Felicity

"At the risk of sounding wishy-washy, Flash, it really truly is for your own good," Sunset Shimmer said, typing away at a laptop in the apartment's kitchen while the boi in question hung in the periphery. "I know how much you loathe going, but I beg you not to make a scene."

"I'm not going to make a scene, Sunset," Flash Sentry sighed.

"Are you sure?" Her turquoise eyes darted over, strict and scrutinizing. "Because—in the past—"

"I know how I've been in the past." He gulped, brushing a dainty hand across his soft blue bangs. "But who was I kidding? I'm lucky that we've been able to afford any medical visits at all."

"Well, that's one way of putting it," Sunset said.

He squinted at her. "Are you ever going to tell me just how we've been able to afford it all?" He pointed. "And don't say 'gems hauled in from Equestria.'"

"What matters, Flash..." Sunset's tone was already telegraphing to Flash that she was going to simply ignore his concerns there. "Is that we want to capitalize on every chance we have to exam you and the changes you've been going through. While Twilight and I work on our own studies and experiments, it helps to have a control variable to compare to in case—"

"Yes, Sunset, I understand all of that." He cleared his throat, delicately adding: "And thanks, by the way."

She blinked. Genuinely impressed at his expression of gratitude. "You're... quite welcome, Flash."

"But... forgive me if I'm not too terribly enthusiastic." He leaned against the wall and hugged himself with a helpless shudder. "If things go the way they've always gone... I'm afraid they'll find absolutely no changes."

"Well..." Sunset's hands gripped and ungripped the edge of the kitchen table. She put on her best smile. "...we can at least hope for the best."

Flash felt like groaning—but that didn't seem fair. Not after all Sunset and Twilight had done to help and support him. If they could learn to fake it for his benefit, then he could do the same. He hadn't always thought this way, but as the current week panned out...

He put on the best smile he could manage and nodded at her from across the kitchen. "When do we go?"

"In two hours. I've got you scheduled at ten thirty."

"Got it."

"Better wash up."

"Way ahead of you."

"And Flash...?"

He paused in the middle of the hallway, looking back at her. "Yes, Sunset?"

Her smile was a genuine one now. Genuine and curious and warm. "I think something has changed." There was a slight sparkle to her turquoise eyes. "You're not the same you that you've been these last few months. Maybe that counts for something." A wink. "Perhaps something the doctor will discover this visit."

He didn't have much reason to believe her. But Sunset was right about something—Flash had undergone some sort of a change. It was enough to electrify him into accomplishing things every morning and just... being an overall better human being. That same enthusiasm caused him to wink back, even if he knew the gesture meant nothing.

Two hours later and standing naked/half-naked in the examination room of the doctor's office, Flash's fears were indeed confirmed. There were no physical changes to his body after all. He was in the same shape that he was in upon immediately waking from the blackout.

While this was far from good news, Flash took it in relatively decent stride. There was the same air of defeat, the same melancholic tug on his lungs that led him to sigh. But—even as the examination continued—he imagined all the things he could be doing at home, instead of immediately retiring to his bed and letting the day die.

He also made a conscious effort to show genuine thanks to the physician on this visit. Flash Sentry's "regular doctor" was a longtime acquaintance and confidant of Principal Celestia. Celestia: who was keen to maintain as much secrecy as possible concerning the "magical phenomena" at Canterlot High School and its metaphysical links to Equestria. The woman was well-respected in the community, and she had influences in "high places," at least where Canterlot City was concerned. During the extent of Flash's blackout, Sunset and her friends desperately seeked help for the unconscious boi. They swiftly found an ally in Celestia, who brought on her personal physician whom she trusted enough to look over Flash Sentry and his "recovery" with professional discretion. The precise mechanics behind this trust, Flash Sentry did not know. Nor did he know the financial support that was making all of this possible. It sure as Hell wasn't Sunset Shimmer, and Flash doubted it could have been Celestia either. But he certainly wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if nebulous magical horses in a realm beyond may have been more or less involved.

For what it was worth, Celestia's physician—Dr. Farrier—was a nice, respectable, and pleasant man. Flash Sentry had gone through physicals before in his young life, so that part wasn't so awkward. But—in hindsight—it was a very good thing to have a phsyician who didn't bat an eye at the sheer freakishness of the magical alterations that Flash had gone through. From what Flash understood, Dr. Farrier had given regular checkups to Sunset and all of her friends: adding his medical two cents to the changes their bodies went through as they grew more and more accustomed to the superpowers imbued by their geodes. Granted, there wasn't much the doctor could do to assist Sunset with her telepathy or Applejack and her inexplicable ability to pick up tractors with her bare hands. Nevertheless, just having a trusted advisor was a huge relief to everyone involved in the... legacy of Canterlot High School. More specifically that one graduating year.

However, despite all of Dr. Farrier's professionalism and good will, Flash's clinical visits inevitably ended up far-less uplifting than what Sunset and the rest of her friends went through. It had been nearly half a year since waking, and—just as Flash feared—he hadn't experienced any positive changes to his body. By "positive," Flash expected a reversal of the metamorphosis he had suffered... and a shift back to the more "manly" path that his teenage body had been climbing. Way back before fate had struck him unconscious.

But, alas, that was not the case. That day's examination eventually culminated, and the numbers hadn't shifted in even the slightest. Just as he was months ago, Flash stood at exactly four feet and ten inches. His thin and petite body weighed in at just under one hundred pounds. There was no sign of muscle growth, no shift in the pitch of his voice, and no return of his long-lost body hair. It was as if Flash Sentry was frozen forever in this small, puny, porcelain state.

While all of these metrics hit the young man supremely hard, somehow the "but the good news is(!)" portion of Dr. Farrier's concluding diagnosis always hurt the most. Flash's cholesterol levels were absolutely nothing to be worried about. His body fat was well below any comprehensible spectrum of concern. He had enviable blood pressure and healthy skin and 20/20 eyesight and a metabolism to absolutely die for. All of these factors measured with greater and greater magnitude when one considered the fact that Flash had not been practicing a good diet or exercise program. Despite being the size of a professional horse jockey, the twenty-two year old had done nothing to earn it. As fate would have it, this body was his to have no matter what he said, felt, or did.

Dr. Farrier did his best to look at the whole situation positively.

"As a matter of fact—in my professional opinion, Mr. Sentry—you are absolutely the most healthy human being I've had the honor of examining."

The elder physician said this with a smile. And the boi didn't doubt him when he added that he had every confidence someone like Flash could very well live "past one hundred years" on the sheer platform of his body's current health.

It's just that—no matter what the state of current reality happened to be—this was not the body Flash expected. And it went far beyond Dr. Farrier's capability to observe or predict. This was the same song and dance Flash had gone through for months on end. And while he was in the mood and presence of mind to take it all in stride currently, it didn't change the fact that Flash's body was going nowhere.

And as for his life...