There was no wake up call quite like a tenth break up, Flash mused. He was eighteen years old and still having the same childish arguments with Sunset over the dumbest things.
Not caring enough about this, not clear enough about that. It was just every little thing with her and he was getting sick of it.
It had been several hours since their last breakup. It had been loud, it had been public, and it had been because he forgot to get ketchup for her fries. In the heat of the moment, one thing Sunset had said really stood out to Flash.
Go fuck yourself. She had screamed the words at him after she had slammed the un-ketchuped food into his face. Instead of recognizing it as the insult it was, Flash had taken it to heart and done the next logical step.
He hopped through the mirror portal and took a train to the Crystal Empire where he knew his pony doppelganger worked.
Flash was only doing what he was told.
Trotting along the paved crystalline streets of the Empire, Flash’s ears pinned against his head as he swiveled his head this way and that. He was hunched up on himself as the enormity of what he was doing sunk in.
A quick trip through the mirror portal to have the weirdest masturbation session across worlds was not a logical response to breaking up with one’s girlfriend. He was acting like a dork and he just knew this was going to backfire in his face.
His wings chafed against the jacket that had somehow managed to make it through the portal with him. Despite the irritation it caused, it was a minor comfort in a sea of nude ponies.
If he were being honest, he was surprised he’d even gotten on the train in Ponyville. False bravado born from spur of the moment anger normally didn’t get him this far and he certainly hadn’t expected to get through the downright awkward talk with Twilight on arrival.
But the line had to end somewhere, and he was rather quickly realizing how dumb he was being.
“Lieutenant Flash?”
He jumped with a manly squeak and turned to face the confused crystal pony that regarded him.
“Uh, yes?” Flash answered.
“What are you doing here?” the pony asked.
“I’m…” Flash struggled to come up with a response to explain his presence, “...on patrol.”
“Out of uniform?”
“Casual Friday?” Flash ventured.
The pony narrowed their eyes in suspicion. “It’s Saturday.”
“... Overtime?”
“Captain Shining Armour banned you from that after the debacle last month.”
“Well, how would you know he didn’t revoke it?” Flash retorted, hoping to bluff his way through.
“I work with you,” the pony replied bluntly.
“T-that you do, uhhhhhhh…” Flash tried to think up a potential pony name, “... Steve?”
“Clear Cut,” the pony said bluntly.
“Right, of course!” Flash laughed nervously, feeling sweat drench the back of his mane. “My best bud, Clear Cut.”
“Since when? You barely give me the time of day.”
Instead of a response, Flash settled for a high pitched strained laugh that was somewhere between a dying rodent and the high pitched whine of two balloons rubbing together.
Clear rolled his eyes. “What is going on, Flash? Why are you being weird?” He paused. “Or rather weirder than normal?”
Flash bit his lip, desperately trying to think of a clever way to get out of the conversation. “I’m… trying to find the bar?” He self-congratulated himself on his great segway.
There was a long pause as Clear looked at Flash with open scorn. He mulled over his thoughts before he said, “head the same way you were going, take a right, head all the way to the end of the street and you’ll arrive at your favourite bar the Crystal Chord.” He gave Flash a hard glare. “Maybe ease off on the liquor, though. You’re more annoying than usual.”
“Yep, will do, Clear buddy ol’ pal o’ mine.” With a final too wide smile, Flash galloped off not seeing the exasperated head shake that followed after him.
The Crystal Chord was a seedy looking building out of place with the rest of the precisely cut buildings that surrounded it. It was made up of vertically jagged clusters of ruby that roughly made the shape of a building was the name of the bar carved crudely into the structure.
Flash trotted past an intimidating bouncer that gave him a firm nod, and into what was clearly a neon lit dive bar. Live music played by some rock band blasted from the front of the establishment.
The music swept over him, infecting him with an upbeat melody of equal parts rock and synth. It pulled at the corners of his mouth into the rough shape of a smile and caused his head to bob to the beat.
A quick scan of the tightly clustered seating arrangements found him what he was looking for.
