A Sentry Always Does Right
Author's Note
As an experiment, doing this one without the colorized text. I will add them in if requested enough though. I also might add more chapters following the past Sentries, but for now this is Flash's story.
Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron, whom also aided me in making the cover.
A Sentry Always Does Right
A single pony slowly made their way off the beaten path typically traveled, past fields and through a quiet forest; well a ways from routes typically traveled by. Though they bore wings they did not make use of them, instead opting to walk with their hooves wandering as much as their mind did. Celestia’s warm sun reflected off polished armor of a golden hue, the metallic casing the stallion bore indicating he was a Canterlot based royal guard, or at least he had been before traveling to a much more remote post in the north and opted to keep his old armor. But it wasn’t to his latest post that Flash Sentry trekked to today, but rather a place almost as remote but even more familiar than the Crystal Empire.
Flash Sentry stopped before the gate of a manor, one not especially large but the worn stone construction and buttress support clearly designating it as of great magnitude in age. He stopped, taking in the sight of the structure with a sigh. The multiple stories, strong roof, and bordering, railed walls surrounding the manor gave it a distinct look. Imposing, daunting, and commanding of respect when viewed like a fortress with its strong walls and cold stony construction; pleasant, humble, and safe when looked at in light of the flowers growing around and between some of the stones, the manor lacking extravagance and seeming welcome to invitation. The kind of home that would shelter a wayward guest and keep any within it safe.
The exact kind of estate Flash Sentry couldn’t help but smile at when he first saw it through the surrounding forest. It was, after all, his. He was home. He pushed through the unlocked gate and made his way towards the front door in no particular rush, casually glancing at the large yard flanking either side of the walkway. To one side, a small forest of obstacles, targets, even some tied-down cloud agility rings, or weight bags not unlike what one would expect to see at the guard barracks. To the other was a sight that brought a smile even if others would find it a bit morbid. Rows of a cemetery. No overly elaborate headstones or tombs, just a dozen rows or so and two dozen columns of marker stone for approximately three hundred graves. Due to assortments set in over the years, both the family cemetery as well as the tree-shaded pond bordering it were covered in a myriad of flower growth at this time of year. The young stallion’s smile was spurred by the memory of rolling around in those flower beds or having lunch next to the pond with family as a colt.
He pushed forward on towards the front door, knocking upon it four times in a rhythm and getting two knocks in return. The aged but stills strong wood creaked open and a middle aged mare emerged from it. She was fairly average in build for a pegasus, a few lines on her face or lightening in her mane not taking much away from her appearance; a leaner build still visible under her red fur. Her blue eyes and similarly two toned blue mane were identical to Flash Sentry’s. Flash took his helmet off and cracked a goofy grin, spurring Audria Sentry, formerly Audria Goodwing, to roll her eyes and giggle as they leaned towards each other in a hug.
“Hi, mom.”
“Welcome home, son.”
=================
Twenty Years Ago
Audria Sentry wasn’t a mare who scared easy. When one was a rescue flier in the Wonderbolt reserves and was married to the Captain of the Guard, one couldn’t be squeamish. The reason she was silently hovering through the dark manor with a candle tray in one hoof and a spear in the other was what jostled her awake was currently coming from her infant son’s room. Rain pinged off the windows, helping to mask her bated breaths as she braced just outside the doorframe before quickly swinging around and bringing the spear forward while shining the candle’s light into the room. If she was unnerved before, the poor matron nearly had a heart attack when she saw the crib was empty and there was a figure hunched down in the chair next to it with her infant son in their hooves. Thankfully she recognized the figure’s orange fur and green mane as that of her husband just as quickly. Audria sighed, putting the spear down and landing on her hooves to walk up to her family.
“You’re back early-”
She paused as she drew closer, she noticed something else amiss with Stalwart Sentry. Out of his guard armor, his thick build was half covered in medical bandages and he stunk of burn aloe. Audria put the candle down and quickly paced forward with wide eyes.
“O-Oh my McCarthy, honey are you okay?!”, she yelped in hushed breath as to not try and rouse the baby Stalwart was holding close to him. Stalwart didn’t even budge, still frozen in his hunched over position with his eyes downcast to the sleeping foal who snuggled up against his chest and was lullabied by his father’s warmth and heartbeat.
Audria frowned, reigning herself in as she got up to her husband. She kept her movements slow, calculated in motion when she gently brushed his cheek with a hoof and let it glide across his jaw, neck, and rest upon his shoulder. She moved in closer, steadying her breath and remaining silent as she got up against his side. She knew what Stalwart being silent and frozen like this meant, especially given how recent events had to have unfolded. Stalwart had been called away on a mission the other day, meaning him being back so early left only two possible scenarios. The first, it went off without a hitch, was just a quick checkover, and nothing happened. The second, proven true by default given his silence and clear unease meant something had to have gone horribly wrong. With the bandages taken into account, she wouldn’t have put it past her husband to have snuck back home early instead of resting in Canterlot. If that was true it was worse than she could have thought.
So she did the one thing she knew would help, remained close and waited.
