Three
Flash Sentry stared at the floor.
"Your Majesties," the lieutenant spoke with a suddenly booming voice that echoed across what must have been an epic royal hall. "I present to you Flash Sentry—known colloquially as 'Brad' to the official hosts of the Unification Celebration."
Flash Sentry stared at the floor.
"Thank you most kindly, Lieutenant," spoke an elegant voice, strangely familiar in its authoritative feminine tone.
Flash Sentry stared at the floor.
"Also, Your Highness, the stewards of the Crystal Empire send their regards," the guard continued. "Captain Shining Armor returned to his duty of overseeing the festivities. In the meantime, Princess Cadance has gone to commune with King Thorax and the other delegates."
"Understood," the voice continued, strangely loving and official all at once. "We very much appreciate being briefed on the matter. You and your fellow guards are now dismissed, Lieutenant."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Metal-laced hooves scuffled. Flash sensed the lieutenant marching past him. Their eyes did not meet, for he was still staring down at the lush roll of burgundy carpet over a polished marble floor.
Eventually, the door thundered shut behind him.
Flash took a deep breath.
He was alone with all three.
"How are you fairing, Flash Sentry?" spoke the matriarchal voice. "We are most sorry for the unsatisfactory conditions that you have endured due to the recent misunderstanding. Nevertheless, as you can imagine, there was much confusion to be cleared up concerning your presence. On multiple fronts."
Flash Sentry stared at the floor. His damned sensitive pony ears sensed a third figure—smaller than the other two—shifting in the far corner of the throneroom. His heart pulsed harder and he loathed himself for it.
"Flash Sentry?" the voice inquired, lilting upwards with concern. "Can you not hear us? I do hope you have not come down with an equine illness..." The voice shifted to a breathy whisper as she spoke aside to somepony. "Did... did Princess Cadance say anything about his living conditions? Did he get enough rest?"
"Rest—he has," a voice responded, instantly recognized by its intensity. "Dream—he hasn't." Heavy hoofsteps approached the pensive teenager. "At least not enough to welcome my presence. No doubt he blames himself."
A blue hoof reached under his chin. With more gentleness than Flash expected, he was finally forced to look up.
A big blue horse with a nebulaic mane of tapering cosmic hair stared back down at him. She spoke with Principal Luna's voice. "His eyes certainly aren't clouded."
"... ... ..." Flash's eyes briefly sparkled. His muzzle hung open. "Holy hell... you're waaaaaaaaay friggin' bigger in person."
Luna's horse nostrils flared, otherwise she remained stoic. "He is quite fine, sister. I assure you."
Another horse in the room laughed daintily. The teenager experienced a sudden flashback to when Principal Celestia once agreed to perform karaoke with the student body the day before spring break. She flubbed American Pie, and she laughed for a full minute at everyone's reaction. It sounded heavenly, and Flash smiled both inside and out.
"It's all my fault, Princess Celestia," the third one said. Flash's heart instantly sank, and his eyes were stabbed by a lavender shape in the corner. He held his breath—but that only made him hear her words in greater, starker clarity: "None of this would have happened if I had properly briefed you and the stewards of the Empire about the modifications I-I made to the portal." Flash sensed her shivering... as if she was somehow more trepidatious about this moment than she was. Unlike the other two "princesses," she was still tender, precious, and timid with each trembling word. It was adorable... and he hated himself each time his ears suckled on those rolling syllables. "If only everypony knew that the Gateway was no longer bound by the cycle of the two worlds' moons, then maybe this entire 'changeling' scare would never have happened. Instead, I-I almost indirectly caused a panic here in the Empire on the eve of Unification—"
"Just calm yourself, Twilight Sparkle," Celestia's voice said. "I understand that, as the Princess of Friendship, you've taken on responsibility for assisting my former student in combatting the strange manifestations of magic in her world through harmony and comraderie. You were empowered to make the modifications that you did to the portal. If you hadn't, then Sunset Shimmer would not have received the due assistance she needed in times of crisis, and just where would our dimensional neighbors be?"
"I... I-I understand what you mean, Princess Celestia. Even still, I could have communicated better."