In a dark less populated corner of the bar, seated in a plush red booth was the other Flash Sentry. Sentry, to make it less confused in his head, nursed a tall glass of some unidentifiable drink seemingly content as he listened to the music.
Flash pushed his way through throngs of ponies and tightly packed seats towards the booth and slid in across from him.
Sentry gave him a casual nod of his head, unperturbed by his doppleganger sitting next to him, and went back to observing the band, his back hooves tapping to the rhythm.
Fidgeting in place, Flash tried to work up the nerve to talk to him, but could only manage to stare off into space.
To distract himself, he listened in on the band. They were good. They played well together, kept to the beat, and Flash could tell they enjoyed what they were doing just by the sheer joy on their faces.
“Twilight told me you were coming,” Flash turned to see Sentry speaking to him, an easy grin on his face, “or rather her brother.”
“O-oh did she?” Flash nervously said, “how did she get a hold of you?”
“Telepool.” Sentry took a massive gulp of his drink, letting the glass slam back onto the table. “Shining has a private channel of communication with her and I happened to be…” he tilted his head back and forth as he mulled over the words he wanted to say “... in a position to overhear.”
“Telepool?”
“It’s a basin filled with magically enchanted water that acts as a two way means of instant communication.”
“Right, magic pony world.”
Both pegasi lapsed into silence. Unable to help himself, Flash looked over his other self.
Sentry was big. Heavy muscle probably due to his occupation as a guard. His mane was swept back, similar to himself, but styled in a way that seemed intentional unlike how Flash just let it stay like that. He had sunglasses perched on his head, a few earrings in his right ear, and wore a heavy jacket with patches sewn into the back.
Flash thought he looked cool.
And it made him feel nauseous.
“So what are you here for?” Sentry asked.
“H-huh?”
Sentry smirked. “I can’t imagine you came all this way for no reason.”
“I just… came to say hi.”
“Well, hi,” Sentry greeted.
“H-hi,” Flash stuttered out.
Sentry took another swig of his drink. “So, what do you think of the band?”
“What do I…” Flash swiveled his head from the stage and back to Sentry. “They’re…” he felt a feeling of dread claw at him, “w-well what do you think of them?”
“I like’em,” Sentry answered.
Flash gave a relieved grin. “Y-yeah, same. They’re good right?”
“Nope.” Sentry took another swig. “Bad sound.”
The nauseous feeling Flash felt intensified. “O-oh yeah, they are really bad. Can’t hold a tune.”
“Thought you said that you liked them?” Sentry asked.
“I do!” Flash waved his wings. “I mean I don’t! I mean—” he fumbled over his words, “What do you think of them?”
“You already asked me that.”
“I-I don’t…” Flash’s body shook as his mind raced, unable to focus, “Could you tell me again?”
Sentry looked at Flash, regarding him with an even gaze. Flash couldn’t tell what he was thinking, an odd thought considering Sentry was supposed to be him.
“I had a thought about why you might be here,” Sentry said.
“Oh, really?” Flash tapped at the table with his hooves.
He stiffened as he felt Sentry’s feathers graze the inner thigh of his back leg. “I think you came here for a little more than just saying hello.”
Flash bit his lip. He could feel heat spreading through his body mixed with that same horrid feeling of dread and nausea. “W-well, yeah. It’s a long way to travel to just say hello.”
Sentry rubbed his feathers up and down Flash’s leg. Flash bit back a moan of satisfaction at the touch. It felt good to him. He enjoyed it. He just wished that he didn’t feel sick at the same time.
“So, on the topic of that maybe, what do you like?” Sentry smiled gently. “You enjoy the crowds watching?”
“I—” Flash turned his head away, face a bright red from the heat he was feeling. He felt a momentary thrill at realizing that they were in a public space. “I guess… Do you like others watching?”
“I asked you first, Flash.”
“I know, I just… what do you like?” Flash said, panic colouring his voice.
“Stuff,” Sentry answered simply as he slowed his stroking. “How about me touching you? Does that feel good or does it make you feel uncomfortable?”
