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Fanfic / The Flash Sentry Chronicles

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A series of fanfics based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls found on Fimfiction.net written by Banshee531.

The series retells the events of Friendship Is Magic in an Alternate Universe with Flash Sentry playing a main role. His presence in the mane group causes changes big and small to occur, as well as deal with his own adventures.

Despite The Last Problem being set as the Grand Finale of the series, Banshee531 stated he's not done with the series as he is developing future stories that are set between Twilight's Coronation and the future from The Last Problem.

    open/close all folders 
    Season Premiere Retellings 
    Season Retellings 
    Equestria Girls Retellings 
    Special Retellings 
    Original Stories 

Beware of Late Arrival Spoilers

This series of fanfics provides examples of:

    Tropes A to D 

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Lightning Blitz was this to Rarity when they first met. He flirted with her and asked her out but she was disgusted with him due to his bad attitude towards her friends and his terrible fashion sense. Subverted later when Rarity starts to warm up to him after he changes is ways and moves to Ponyville, slowly starting to return his feelings and forming a friendship with him.
  • Abuse Mistake: The opening of "Spike's Heartbreak" has Spike bursting into Rarity's bedroom, after hearing her scream and thinking she is in danger. He finds her laying on her bed with Lightning Blitz on top of her, and thinks he is trying to force himself on her. Spike tackles him off her in anger and attacks him, until Rarity manages to pull him off and explain that it was consensual.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: Many characters, items, and locations appear sooner then they did in canon, either as a major role or just a cameo.
    • The Alicorn Amulet appears in season 1 and is used by Lightning Blitz instead of Trixie.
    • The underground gem cave makes its first appearance in season 4. Pinkie actually lampshades this by stating its original appearance wasn't until Season 6, but we don't learn it is under Ponyville until Season 7.
    • Autumn Blaze and the Kirin as a whole make an appearance in War For the Lost City, which takes place three seasons before their actual appearance in the show.
    • Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, and Seaquestria in general appear in a flashback in War for the Lost City, which takes place before the My Little Pony: The Movie (2017).
    • Tragus the changeling briefly changes into a Whirling Mungtooth during the events of Season 7, whereas in canon the species didn't appear until Season 9.
    • Tempest Shadow, Grubber, and the Storm King all make an appearance in the Season 7 finale, before their debut in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017). Though for the Storm King's case it is more of an Early-Bird Cameo.
    • Cozy Glow originally first appeared in "Marks for Effort", which was just short of the midpoint of Season 8. Here, she makes her first appearance during the Season 8 premiere, bumping into Fire Heart in the hallway.
  • Adaptational Heroism: Trixie starts the same way she did in canon, as a traveling show-mare who lied about her achievements to make herself look better and show off. But, thanks to being saved by Flash from some crooks earlier, she opens up to him and his friends and helps them stop the group of crooks that attacked her. She decides to better herself, and later becomes the apprentice of Princess Luna.
  • All Just a Dream: Springer's Hedgehog Day experience is revealed to be an artificial dream he had while on a "Vision Quest" after some "Vision Quest Potion" spills on his head at Zecora's hut.
  • Alone Among the Couples: This is done at various points across the series.
    • Among the Rainbooms, Sunset is currently the only member of the Rainbooms who isn't a relationship with or has Ship Tease with anyone.
    • Applejack is the only member of the Mane 7 without a love interest until Rogue's introduction in "The Quest for the Golden Apple Tree". She herself admits that she always thought she would be the only one of her group of friends to go her whole life without someone liking her, and thus laughs to herself when Rogue confesses his love to her and quickly steals a kiss from her.
    • During Jakhowl's Rising, Springer feels this way compared to all his friends, and the rest of Ponyville. When he first met everyone and made friends with them, they were all single and seemed perfectly happy, so he thought they were all he would ever need. But then over the years, they all slowly found someone they loved and got into relationships, becoming even happier as a result. Now, when Springer sees a couple being affectionate with each other through town, he feels a hollowness in his heart, knowing he can never have what they do due to him being The Last of His Kind. This is then subverted when he meets Mirage in Aurarora, with the two growing close, having several Ship Tease moments together, and eventually becoming an Official Couple in "Jakhowls in Equestria".
  • Always Someone Better: Flash accomplished a lot since moving to Ponyville with Twilight, but despite his achievements and confidence he couldn't beat Sombra, even with Ruby's help, and the two of them are almost killed by the dark unicorn. Though Flash does help his friends beat Sombra in the end he is well aware that he was overconfident and almost died because of it.
    • The Royal Knight Skybreaker also suffered this similar to Flash when he was a rookie. He was cocky and took too many risks, thinking he was invincible, but when he fought a unicorn whose sword skills were like nothing he had seen before or since, he only survived because his mentor sacrificed himself by taking a lethal blow to the heart that was meant for Skybreaker and managed to injure the unicorn enough for Skybreaker to win.
    • Trixie, even after earning her place as Luna's apprentice, constantly compares her progress to Twilight's. She takes Twi's ascension to princess as a sign she will never catch up.
  • Almost Kiss:
    • After Soarin mends Rainbow's clipped wing and they chat for awhile the two slowly start to lean in closer to each other, before they are interrupted by the medic coming through the door and they jolt away. Subverted in their second attempt, where they are uninterrupted.. It happens to them again in "Rarity Investigates!" when they meet at the colosseum and nearly kiss in midair, before realizing that everyone is watching them and pull apart.
    • When Flash and Twilight are forced to spend time together alone on a ship, they slowly start to reminisce over how much their lives have changed and how it all started the day they met. The two slowly begin to lean their faces closer to each other, only to be interrupted when the ship they are on crashes into a reef.
  • Alone with the Psycho: During one of the battles between Flash's team and the cultists, Trixie and Ruby are both kept busy fighting Terror Card and Searing Salix respectively and thus nobody is able to help Shining Soul against Shadow Corrupter, who is forced to run away from him and try to hide.
  • Amicable Exes: When Sunset runs into her ex-boyfriend Lightning Blitz during the Friendship Games, who she got expelled from CHS, he forgives her for what she did and actually thanks her for it since it got him to rethink his life and realize how bad he was acting.
  • And I Must Scream: In "The Cutie Re-Mark" the evil version of Flash that Twilight, Spike, and Starlight meet explains that each time they changed the past and traveled to a new timeline, he didn't automatically go there like they did. He became like a ghost, unable to talk or interact with the world around him and forced to watch as time moved forward without him. The time that was skipped with each use was well over ten years, and they traveled to a dozen different timelines, meaning he lived like a ghost well over a century.
  • And This Is for...: When Shadow Corrupter defeats Cold Steel, he declares his victory for his fallen minion Salix.
  • Anger Born of Worry:
    • Twilight does this to Flash a lot due to him always putting himself in danger. This was especially after he almost died against Sombra.
    • Princess Luna has this as her initial reaction to hearing that Trixie has been studying and learning dream magic, since it is too dangerous for anyone other than her, and that she could end up trapped in the dream realm. She calms down though when Trixie explains she learned it to try to help her with her duties as thanks for all she has done.
  • Anti-Sneeze Finger:
    • One of Wild's puppets does this to him when he almost sneezes in some caves, only for Wild to sneeze anyway as soon as he stops.
    • Flash does this to Future Fire Heart to stop him from sneezing and attracting some wildren to them, only for him to sneeze shortly afterwards anyway.
  • Appropriated Appellation: Rogue names himself based on Applejack previously telling him "going rogue and attackin' ain't gonna do a thing."
  • Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: At the end of The Movie, Twilight apologizes to Queen Novo for attempting to steal her pearl, asking her not to hold her desperate actions against all ponykind, with Celestia also apologizing for putting Twilight in that situation in the first place due to being captured. Novo responds with one of these.
    Novo: So far, you ponies have come into my home uninvited, attempted to steal our most important relic, lead the Storm King's troops to our front door, which could have led then to him finding us, causing my daughter to run away in order to fight in an insane battle that could have gotten her killed or captured and... freed my subjects from having to hide away from the world. Thanks to you, the hippogriffs can return to Mountain Aris without needing to fear being captured and conquered.
  • Ascended Meme: Fans, angered by his crimes in War of the Lost City, nicknamed Shadow Corrupter as the "Deluded One." When the other characters learn about Team Flash's adventure in the story's final chapter, Rainbow Dash uses that exact same nickname on Shadow Corrupter and the others support it.
  • Assimilation Backfire: In the evil Flash's timeline, he never met Twilight and eventually arrived in the frozen North when the Crystal Empire returned. King Sombra found him, and tried to possess his body instead of rebuilding his own so he could conquer the Crystal Empire faster. Flash's Sacred Light protected him though, and forced Sombra out of Flash, destroying him in the process. But, Sombra did managed to leave an influence behind in Flash, with Flash gaining all Sombra's dark powers, knowledge, memories, and his desire for power.
  • The Atoner:
    • Lightning Blitz is this after season 1, wanting to make up for all the trouble he caused everyone and his villainous actions from his own envy and shortsightedness, especially towards his grandfather Grand Hoof and his former victim Flash Sentry.
    • Grand Hoof reveals in Knight of Friendship that he originally didn't want to be a Royal Knight due to mistakes he made in the past and vowing that he would never let himself become something worth celebrating as punishment. He joined the guard to keep Equestria safe but originally refused an offer from Celestia to become a knight, but did so when he realized Canterlot was in trouble and he needed to step up and help. So his reason for being a knight was, and still his, to atone for the sins of his past.
  • Babies Ever After: The Last Problem reveals this has happened to several couples during the scenes that take place after the Time Skip.
    • All of the Mane Six are married to their love interests and now have multiple kids.
    • Ace and Mira are implied to now be together and Mira is seen taking care of an egg which is implied to be their unborn child.
    • Ruby and Sombra are shown to now have a daughter together.
    • Springer and Mirage are confirmed to be together and have two kids of their own, one now able to transform into his adult form.
  • Back to the Early Installment: In "Let's Do the Time Warp Again", several characters are pulled into time portals when The Temporal Scroller that Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie were working on is sabotaged by Armalum. This ends up sending Trixie, Pinkie, and Fluttershy back in time to right after Celestia banished Luna to the moon, and sends Flash and the CMC to the Changelings invading Canterlot during the Royal Wedding.
  • Bad Future: In "The Cutie Re-Mark", as well as all the ones seen in canon, several others are also briefly seen.
    • One where Doom Raizer was never stopped and made it to Equestria, stealing all the magic from everypony there.
    • One where both Tirek and Doom Raizer won, and they both ended up fighting each other.
    • One where Lightning Blitz successfully destroyed Canterlot.
    • One where Big Score conquered Ponyville, turning it into a paradise for gangsters and Town Hall into a giant casino.
    • One where Shade conquers Equestria and drains all aura from everyone there.
  • Badly Battered Babysitter: Shining Armor and Cadance had a nanny lined up to take care of their foal once it was born, but she ended up quitting after her first shift due to it being "too stressful". Considering what everyone else went through trying to keep Flurry Heart under control, it isn't hard to believe this.
  • Batman Gambit: During the Final Battle between the Jakhowl and Trickster armies Dark Mist claims he knew that Sharp Paw would prepare before the battle by having every Jakhowl connect to each other's aura to power up both himself and the army battling. Dark Mist knew that he would do this after scaring him with his runes the day prior, and once he confirms that this is exactly what Sharp Paw did he uses a connection rune to connect Sharp Paw's aura to Vile's new weapon, which by extension also connects every other Jakhowl to it too.
