Conversation on a Train: A My Little Mages Supplement
Author's Note
This takes place as the train from Krystalopolies is leaving at the end of My Little Mages: The Anointing and has a spoiler to My Little Mages: The Sirens' Song , which to be frank... if you've not seen Rainbow Rocks...well that's on you.
A Heart-to-Heart
“Maybe you're a better teacher than you thought,” Spike said as he leaned back in his seat with a triumphant grin on his face. He then turned to see Flash enter the train. “Although there is someone that you should really have a heart to heart with,” Spike said as he waved to Flash, beckoning him to join Spike and Twilight. As Flash sat down Spike left the two and walked over to seat with Starlight.
After Flash sat down, “I guess we need to talk?” Twilight said with a nervous laugh as she looked away.
Flash looked to Starlight then back at Twilight, “I see you have elected to take on a student, so what brought that up?” Flash asked as he taught he found something that could break the ice.
Twilight turned back Flash, “Well you see after my friends and I got back from Midnight Castle from the battle of the bands against the Dazzlings,” Twilight started her tale as the train started to leave the station. "My friends and I sat on our thrones in the Castle of Friendship triggered a large table to appear in the throne room, that table projected a map that showed all of Mystica and some of the nations closest to it."
Flash nodded, "Okay, I follow, it's strange, but par for the course from what I have heard about you and your friends."
Twilight then continued, "Well from the map we were guided to a village that was a handful of houses step-up like an equal sign, and there we met Starlight who set up a cult based around everyone having the same aura mark." As Twilight mentioned the cult, Flash raised his eyebrows, "We managed to stop Starlight and get everything back to normal."
"So is that when you took her on as a student?" Flash asked.
"Actually no, it was after she tried to go back in time and stop Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom." Twilight informed only to see the shock on Flash's face, "Yeah... it was quite the experience, but she's not a bad person, she was angry and scared and needed a friend."
"Okay..." Flash was all he could say to that as he looked to the window for a second, "So you and your friends have been traveling around Mystica because of that map?" Flash asked.
"Well, we also helped Rarity expand her business, I reconnected with my ... well, they could have been my friends if I was more social before I moved to Magiville." Twilight continued as she thought back on the year. "There really wasn't much else beyond me adjusting to my new home. Oh did you hear about Scootaloo getting her Aura Mark?" Twilight asked as she wanted to change the topic.
Flash looked out the window for a second and sighed, before he turned to face Twilight, "I got a letter after she, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had the party celebrating the event. Got to give it Pinkie, she can plan parties in like seconds, it would have been nice to be there for at least one of my siblings' party."
"So you weren't in The Everfree barracks?" Twilight asked.
"Someone put my name in for officer training and developing and I was accepted. So back to school I went... and while it wasn't as physically intense as my boot-camp time, it was very much more mentally taxing,"
"So like going for a master's degree or doctorate as opposed to a bachelor's or associates degree?" Twilight asked as she thought to find something she could compare to. Flash shrugged his shoulders in response, not sure if that was a comparison he could make. "So they want to be an officer? Beyond being a captain I mean." Twilight asked.
"Yeah, " Flash chuckled, before looked down and then back at Twilight, "however from here on in I can make my own calls," he then reached out his right hand and took Twilight's left. "I can actually make my own plans, and I don't plan on leaving Magiville again," Flash said as he looked Twilight in the eye. The two just looked at each other for a second and then looked away, "So if Celestia said about sentinels and whom they are devoted to was true..." Flashed started to ask. Twilight sighed as she thought about what to say. Flash elected to continue, "Well in fairness I become your sentinel for you when we..." he paused again as Twilight seemed to be nervous about the subject. He took a breath and stopped.
Twilight took a breath and thought about what she wanted to say, she looked at the floor of the train, "Flash, am not sure. I don't know...", tears started to pool in her eyes, "I just don't know."
Flash moved his hand to hold Twilight's chin, "There isn't much I know either, but I do know what I want." Twilight looked at him with her head slightly tilted to her right confused. Before she could she react, she was pulled from her seat on the bench and was seating on Flash's lap, well that was not fully accurate. Her legs were spread apart to be around Flash's waist, her chest pulled to be so close that she could feel his heart beating, Flash's head was on her right shoulder and wrapped his arms around her, "This."
Twilight moved her arms to push off of Flash slightly, "Flash... I just... how...can we?" Twilight said as she looked away.
Flash took her face in both of his hands, "You could use some form of security, and there are plenty of rooms in the castle."
"So you want to be the captain of my guard, but if you are..?" Twilight started to ask.
"Do you want me?" Flash asked cutting her off.
"What?" Twilight asked shocked by what Flash said.
Flash sighed and then spoke, "I am your, Twilight, and I will always be, as long as you want me. I know I shouldn't have just left that note..."