She waited a full hour before Stalwart slowly raised his head to look at her. Audira nearly gasped at how haggard, exhausted, and terrified he looked; with thick bags under his crusty, blood shot eyes. A voice that seemed far too afraid, too small for her large partner seeped out.
“Dragon…”
Audria bit her lip, letting her ears flop back down after they momentarily perked up.
“Wh-What did it do?”
========================
“Captain Sentry?!”
Stalwart regained his senses and winced, ripping himself out of the smoldering remains of a shed he’d been knocked through by a stray tail lash. A stabbing pain in his left side told him the armor might have held, but the sheer force had fractured or broken a rib. He tried not to let his eyes wander over to the charred remains of what had once been a pair of earth ponies lodged in the debris next to where he’d been.
“Get the kids!”
He spat out a wad of blood as he was called for again.
“Captain, it’s getting back up!”, Sergeant medic “Fancy Pants” Pantero yelped as he pointed towards the still burning corpse of what had once been a house; a terrified purple pegasus filly and similarly purple unicorn foal still clutched in the medic’s foreleg and magic aura.
There was a terrifying crackling sound and Captain Stalwart Sentry saw it. That hated, evil thing of dark gray and blue clawing its way out of the blazing remains he’d briefly managed to inter it in. The drake was large despite not being fully grown, easily the size of an elephant. It gripped the edge of a blackened and flaming wall, crushing it down between its claws at it hissed, locking predatory eyes wreathed in sparks and smoke upon the youngsters the medic was carrying out of a well they'd been hiding in when the Royal Guards found them.
It started to lunge, only to shriek and swat at the air when a speeding form crashed into it from the side and sliced into its cheek with a lance. Captain Sentry was launched back by its thrashing, digging the back end of his lance into the ground to skid to a halt as he cut trenches into the dirt with it and his hooves. He roared only one thing when looking to the medic before rushing the charging dragon.
“Get out of here now!”
========================
He was brought back into the present shaking, held only slightly still by his wife’s embrace. He leaned into it, unable to stop his trembling or racing heart as the memory refused to stop replaying.
Audria Sentry frowned and sighed as she very calmly whispered the question to him, “How many?”
Anypony else might wonder if she meant how many dragons, how many deceased, how many injured, how many homes burned; but being together so long had synced them together far too much for him to not know his wife and vice versa.
“Only two. Two fillies. Moonbeam and Starlight Glimmer…”
Stalwart’s pulse intensified and he could feel it pounding between his ears. He looked back down at his son as Flash began to wince in his sleep, slightly roused by the loss of the rhythmic heartbeat his father had.
Stalwart Sentry felt a stinging in his eye as he held his child a little closer after seeing two so much like him lose the chance to ever experience that again.
“One wasn’t any older than him.”, he muttered in an increasingly choking voice, “One of those girls wasn’t any older than him…”
The tiny colt winced more, slowly moving into awareness. He blinked, rubbing at his eyes before gazing up at the staring faces of his mother and father. Looking between the two, his beady blue eyes trained more upon his father. Flash Sentry frowned, not from being awakened from his nap though. While his little mind couldn’t figure out what was causing it, his parents’ distress was infectious and he was going to do something about it. The little colt leaned up, standing up on his father’s wrists and pawing up at Stalwart’s collar. He stretched up as high as he could without flying, though he did buzz his little wings and wag his tail while hugging Stalwart’s muscular neck to his best effort. Flash Sentry coughed a bit, trying to utter something, anything. While he hadn’t managed any coherence as of yet, he did know that he making noises did tend to cheer his parents or grandparents up. He strained, trying to hone one little utterance.
“Aabuu aaahaya.. addya….Dah-di. Dah-dy!”, the colt giggled at his accomplishment, pressing his cheek against his father’s throat as he wagged his tail.
Stalwart flinched as Audria cooed softly, forming a proud smile. It wasn’t just the first word that spurred her pride, but the intent. She leaned down and kissed her now squealing son on the top of his little head before ruffling his mane.
“A Sentry always does right. He is his father’s son.”
Stalwart closed his eyes, resting a wrist around his baby boy’s back. The stinging in his eyes climaxed into a release, liquid stress and joy flowing down his face. Even living legends were still mortal. He leaned over somewhat, letting his wife embrace his head and neck as she rested her chin atop his scalp. For just a moment, the Captain of the Guard could let himself fall apart and release, surrounded by two ponies that could hold him together.
There was nothing funny when a soldier cried, and many a Sentry had done just that.
========================
“Thank you, Captain Sentry, Mr. Pantero. Sir,” Moonbeam Glimmer said quietly, nodding to the stallions who’d escorted her there. Captain Sentry nodded back silently as Fancy Pants jovially waved to the filly and returned the nod with a gentlecoltly bow. The little pegasus filly, less than seven years of age, smiled and then hurried over to a set of stones beneath a growing tree. Her parent's grave site. It was time to talk to them again.
A unicorn stallion sighed, walking up beside the Captain of the Guard and now retired medic.
“Thank you two again so much for coming, Captain Sentry, Mr. Pantero. You being here it…”, Mr. Burst’s word died in his throat when he saw his foster daughter sit before her parent’s gravestones with the remains of the Glimmer residence still visible a few meters away. His wife came up to him and placed her hoof upon his, nodding solemnly to their guests.