  • Bee Afraid: The chapter "Plan Bee" opens with Fluttershy's class at the School of Friendship gardening, only for them all to freak out when they see a bee and voice their displeasure for it. The rest of the chapter serves as a Deconstruction of the trope, with Fluttershy, Twilight, and Flash using an exercise in Flash's class to show how important bees are to the ecosystem and what would happen if they weren't there.
  • Been There, Shaped History: When Trixie, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are sent back in time during "Let's Do the Time Warp Again", they meet Princess Celestia right after she banished Nightmare Moon. They inform her that her sister will return after she asks them about her fate, but in a thousand years. They also plant the idea of Canterlot in her mind when she initially thinks of repairing her old castle, and convince her to leave the Elements of Harmony in the castle so they can be found when they are needed.
  • The Bet: When Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie want to exercise with the Defenders (to lose the weight they gained), Lightning doesn't think Rarity will make it the whole week and makes a bet with her. If Rarity makes it through the whole week without quitting she wins, but if she quits at any time he wins. The loser has to do whatever the winner wants them to for an entire day without complaints. Rarity wins the bet, and makes Lightning ask her out on a date for Saturday.
  • Big Ball of Violence: Played for Laughs; in "The Truth Shall Set You Flea", as the Mane 7, the Defenders, and Starlight all suffer Sanity Slippage from the Super Fleas that have been bothering them all day, they resort to trying to get the fleas off them with brute force, causing them to attack each other and form a cartoon dust cloud while apologizing to everyone as they beat each other up. By the end of it they only manage to kill two of the fleas, but it is enough for Twilight and Starlight to examine them more closely.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lightning Dust is this just like in canon, though it is much more blatant. She and Rainbow start off on good terms, but Lightning makes it clear she has no interest in making friends and thinks they would only slow her down. When Rainbow is made lead pony instead of her, and she is just Rainbow's wing pony, she drops the "in sheep's clothing part" entirely and becomes openly hostile to Rainbow, disobeying every order she gives to try to prove she is better than her.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • At the ending of "Following the Grand Script", despite their effort of getting Grand and Script to bury the hatchet, Script still refuses to accept apologies from Grand, and even Twilight says their relationship is one friendship that can't be fixed. Although, they do hopes Script will eventually accept Grand's apology and ends on a somewhat happier note when they continue their project.
    • "The Bug and the Knight" ends on this. Flurry Heart is saved from an attempted kidnapping and assassination and Hiveena and Ruby both come to a better understanding with each other, but it is made clear that other higher ups still fear Flurry Heart for her abilities at her young age and what she might become one day if she takes the wrong path, showing what Flurry will eventually face as she grows up.
    • "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Webs", Flash and Shining Soul complete their mission, saving New Omniara, but Soul is left heartbroken that Camera Trap had to die to do it, with her being unable to save him and having to learn that she can't always save everyone.
    • The ending of "School Raze", and Season 8 by extension, has all the magic in Equestria saved, Faust and Flash both survive a Near-Death Experience, the former of which risked destroying the world, and Cozy Glow defeated and imprisoned in Tartarus, but Fire Heart is left devastated by Cozy's betrayal due to his crush on her, and vows he is never going to get that close with anyone every again, with both Twilight and Flash worried about him
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: When Lightning Blitz helps Big Mac with his Apple bucking, the two slowly start to bond when Big Mac tells Lightning that his parents are both dead, and Lightning says he knows how that feels since he lost his mom at about the same age.
  • Bound and Gagged: Played for Laughs in "The Maud Couple". When Wild Smile helps Maud tell Pinkie that she has a boyfriend now, he keeps her quiet long enough for Maud to tell her by quickly tying up Pinkie in a straight-jacket and a sack trolley, and taping her mouth shut. Amusingly though, Pinkie is so excited when she hears the news that she easily bursts out of all these restraints.
  • Brain Bleach: Springer actually wants this to happen to him after he spies on Rainbow's house and sees her and Soarin do something together.
    Springer: Memory, please fail me now.
  • Broken Pedestal: Wind Rider becomes one for Rainbow Dash and all the Wonderbolts, but especially for Soarin. Soarin looked up to Wind Rider as his hero and idol, since Wind Rider was the only one who encouraged his dream of becoming a Wonderbolt and was later his mentor at the academy, but when Wind Rider accuses Rainbow Dash of giving Spitfire a fake note, and says that she has only made it as far she has because she and Soarin are sleeping together, Soarin begins to get more and more enraged at the old stallion for his attitude. Then he loses his respect for him entirely when Rarity reveals Wind Rider tried to frame Rainbow to protect his record.
  • Brought Down to Badass: Both Flash and Shadow Corrupter are stripped of their Sacred Light and Corrupted Shadow Powers respectively for most of the "game" their teams fight each other in during War of The Lost City. They eventually get their powers back when their respective teams have gathered five orbs.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Flash and Twilight are turned into humans when they step through the mirror portal to the human world and lose their flight and magic. Flash also realizes later that he cannot enter the Theta Mode either.
  • But I Read a Book About It: Rarity claims to be an "expert" on romance and that she knows everything someone needs to do on a date, despite having never been on a date herself before, because she has read tons of romantic novels.
  • Bullying a Dragon: A group of ponies that a long Shadow Corrupter hired to help him find a temple try to steal the mask he was after out of anger when the only other thing in the temple is a bunch of books, instead of treasure like they thought there would be. Despite having seen Shadow Corrupter's magic on the journey to the temple and seeing all the scars on his body, knowing he has been through a lot already. This predictably leads to the group getting killed by Shadow.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: When Flash and Scootaloo finally meet their birth parents, Flash calls them both out for abandoning them at orphanages and never once trying to meet them when the were growing up. Flash turns out to be more angry at them than Scootaloo mainly because of how much he struggled as a kid after the orphanage he was in caught fire and he had to live on the streets until he met Twilight and her family. Flash eventually forgives his parents after he cools down by talking to Twilight and sees them put themselves in danger to protect him and Scootaloo.
  • Can't Catch Up: Trixie feels this way towards Twilight. Despite becoming Princess Luna's student, not only does Twilight have years more experience than her, she became an alicorn, something Trixie feels she can never compete against.
  • Cartwright Curse: This is brought up in Lightning Siege on how this seems to apply to Grand's family. Lightning points out how both his mother and grandmother both died tragically in unexpected events, wondering if his family is "cursed" somehow so whoever marries them is doomed to die young, and is thus hesitant to ask Rarity to marry him because he doesn't want something to end up getting her killed. Fortunately, we do see that by The Last Problem they are Happily Married and Rarity is very much alive.
  • Cerebus Callback: During one flashback in The Forgotten Darkness, Dark Mist tells a young Trickster that if any of the Jakhowls survive his upcoming plan he will let the young Trickster be the one to kill the survivor, patting him on the head and shaking his paw as a "deal". This seems to be just Dark Mist humoring the kid at first, until a later chapter reveals that the young Trickster was actually Shade and that the deal was real. Shade was picked by Dark Mist in case his upcoming plan missed any Jakhowls, and Shade plans to complete his master's plan in the present.
  • Character Catchphrase: Before Grand Hoof goes into battle he says the phrase "count up your sins" to his opponent as a warning, since they'll need to explain them when they get to the other side. This also doubles as a Pre Asskicking Oneliner. Since Grand Hoof is often viewed as the leader of the Royal Knights it also leads to a few of them using it themselves from time to time.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • When Discord lists several random facts about Flash during their fight he offhandedly mentions Flash has the rare triple Z blood type. Flash later remembers this when he learns that Scootaloo has the same blood type, meaning he can donate some of his blood for her in a blood transfusion.
    • Soarin demonstrates a technique he learned during his race with Rainbow called the Theta State. Flash is shown training to try to achieve this state during numerous chapters in Season 2 afterwards and later achieves it during the Changeling Invasion in "A Canterlot Wedding".
    • After Skybreaker and Springer do a Combination Attack, Flash and Springer are constantly training to try to do one themselves throughout Season 4. They finally manage to do one during the battle with Tirek, where Flash uses his light-based magic to turn Springer's Aura Sphere invisible.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Flash and Twilight have been best friends ever since childhood, and slowly their friendship has evolved into something more, even if it takes them both a long time to realize it.
  • Children Forced to Kill: A flashback seen in Knight of Friendship showed that Cold Steel accidentally killed some bandits that destroyed his village and killed his parents when his magic instinctively created several ice shards around him that impaled all the bandits.
  • Circling Birdies: A literal case in "The Break Up Breakdown". When Fire Heart is accidentally knocked out of the sky by Rainbow and Soarin, he crashes into a tree and has two birds circling his head, which turn out to be real since they are mad at him for crashing into their nest and start pecking his head.
  • Cliffhanger:
    • The final scene in season 5 has a guard inform the princesses that Flash Sentry has returned via teleportation magic, and there are seven others with him as opposed to the five he left with.
    • This is how "Spike's Heartbreak" ended when a group of bats swarmed on Rarity and Spike when his body starting to glow.... setting up the event of "Gauntlet of Fire".
    • The final scene in season 6 has Flicker studying the ancient mural he and the others discovered in "Gauntlet of Fire", only to accidentally collapse the wall and discover a secret chamber behind it. The only thing in it is a round stone table with a large silver leather-bound book on it, and as soon as Flicker touched it it unleashed a green light causing Flicker to scream as he is consumed by it.
  • Combination Attack: The Royal Knights are shown to be able to combine their attacks when the situation calls for it.
    • Flash and Springer spend several chapters in season 4 trying to figure out how to combine their attacks, after Springer and Skybreaker did it together in the previous season. They finally perfect it, when Flash figures out how to use his light powers to make aura sphere invisible during the finale, which catches Tirek off guard.
    • Flash, Cold, and Fire Heart do one during the chapter "Courageous Burning Heart", which is a combination of Flash's Flash Force, Cold Steel's Cold Force, and Fire Heart's newly acquired Fire Force, which knocks out Storm Blade and Searing Salix.
    • The Royal Knights and Springer do several of these during their fight against Trial-C, after they realize that it has analyzed and learned all of their old moves, and they need to do something they have never done before to beat it.
  • Coordinated Clothes: Several couples in "Nightmare Night" are dressed in couple's costumes together. This includes Big Mac and Sugar Belle (a wolf and Little Red Riding Hood) Soarin and Rainbow Dash (Frankenstein's Monster and The Bride of Frankenstein), Wild Smile and Pinkie Pie (a pair of clowns), Lightning Blitz and Rarity (a samurai and a Japanese princess), and Rogue and Applejack (a flying monkey and The Tin-Mare from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). The Cakes also dress up in matching costumes together resembling The Addams Family.
  • Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears:
    • When everyone is watching the adventure Team Flash went on at the end of War of the Lost City, Discord creates a censor button at Flash's request, which when pushed causes all the younger members present (the CMC, Heart, Soul, and Spike) to get blindfolds and headphones put on them so they can't hear or see the more traumatizing parts. Flash ends up pushing the button several times at the more violent parts.
    • When Flash prepares to finish off Trial-T, he tells for Twilight to cover Flurry Heart's eyes, and she does so with one of her wings.
  • Crash-Into Hello:
    • Flash and Twilight first meet each other this way as kids. While Twilight, her family, and Cadance are all heading to Donut Joe's for Twilight's birthday she bumps into Flash when they round the corner just after he tried to steal some of the donuts Joe made for Twi's party.
    • Soarin and Rainbow bump into each other at the Wonderbolt Academy twice, both times are after Rainbow just got out of the shower. When Soarin points out this happening, Rainbow jokes that he should watch where he is going.
    • Fire Heart accidentally slams into Cozy Glow in the hallway while rounding a corner during the first day of the School of Friendship while on his way to class.