"I never actually read it," Twilight confessed as she looked away.
Flash looked away, "Oh,"
"What did it say?" Twilight asked as she got off of Flash's lap and sat next to him,
Flash took a second to think, it had been so long since he wrote it, but it was something close to his heart. Flash took a breath, and looked at Twilight in the face, "If I recall correctly it started with 'Dear Twilight,'" Flash started, "I think I continued with an apology for maybe coming on too strong and for possibility forcing myself on you and to and to... " Flash looked away and chuckled, "and I must sound like some sort of abusive boyfriend or harasser, but I thanked you for that night." He shook his head, "I clearly have issues."
"Not really, I did ask you 'love me' that night, I wanted to it too. We were both consenting adults." Twilight explained as she took Flash's face and made him look at her. "You would never do anything I won't ask you to or wouldn't consent to. Remeber what happened yesterday when Cadance sent you out to enforce the martial law that she issued, which is what it's called." Flashed raised an eyebrow more or less saying, seriously you're going to correct her on the semantics. Twilight then laugh nervously, "Well you see what I mean." Flash smiled and nodded, as he let what Twilight stated sink in, "Also you said more or less that if I wanted it to stop, we would stop. That we weren't going to do more than I felt comfortable with doing." Twilight reminded him of what he said, which brought a smile to Flash's face. "So what else did it say?"
Flash took a breath as he looked front of him, "That if you would have me, as like a boyfriend, a lover, a husband, heck even a quote 'friend-with-benefits' unquote, that I would be... that I am yours, for as long as you will have me. I explained that I wanted to... you know... finish on my end, but I said I couldn't..." He looked back to Twilight, "I did finish the note with a corny joke, 'Love, Your Sentry, Flash'," Flash finished with a smirk.
Twilight looked away a rolled her eyes while shaking her head, "That was stupidly corny." she then giggled a little, which got a smirk from Flash. The two looked at each other and smiled for a second, "So what do we do now?"
"We could try doing something with each other? I think there is an antique shop in Magiville?" Flash suggested.
Twilight looked at him slightly confused, "Why would I want to go to an antique shop?" Twilight asked as she tried to process what she was told.
Flash scratched the back of his head, "Well you'd be surprised what you would find and a bibliophile like you would have read a lot of history and so you might know much more about the item than most would and get some joy from it." Flash gave a weak smile.
"Okay, we'll try it and see how it goes." Twilight after some thought. After she saw Flash grin, she couldn't help but start fiddling with her hair. "So um..." she tried to start but couldn't find a good conversation but ultimately had to address another matter, "About what happened during the battle of the bands..."
Flash sighed and dipped his head in slight shame, "Not one of my proudest moments," he looked back up, still not looking at Twilight, "I bumped into them earlier and they tried to seduce me, but I had no desire for them like that, what I wanted to show that I was worthy of you. I knew you need a song for a counter-spell, and I thought that maybe I could deliver the song necessary to overcome their magic, but I only added fuel to the fire with my attempt."
Twilight hugged him, "it's okay, you didn't know what it would actually take, heck even I didn't know what it would actually take to defeat them. " Twilight tried to comfort him.
"And after you and the rest of the ... Did you really sign your band as 'Rainbolt'?" Flash questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Twilight let go of her hug, leaned back and gave a weak laugh, "Actually I meant to write 'boom', but I messed up the second 'o' making it look like an 'l', so I wrote the 't' after it in a panic. But really, you're not one to talk about names, 'The Flash Drives'," she asked with her own eyebrow raised.
Flash shrugged his shoulders, "Wasn't my idea and we didn't have a better one and I was the lead. Again not my idea." Flash countered as best he could, "But back to point. After the Dazzlings or Sirens vanished when we..."
"We were high off of the success and well... I don't actually regret it, maybe we should have a conversation earlier, like after I got back from Starlight's village, but I do want to give this, to give us, a chance." Twilight said as she held Flash's right hand with her left. Flash completed the grip with a smile. "So we're on this train until it arrives in Magiville tomorrow, what do we do?"
Flash then went to get his bag and pulled a book out of it, "We could take turns reading this to each other." Twilight looked at the title, The Complete Anthology of the Myths, Legends, and Folktales of Mystica.Flash then pulled out another book, "Or maybe this one?" the other book was Daring Do and The Saphire Statue.
Twilight took the Daring Do book, "Believe it or not, I've actually met A.K. Yearling."
"Honestly, you can tell me you were turned into a mermaid and I'd believe it." Flash joked as he took out a blanket and wrapped himself and Twilight with it.
Twilight opened the book and began to read it, "As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing in the jungle had injured her wing and she was grounded for a few days. Few days... it might as well be a few months or a few years!"