“You two escorting Moonbeam here when she needs to come, it makes her feel safe.”
“We understand if it’s troubling for you both as well.”, Mr. Burst muttered, noticing clearly how Stalwart hadn’t taken his eyes off the burned homestead and Moonbeam this whole time without so much as a word. The dragon attack of Foal Mountain that claimed the lives of both the Glimmer sister's parents as well as many of their neighbors who came when they saw the smoke was still a recent memory for many.
Fortunately his silence was balanced by Fancy Pants’ openness and polite manner, whom popped up in front of the couple and waved them off casually, “Oh no noooo trouble at’all good madam and sir! The good Captain and I are glad to make time for the young lady.”
Stalwart Sentry finally broke the silence he’d had but only in a manner far less talkative than Fancy Pants ever could remember him being before Foal Mountain, “It’s necessary.”
As the adults sat down to wait or exchange food in a sort of picnic of Pantero and Mrs. Burst’s concoction, and while Moonbeam spoke to the two silent stones, two little forms rested on a blanket closeby. The toddler-aged Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst snoozed in the warm sun and soft blanket, snuggled up against one another. Blowing spittle bubbles in her sleep, the popping of one must have jostled Starlight slightly as she experienced a magic burst due to a hiccup. While thankfully not a shockwave, telekinetic shove, or other potentially harmful outburst; she did briefly vanish in a flash of teal light only to reappear several meters on the side of the hill. Having teleported onto an incline, the toddler aged filly quickly found herself doubling over and rolling down the hill.
Startled awake and conking her head on a dirt clod when she hit the bottom, Starlight Glimmer tiredly blinked her beady eyes and felt at her aching horn. She started to sniffle as her eyes teared up.
Mr. and Mrs. Burst nearly levitated off their hooves when they heard a hushed, quiet, but unmistakable sound of a baby crying. Whirling around to look at the baby blanket, they spotted their own young son sitting up and showing his unease as tears streamed down his face. Sunburst looked around and to his parents, trying to find his lost foster sister, best friend, and cuddle buddy. When Mrs. Burst spotted a telltale tail of purple and teal fur on the bottom of the short hill, she was hardly any less frantic and nearly launched herself off her seat to go and get Starlight. Only for a broad, armored hoof to shoot out in front of and stop her.
Her eyes locked upon Stalwart Sentry’s, showing both clear franticness for her foster daughter’s safety as well as confusion as to why the Captain had stopped her. Captain Sentry said nothing, only nodding slightly while making a calming motion with his hoof before pointing at where Starlight was. There was a tiny smile upon his face.
Little Starlight felt her tears dry slightly when she heard the buzzing of small wings and found a pair of equally small hooves gently taking hold of her own. She found herself with company again, a young colt roughly the same age as her and Sunburst hovering before her after having flew over; like a sentry flashing into where he was needed. The colt, orange in color and blue in both hair and eyes, blinked a few times and sniffled at Starlight as she whimpered from the ache in her forehead.
“‘Ou otay?”, Flash Sentry muttered in infantile babble.
Starlight Glimmer frowned, motioning to her horn and shaking her head, “Noupe, bo-boo!”
Flash Sentry frowned, rearing up on his hindlegs and buzzing his little wings to get a better look at the horn. The little pegasus gently brushed the dirt off the keratin spiral and mimicked what his mother did if he scraped a wing or knee; kissing and blowing on the roughened spot. The more he did it, the more Starlight giggled from the ticklish first aid.
She pulled her head back, either the ache soothed or too happy to have company again to care about it. She pointed to her chest and muttered, “I Stawy!”
Flash Sentry beamed, holding a hoof out to her, “I Fwash!”
His beady eyes looked back up to the top of the hill, “Wan bwack to mommy an’ daddy?”
“Uh huh!” Starlight quipped with a nod, oblivious to the parents now beaming at them.
“Otay! Fowwow Fwash, fwiend!”
Flash Sentry did what he saw his father do for a mare and gently took her by the hoof, dutifully leading the young filly up the towering incline of three meters. Mrs. Burst sat back down, sighing in great relief as the young little Sentry escorted Starlight back to Sunburst’s eager reunion. Captain Sentry didn’t keep the pride growing across his face subtle, Fancy Pants hadn’t seen his old superior officer smile like that since before Foal Mountain either.
========================
Air hissed, wood exploded, and stone screeched with the glint of swinging metal. The target dummies fell one by one, either cleaved in two like a hunk of wood split by an axe or bursting to pieces from the kinetic force ripping them apart into shrapnel. A hoof kicked back on the shaft of the weapon and soon the end of the lance was fired out like a harpoon on a cord. It stabbed through another dummy and impaled it. The cord connecting it to the shaft whirled back from a strong yank, tearing the lance point back with the top half of the dummy ripped out and pulled along with it. Stalwart Sentry got into a forehoof stand as he spun around, bringing both lashing hindlegs out and smashing the dummy with his hooves in a powerful buck. The lance was pried out and reconnected to the shaft. The kicked portion of dummy had it’s entire momentum changed in an instant, the hunk of stone and hardwood flying backwards to bowl over four more of its kind.