"All ponies have room to grow, Twilight," Celestia said under the percussion of approaching hoofsteps. "Even princesses." Princess Luna stepped away, and Flash looked up to see the ruler of Equestria approaching him in all her shining glory. Even he had to admit—deep down—that her regal complexion somehow looked better on a giant winged space unicorn than it did on an unassuming school principal. "But communication—it would seem—has been hampered by more than quadrupeds as of late." She gazed down at him with an expression bordering on stern and bemused. "Isn't that right, 'Brad?' Or... should I say 'Flash Sentry?'"
Someone was gulping audibly right around then.
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Yessss... this is going to be good.
Ok well, that fills in that little plot hole, I can buy it enough for it not to bother me. Now it's time to air everything out get it all out in the open.
The boss wants to see you.
Hi boss.
No, the Big Boss.
8865191
I was intentionally oversimplyfying it.. it's actually my profession to deal with metallurgy but I did not want to be Twilight Sparkle. That still not considered "steel crystals" they are iron crystals, of two main grid states, additives work as surface modificators or source of impurities that cause crystals be less malleable ( pure iron is very soft). The main hardening factor of complex steels are eutectics created by iron and carbon, by iron , carbon and additives. Eutectic is not a homogenous mixture but atom-level-bond structure, essentially a ceramic or at least what some call ceramic today. Iron crystals get trapped inside of matrix, sometimes even in unstable state that notmally exists above 700C. Microstructure of steel is very complex and fractal.
Nicely tied up so far.
One thing that confuses me in this, the use of "majesty" for princesses. Shining Armor and Cadance are rulers of an empire, so they may be accorded so, and Sombra and Chrysalis are king and queen (again, majesty is the correct address), but princesses are normally accorded "highness" as their title. The show itself has clung to this quite well, except for one scene where the Cakes are serving Celestia and slip—calling her Your Majesty—but it is well assumed that this happened because they were so flustered and not used to serving royalty.
Sooo good and sooo worth the wait!
nuu but twilight and flash are suppose to have a life together ,,, #i had hoped # great story
8865338 This is true. The dichotomy arises because the show tends to follow British common use of Princess=Highness, presumably so that real-world use/references would not confuse younger viewers. However, that use is predicated on British princesses not being monarchs or sovereigns in their own right. Such heads of state have used Majesty as their style of office for approximately 500 years. Thus, assuming Equestria follows British convention, "Majesty" would also be correct - or at least, for Celestia and Luna, and possibly Cadance if the Crystal Empire follows suit. Twilight doesn't rule her own country, so "Highness" would be correct.
That said, the show has (as pointed out) always used "Highness". Fics which try to cleave to the original show as closely as possible would therefore presumably replicate this. The use of "Majesty" for Equestrian princesses is thus a deliberate style (heh) choice by an author. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to read that as one of the markers of an AU, indicating that this is not the show's Equestria (unless, of course, the title is used erroneously by a character).
8865738 Yeah. I actually took things a step further in a story I wrote (it diverged heavily from canon eventually) where the ponies of the Crystal Empire insisted Cadance and Shining take their proper titles, and both were accorded as Imperial Majesty. It's always fun to play around with such things.
I was hoping twilight sparkle tackle flash and hug him even nuzzles him!
You would think twilight sparkle would atless give him a hug after every he been thought! Please pls let twilight hug him!
Stay strong flash. We have faith in you.
Style points for "nebulaic," irregardless of whether I will find that's a real word. Buuut penalty points for giving Vice Principal Luna an unexplained promotion.
You're going to have to look up eventually, Flash.
Nice.
Celestia is best giant winged space unicorn.
8866181
Her's can be explained with "magic". Humans don't normally fly, and even in this setting I doubt slapping an otherwise completely mundane set of wings on one would allow them to suddenly fly with no prior training. That's not what happened with RD, she got them along with a bunch of other abilities.
The fact that, at least in this AU, natural born pegasi still need to be taught how to fly means that it's perfectly reasonable Flash would need the same.
I wonder if Flash could be shipped with Princess Luna in this fic?
8866408
True, it just annoys me that Dash could fly immediately after her wings appeared. I was kind of hopping that we would get to see Dash learning how to fly.