“I-I don’t—” Flash could feel hot tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, “I don’t know! I just want to do whatever you want to do. I—”
Sentry was around the table in seconds. He placed a comforting wing on Flash’s withers. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry I pushed you.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Flash said bitterly, “I like it, but I’m just a mess.”
“You aren’t a mess, just a bit overwhelmed. Come on, follow me. We’ll go somewhere private so you can calm down.”
Unable to reply, Flash simply nodded and let himself be guided gently by Sentry with a wing on his withers and a guard patented glare to ward off nosey busybodies curious about the crying stallion.
“I’m sorry,” Flash weakly mumbled between sobs.
“Nothing to apologize for,” Sentry answered.
Flash snorted loudly into a tissue provided by Sentry. They were in a back room Sentry had gotten for them due to being friends with the bar owner. Sentry was sitting next to Flash on a worn down couch and rubbing his withers comfortingly.
“Feeling better?” Sentry asked.
“Yeah,” Flash mumbled, “I don’t why this is so hard. You were doing exactly what I wanted you to do.”
“Caress your thigh?” Sentry said with a wide grin.
“No, to fuck you,” Flash felt his cheeks burn, “I mean, to fuck me! Wait, that didn’t come out right either.”
Sentry chuckled good-naturedly, “Yeah, I had a good idea that was the case.” Flash stared at him blankly. “We’re each other and frankly I’d fuck me.” He looked over Flash again and grinned widely. “Oh yeah, I’d definitely fuck me.”
Flash felt equal parts dread, and arousal shoot through him at the compliment. He bit his lip, indecision weighing on him. He took a deep breath and leaned in towards Sentry.
He was blocked immediately by a wing.
“Uh, yeah, no, buddy. Let’s talk first.”
“But you said—”
“That I’d fuck you, but you also just finished crying through half a box of tissues, so let’s address that first.” Flash looked ready to protest, but settled for just slumping in place. “Great, let’s get to the heart of the matter then. Why do you feel that you have to like everything everyone else likes?”
“I don’t—”
“You changed your mind every time I changed mine and panicked as soon as I tried to get you to be clear about what you wanted.” Sentry gave a bemused smirk. “You can have different interests, Flash.”
“It’s hard, though!” Flash threw his hooves in the air in exasperation. “I don’t want people to not like me, and I need people to like me.” He cut through the air with his wings to emphasize his point. “I don’t like to be alone, and if someone knew me as… me, I—” he scrunched up his face miserably, “what if… what if they don’t like what they see?”
Sentry heaved a big sigh, his cheeks puffing out. “That’s a tough one, bud.”
Flash gave Sentry a flat look. “Please tell me you’re not going to give me dad advice.”
“Dad advice?”
“You know. Advice you get when— actually you know what, forget I said anything,” Flash huffed, “you got anything better than that it’s tough?”
“Yeah, that if someone doesn't like you for you, they aren’t worth being in a romantic relationship with.”
“How did—”
“A lucky guess.” Sentry ran wing through his mane as he mulled over his thoughts. “Look, making yourself like the things other people like is just going to make you feel worse in the long run. Any friends you make won’t be friends with you, but with the you that you made up.”
“I don’t want to end up alone,” Flash whispered.
“And I can’t promise that you’ll never feel like that if you start being just yourself, but erasing everything about who you are isn’t going to help make that feeling go away.” Sentry leaned forward with a sympathetic look on his face. “There was something else, though, right? Something about me that makes you feel bad?”
“No,” Flash replied petulantly.
“Flash,” Sentry chided.
“There really isn’t though!” Flash shouted. “It isn’t a problem that you’re this… super hot, better version of me. That you have your life together and I can’t even manage to tell you that I liked a random band in some seedy bar.”
“I’m not a better version of you, Flash. I’m just a different one.”
“Yeah, right. Bet everything is perfect for you.”
“Not really. I can’t relate to the difficulty of telling people what I like, but the loneliness?” Sentry hung his head with a light chuckle. “I’m intimately familiar with that. I have ponies in my life now that abate it, but for the longest time I threw myself at anyone who would have me just so I would never have to say that I’m single.”