Captain Stalwart Sentry spun his lance around and surveyed the ‘battlefield’, finding not a single dummy left standing or in one piece as they fell to the ground. Flicking dust off the weapon, he cocked it back to the standing position, raised high up with the back point hovering above the ground. The stallion snorted, looking over to the direction the sound of hooves clapping was coming from. Flash Sentry, age eight and half-covered in padded training gear, had stopped assaulting his own smaller target dummy with a wooden spear after watching his father in awe. His eyes were locked upon his parent’s weapon. Stalwart Sentry’s expression morphed to show mild bemusement, patting the ground in front of him to call his son over.
Flash marched up and plopped down in front of Stalwart as silently instructed. Stalwart reached back and undid some of the straps securing the lance to its harness. His colt’s eyes dilated when Stalwart took the lance off and held it out in front of him, keeping hold of it as Flash eagerly felt at the weapon.
“The Hurricane Lance is the weapon of choice for most Captain of the Guard. Given how many Sentrys have used it over the centuries since the beginning, it might as well be a family heirloom. Still as good as when Ardent used it.”
Flash, still not in the double digits in age, belted out a blatantly obvious response as he gingerly tapped at one of the curved edges to the lance head; “Ooooh! Looks dangerous!”
“Only to those who’ve had that end facing them,” Stalwart noted, feeling a tiny bit of pride in his son’s awe, “The wounds of many monsters have their origin in this lance, but not a single blow to an innocent.”
Flash Sentry lifted up and tilted his head, looking between his father and the lance.
“S-So the lance hates and hurts evil? Is it magic?!” he squawked, the sudden jolt causing his slightly-too-large training helmet to fall over his eyes.
Stalwart Sentry gently lifted the visor off his son’s face and shook his head, “No, just a pointy piece of metal and ironwood.”
Flash tapped at his chin with his hoof and buzzed his little wings, “Then, how has it hurt nopony good?”
“Good aim and a clear head of whoever was holding it.”
The gears in the colt’s head whirled. Soon though his tone deflated slightly, having hoped for some grand power or ability this awesome weapon had to match its legacy. He had previously been betting between it also being a magical cannon, or glowing and burning evil things that it touched.
“Soooo it’s… not special? How is it still usable if so many ponies used it?”, he muttered.
“Good forging and the magic of blade salts.”
“And the part about it hurting baddies and helping good ones?”
Stalwart paused, taking the lance back and shifting to hold it aloft. He planted the spear’s back end into the ground as an anchor, hoisting the gleaming top up like a flag. Magic or not, Flash couldn’t help but gaze up at the lance with wide eyes and a smiling, opened jaw. It looked dangerous, but mighty at the same time. And knowing it was his father holding it, safe.
“Our family has a motto, a creed.”
“Creed?”, Flash quipped with a tilted head.
Stalwart nodded slightly, “A promise to do something. A Sentry always does what’s right. No matter what’s happening, what we have planned, a Sentry always does what right when they see the chance.”
“Ooooh! And a promise is something you and Mom said not to break,” Flash closed his eyes and nodded to note his repetition of an old moral lesson proudly.
“And every Sentry since the beginning has kept that promise, no matter how hard it gets.”
Stalwart sighed, feeling phantom pains of burning heat and gnashing teeth across his wings. The Hurricane Lance hadn’t just drank changeling or hydra ichors over the years, it’s last bath in battle was reptilian. Shoving the pains of the past aside for more recent history, Stalwart let his mind drift back to years gone by to both times a day after and months after Foal Mountain. He remembered his son’s first good deed, saying his first word and staying close as Flash tried to comfort his father along with his mother. And he remembered the act months after where he found out just how much Flash had been watching and emulating himself and his wife. Stoic, Stalwart reached out and put a hoof on his son’s shoulder.
Flash looked up to his father as Stalwart looked down at him.
“That is why it is our family’s motto, creed… promise. Do you intend to keep it?”
Flash Sentry took only a second or two, long enough to clearly ponder and not just spout out a response on instinct; short enough to show he didn’t need to weigh his options much. The colt struck an expression halfway between determined and joyous, puffed cheeks and furrowed brow atop a wide smile and perked ears.
“Yes, Dad!- Sir! Dad, Sir!”
Stalwart was quiet for a time, before slowly shifting. He took the lance and moved it slowly and carefully, bringing it down to Flash’s level.
“Then that promise is yours now to hold. You’ll find out yourself when you live it.”
With the softness of a landing butterfly, he tapped both of Flash Sentry’s shoulder pads with the tip. He probably wouldn’t be the one to directly mentor Flash himself, both due to age gap, Princess Celestia suggesting he retire in a few years, and some wishes for his son to find his path like he had; but he still knighted whom would be somepony’s squire.
Flash Sentry, the little squire, found himself breathless. He looked to his father, eyes determined to do as his family had done; and saluted. Stalwart couldn’t help but smile when he saluted back.
========================
Flash Sentry gritted his teeth and zoomed out of the train at breakneck speed, going so fast he might have worried about losing feathers. His eyes were trained only upon the castle, to the barracks’ gate, stealing only a brief glance at a street clock to confirm the time.