  • Cutting the Knot: When Hiveena and Ruby need to find a thug that tried to kidnap Flurry Heart, their only clue is a sign that reads "Highlight's Pet Emporium. Fillydelphia's best pet store." After asking random citizens where the store is for a several hours and getting nowhere though, Hivenna simply looks up the address of the store in the Fillydelphia mail directory. Ruby is a bit surprised she didn't think of it herself.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: "Building Bridges" reveals that Cold Steel became the pony that he is because a Royal Guard named Noble Banner was sent on a mission to the Badlands and never came back.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Grand Hoof says that Cold Steel was raised under 'unique circumstances', which is why he views others as tools rather than ponies.
  • Darker and Edgier: The series can get pretty dark at times, being much more violent than the canon show.
    • The second half of Season 3 has the Royal Knights fighting Doom Raizer and his forces. Each of Doom's mooks have a dangerous set of powers and a backstory that is explored, and the main conflict with Doom himself emphasizes his own past and falling out with his father Grand Hoof.
    • The Forgotten Darkness reveals the past history between the Jakhowls and Tricksters, culminating in the near extinction of both races, leaving only Springer and Shade as the remaining members of their respected races in the Present. Springer and Shade's battle in the climax of the story is also much more brutal than any fight seen in the show, with Shade ending up a bloody mess by the time it is all over.
    • War of the Lost City is one of the most violent and action-packed stories of the series. Flash and his team are forced into an unknown game against a dark cult Cold Steel has been investigating, which quickly turns into all out war with their lives and the fate of Equestria at stake. Throughout the story we see each member of the cult's past, and they range from being exiled from their home to being involved in murder.
  • Dead Alternate Counterpart: Throughout "The Cutie Re-Mark" an evil version of Flash goes through each Bad Future Twilight and Spike see, and kills the version of Flash Sentry there.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Flash is one, big time. He loves mocking his opponents and making quick jokes about stuff they said. It's much like Spider-Man, only not with as much punch.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: In The Forgotten Darkness it is revealed that Sharp Paw, Luna's former partner and the previous chief of the Jakhowls who Luna and Ruby had both spoken of previously and constantly praised for his heroism, had an egg with his mate Calm Paw. The final chapter reveals the egg was actually Springer, making him the son of Sharp Paw. Flash and the others, who had witnessed Sharp Paw in action via a Pensieve Flashback, congratulate Springer for having such awesome parents, and Springer himself admits they were pretty cool and asks Luna and Ruby if is they can tell him more about his parents someday.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Spike's crush on Rarity gets deconstructed. While Rarity never encouraged Spike's crush on her, she also did nothing to discourage it either. Also, because Spike is still a child, he thought that all the times she flirted and coddled with him were her returning his feelings. As a result, when he finds out that Rarity had been dating Lightning Blitz, he doesn't take it well, and even after Rarity tried to politely turn him down, he still tried to win her affections. It took Lightning Blitz to ask him some uncomfortable questions, and calling him out on it to convince Spike to let go of his feelings for Rarity.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Gender reversed examples. Both Iron Core and Lightning Blitz started off as jerks who belittled Flash and his friends, but overtime came become a lot nicer and open.
    • Iron Core starts as an apprentice knight just like Flash, but is rude to him and his friends for seeing them as small and weak. Although willing to risk his life for any of them he only sees it as part of the job and is not interested in making friends with anyone. Once he is sent to live in Ponyville though, Fluttershy slowly starts to get through to him and have him open up about himself. He starts to be more respectful to others around him and sees there is more ways to be strong than just physical strength, something he recognizes Fluttershy has.
    • Lightning Blitz had been a bully towards Flash for most of his life, jealous that a no one like him was chosen as an apprentice over him. After Lightning is beaten by Flash in Canterlot and is punished for his crimes he resolves to be a better pony and become what his grandfather Grand Hoof believed he could. After making his return he joins Flash and Iron as a local defender to make up for his past. He also begins to bond with Rarity, who had previously rejected his advancements towards her.
  • Desecrating the Dead: Malafear does this after he kills Fira, kicking her body away and mocking Silverbolt for it.
  • Diet Episode:
    • "The Ultimate Ponyville Diet" has Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all realize they have gained an unspecific amount of weight recently and go on a week long diet of eating less and exercising with the Defenders to lose their extra weight.
    • The B-Plot of "Substitute" has Twilight's family put Dog Spike on a diet due to him becoming overweight from eating too much people food as a result of his Acquired Situational Narcissism.
  • Disturbed Doves: Rarity lets out a loud scream when she realizes she has gained weight, which disturbs a large barrage of birds and cause them to fly away.
  • Disqualification-Induced Victory: The game that Flash's team and the Cult of Shadow is forced to play involves teams of three from both sides fighting each other while trying to find an orb hidden somewhere in the city. If someone is defeated during this they are eliminated for the remainder of the battle and whoever touches the orb first wins the battle for their team. However, it is shown that if all three fighters for one team are eliminated then the orb comes out of hiding and travels in front of the remaining fighters, meaning a victory is secured if the opposing team is completely eliminated. This almost happens before the final battle between Flash and Shadow. Shadow forces Faust to raise the stakes of their battle, where the winner will be turned into either an umbrum or alicorn, based on who wins. Flash initially refuses to fight under these terms, knowing that if Shadow becomes an umbrum he'll be unstoppable, but Faust says if he refuses to fight he forfeits to Shadow, forcing Flash to accept the terms even though he doesn't agree with them.
  • Doorstopper: Among the completed stories, the series currently has a little over 2.5 million words, and is still going strong.
  • Double Entendre:
    • When Lightning Blitz first meets Rarity, he quickly becomes attracted to her and smugly tries to flirt with her. He tries to ask her out, saying they should go "make some sweet music" away from the others. Rarity immediately turns him down.
    • When Soarin defends Rainbow Dash from Wind Rider's accusations of her sending Spitfire a fake note, and refusing to ban her from the Wonderbolts immediately, Wind Rider accuses him of mot wanting to get the mare he is "knocking boots with" in trouble.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • During War of the Lost City when the comparison between Shadow and Starlight is made and their respective cults, Flash remarks to himself how he hopes Starlight isn't still causing trouble, unaware how she is planning revenge against the Mane 7 at the time or how when it fails she will have a Heel–Face Turn.
    • In a flashback showing Salix's backstory, when the kirin are about to take their vow of silence Autumn Blaze is initially okay with it, saying she can live without words. Of course years later she'll be starved for conversation and be a total Motor Mouth.
    • In the Season 6 chapter "Fluttershy's Marvellous Medicine", Rarity chides Flash and Iron for being "foolish" enough to take the wrong potions from Zecora and cause the whole mess. Of course by the next season, Rarity will find herself in a similar situation, when she and Pinkie mix up potions from Zecora and Rarity uses remover potion on her mane thinking it was shampoo.
    • Spike expresses disappointment in "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Webs" that since he doesn't have a Cutie Mark he'll probably never get called on a mission by the map. The very next chapter adapts "Triple Threat", which involves Spike getting a mission from the map.
    • Cozy Glow's status as an Enfant Terrible is made clear to the readers much earlier than in canon. But while the audience knows she is plotting to make herself the Empress of Friendship, the other characters are all still clueless of her true intentions due to her keeping up her innocent act.
  • Driven by Envy:
    • Lightning Blitz has always been jealous of Flash for being made Grand Hoof's apprentice instead of him, Grand Hoof's own grandson, and feels that Flash is an unworthy street rat. He acted on this by bullying Flash and his friends and insulting Grand Hoof for what he saw as ignorance. He eventually drops this when he makes a Heel–Face Turn after Flash defeats him, letting go of his jealousy and working to better himself and become worthy of being a knight.
    • Lightning Dust becomes jealous of Rainbow Dash as soon as Rainbow is made lead pony instead of her. She disobeys every order Rainbow gives her and tries to show her up during practice to show that she is more worthy than Rainbow to be lead pony.
  • Driven to Suicide: After Springer spends countless times reliving the same hour again and again in a loop before dying in an explosion each time, he becomes bored after failing to find the culprit and having fun around town by doing everything he can until nothing is fun anymore. Believing there is nothing else he can do, he tries to kill himself with Flash's sword, Lightbringer, believing that will stop the loop. His suicide attempt fails when Twilight casts a spell that makes the blade transparent so Springer cannot stab himself with it. It is later revealed that the experience was All Just a Dream, and Springer could not die anyway.
  • Dude, Not Funny!:
  • Due to the Dead: At the end of "A Returning Storm", Cold Steel pays respects to his deceased mentor and Parental Substitute Noble Banner by taking the Storm Blade, the Celestic Gear that was originally meant for Noble but was stolen by Swift Wind, and placing it with Noble's crystal statue in the Hall of Knights where it would be protected by the security system, and Cold says a few words to Noble, hoping he is proud of who he has become and promising to protect Equestria and the ponies in it with his friends.

    Tropes E to M 
  • Ear Ache: A Running Gag throughout the series, Twilight constantly uses her magic to tug on Flash's ear whenever she is annoyed by him or wants him to do something. Cadance ends up doing it to Shining Armor at the end of The Knight of Friendship when everyone realizes he is just as oblivious to Twilight and Flash's feelings for each other as the two of them were.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Towards the end of "Into the Forest" a mysterious female shrinks the Scorpentine that stung Scootaloo and claims she has plans for it. The figure is revealed to be Queen Chrysalis, when the same Scorpentine appears in the caves beneath Canterlot guarding Princess Cadance, Twilight and Flash.
    • In "Shipping", Sandbar appears during Twilight and Flash's date, fanboying over Flash Sentry, and asking for his autograph.
    • The last scene in "Rainbow Rocks" has the human versions of Flash Sentry, Lightning Blitz, and Ruby Scarlet meet with the human version of Twilight and help her with her investigation on CHS.
    • The flashback showing Searing Salix's backstory in "Courageous Burning Heart" has the kirin from the Peaks of Peril appear, including Autumn Blaze and Rain Shine.
    • Smolder makes an unnamed cameo appearance in "The Assault of Ponyville" as one of the many dragons being controlled by Malafear.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Defied. Salix thinks that because he has fire powers, this means that he has the advantage over Cold Steel. Cold tells him that if ice is cold enough, than it can't be melted by fire.
  • Elite Army: Royal Knights are far superior to the standard Royal Guard. They are the second highest security force in Equestria, with only the princesses above them. At the start of the series only 12 Royal Knights are alive, and only a few apprentices are seen throughout the series. Due to members either retiring or falling in battle the number is now at only 9 members in total, but are no less a force to be reckoned with.
  • Epigraph: Every chapter in The Forgotten Darkness begins with one. Each quote somehow ties into the main theme of each chapter.
  • Expy: Springer the Jakhowl is one to Riolu. His Battle form is one to Lucario, and Shade the Trickster is one for Zorua and Zoroark.
  • Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: The final scene in "Magic Duel" has Twilight and Trixie preparing for a friendly duel to see which one of them is the real "number one princess student". The chapter ends just as the duel begins, with the winner never revealed.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Implied. Despite Changelings kidnapping all of the heroes, the disguised Flash and Rarity Changelings decided to send Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to Sweet Apple Acres for a sleepover rather than kidnap them. Although, they still kidnapped other children like Spike and Flurry Heart, it is possible that Chrysalis just decided that the CMC weren't worth replacing.
  • Everyone Knew Already: Flash says that pretty much everypony knew Shining Armor and Cadance were dating, except Twilight, who found out from their wedding invitation. He also literally had to spell it out to Twilight to get her to realize who Mi Amore Cadenza was, since she was the only one who did not know her full name.
  • Evil Versus Evil: One Bad Future in "The Cutie Re-Mark" has a full-powered Tirek fight against Doom Raizer in his colossus form from the Omni Sphere, causing unending destruction in the area around them.
