"
other than that great chapter! Keep up the good writing
2916825 Darn phone keyboard. Thanks.
Let's see...
Shining Armor might know some of these things from experience.
Is that the other hint?
2916872 Hmm. No. I think it's probably too small of a thing for people to notice.
That's what she said.
I'll give people a few more guesses and then I'll release it.
But that would be a good story too, actually.
...I just started reading Optimus's lines in the voice of Peter Cullen...
God... They're even funnier...
... That didn't last long.
For some reason, I think Optimus and Sentinel have a buddy named Magnus...
2916890 Lol.
2916892 I was thinking of that for another character actually...
2916895
Called it.
2916886
Holy spetz- YOU'RE RIGHT!
2916899
The voice of Peter Cullen is so serious that anything that he does that isn't serious instantly becomes funny.
The other hint is that Celestia has had to avoid this kind of thing in the past.
Hm ... I can't say I am too pleased with this chapter. Mainly with how you handled Shining Armor - the whole thing about him telling Flash that he should run straight to Celestia / Luna / Himself if Twilight seems down is downright ... condescending towards Flash, considering his standing with Twilight, as it pretty much implies he doesn't see Flash as capable of keeping Twilight happy. Also, berating him for leaving his post to go flying with Twilight is kinda ... odd. She is the Princess after all - if she wants, she can snatch just about any guard she wants to do her bidding, at any given moment. Shining answers to her, not the other way around - if Twi wanted, she could reassign Flash to the permanent duty of guarding the door to her chambers. From the inside of the room, if that floats her boat - she is kinda the highest authority in Equestria now, baring maybe Celestia and Luna on grounds of seniority.
The part with him telling Flash to try and keep their relationship a secret ... what the hay? There is no reason for them to go skulking around and pretending that nothing is happening. So what if some ponies get to find out? That's going to happen sooner or later anyway - and I highly doubt Twilight is ashamed to be dating Flash. It will end up looking only worse if it looks like the two are hiding something. (And seeing they have been on a couple of dates already, plenty of people are bound to have noticed anyway). I can't help but feel that Shining is in some serious need of dressing down by Twilight for trying to butt in to her relationship (especially since he didn't bother to inform her of his own with Cadance up until the very wedding day). Considering that, and that Shining's own wife and marriage even exists thanks to Twilight's efforts, she has a lot of ammo to fire on that front.
Twilight's private life is at her own discretion really - and no one has much of a say in the matter. Though having sex with Flash in the clouds above Canterlot ... yeah, they might want to cut back on that, but what happens inside her bedroom doors happens at her own discretion (and if she is that loud, possibly with a silence spell cast on the room :P), and I can't help but feel it's about time she kinda asserted herself a bit more on the subject, instead of having to watch Flash tiptoe around her brother and whom else just because he happens to be dating her, as if there was something wrong with the relationship or the way it's going.
As for potential sequel bait - I'm calling the obvious: Twi being pregnant after the night (or after the many the two are bound to share together soon after) :P
2916905 Hmm... Still no. Lol.
It's probably way too hard for people to guess, actually.
Maybe she's born with it
Maybe its Neighbelline
2916916
Crap. That's twice now...
Is it that there a whole bunch of ponies named after Transformers? *Not being serious with this one*
2916936 Hahaha no!!
Okay, the answer is that Celestia hints to Twilight living long. The immortality of Twilight and how she deals with it is going to be a future story. But that's the really sad one.
2916947
I thought that was already a given.
I painted my walls with me tea after Flash's meeting with his buddies.
Excellent!
2916915 Agreed on pretty much every point. Has Shining Armor completely forgotten that he himself dated and married a Princess?
And shouldn't he be IN THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE WITH HIS WIFE RIGHT NOW?
All in all you'd be better off replacing Shining Armor in this story with a new OC Captain of the Guard. Or otherwise justifying his presence in the castle-- as a prince. (which would make Flash Sentry's nervousness a little more justified.)
Also, Twilight and Celestia's conversation was a little... too pat. Neat and tidy. There should have been some raging embarrassment, shock, defensiveness, awkwardness (and maybe some amusement) on both their parts. Some clumsy EMOTION.
2916967
Problem is that that doesn't fit Celestia. Celestia is well aware that being courteous with such things has much more of an effect than getting angry.