-4:42, still got time! Still got time! I can make it! I can ma-!-
His thought was cut off when he felt it: A tingling sensation that bundled up in his subconscious and tore his attention away. Flash Sentry threw on the air brakes, audibly skidding to a halt midair and spinning around in a hover. His gaze was soon set upon a busier street and the small form slowly inching its way across. Flash Sentry grimaced, looking between the castle, the clock, and the street. He wanted so much to go towards the former with conscious thought, but unconscious drive pushed him to the last locale.
A few minutes later and after helping the old stallion across the street, Flash had just kicked off into the air when the tingle returned. Out of the corner of his eyes a battery of round objects bobbed against each other while making their way towards the skies above. A youthful, sobbing voice called out from behind one of artisan buildings the lost toy had drifted away from.
“My bawwoons! Heeeelp!”
Flash rolled his eyes and groaned, stealing a momentary glance at the nearest clock.
-4:44… That clock runs fast, y-yeah I know it. That one’s three minutes fast for the vendors to get them to set up earlier.-
He didn’t even buy that lie as he took off after the balloons.
“There, this will help you keep a hold of them kid.”, Flash muttered as he finished gently tying the balloon cord to the filly’s wrist. The unicorn tot giggled, tugging at the strings with her wrist and entranced by how silly the balloons looked when pulled up and down. Flash sighed, unable to fight a smile as he gently messed up the now squealing filly’s mane.
-Better not make me miss my meeting, kid.-
Said kid unintentionally seemed to be trying to do just that when she tugged at his hoof. Flash pitched his head down towards her and saw the purple-furred, yellow-maned and -eyed filly look around, before gazing up at him with the most pathetic, heart rending, quivering frown-and-puppy-dog-eyes combo he’d ever seen since that colt who spilled his ice cream this morning.
“Have you seen my momma? I chased aft’a the bawwoons and can’t find her...”, she whispered with tears verging on her face.
Flash wanted to throw his head back and bellow in exasperation. Instead he was hovering around ten seconds later with a filly on his head, trying to keep a hold of her by the heels and not to wince as she crawled around atop his helmet. He accidentally glimpsed one of the clocks, reading the time as 4:48 before he could force himself to look away.
-Yeeeeep! Lots of clocks running fast today! We're gonna be just FFIIIIIIINE!-
He lied with a frustrated, mental growl.
“See her yet?”, he said plainly, keeping any annoyance or fret free of his tone in being mindful of the little one.
Dinky Doo’s eyes narrowed as she bit her tongue and surveyed around her, using her balloon arm to hold a hoof above her brow. Soon enough her eyes lit up and she squealed. She rapidly tapped, or from his perspective, banged, on his helmet and pointed at a speeding gray pegasus in a mailmare suit.
“There she is! There there! That’s my momma!”
Flash got one look at how ungodly fast the mailmare was and groaned before giving chase.
After returning daughter to mother, who evidently had been zipping around Canterlot trying to find her “Bubble Wubble Muffin Pooh”, Flash got into the air and instantly got to the palace, arriving extra early for once, punctual, and to the great amusement of his mentor Captain Armor…. Or at least that’s what his mind wanted him to do right before he got the tingling again and he soon found himself rushing over not to the castle or barracks, but to the stumbling mass of mobile groceries that was precariously about to lose her balance on account of the hundred plus pound bag of animal feed.
A short time, or rather very short time as he lied himself into thinking, later and Flash Sentry was back at the train station hauling the last heavy sack of veterinary food onto the back.
“And thaaaat’s the last of it, phew!”, he wiped some sweat from his brow, admiring his efforts briefly; which took for the form of multiple bags of animal food, medical supplies, and an unworldly amount of bandages. Ponyville’s veterinarian, a yellow-furred and baby blue-white-maned earth pony mare by the name of Dr. Mane Goodall Fauna, grinned and practically pranced in place for a moment.
“Pheeeeeww weee! Thank you so much for pitching in there, would have taken me so long to haul this myself. I’d have made so many trips that I’d have missed the train!”, she exclaimed with glee and eagerly boarded for her ride back to Ponyville a half hour earlier.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Flash Sentry was dejectedly wishing he could have been a half hour earlier had he not ended up taking two trips back and forth to the train station with a shipment of all-purpose, speciality opossum chow in his hooves.
-Or more rather how speciality chow is all-purpose?.. Uurrg, questions for later!-
“WellHappyToHelp! GottaGo!”, he yelped with a grimace and took off.
At this point he’d long taken to trying his damndest not to look at a clock. The “minutes fast” excuse only worked so many times on one’s self. To his delight however, he managed to get through the crowds and end up at the Canterlot Gardens without pause. Relief washed over him in waves as his hooves touched down on the grass within the statue garden, the entrance to the barracks in sight. As he got half the way through however, Flash’s eyes caught something.