  • Feud Episode: Heart and Soul have a feud during "A Matter of Principals", due to Soul making an Innocently Insensitive joke at the expense of Heart's intelligence, with Heart taking it very personally due to knowing how others talk down about his intelligence when compared to his sister.
  • Final Solution: Shade explains it is the ultimate goal of the Tricksters to kill every last Jakhowl, no matter the cost it might take even to their own species. Dark Mist even shouted "Kill them all!" in the past before the Final Battle between the Jakhowls and the Tricksters.
  • Finger Muzzle: Adagio does this to Sonata to get her to shut up about how cute Flash looks.
  • First Day of School Episode: "The Heart and Soul of Ponyville" has Fire Heart and Shining Soul's first day at Ponyville School, where they make friends with the other foals there like Button Mash, Rumble, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon.
  • First Kiss:
    • Soarin and Rainbow Dash share their first kiss together at the end of "Wonderbolts Academy" after Soarin assures her that she's going to be just fine as a lead pony, and she's already ten times the leader he ever was.
    • Sunset Shimmer steals Flash's first kiss when she confronts him in the Band Room, and mocks him over it. Though later in "The Storm of Love" Flash shares his first real kiss with Twilight after the two of them reconcile and Twilight admits her feelings to Flash.
    • Iron Core and Fluttershy share their first kiss together at the end of "Iron's Revenge" during Iron's coronation.
    • Pinkie and Wild Smile have their first on-screen kiss when Pinkie returns to Ponyville at the end of Our Town, though it is implied they already had one earlier since they had already been a couple for sometime.
    • Rarity and Lightning Blitz share their first on-screen kiss when Lightning and Flash prepare to leave on a mission in "Set Me on Fire". But, similar to Pinkie and Wild, they had already been dating for sometime and had gotten much more intimate previously, so it is likely they already had their first kiss sometime off-screen.
    • Rogue and Applejack share their first kiss together at the end of "Nightmare Night", when Rogue confesses his love to Applejack and says he wants to stay with her as part of her family before thrusting his head forward and quickly kissing her. They share a few more afterwards when Applejack returns his feelings.
  • Fix Fic: The author has set out to fix some problems from the show it's based on.
    • Many fans criticized how quickly Princess Cadance and Shining Armor were introduced to the show, claiming that it felt "shoe-horned." Here, both characters appear in the very first story The Element of Courage and make occasional appearances before the season 2 finale, even sharing a couple of Ship Tease moments before Shining Armor proposes to Cadance.
    • invoked "Boast Busters" was criticized for portraying Trixie as a Designated Villain. This series' adaptation of the episode downplays Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity's heckling of her and Trixie gets played much more sympathetically, given a tragic backstory and helping Flash take down Big Score, Rickashay, and Boulder.
    • For those who preferred the comics' incarnation of King Sombra over the show's, this series utilizes the former work's backstory and makes Sombra a more intimidating villain than the show's Evil Is Hammy portrayal.
    • invoked Sombra's canon Love Interest, Radiant Hope, was a Base-Breaking Character, due to her refusal to accept that Sombra was a bad pony, and her betraying her friends despite seeing firsthoof the evil he had committed. In this series, she's replaced by Ruby Scarlet, and unlike Radiant Hope, she gives up on Sombra after seeing that he went too far, and she refuses to forgive him even after he was freed from Armalum.
    • The canon Wonderbolts have been criticized for their occasional mistreatment of Rainbow Dash, particularly how quickly they accused her in "Rarity Investigates!" This series downplays their more insensitive moments to Rainbow Dash and even their accusations in the aforementioned episode are dropped as soon as Soarin intervenes.
    • invoked Starlight Glimmer's Base-Breaking Character status largely stems from being Easily Forgiven and becoming universally accepted by the rest of the cast as their friend. While this series' version of Starlight Glimmer is forgiven, Twilight Sparkle does call out her time-travel plot and she later gets punished with community service. It also helps that she helped Twilight and Spike defeat Evil Flash and was willing to sacrifice herself to achieve that, giving more reason for why the other characters would forgive her.
    • Speaking of Starlight Glimmer, she's also very divisive among the fandom for her Spotlight-Stealing Squad treatment on Season 6. According to Banshee531, he states the character won't receive too much focus on Season 6 of The Flash Sentry Chronicles and she'll only receive her focus chapters around five and most of those will be the opening and finale.
    • To those who didn't like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon disappearing from the story after finally befriending the CMC, in Season 6 they came back and even become friends with Soul.
    • "Newbie Dash" is often criticized for the Wonderbolts' poor treatment of Rainbow Dash and failing to explain they all have embarrassing nicknames until after she has humiliated herself. Here, they are all on her side throughout the chapter and stand up for her against the Board of Directors. Rainbow also has no issues with her nickname upon earning it, since Soarin already explained the concept to her back in Season 2.
    • The adaptation of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree has Human Flash playing a much bigger role, where in canon he was pushed to the sidelines and ignored. It also gives him a better relationship with Sci-Twi, who doesn't hookup with Timber Spruce.
    • Some fans were disappointed when the show didn't explore Spike's origin, and criticized "Father Knows Beast" for wasting his origin on a fake out. Dragon's Awakenings explores Spike's true origin.
    • Fans often criticize Twilight's anger and punishment towards the CMC in "Marks For Effort" after Cozy Glow failed her test, accusing them of sabotaging her when she actually failed on purpose. Here, when she initially considers punishing them, Flash talks her down and makes her realize that the CMC wouldn't intentionally sabotage Cozy, especially since Twilight is helping to raise Scootaloo, and the two realize the most likely thing was that Cozy failed on purpose due to the sheer ridiculousness of her answers.
    • In "Yakity-Sax", instead of the rest of the Mane 7 bluntly telling Pinkie Pie to quit playing the yovidaphone entirely because she's bad at it, and Pinkie sinking into a depression over losing it, Grand Hoof suggests they just set some ground rules for when it is appropriate for Pinkie to play it and suggest to her that she finds a teacher to help her play better.
    • Tempest Shadow got her own focus in "The Epic of Tempest Shadow" after she didn't get one in the show and her first show appearance was in Grand Finale, even Banshee531 admitted he was expecting her to appear in the show between Season 8 or 9.
  • Flea Episode: The chapter "The Truth Shall Set You Flea" in Season 8 has Big Score, Rickashay, and Boulder infect the Mane 7, the Defenders, and Starlight with Super Fleas, special engineered fleas via magical means that only go after specific hair types they are programed to, in order to distract them long enough to break into the School of Friendship and steal the Headband of Inner Truth being kept there, with the fleas also causing them so much itching they won't be able to fight properly even if they are discovered. Once the heroes realize what kind of fleas are on them and figure out how to get them off, they get payback on Big Score and his goons by reprogramming them and unleashing the entire swarm on the three of them.
  • Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: In the first chapter of Jakhowls Rising, after Springer realizes Flash and Twilight are having a Shower of Love together, he purposely interrupts it by flushing the toilet on his way out.
  • Forced Transformation:
    • Just like in canon, anyone who crosses over into the human world through the portal is transformed.
    • Malafear possess a power to transform ponies into dragons, placing them under his control and using them to further his plans.
  • Forceful Kiss:
    • When Sunset Shimmer confronts Flash in the Band Room in CHS she grabs him by his jacket and forces his face to hers, smashing their lips together in a deep kiss after he claims there is nothing she can do to surprise him after all he has been through.
    • Before Tempera leaves on the mission given to her by her master, she stops to give him a long goodbye kiss on the lips first. Though it is downplayed since he remains unmoved and uninterested for the entire duration of her kiss, neither trying to resist her advancement on him or return the gesture.
    • Center Stage forces a deep kiss on Number Cruncher's girlfriend Remarie, despite her protests. This causes Cruncher to think she is cheating on him when he, Grand Hoof, and Doom Chaser witness the kiss. Center Stage tries to force another one on her, grabbing her by the chin, only for her to successfully push him away.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Due to the events being Simultaneous Arcs, the endings to season 5 and Friendship Games show that Flash and his team will return to Equestria by the end of War of The Lost City, and Flash will be alive and well.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • During Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon in the flashback in "Princess Twilight Sparkle" she angrily screams at Celestia how "they're all gone" and "she doesn't know who they are" when accusing Celestia she doesn't care about them. Later towards the end of "The Tree of Harmony", Princess Luna examines the Tree of Harmony and notices a small groove in the tree and notes how it wasn't there when she and Celestia first got the Elements from the tree. The meaning behind both of these are revealed in full in The Forgotten Darkness.
    • In "Castle Sweet Castle" after Rarity gets Spike to agree to keep Twilight away from the castle until sunset by working her charms on him, Lightning Blitz warns her that it isn't a good idea to lead Spike on like that, since she knows about Spike's crush on her. Then in "Spike's Heartbreak", Spike finds out that Rarity and Lightning are dating and is completely crushed by it. It is pointed out it is actually Rarity's fault he is hurt so bad by it since she never did anything to stop his crush on her and took advantage of it several times.
  • Frame-Up: Lightning Blitz and Solid Script are framed for having stolen a famous painting, the Mona Lipizzaner. The police are too lazy to investigate the crime scene or suspects any further, so it falls on Flash and Discord to investigate and clear their names.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: Flash and Twilight go through this in "Walking a Mile in Each Others Horse Shoes".
  • From Zero to Hero: Several of the heroes started out with almost nothing before getting to where they are now.
    • Flash Sentry, the titular character himself, started out as an orphan living on the streets of Canterlot all by himself, forced to steal from local restaurants to get enough food to survive. But then he eventually met Twilight and was taken in by her family and made Grand Hoof's apprentice. Now he is known as a hero who has helped save Equestria multiple times and has achieved his life goal of becoming a Royal Knight.
    • Trixie comes from a long line of successful unicorns that can be traced all the way back to Starswirl the Bearded. But she ended up dropping out of the Manehatten School of Magic, which her father was a teacher at, because she couldn't meet their expectations. She ended up becoming a showmare and traveling from city to city, boasting about her great "abilities", or outright lying in some cases, in order to get the praise her father never gave her. Her life eventually changed for the better when she met and befriended Flash, which eventually led to her becoming Princess Luna's personal student.
    • Soarin started out as a very weak flyer, but dreamed of joining the Wonderbolts once he saw them perform. Nobody supported his dream though, not even his own parents, but he never stopped training. He eventually entered and won the Best Young Flyers Competition and got to meet his personal hero, Wind Rider, who encouraged his dream, and he got his cutie mark from it. In the Present he is now second-in-command of the Wonderbolts and one of the best flyers in all of Equestria.
  • Gale-Force Sound: Rarity lets out a scream that echoes throughout Ponyville when she realizes she has gained weight.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Flash refuses to listen to Twilight and come back with her after she finds him in the mountains north of the Crystal Empire after he lost to Cold Steel, she gets his attention by angrily throwing snowballs at him instead of giving him one of her usual heartfelt speeches and yells at him that he isn't acting like the Flash she has known for years. The results are zigzagged since this initially just makes Flash angrier and he tackles Twilight and pins her down while screaming at her to stop it, only to finally calm down when he sees Twilight begin to sob while he is holding her down.
  • Girls vs. Boys Plot: In "All's Fair in Love and War", Celestia sends Twilight and Flash to the town Blinkermane to investigate its decline in outgoing products. Once they arrive they find that the town has been divided in half between the stallions and mares, with the stallion side being called "Stallimane" and the mare side "Blinkermare".
  • Glass Cannon: Toxic the bat pony is a very dangerous enemy due to being a Poisonous Person and able to damage anyone he touches with poison. But, when Flash fights through the pain of his poison long enough to hold him in place he is taken down with just one hit via a point blank blast from Flash's gear.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars:
    • Flash is scarred during his battle with Sombra, leaving a giant X shaped scar across his chest.