“Y-you did?” Flash said.
“I did, and trust me when I say that I felt loneliest when I was with them then when I wasn’t.” Sentry shook his head. “Being alone and being alone are two very different states of being, and it’s important to be able to distinguish that.”
Flash fidgeted with the feathers of his wings. “Yeah, I guess.” He bit his lip. “How do I figure out what I like?”
“What do you mean?” Sentry asked with a tilt of his head.
“Well, I always just agree with what everyone says is good, but how do I know what music, or food, or…” heat rushed back into Flash’s face, “... sex I like?”
“You take your time, experiment and find what works. I can’t help too much on those first two, but…” Sentry leaned in close to Flash.
“What are you doing?” Flash asked.
“I did say, I’d fuck me,” Sentry answered coyly, “you wanna figure out that third thing together?”
Flash felt his heart hammer in his chest, arousal beginning to make itself readily apparent as he took in the heavy scent of Sentry’s musk. His mouth was inches away from his own.
“I—” Flash gulped. “I’d like that.”
He was beckoned forward by a teasing grin on Sentry’s lips. Passion finally overcame anxiety as Flash removed the remaining distance between them and gently pressed his lips against Sentry’s.
It was different than when he had kissed Sunset. For one, Flash dictated the pace. He decided when they went deeper. He decided when they stopped. He decided when tongue was okay.
And he liked that.
Sentry was also more… sensual. Sunset was fiery and passionate, very in the moment. Sentry, though, whether due to experience or just simply being of a different gender, felt more affectionate. More than just one sided need. With Sunset, he kissed her for her, with Sentry it was for both of them.
Flash pushed against Sentry. Sentry complied. Soon Flash straddled along the length of Sentry’s muscular chest, pressing his doppleganger into the worn cushions of the couch. Taut muscle flexed against his slimmer build as he continued to passionately embrace him.
As much as Flash enjoyed kissing himself, another form of lust could no longer be ignored. Several ideas began to form in his head. Wants that he hadn’t had before.
He pulled back. “Hey, Sentry,” Flash gasped out.
“Yeah,” Sentry answered back.
“I have a few things I want to try. Would it be okay if we did them… together?”
Sentry grinned. “Lead the way, me.”
Flash sighed in contented bliss as he walked, not trotted, up to the entrance of Canterlot High. He’d been back only a day since Sentry and him had gone on for… a while, and he was still riding his sexual high from the experience.
He was riding on cloud nine and loving every moment of it.
“Hey, Flash, can we talk?”
A quick pivot revealed Sunset standing nearby, her arms crossed and a shamed look on her face.
“Yeah, sure. What’s up Sunset?”
“Well, I’ve had some time to think about it over the weekend, and… I was in the wrong. So, I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.”
“Really?” Sunset looked surprised then ecstatic. “That’s great! If everything is good then, I was wondering…” she bit her lip seductively, shooting him a lustful look, “you want to make up somewhere more… private?”
“Nah.”
Sunset blinked. “Nah? What do you mean ‘nah’?”
“I mean nah. Don’t want to get back together. We had some good times, but mostly just fought. Wish you the best, though.”
“Y-you— What?!” Sunset exclaimed.
“Permanently broke up with you, yes. Took your advice and I’m way happier for doing it, though…” He grinned. “If you want some advice on how to deal with this, I’d suggest you take your own advice and go fuck yourself. Did wonders for me!”
With a mock salute, Flash continued past Sunset, ignoring her attempts to call out to him, and into the school while humming a happy tune.
“Hey, Flash, how’s it hangin’ man?”
Flash turned to see a guy his age give him a small wave. He was dressed in athletic wear emblazoned with the school logo and had a feel about him that reminded Flash of sunshine. His name was Soarin, if Flash recalled his name correctly.
He was also just his type.
“Hey, Soarin, what’s up? While I have you, are you busy this Friday?” He gave Soarin a massive grin. “There’s this band I really like that I want to see.”