It thankfully wasn’t someone living, but a statue. Two in fact, several meters apart. The grassy glade which he stood in was of the statue garden that displayed numerous heroes across Equestrian history. Some for great acts of valor, some for grand acts of charity, responsible industry, diplomacy, and science. The two figures etched out of stone were of numerous labels, but the first was a definite. One was a mare, standing upon her hind hooves with a forelimb outstretched while holding a familiar lance in her other. She looked to be calling out an order and was shown in the heat of a conflict as her helmet had been knocked off and laid beside her hooves. Flash knew the figure well from the portraits back home for she was his ancestor, the founder of the Canterlot Royal Guard and its first captain, Ardent Sentry.
To Ardent’s left was another figure, more muscled as it was a stallion, but sporting near-identical armor and hefting an identical lance. The posing was of a less exciting time as Ardent’s depiction, but still carried the same sense of awe and power as he held himself high with a filly on his shoulders and a pirate banner stomped under hoof. Flash Sentry sighed at the sight of his father, Captain Stalwart Sentry, immortalized in stone.
Looking around he could see more figures in heroic or noble poses, many using the same armor and the same lance. And even those who didn’t bear the captain’s armor and weapon, like one in a Wonderbolt’s flightsuit or another in a police uniform, still often sported an identical surname. The same one Flash bore.
Flash Sentry sighed, looking at a hall of heroes which was made up of in no small part by his predecessors. Worry about time, surroundings, and anything else was washed from his mind. He just closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, as if communing with the examples he wished to follow and seeking advice.
-I hope I make you all proud…-
The stallion’s ears instantly perked up and he peaked out a now cracked eyelid when the sounds of shouting and feline mewling crossed over him. Just outside the statue garden and at the treeline was a old mare and colt, a grandmother and grandson likely, helplessly pawing at a tree trunk and looking up at the kitten stuck four meters off the ground in it.
Flash Sentry took a deep breath and an even deeper sigh, hopping up into the air and flying over calmly. He landed next to the tree with a jovial smile and pleasant bow.
“Hey there, looks like you could use some help.”
-A Sentry always does right.-
Captain Shining Armor answered the door at 5:30 P.M., sporting a slightly bemused expression at who would be arriving at this hour. He correctly guessed it was his mentor’s son when the doorway soon greeted him to the sight of Flash Sentry, or at least what usually looked like him. The pegasus was scuffed up with matted and marred fur and a few bruises from head to hoof, thin scratches that looked like they came from some demented cat criss crossing his face, ears, and chest. Flash Sentry awkwardly saluted, obviously dizzied from the way he kept swaying.
“Reporti-ng for duty, Captain. Sir,” he croaked.
A slow silence passed between the two, Shining Armor’s deadpan expression causing Flash to flatten his ears.
“... I’m late aren’t I?”
“Missed the whole meeting. Why were you late, again?”
“I had… matters, Sir.”
“Family or personal?”, Captain Armor muttered with slightly bemused eyes.
Flash Sentry gulped, “... Public.”
“I.. see… And do you regret them?”
Flash Sentry’s face twitched, briefly showing the pinpricks of fear, anger, annoyance, and shame all one right after another with twitching sneers, looks off to the side, and visible veins on his throat and forehead. There was so much he could get enraged about, and he definitely could. But each time he tried the faces of the ponies he’d seen in the last hour refused to leave his consciousness. The smile and grins as he left, the tingling he felt that drew him to the next soul in need to help, and the glow he felt each time he did his duty. He sucked it all in and closed his eyes, pitching his head down while holding a hoof out.
“I’ll take the punishment, Captain. Reporting for janitorial,” he muttered in a deflated, but not repentant manner.
When he felt no mop or broom in his hoof after a good ten seconds, Flash gandered to peek out an eye. He saw only his captain looking back at him with a slight smirk even as Shining Armor crossed one of his forelimbs over his chest.
“Bit of a problem with that. I consider overtime a valid excuse, it was just a recap meeting anyways.”
“O-Overtime? Captain I didn’-”
He was cut off by Shining Armor clearing his throat while looking off to the left and up.
“A certain very, very speedy mailmare delivered an odd package to me earlier. Most odd,” Shining Armor noted with a nod, levitating the envelope up to himself and drawing forth several sheets of of parchment as well as what Flash Sentry soon recognized as a familiar, if now deflated, balloon. “I have five signatures from at least four parties. And, given none of them note you had to wrestle a tiger, something tells me this isn’t the end of it.”
Flash Sentry, still exhausted, felt his eyes widen as he recognized some of the signatures on the thank you notes and not needing to speculate for a single second who the mailmare was. Nearly at his wit’s end though, he could only manage to croak out one last coherent sentence.
“The.. meeting. W'at was it about?”
Shining Armor shrugged and seemed to hold back a snicker, “Public outreach. Something you seem acquainted with given it looks like you got reached out to by a clawed member of the public… At ease, Sentry. How’s about we get you to the docs?”
Flash Sentry, losing all strength in his body from the physical and emotional rollercoaster, could only fall forward and bury his face into Shining Armor’s knee. A tiny, muffled mumble called out, “Thank you, Sir.”
Shining Armor chuckled, helping collect his now sleeping protege up and magically carried him to a smaller building off to the side of the gardens.
“Come on, I’ll give you the review at the infirmary.”