    • A Future Badass version of Fire Heart has a long scar running from one side of his right hoof, around the top of it and up the other side from some event he doesn't elaborate on. Heart is shown to now have the same scar himself at the end of School's in Session, reveling it to be from his wound from when he defeated Void.
  • Grand Finale: The Last Problem is this to the entire series. Through, Banshee531 stated he's not done with the series as there will be few stories that take place between Twilight's coronation and the future from The Last Problem.
  • The Greatest Story Never Told: In the two part chapter "Reinforcements from the Future", Flash and a future version of Fire Heart need to stop Tragus, a time-traveling renegade changeling, from ruining an important peace talk and destroying the future. Fire Heart notes every detail of the conference must remain the same, or they risk changing the timeline, but then Flash realizes they can do anything they want with the conference and the delegates as long as everything that is officially recorded is exactly as it is in the future. So, after they defeat Tragus by luring him into a trap, they make sure that all the delegates agree to not speak a word about what really happened to anyone outside the room, ensuring that history remains unchanged.
  • Green-Eyed Monster:
    • Twilight becomes jealous when Trixie makes plans to ask out Flash, fearing what might happen if the two become a couple. This later becomes reversed when Trixie becomes jealous of Twilight after Twilight becomes an alicorn, believing that it means she can never catch up to her.
    • Similarly, Wild Smile becomes jealous when Cheese Sandwich arrives in Ponyville and reveals his history with Pinkie Pie, afraid that this will lead to the two of them becoming a couple.
    • Scootaloo shows jealousy towards Flash for all he has accomplished and getting attention from every citizen they meet in "Carnival Chaos", feeling like she is Overshadowed by Awesome.
    • By the time of Jakhowls Rising Springer has started to become one for the various couples around town, including the Mane 7. Due to having watched his friends go from being single to each of them falling in love and finding someone special, he feels Alone Among the Couples due to believing he will never experience love himself due to being The Last of His Kind; expect for the pups, who are too young for him anyway.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: When Flash's family battles Mecha-Heather, she at one point grabs Trail Blazer and throws him into his wife.
  • Groin Attack:
    • After Flash rejects Sunset's advancements and says he won't fall for her tricks again she responds by immediately kneeing him in the groin. This is especially painful for Flash since he is still getting use to his human body. Sunset briefly mocks him over this before kneeing him a second time and leaving him on the floor in pain.
    • Springer does this to Shade during their battle in The Forgotten Darkness. He says Flash told him about his own experience with it in the mirror world.
  • Ground Hog Day Loop: Refered to as a Hedgehog Day in the series. Springer finds himself trapped in one, where he keeps reliving the exact same hour over and over again, with Ponyville being destroyed by an explosion at the end of the hour and killing everyone, including him. He relives the same hour countless times trying to find out who caused the explosion, then just relaxing and leaning more about everyone in town when he gets stressed after failing to stop the explosion. He and the others eventually stop the loop by destroying a time loop scroll Trixie cast, then stop the town from being destroyed by the explosion with Springer trying to pull a Heroic Sacrifice. The experience is slightly downplayed with The Reveal that everything was just a dream Springer had on a "Vision Quest" and only two hours passed in the real world, but everything he learned about everyone in town was true and he kept the skills he developed while in the loop.
  • Handshake Refusal: Cold refuses Flash's offer of a hoof-shake before their battle, saying that this will be a test, not a game.
  • Heroic Rematch:
    • Flash lost his first battle with Cold Steel, but after gaining an understanding of the Sacred Light, and a reason for wanting to be a Royal Knight, he faces Cold in a rematch and soundly defeats him, thus passing his final test and becoming an official Royal Knight.
    • Trixie gets curb stomped by Terror Card when Terror separates her from her teammates during one of the battles and calls her weak for being unable to do anything but hide behind her illusions and teammates. In a later battle, when both of their partners have been eliminated, Trixie faces Terror in a one-on-one rematch, and after proclaiming she can decide her own future she neutralizes Terror's future seeing ability and swiftly defeats her.
    • Flash Magnus loses to Electra in their first encounter due to not knowing about how water conducts electricity, and is zapped into unconsciousness by her. Not long later, when he faces her again now knowing about her abilities and what she can do with them, he lures her into a trap where he redirects her own attacks to blow a hole in an aqueduct and shorting her out.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted by Springer. After finding a bomb that will blow up Ponyville, and no way to transport it due to an anti-magic field, Springer puts his own shield around himself and the bomb and instructs Twilight to contain the both of them once the bomb goes off and the anti-magic field disappears. It is subverted when the countdown reaches zero and it is revealed Springer had actually just finished a "Vision Quest", and thus did not die from his supposed sacrifice.
  • I Am X, Son of Y: Part of Spike's Badass Boast at the end of "Malafear's Restoration" is "I am Spike... Pyro Dragon, son of Silverbolt and Fira!"
  • I Choose to Stay: The human Lightning Blitz chooses to stay at Crystal Prep, even though he is welcome to transfer back to CHS along with Flash and Sci-Twi. He says that he and his friends will stay to help make sure CPA becomes a better and friendlier school.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: This is Tidal's response to Twilight when she is shocked that he cut off a pirate's oxygen for several seconds when interrogating him. Twilight appears to take this advice to heart when she later throws an entire group of pirates into the ocean then zaps them with an electric spell, albeit a non-lethal one, for threatening her friends, which even Rainbow Dash states is brutal.
  • I Will Show You X!: Salix does this twice during a battle against Ruby in response to her taunts.
    Ruby: Now, are you gonna bring the heat or am I in for a disappointing battle?
    Salix: Grrrr....I'll show you heat!
    (later during their battle)
    Ruby: Fire is powerful, but against somepony with actual skill and technique, the weaknesses in your abilities are painfully obvious. All you know is power, but power alone is nothing compared to true strategy.
    Salix: I'll show you strategy!
  • An Ice Person:
    • Trixie becomes efficient in ice magic after her comic adventure got her interested in it.
    • The Royal Knight Cold Steel is an expert at ice making magic. Not only can he make weapons out of ice, he can also create dynamic constructs, sculptures made out of ice that fight for him.
  • Ignored Expert:
    • When the girls decide to deliver a care package to Rainbow at the Wonderbolts Academy to cheer up Pinkie Pie, Flash is the only one who objects to the idea, stating that he has learned from Soarin what they do at the academy when they are recruiting cadets and they cannot just show up unannounced. He states they could all potentially get in trouble if they do, including him potentially losing his apprenticeship. Twilight acknowledges he has a point, but ultimately decides to ignore him and forces him to cooperate with the group.
    • They later do this again when Flash, Iron, and Lightning all warn them that finding out where A.K. Yearling lives so they can help her finish her book quicker is a bad idea and is how restraining orders are filed, plus it would be bad if Twilight, the newest princess, looked like a stalker. They once again ignore them and force Flash to come with them.
  • Ill-Timed Sneeze:
    • While Wild Smile and Igneous Rock Pie are in the mine together, Wild accidentally breathes in some dust. His puppet manages to put a finger to his nose to stop it for a moment, only for him to sneeze once it is removed and accidentally cause a cave-in from the noise.
    • Future Fire Heart lets out a sneeze that echoes through the tunnels he and Flash are in, attracting wildren to their location.
  • Immediate Sequel: The Forgotten Darkness takes place immediately after Rainbow Rocks, with Flash and Twilight stating to have just returned from the human world.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Cold Steel had killed a group of bandits with icicles after they raised his village.
  • Impossible Task: The third test of The Great Test is designed to be this. Flash is given the task to cross a twenty foot wide lava pit safely while he has been stripped of his ability to fly. After considering all possibilities, Flash comes to the difficult conclusion that there is no way for him to safely cross the lava pit. This turns out to have been the correct decision, since he realized the task presented was impossible and he didn't attempt it, passing the final test and proving he has the judgment and skills to be a leader.
  • Innocuously Important Episode: At the end of Author's note of "The Saddle Row Review", Banshee531 teases the chapter's important to the overall plot.
  • Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Flash and many of the other protagonists in the series often have their own personal problems and insecurities. They often are dealing with events from their past, trying to atone for past mistakes, or just trying to find their place in the world. Even the ones that come off as jerks have their own struggles and try to better themselves. Meanwhile, the villains in the series, both from canon and OCs, are arrogant with their own abilities and believe nothing can stop them and their plans. This ultimately always ends with the heroes coming off on top, because while they have their friends around to support them and help them through their problems, the villains always stand alone and care for nobody but themselves, leading to their defeat via The Power of Friendship.
  • Internal Reveal:
    • Throughout War of the Lost City each of the cultists have their backstories revealed to the readers via flashbacks. In the last chapter of the story, when everyone is seeing what happened on the adventure with help from Discord's magic, everyone learns about Tempera and Storm Blade's pasts when Celestia and Grand recognize them respectively and explain their backstories to everyone. The same chapter also has Twilight explain the events of "The Cutie Re-Mark" and "A Flash of Darkness" to Flash, including Starlight's Heel–Face Turn and their encounter with Evil Flash.
    • In chapter 7 of The Movie, Heart told the others about Void's true identity being Shadow Corrupter, one chapter after it was revealed.
  • Interquel: Banshee531 confirmed all future stories after The Last Problem are set between Twilight's Coronation and the future from The Last Problem.
  • It's All My Fault: When the Wonderbolt Board of Directors try to have Rainbow rejected from the team due to believing she only slept her way into the team via her relationship with Soarin, Soarin blames himself for Rainbow's predicament for starting a relationship with her before she officially joined. Though Rainbow doesn't hold anything against him because she knows neither of them broke any rules with their relationship, and she wouldn't have given up her time with Soarin for anything, even knowing what would have happened because of it.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: As Flash Sentry is recovering from his defeat against Cold Steel, Grand Hoof confesses that he had a point that Flash had no reason for becoming a Royal Knight.
  • Knighting:
    • After defeating Longhorn, saving Fluttershy, and learning to let go of his anger instead of letting it control him and seek revenge, Iron Core is knighted by the four alicorns as the newest Royal Knight, and is dubbed by his mentor Skybreaker as the Metal Guardian.
    • After finding his reason for wanting to be a knight and passing his final test by defeating Cold Steel in battle, Flash Sentry is finally made a Royal Knight, and is dubbed by Grand Hoof as The Knight of Friendship.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia:
    • The final chapter of The Forgotten Darkness, which was previously hinted at during Princess Twilight Sparkle, reveals that Luna does not remember anything about the Jakhowls or the Tricksters, only able to vaguely remember Sharp Paw because he was her partner. Luna felt so much pain after losing the Jakhowls that when she sealed Springer's egg in the Tree of Harmony so he would hatch later in the future, she allowed the mysterious golden individual helping her to seal her memories of everything she wanted to forget to help cope with the loss. She regains her memories at the end of the story, when Celestia undoes the magic seal on her brain.
    • The penultimate chapter of War of the Lost City has this happen to the Cult of Shadow, except Shadow Corrupter and Armalum. Faust teleports Shadow out of the city after removing the Corrupted Shadow from him (and Armalum with him since he was attached to Shadow at the moment), and then erases the memories of the remaining cultists before teleporting them away as well, stating they will only remember their own names, including the aliases they gave themselves.
  • Last of His Kind: In the Present only Springer and Shade seem to be the remaining members of the respected races. This is eventually confirmed in The Forgotten Darkness when it is shown that both the Jakhowls and Tricksters were sacrificed to create the Alicorn Amulet, leaving Springer and Shade as the only survivors.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the first chapter of War of the Lost City, Flash and his team briefly discuss everything they have been through off-screen during the two weeks they have been traveling to the City of Faust.