2916949 Yeah... Well... I didn't know if people knew that I was going to write about that.
2916973
She's an alicorn.
Of course you are.
Trust me, I knew because I was planning to address it, myself, in my own story.
2916967 2916915
Dang, you guys make valid points, but show some patience :P
Flash will have a heart-to-heart with Shining in the future. Things will be answered, and your points will be considered as well.
As of now, it still hasn't been too long since they started dating. Shining has to still deal with caring for his sister, yet taking care of his duties as well.
As for the Cadence thing, that will be talked about too in a few chapters.
2916972
Not angry - she has no real reason to be angry, after all. More like, I kinda expected some good-natured ribbing from her part - the bookish and kinda-reclusive Twilight just went out and had her first time just outside Canterlot's towers while giving Luna a spectacle of the whole ordeal ... and not being quiet about the process. I imagine that would have been worth a lot of embarrassment points to poke Twilight with (and Celestia certainly isn't above some light joking here and there).
It's not often (I imagine) that she would get to poke some friendly fun at Twilight over something like this, I'm surprised she didn't jump at the chance (And it still would get the message across that maybe clouds just outside the castle aren't the most discreet place to be having steamy endeavors )
Or maybe Luna can still get to that ... or Cadance - I bet especially Cadence would be nothing short but ecstatic about Twilight finally nabbing herself a coltfriend - and then they can trade embarrassing stories about their respective guardsponies while the two colts whimper in the corner imaging all their dignity burning away to shreds between the two princesses :P
2917008
That, I can agree with.
Maybe she is just waiting for Luna to be there so that she has more material to work with.
2917008 But also remember, too. Twilight's only like 19 or 20 in my mind. She may have responsibilities, but she is still young and was sheltered by her studies for most of her life, so some things in the real world may not come to her mind. And I'm sure that Shining wouldn't want everybody knowing his family's business.
2916981
Indeed, but there is a fine line between looking out for his sister, and trying to outright manage the way her relationship should be going, and I feel he is kinda crossing the line here, which is kinda insulting towards both Twilight and Flash (especially Flash - that line about Flash needing to run to either of the princesses or him if Twi was feeling down was simply low). If she can be in charge of the kingdom, which even stands thanks to her personal efforts on multiple occasions, then she certainly can be in charge of her own relationship - and I can't help but feel it would be both in hers and Flash interests to put her hoof down on the issue before Shining gets too comfortable with trying to manage her romance life.
2917063 I get you. I really do. I can't change anything in this chapter, though, because then it will change the whole future of the story. But there is much more to it than just this chapter, I promise. This is just to show everyone that they were caught. Stuff will come out more.
2916801 "My own daughter didn't respect me like you did"?
2917090 Uh-huh, that's it.
Good thing her friends didn't say "How was it?"
2917074
Oh no, I'm certainly not asking you to change anything within the chapter, I'm sorry if I somehow gave that impression. I'm just ranting at Shining Armor and his attitude (not necessarily the writing - just that Shining might need a kick to remind him who has the bigger horn in the family (and that's the immortal Alicorn Princess) before he goes even deeper in to his looming big brother routine, heh) - which wasn't really a point of much concern up until now, and thus Twilight wouldn't have had to worry about it beforehand - I'm more mussing about any potential future steps she might have to take in order to ensure that Flash doesn't end up being essentially harassed/belittled and that others don't end up trying to manage her relationship for her from this point onwards.
2917179
They haven't gotten the chance to ask yet. I'm sure Rarity especially would be interested in the topic :P
2916854 Haha, gotta hate those dinky things. No problem.
2917213 Oh oh ok. I get it. It's just because I usually answer things later in my stories. I thought you were saying that what I was saying wasn't realistic or anything. S'all good.
Hmm... got one. Ponies looking up to her for "thousands of years"... it would be chiche, but perhaps a future story? Also, Celestia admits she gets "desires" as well... would be an interesting story, if nothing else.
2917113 I think its funny how TWILIGHT tells Celestia that it will never happen again, but then asks for "another round" when Flash arrives literally 5 minutes later. TWILIGHT, of all the ponies!
2917297 You got it!
2917300 The nerdy ones can get quite frisky ;)
Or so I'm told. I don't know anything about the female species.