========================
Back in the present, Flash Sentry stood before a single, massive wall. One at least seven meters tall and twice that in length, covered from top to bottom in portraits with lines connecting them. There were dozens of pictures across numerous rows, some branching off greatly and others discontinuing. Even if most generations didn’t have too many children, the Sentry family tree was still enormous. Everypony from his cousin Indigo Zap to his great-grandaunt Emer Sentry. Flash had been hovering up high and before the highest point in the tree.
“Find what you were looking for?”
Flash’s ears perked up at the voice and glanced over at the form flying up to him, moving back a bit to give his mother, Audria Sentry, space.
“What have you been staring at?”, she quipped with a raised brow and motioned to the old paintings and pictures.
“Oh this one.”, Flash answered as he motioned to the very top portrait. It was a painting, as the subject predated photography by multiple generations. The subject was one familiar to them both, ancestor by name to Audria and by blood to Flash. Ardent Sentry stood at attention, flanked by a single, unassuming mare with rows of similarly saluting guards behind them, with some noted historic figures like Starswirl the Bearded, Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane, and the only still-living member of the group, Princess Celestia, standing in the background.
“The mare, she waaaaas… sorry, my memory is being fuzzy,” Flash grumbled with flopped ears as he pointed to the mare standing next to Ardent Sentry, the first Captain of the Royal Guard.
Audria pointed at the old, smiling mare standing next to Ardent. One could seem to tell Ardent got her light body color from her. “Speedy Service, a tavern owner. Ardent took up the name ‘Sentry’ when she joined the military under Hurricane.”
“Oh… where’s the father? Was he dead or something?”, Flash quipped with a slight grimace.
“Aaaah, trying to find the patriarch of the line huh?... Well, Service never married. Ardent’s father could have been a one-night stand, a break up, somepony or anypony.”, Audria shrugged, speaking casually despite it spurring the gears in Flash Sentry’s head to whirl slightly.
-Ardent Sentry… THE Ardent Sentry!.. Born like that?-
He couldn’t help but think of how he saw the statue of Ardent in the Canterlot gardens. How mighty, important, almost mystified she looked. There were sometimes legends or fantastic narratives about how the likes of Starswirl the Bearded, Commander Hurricane, or the Princesses were sired or born. Prophecy, heroic journeys, convergence of fate. Given vagueness of record or lack thereof, some could be true, some could be a complete farce. Ardent might not have been quite in the same level of legendary as them, but point still stood. And hearing about how mundane, let alone profane, her origin was; it almost left Flash feeling squirmy in his stomach.
“Huh… kind of a buzzkill, Ma. Ehehe,” Flash muttered.
His mother chuckled, reaching out and putting a hoof to his shoulder.
“For somepony who’s been staring at those portraits for an hour, you don’t seem to have looked at them much.”
“Not like I haven’t seen them, Mom. Half of them got statues across the country,” he mumbled. Audria put her hoof to his chin and forced him to stop looking down pitifully and instead gaze upon the portraits. She adjusted her glasses and moved them closer, forcing her son to look at just the individual frames instead of their names and magnitude.
Flash Sentry didn’t realize he was losing the trees looking at the forest and was about to protest to such, when he finally took a close look at the old photographs and paintings. He recognized many of the members within it for sure, both due to the purple Captain’s armor many sported as well as familiarity with the appearance or names. But something his busied mind had neglected to notice was context. There were a great many big named individuals for sure, but the status did not match the paintings or pictures. Rather than striking, grand, larger than life statues or murals featuring numerous Equestrian heroes from guards, to law enforcement, to medical workers, to mages, to stunt fliers; the images were remarkably mundane. They showed families, friends, and comrades. A flight team laughing it up at a botched stunt, a guard captain with her armor off as she had a picnic with her husband and children, a police commissioner smiling as he read a book at dusk, and his grandparents with a much younger Stalwart Sentry and Flash’s aunt Mulberry Zap going to a recently opened Whinny Land theme park. The Sentry lineage, stretching back a thousand years from Ardent. No grand heroics, no legends, no history; just families. Just normal ponies.
Flash felt the world slow down briefly as he took it all in, having glanced at this wall for years, stood before it for an hour; but only just now seeing it. Sensing her son’s shifting emotions, Audria Sentry chuckled and chimed back in.
“Now have a look at Ardent again.”
He pitched his head up and hovered high once more, doing so. So caught up was he in the previous memory of Ardent’s statue that he never noticed the mood of this old painting. Speedy Service was grinning ear to ear, leaning on her larger daughter and sporting the same demeanor as any chipper, proud parent. The guards Ardent had so legendarily lead into battle weren’t just stoically saluting, they were clapping, cheering, or at the very least smiling. The founders present seemed equally jubilant, especially a clapping Starswirl; even Commander Hurricane seemed to look on fondly, cracking just about the only smile Flash had ever seen him illustrated with. And Ardent herself? Upon closer inspection Flash found her to be the only one stiff in a salute, but even then she seemed to be having great difficulty; her lips curling up and down into a smile and her eyes shining with not rock hard determination; but brilliant joy. And for this to be a painting, not a photograph, that meant the painter either had to be on site when this happened or be specifically told to draw everypony so casually and happy.