    Soarin: Yeah! Can you imagine what it would be like if somepony was watching this adventure, except they skipped from when we left Canterlot to right here, right now?
    Springer: They would have seriously missed out.
  • Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Grand Hoof and Doom Chaser leave Number Cruncher and his girlfriend Remarie alone so they can talk. As they head out they see a quick glance of the two of them talking before sharing a kiss.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: This is the first part of Lightning Blitz's plan in The Battle of Canterlot. After taking the entire city hostage and daring every citizen to try to find him and his companions, he and his friends set up enchanted runes around town that ensnare several victims at once. The ponies caught in the enchantment are trapped until the strongest is determined by a fight, forcing the groups to turn on each other and knock each other out in order to continue. This dwindles the heroes numbers while simultaneously exhausting them and damaging the trust and friendship between them.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Spike is completely unaware of the Love Triangle between him, Rarity, and Lightning Blitz, because he has no idea that Lightning is interested in winning Rarity's heart the same way he is, making him an Unknown Rival to Spike. This also leads to him not being informed that Rarity and Lightning going out on a date together.
  • Love Triangle:
    • A brief one happened between Flash, Twilight, and Trixie. In "Magic Duel", Trixie stated she had plans to ask Flash out on a date after she realized that he and Twilight weren't dating, causing Twilight to get jealous of the two of them and worried what will happen if they become a couple. Though after they both realize that Flash is oblivious of their feelings toward him they both call a truce and beat him up together, with Trixie deciding to wait a little longer before asking Flash out. This is dropped when Flash and Twilight become an Official Couple in The Knight of Friendship, with both of them remaining close friends with Trixie afterwards.
    • Rarity keeps her Ship Tease moments with Spike from canon, including spending Hearts and Hooves Day with him, but also forms a close friendship with Lightning Blitz, who previously flirted with her when they first met, after he moves to Ponyville following his Heel–Face Turn. Rarity appears to have made her choice between the two of them when she forces Lightning Blitz to ask her out on a date after winning a bet against him.
  • Lower-Deck Episode: "The Bug and the Knight" is the first chapter not to have any of the main characters in it, focusing on Hiveena and Ruby Scarlet.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: When Number Cruncher takes Grand Hoof and Doom Chaser to meet his girlfriend Remarie, the three of them find her in a room, being pinned against a wall by Center Stage and the two of them locking lips. Cruncher runs off upon seeing this, but misses how Center Stage is forcing himself on Remarie, with her pushing him off her shortly after Cruncher runs away.
  • Mistaken for Pregnant: During "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", Wild Smile realizes that something is wrong with the way Pinkie Pie is acting and slowly pieces together that she has a secret that involves a baby. But, he concludes from this that Pinkie is pregnant, and he is the father. He is shocked to learn that Cadance is the one that is actually pregnant and Pinkie was trying to keep the surprise a secret.
  • Moment Killer:
    • When Flash and Twilight are set up on a date by their friends in the hopes they will hookup, the budding romance is unfortunately interrupted by several fans of the two recognizing them and distract them from each other. Later when they are put on a boat in the middle of the ocean by their friends, isolated from anyone else, their romantic moment is again ruined when their ship crashes into a reef, and the two decide to focus on getting to shore.
    • When Rarity is visiting Lightning while he is recovering after helping save Canterlot, the two of them are interrupted by Grand Hoof coming in and accidentally interrupting their conversation. Rarity leaves the room so the two of them can talk, saying she'll speak to Lightning again later.
    • Played for Drama in "Spike's Heartbreak". The opening scene has Spike burst into Rarity's bedroom, thinking she is in danger, and interrupt her and Lightning as they are in the middle of "expressing themselves" to each other. Spike mistakenly believes that he is forcing himself on her and attacks him, only for Rarity to pull Spike off him and explain to him that the two of them are together, which just breaks Spike's heart.

    Tropes N to Y 
  • Never My Fault: Grand Hoof's son Doom Raizer blames his father for everything that has ever happened to him in his life. This ranges from his childhood to the deaths of his mother and wife and even what has happened to his own son Lightning Blitz. While Grand admits he should have done a better job raising Doom and being in his life more, he also states he has brought his misfortune on himself. This is made prominent when Grand says his catchphrase "count up your sins" to Doom before their battle, and Doom responds that he has no sins.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Trail Blazer and Misty Veil lost most of their memories of Flash's birth not long after leaving him at the Canterlot Orphanage, but the second chapter of The Knight of Friendship reveals that when Tirek drained them of their magic he also drained whatever magic was keeping their memories locked away, and when their magic returned after Tirek's defeat their memories did too.
  • No-Sell:
    • During "Bridal Gossip", Flash, Springer, and Apple Bloom are unaffected by the Poison Joke. Zecora explains that Poison Joke only affects fully-grown ponies and doesn't work on non-ponies at all, explaining why Springer and Apple Bloom are unaffected. Zecora believes Flash might be protected from the effects by magic, but Flash doesn't know what could be protecting him.
    • It is explained that Tirek can only drain magic, not life force. This makes him unable to drain Jakhowls like Springer of their power because Aura is made up of life force, not magic.
    • Vile Rune created the Alicorn Amulet in the hopes that he could match the power of the Alicorns. When he challenges Luna to a fight, she shrugs off all of his attacks despite being powered by the Alicorn Amulet.
    • Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark removal spell doesn't work on Flash Sentry, which allows him to escape her trap.
    • The Knight of Friendship finally explains why Flash has been immune to so many different forms of magic. He became magically connected to an entity called the Sacred Light while Misty Veil was pregnant with him, and it has been protecting him from any form of magic that originated from it.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: The Screebit in "The Heart and Soul of Ponyville" isn't actually evil, or actively trying to hurt the ponies. It is just a creature following its natural instincts, where part of its natural defense mechanism is to consume as much citrus as possible and remain in its giant form and avoid predators. This just unfortunately leads to it stomping around Ponyville on a "rampage", consuming any food with citrus and causing damage in the process, until it can be revert back to its smaller form.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Off-screen, the Cutie Mark Crusaders caused at least five Renegade Farm Equipment Incidents.
    • Applejack says she can't let Big Mac or Granny Smith give Apple Bloom The Talk because of The 'Grape Family Incident.
    • Fire Heart mentions how his sister, Shining Soul, once created a bread monster when Donut Joe tried to teach her how to bake with magic.
    • A future version of Fire Heart mentions off-handedly after he and Flash escape some Wildren via an explosion, that he hasn't had a blast that big since Gallus and Silverstream's wedding party.
  • Not Me This Time: At the end of War of the Lost City when Team Flash returns to Canterlot, after Fire Heart demonstrates his powers to everyone, Rarity asks Discord if he is responsible for Heart having his powers. Discord is not the one responsible though and says he is just as amazed as everyone else.
  • Not What I Signed on For: Lightning Blitz, after joining Flash and Iron as the newest defender of Ponyville, is a little frustrated when Flash has him doing tasks like babysitting the Cutie Mark Crusaders and helping with various odd jobs around town instead of helping defend the town from threats. Flash needs to explain to him that keeping the peace means more than just fighting bad guys.
  • Oblivious to Love: Twilight and Flash play this not only towards each other but themselves too, not even realizing they have feeling for each other until years after becoming friends. Even Princess Cadance, the princess of love, has been trying in vain for years to get the two of them to hook up.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: This is Salix's reaction right before he gets blasted and eliminated by Shining Soul for the second time.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe example; when Spike is explaining their game of O&O to Discord, he shows a bit of embarrassment when he says the princess they are trying to save is named "Shmarity", since by now he has realized his old crush was never going to go anywhere, saying that they started the game a while ago and mentions he has been meaning to change her name for awhile now.
  • Only the Leads Get a Downer Ending: The ending of Season 9. It initially seems that by defeating Armalum and the Legion of Doom, Flash has successfully prevented the future he was warned about so long ago and has constantly been reminded of, where he must sacrifice himself to save everyone. However, it is revealed that due to Armalum seemingly killing Faust, the whole world is starting to fall apart without a God to maintain it. Flash is the only one that can take her place due to wielding both the Sacred Light and Corrupted Shadow now, and says a tearful goodbye to his family and all of his closest friends, including his lover Twilight, before he proceeds to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, saving the entire world and everyone in it, but leaving behind his heartbroken friends, seemingly ending the series with an extremely Bittersweet Ending. However, the next story, The Last Problem, subverts this when it is revealed that Flash's sacrifice restored Faust, and she managed to bring him back to life by rebuilding his body six months later, allowing Flash to rejoin Twilight and the others shortly after her coronation, and granting him the future he deserves and giving everyone a Belated Happy Ending.
  • Pass the Popcorn: Discussed in "Triple Threat"; after Ember and Thorax find out Spike was trying to keep them apart and didn't tell them about the friendship problem he needed to solve in town, they storm off to find him and give him a piece of their mind. Flash asks if the two of them kill Spike, can he get popcorn to watch. After the two of them chew out Spike for lying to them and storm off, Flash comments it wasn't a complete disaster, but still wishes he had his popcorn.
  • Pensieve Flashback:
    • The majority of Forgotten Darkness is this, with Flash and the Mane Six seeing what happened in the past with Princess Luna and the Jakhowls before they vanished. This is revealed to be because Shade has put them all into a machine as part of a "game" he is playing against Springer.
    • Spike goes through this situation in Dragon's Awakening when he sees the origins of Malafear and the connection he has to him via his biologically dad Silverbolt while being trapped in Malafear's book.
  • Pirate Episode: Several chapters have pirates as the main focus.
    • "A Pirate's Life for Me" focuses on Tidal Wave's duties as a Royal Knight and his I Did What I Had to Do attitude when it comes to pirates, with him battling and defeating Dreadbeard.
    • "An Eye for an Eyepatch" has Tidal Wave go after Muerojo, the pirate responsible for killing Tidal's father. Fluttershy and Iron Core end up going with Tidal on his mission after being sent to him by Twilight's map, in order to ensure he doesn't cross a line when dealing with Muerojo.
    • "The Epic of Tempest Shadows" has Flash and Spike teaming up with Tempest, Starswirl, and Celaeno's crew to find ancient treasure of a pirate named Looter while trying to stop the pirate Abas from getting it first, and Tempest is faced with a Friend-or-Idol Decision by the end.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: First Aid and Heather Bloom have been partners for years, always seen together and are some of the closest Royal Knights seen. However, there are no hints of any romance between them, they are both just really good friends.
  • Police Are Useless: In "Detective Discord" the police are quick to say that Lightning Blitz and Solid Script are the criminals who stole the Mona Lipizzaner when they find circumstantial evidence and due to them already having criminal records, playing right into the Frame-Up set up by the real criminal. Once they arrest the two of them they are too lazy to investigate the crime scene further or interrogate any other suspects, forcing Flash and Discord to take matters into their own hands.
  • Poisonous Person: Toxic the bat pony developed his poison at age 10, but unlike the rest of his kind it affects anyone he so much as touches. This made him feared and an outcast to his own kind.
  • Power Up Letdown: The Alicorn Amulet was created to match the power of the Alicorns. When Vile Rune tried to use it against Luna, she was still more powerful than him, and effortlessly defeated him before sending him off to Tartarus.
  • Priceless Paperweight: "The Quest of Redemption" reveals that the final piece of Princess Amore's statue, which is needed to fully restore her, was being used by some earth golems as a back-scratcher to scratch at some moss on places they couldn't reach. Sombra, Ruby, and Jaden try to steal the piece from them, but when they are cornered they convince them to trade it to them in exchange for Ruby making a much more impressive crystal back-scratcher for them.