Flash Sentry raised his brow, but couldn’t fight a smile that infected him from Ardent. He finally could look upon Ardent Sentry as not some legend, but his ancestor. A normal pony. Audria shared in the smile, the retired rescue flier chuckling to herself.
Flash breathed in and sighed it out, remembering some of the words exchanged on that train ride once again. He thought he was disgracing the family by not being a hero, a new friend assured him every good deed, small or big, mattered. If he was in it for the act of doing good and not glory, everything mattered. He couldn’t have been happier he missed his train and met somepony for the twentieth time in his life, on that time it was him getting the help rather than giving it.
He raised a brow and spoke with a coyness that made it evident he was joking, “You know, didn't give me a direct answer about great-great-might as well just say that for five minutes-grandma Ardent Sentry not having her dad noted…. Does anypony know who he was? Ooor was she… you knoooow? Unique?”
Audria rolled her eyes and punched her son in the forelimb, “Noo nooo, she was born the old-fashioned way. Just not with marriage and Speedy never cared to speak of whom it was…. But, that’s probably the best thing about Ardent actually.”
Flash Sentry tilted his head like a curious puppy, “Hm?”
Audria motioned to the painting, “Ardent was a great mare, Equestria’s a better place because of her; just like it is her descendents and their compatriots… But heroes big and small can come from normal places. She did what she did despite being a young mare born to some random tavern clerk who slept around a lot.”
Flash Sentry lowered his eyelids and deadpanned, “Way to sell it, Mom.”
“Ah ah ah, none of the sass.”
“Sorry.”
She chuckled and waved the derailment off, “But the point is, she did what she did because it was the right thing to do and she couldn’t bear to see it not done. She did that regardless of whoever her father was. That's why creed of the family is it’s legacy, not lineage. After all, she was a normal mare doing good for others, at her mother’s tavern and then as a guard, all by circumstance until chance called upon her for what others remembered her for. But, she wasn’t constantly making history, she did good before becoming Captain of the Guard and did good after it in ways that didn’t require her title. She was just a good pony, doing good deeds.”
Another motherly tone spoke to Flash through memory, a wise old mare’s entire moral in that train ride could be summed up nicely in a single statement that suddenly clicked into Flash Sentry’s mind. He wordlessly mouthed the words subtly as he, a normal pony, looked upon Ardent Sentry, another normal pony. For the first time, he could see the family resemblance.
-All good deeds matter, everything matters.-
The faces of everypony Flash Sentry had ever dropped what he was doing to aid appeared before him. And much to his delight, he found them too numerable to count.
Flash Sentry was quiet briefly before he cracked a cheeky, honest grin. His ears were perked, but relaxed, chest filled with a glow, and his neck held high; content and happiness being oh so evident on his visage.
“Theeeeere’s my little Flash!”, Audria quipped, chuckling as she rubbed and messied the top of her son’s head.
Flash Sentry stuck his tongue out and pulled her hoof off as they descended back down to the floor. He did steal one last look up at Ardent’s portrait, puzzling.
“Sooo, just for curiosity though… did anypony find out who Ardent’s dad was? I mean she obviously got some of her looks from her Ma like I did buuut...!”
Audria rolled her eyes and snickered, turning to lead her son towards the dining room.
“Your father and I raised a flatterer! But, you’ll know… in due time.”
Flash’s eyes widened and his lips pursed in confusion, he looked between his mother and Ardent’s portrait before yelping, “W-Wait what? So, we do know who it was?”
“Never said we didn’t. Bit of a family traditional secret. Your father will tell you when you’re ready.”
“When?", Flash pleaded, thankfully more just honestly curious than anything.
She paused, tilting her head back and throwing her voice to Flash, speaking with a calm smile, “When you think you’ve done your fellow pony good. Until then, just enjoy life for its simpler deeds and calmer moments. The time for other matters will come.”
Flash Sentry paused, puzzling over why Ardent’s parentage was a family secret if earlier such a big deal was made out of her being a normal pony. Was it a sort of running joke that he was descended from unknown pegasus number #43 after a wild night with Speedy Service? Was it something important he wasn’t supposed to know until he’d proven himself on his own? Was it that Speedy Service was actually a changeling? What?
He stood there puzzling some more. But unlike so many times of doubt come before, the doubt or confusion didn’t stick. He looked back up to Ardent Sentry’s painting, which from this angle almost made it look like she was jovially smiling down at him in a manner that almost made him want to wave back. Flash sighed, resuming his smile.
-Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter.-
He shifted his gaze to one of the most recent family portraits, practically glowing from how much he was beaming with pride and benign determination.
-Others did great when they didn’t know, I’ll just have to as well… When the time comes of course.-
Audria Sentry’s voice spun itself around the doorway she’d walked through, “Be sure to come over for dinner, your father and I invited your aunt, uncle, and cousin.”
Remembering dinner was set for he and his father’s favorite tonight, Flash Sentry gave the family tree a quick bow of respect before eagerly trotting off to join his parents; leaving the last portrait illuminated in the sunbeams streaming through a window. It was a photograph only about two decades old, showing Stalwart in his armor and a snickering Audria in her wonderbolt flight suit. Amongst them was a tiny baby Flash Sentry, who was happily waving to the camera while perched upon his laughing father’s head.