  • Prophecy Twist: Throughout Jakhowls Rising a great prophecy is mentioned, which was foretold long ago by Crystal Clair's ancestor, who was Aurarora's most powerful seer. It was foretold of the eventual arrival of a jakhowl like no other, one that would "awaken a form greater than any other jakhowl, and would use it to defeat the greatest threat the jakhowls had ever faced and lead us into a golden age." For awhile, many of the jakhowls in Aurarora thought the prophecy was referring to Razor Fang, due to him having access to a Mega Mode, until it was revealed Springer had acquired his own Mega Mode a year before Razor did, with some assuming the "greatest threat" had already passed. However, it is eventually revealed Razor Fang himself is the greatest threat to the jakhowls, due to his obsession with leading them to a war against Equestria that would have killed them all, and in order to stop him, Springer unlocked a new form beyond his Mega Mode thanks to his bond with Ace and Mira.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Appropriately done by Puppy Spike. Sci-Twi uses this to guilt-trip Flash into giving her back her device she was using to track magic when he thought it was starting to get dangerous.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: There are a few times in War of The Lost City where members of Team Flash manage to win fights against the cultists but lose the overall match due to the cultists getting the orb first. This is shown in "The Trials of Teamwork" when Soarin and Cold work together to defeat Terror Card and Storm Blade, with Cold learning the importance of teamwork in the process, only for Tempera to get the orb before they can do anything else. Then in "All In The Cards" Trixie successfully defeats Terror Card, avenging her precious loss against her, only for Shadow Corrupter to defeat Ruby off-screen and claim the orb himself.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Rainbow slowly grows frustrated with Lightning Dust's attitude and disobedience but manages to stay calm. When Lightning asks why she should care she almost got Rainbow's friends killed because they aren't her friends, Rainbow finally snaps and slams into Lightning, pinning her down and screaming that caring about what happens to those around you is basic "ponanity".
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • Grand Hoof, as the oldest living Royal Knight he often acts as their leader and makes decisions for the group. He also took on Flash as his apprentice when he was just a child, despite having lived on the streets most of his life, because he saw great potential in him.
    • Soarin acts as one as second-in-command of the Wonderbolts. He is still perfectly friendly to those around him and is able to callout Spitfire when he knows that she is making a mistake.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Cold Steel gives one to Flash Sentry during their battle, telling him that he's always relied on others to win his battles, that he has little control over his power, and that he has no reasoning for becoming a Royal Knight.
  • Redemption Rejection: During a fight with Salix and Wingill, Flash believes they are only serving Shadow Corrupter out of fear of what he will do if they stand against him, and offers them to join him and the others, saying together they could beat Shadow before he has a chance to do anything to them and the princesses would happily welcome them to Equestria. The two cultists just laugh at him for his offer and say they don't serve Shadow Corrupter out of fear, they serve him because he lets them be who they really are and rescued them from their meaningless lives.
  • Related in the Adaptation:
    • Trixie mentions that her family line could be traced all the way back to Starswirl The Bearded.
    • It is eventually revealed that Flash Sentry and Scootaloo are long-lost siblings.
  • Rescue Romance: Soarin develops a crush on Rainbow Dash after she saves him and two of his teammates during The Best Young Flyers competition. Rainbow later develops her own crush on Soarin after hanging out with him.
  • Revenge Before Reason: When Iron Core learns that Longhorn, the killer of his parents, has escaped prison, he abandons his post in Ponyville without saying a word to anyone and heads to Dodge Junction, Longhorn's last known location, in an attempt to get his revenge on him. This leads to him fighting outnumbered against Longhorn's goons and getting curb-stomped against Longhorn himself due to having no backup and not being able to control his anger against him.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons:
    • Flash figured out that Twilight was jealous of Trixie and assured her she has nothing to be worry about. But he assumes she is jealous because Trixie is getting better with magic and is endangering Twilight's status as the princess's number one student, and assures her she is still great at magic and is now simply tied with Trixie. Twilight was actually jealous of Trixie getting close with Flash and was afraid what might happen if they started a relationship, and Flash's cluelessness to this angers not only her but Trixie as well.
    • Wild Smile pieces together that Pinkie Pie is keeping a secret and that it somehow involves babies. However, he comes to the conclusion that Pinkie is pregnant and he is the father, when actually it is Shining Armor and Cadance who are having a baby and Pinkie is trying to keep the surprise a secret.
  • Right-Hand Cat: When everyone discovers Pinkie's party cave, Wild welcomes them while stroking Gummy like a cat.
  • Road Apples: A Running Gag in "Plan Bee" was that every time the Student Six did the exercise prepared for Flash's Courage Class, Sandbar ends up accidentally stepping in a pile of cowpat. During the final time they do it, he finally manages to avoid the pile he stepped in the previous three times, only to end up accidentally stepping in a new pile when everyone is celebrating their sucess.
  • Running Gag: Twilight constantly tugs on Flash's ear with her magic throughout the series, usually when he annoys her or disagrees with her.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Played for Laughs; when Twilight worries about a warning she got from Future Twilight and eventually decides to stop time to prevent a disaster from happening, Iron Core immediately declares he's out and leaves the library.
  • Secret Relationship:
    • Flash believes that Shining Armor was trying to keep his relationship with Cadance a secret, though if that is the case it was a very bad one since literally everypony except Twilight knew about it before their wedding.
    • It is revealed in "Jakhowl-Day" that Rainbow Dash and Soarin have been in a relationship ever since Rainbow's time at the Wonderbolts Academy. They kept it secret because they didn't want everyone to think Rainbow was getting special treatment, but at the end of the chapter come clean about it to their friends after some encouragement from Springer.
  • Series Fic: The Flash Sentry Chronicles is a series that retells the events of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic in an Alternate Universe with Flash Sentry playing a main role. This story adapts all the seasons and movies and is currently on season 8.
  • Sequel Hook: At the end of Our Town when the Mane Seven return to Ponyville, Iron gives Flash a scroll that arrived for him while he was gone. The scroll is from Grand, saying Flash needs to come to the Crystal Empire for a test, and if he passes he'll finally become a Royal Knight.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot:
    • When Springer spies on Rainbow's home, to see if she is accidentally responsible for the explosion that happens in his Ground Hog Day Loop, and describes what he sees to Time Turner through his mic, he takes a closer look after seeing Rainbow let Soarin into her home. While spying in he describes where they are going to Time Turner until he becomes horrified at what he sees them doing, but declares they are both innocent. His comments later, and the reveal that Rainbow and Soarin were in a Secret Relationship and spent about two hours in her home alone together, imply Springer accidentally witnessed the two of them having sex.
    • After Flash and Twilight have their Love Confession and share their First Kiss, they both agree it felt nice and begin to make out again. As they make out, Twilight uses her magic to pull out the blankets she brought and Flash begins to unzip her jacket. The chapter then ends before anything else happens, but the way they talk to each other the next day, and Twilight's embarrassment when the girls and Cadance question her, more or less confirms that she and Flash had sex. It is later implied they did it again at the end of "Ramen, Rain and a Hint of Romance" when they return home after their first date and again when they start making out before Flash's mission in "The Lost City".
  • Shapeshifter Showdown: Hiveena and Chrysalis have one in "To Where and Back Again Part 2", when Hiveena challenges Chrysalis for her right to succession. Hiveena has the advantage throughout the fight, since even though Chrysalis is older and more experienced Hiveena can also copy the abilities of whatever she changes into, but Chrysalis plays dirty by targeting Thorax during the duel.
  • Ship Sinking:
    • The Spike and Rarity ship is thoroughly sunk as of "Spike's Heartbreak". It is also explained why they wouldn't have ever worked as a couple at all, such as their age difference and the two of them being two completely different species. Though they both agree to still be friends and resolve to treat each other better regardless.
    • The Sci-Twi and Timber Spruce ship in Legend of Everfree is sunk by the end of the story, since Sci-Twi has lost interest in Timber after he openly insulted Flash to her. Despite her losing interest though, Timber still thinks he has a chance, and is planning to wait for her and Flash to break up so he can swoop in and comfort her.
    • Fire Heart and Cozy Glow have some ship teasing moments throughout School's in Session and Season 8, with it being very clear that Heart has a crush on Cozy. But in "School Raze", the ship between them is officially sunk when Cozy betrays Heart and everyone else in the school with her plan to drain magic from Equestria. Despite Cozy's offer to Heart to join her so they can keep having fun and maybe even make him a King one day if they marry each other, Heart refuses to join her and betray his sister and friends. The ending has Heart left heartbroken by Cozy's betrayal.
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Princess Cadance has been trying to get Flash and Twilight together for years. It soon becomes clear that all of their friends want this to happen for them. Even the human counterparts of their friends immediately pick up that there is more to them than just friendship. Their friends eventually try to get them together by setting them up on a date when they are alone which almost works.
    • Once Rainbow's mom, Windy Whistles, meets Soarin and realizes how close he and Rainbow are she becomes ecstatic at her daughter dating a Wonderbolt and even begins fantasizing about their wedding, much to Rainbow's embarrassment.
    • Fluttershy mentions she always thought Lightning Blitz and Rarity would make a cute couple together but never spoke up about it. She finally voices her opinion after the two of them admit they are already in a relationship together.
    • Shining Soul comments how Thorax and Hiveena look cute together.
  • Ship Tease: There are plenty of moments between various couples throughout the series, as seen here.
  • Shoot the Hostage: When a thug holds Ruby at knifepoint trying to get Hiveena to stand down, Hiveena shoots Ruby with magic, causing the thug to drop her and gets him away from her.
  • Shout-Out: Many references to other series are made, enough to get its own page.
  • Shower of Love: Flash and Twilight apparently have one together at the start of Jakhowls Rising. When Springer realizes the two are showering together, Twilight claims they are just "conserving water".
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Flash does this to Shadow during their final battle in "Sacred Light Vs Corrupted Shadow: The Final Battle". When Shadow tries to once again boast about how he is the most powerful pony ever, Flash shuts him up right away by saying other villains before him have said the exact same thing, but he's helped defeat them all, so Shadow is nothing new to him. When Shadow tries to say afterwards that even if he somehow were to beat him, a new villain would take his place, and there will never be a world without evil in it so there is no point in resisting, and asks why should he continue a pointless fight. Flash immediately replies by saying he fights so others don't have to, and even if he can never complexity rid the world of evil, he can stop villains like Shadow from ruining innocent lives.
    Shadow: You can try, but no matter what you do, you'll never be able to defeat me. I am-
    Flash: The most powerful pony in the world. You're so great, strong and unbeatable...and full of horseapples! Yeah, like I haven't heard that a million times already. And not just from you. Everypony I've ever faced has spouted the same trash again and again, and yet you'll notice that I'm still here and they're all history. So forgive me if I hit the skip button on this little cutscene.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss:
    • Flash does this to Twilight when they get into a small argument over whether he should bring his sword with him on his map mission or not.
    • Lightning Blitz does this to Rarity in "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You" to silence her when she begins ranting about how she knew he wouldn't want to see her with her ruined mane.
    • Towards the end of "Nightmare Night", Applejack does this to Rogue, after he confesses his love for her and tells her it is okay if she doesn't feel the same way about him, cutting him off before he can finish.
  • Sick Episode: The subplot of "Fluttershy's Marvellous Episode" is Heart and Soul getting "the Horsey Hives" with Twilight and Starlight trying to cure them throughout the chapter. At the end of the chapter, Heart and Soul are cured but Flash ends up getting Horsey Hives himself, much to his dismay.
  • Simultaneous Arcs: Just like in canon, the finale to season 5 and the events of Friendship Games happen at the same time. Additionally, the events of War of the Lost City also take place at the same time as these, or at least the climax does.
  • Single-Stroke Battle:
    • Flash defeats Garble and his two goons this way in "Dragon Quest", rushing past them and beating them all with a single slash of his sword and the three of them falling after several seconds.
    • In "Seven on One: The War's End Part 2", Flash and Storm Blade do this at the end of their battle. They both clash blades with each other, causing an explosion in the process, and end with their backs to each other. Flash is the first to flinch, using his sword as a cane to balance himself, but Storm is unable to catch himself and falls to his knees before being eliminated.
  • Smooch of Victory: Rarity kisses Lightning Blitz on the cheek as thanks for how he saved her and her friends from an exploding crystal that would have destroyed Canterlot.
  • Sole Survivor: A flashback reveals that Cold Steel's village was attacked by bandits, and he was the only one who escaped.
  • Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot: Fittingly, the chapter "The Princess's Apprentice" has this for a plot, where Flash and Twilight tell the kids a story of how they tried to use a spell to clean a room out faster, but nearly flood the place. The moral of their story is that you need to learn to do your chores without relying on magic, because ultimately there are no shortcuts in life and trying to find one will make things worse overall.
  • Spot the Thread: When Flash is convincing Double Diamond that Starlight has lied to him and still has her cutie mark, he asks Double Diamond what Starlight's real cutie mark looks like, since it would be in the vault with all the others if she really removed it. Double Diamond remembers when his cutie mark was removed it was the fourth in the vault, but he was the fifth member of the village, which included Starlight.
  • The Stations of the Canon: The vast majority of events from canon still happen, it is just that with the addition of Flash and a few OCs some of them play out a little differently.
    • The main events from the series like Twilight moving to Ponyville, the discovery of the Elements of Harmony, the Royal Wedding, Twilight becoming and alicorn princess, and the various Big Bads appearing all still happen.
    • Chapter adaptations for episodes normally keep the vast majority of the plot the same, and any episodes that are not adapted are implied to have stayed completely the same off-screen.
  • Suicide Attack: Silverbolt knows one, claiming it was one of the first spells he learned. It turns his soul into a conduit that elements use to create a seal for a prison, which can seal another dragon away forever. He uses it to seal away Malafear's rampaging body, after Malafear's soul had been sealed away in one of Starswirl's journals.
  • Suddenly Speaking: Springer spent all of Season 1 voiceless, with only Flash able to understand him and needing to translate what he said to the others. In Season 2 though, after a training exercise with Flash he is finally able to speak properly and can now communicate with everyone around him.
  • Super Mode:
    • After training to use the Theta State, a meditation technique that only lasts a few seconds but allows the users senses and instincts to be heightened to the point everything around them is moving in slow motion, throughout Season 2, Flash eventually manages to find a way to enter it at will and have it last as long as he wants, thus dubbing it the "Theta Mode." Flash later gains another form due to his mysterious powers. When pushed to his limits he gains a mysterious suit of armor, allowing him to easily turn a pack of Timberwolves to toothpicks and easily knock out Iron, Lightning, and Soarin in a three on one fight.
    • Both Jakhowls and Tricksters have "battle forms", which is essentially what their adult forms look like, allowing them to grow taller and doubles their power. It takes massive amounts of aura in order to achieve this form but after proper training it becomes their default mode instead of their smaller standard forms. Shade managed to achieve his battle form after going through Doom Raizer's experiments, but Springer managed to achieve his battle form naturally.
      • Springer later gains another form when he is powered up by the Rainbow Power from his friends in The Forgotten Darkness, which resembles the Mega Evolution of Lucario.
    • Iron Core's Celestic Gear changes when he decides to stop fighting for revenge and instead to protect everyone he loves. His gear gains the ability to change from its regular spear form to a set of armor, complete with spikes that can be shot and a spearhead on his tail that can change into different weapons.
  • Synchronous Episodes:
    • In "Set Me On Fire", Flash and Lightning are summoned to go on a mission and he leaves Fire Heart to train with Grand Hoof while he is gone. While the chapter focuses on Heart's training, and Flash and Lightning return by the end, the following chapter "Amber Alert" shows the mission Flash and Lightning were on while Heart and Grand were training together.
    • "Heart and Jaden's Big Adventure" follows the two colts as they are sent on a quest by their mentors as a test for their training, with the opening scene explaining Spike, Rarity, and Lightning are in the Dragon Lands to gather phoenix feathers. "Molt Down" shows what was happening in Ponyville while Heart and Jaden were on their adventure, with all the parties meeting up again at the end.
  • Take That!:
    • At the author's note of "To Where and Back Again Part 2", Banshee531 refers My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree as "the legend that should never have been written".
    • In "The Seal", Luna tells Celestia about how they would sit on the sidelines while others were forced to handle the bad stuff, which is throwing shade at Hasbro for their treatment toward them in the show.
    • Shroudheart mentions some of the alternate realities he saw, including one that involved caribou. It references the notorious Fall of Equestria dark fanfictions, whose contents disturb even a sadistic villain like Shroudheart.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Sunset forces a deep kiss on Flash, stunning him. She mocks him for having stole his First Kiss and mockingly flirts with him while he's stunned silent, offering him a second kiss. When he regains his senses and refuses she responds by kneeing him in the groin and laughing at his pain.
  • Taken for Granite: Gorgenia has a forbidden spell that allows her to turn anyone she makes direct eye contact with to stone, if she knows what it is she is turning to stone. She uses this spell to turn the Mane 6 and Cadance to stone and later does the same to Shining Armor. But, the spell is only temporary on Cadance since she was not always an alicorn, she was originally a pegasus, and once Gorgenia is defeated the effects of the spell reverse and return everyone to normal.
  • The Talk: Applejack mentions she has not given this to Apple Bloom yet, and states she can't leave it to Big Mac and Granny Smith because of The 'Grape Family Incident.
  • Taught by Experience: Shade says that Tricksters, despite their violent tendencies, love knowledge, especially history. They look at the past mistakes of other Tricksters to better themselves.
  • Team-Based Tournament: The main premise of War of the Lost City essentially acts as one of these. Team Flash and the Cult of Shadow were both summoned to the Lost City of Faust by the same unknown force. Upon both teams arriving, and Team Flash being joined by Fire Heart and Shining Soul, they are separated into two giant castles on opposite sides of the city, and the mysterious force then forces them to compete in three-on-three fights chosen at random, with the winner of each fight being whoever retrieves a hidden glowing orb first. From there, it is an all out war between the two teams, with them slowly learning the secrets of the city. The climax of the story eventually has the leaders of both teams, Flash and Shadow, respectively fighting the members of every other member of the opposing team all at once, and then one final match between the two of them to decide the ultimate winner.
  • Teasing the Substitute Teacher: Gallus initially does this to Wild Smile when Wild substitutes for Pinkie Pie while she is away in "Yakity-Sax".
  • Tell Me About My Father: At the end of The Forgotten Darkness after Springer learns that he is the son of Sharp Paw and Clear Paw, he asks Princess Luna and Ruby Scarlet, the only two ponies who knew the two of them personally, if they can tell him more about them someday. They both happily agree to.
  • That Man Is Dead: Downplayed, after Flash learns that is real name is Flash Relic he chooses to keep going by the name Flash Sentry since that is who he is now and he still doesn't know everything about his past.
    Flash: I think I'd prefer to remain Flash Sentry, I'm pretty sure that's who I am today, not Flash Relic. After all, I was just looking for answers to who I was, but I still don't have them. Until then...I think Flash Relic will stay there, lost to that fire all those years ago.
    • Played Straight when Flash yells at his birth parents, Trail Blazer and Misty Veil, to not call him Flash Relic, saying Flash Relic died when the orphanage they left him at burned down.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Grand Hoof insists that Flash Sentry needs to find his reasoning for becoming a Royal Knight on his own despite his friends' and family's protest.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The group of ponies that Shadow Corrupter hired to help him find a temple when he was 15 years old. He promised them they could have anything in the temple, other than the mask he was after, which they assume is treasure, and feel cheated when there is nothing but books beside the mask. They try to steal the mask from Shadow out of anger, believing it must be worth something, despite seeing his body is covered in scars already and witnessed his magic themselves on the journey to the temple. This results in all of them being quickly killed by Shadow Corrupter, excpet for the leader of the group who Shadow leaves alive just so he can make him the first host of Armalum.
  • Tournament Arc: War of the Lost City has Flash's team and the Cult of Shadow brought to the Lost City of Faust, where some unknown force makes the two of them fight in battles as part of a "game". In "Genesis", it is revealed that the god Faust summoned both teams to the city because she knew that Flash and Shadow were destined to clash one day regardless of her intervention or not and the resulting clash would be devastating to the land and innocent lives around them, so she summoned them to the city where nobody else could get hurt and had them bring the rest of their teams to prevent the two of them from directly fighting each other while also observing the effect the two of them had on their respective teams. The winner of this game would be allowed to keep their powers, while the loser would have theirs sealed away. Flash wins the final battle against Shadow, and when Shadow tries to steal Faust's power, she removes the Corrupted Shadow from him completely instead of just sealing it away.
  • Two Girls to a Team:
    • The Royal Knights only have two current female members, Heather Bloom and Ruby Scarlet.
    • The team chosen to travel to the Lost City of Faust includes Trixie and Ruby.
    • The cult serving Shadow Corrupter has Tempera and Terror Card.
  • Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Before the battle in "Seven on One: The War's End Part 1", while both teams are gathered in their respective map rooms, the scene constantly switches between both teams as they discuss what might happen next and as their gathered orbs begin reacting.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: This is the main conflict of Jakhowls Rising, when Razor Fang murders Sirius, and frames the ponies and Springer as the culprits, so that he can declare himself the new leader, since he believes he is destined to lead Aurarora into a golden age due to a prophecy. However, his first order is to have every Jakhowl prepare for war with Equestria, due to his misguided belief the ponies are their enemies, which would have resulted in his entire tribe being wiped out.
  • Uncertain Doom:
    • In "A Flash of Darkness" the evil version of Flash from a different timeline is pushed back through the time tunnel by Twilight and Starlight, as they travel to the past to set everything right. Twilight acknowledges they can't be sure what actually happened to him. He may have gone back to his own time, got stuck somewhere between the past and the Present, or may show up again sometime in the near to far future.
    • In "A New Day Dawns" Shadow Corrupter tries to drain Faust of her magic for himself, unable to accept that he lost to Flash and refusing to let Faust seal his Corrupted Shadow powers forever. Faust easily overpowers him though, and as punishment she removes the Corrupted Shadow from him entirely instead of just sealing it away, a process that she previously claimed could be fatal. She teleports him away before she and Flash can see the result of this, leaving his final fate a mystery, but Faust assures Flash even if Shadow survived the process he will be crippled for life. This also applies to Armalum, since he attached himself to Shadow to give Shadow a power boost, and was teleported out of the city with Shadow instead of being mind wipeed like the other cultists, leaving his fate unknown too.
  • The Unreveal: In "Applejack's Day Off" Flash asks Applejack why she keeps pigs on the farm and what purpose they serve. Right as Applejack is about to explain though, the scene transitions to hours later after everyone has helped Applejack with her chores, leaving the answer a mystery.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It was revealed in The Forgotten Darkness that when Flash destroyed the Alicorn Amulet during his battle with Lightning during the Battle of Canterlot, he unknowingly released Shade from the amulet, eventually leading him to torment Springer and complete the mission given to him by Dark Mist.
  • Vagueness Is Coming:
    • Misty Veil's final vision involves an armored stallion with wings and a horn.
    • In the last chapter of The Forgotten Darkness, Shade warns that a shadow is coming to consume Equestria, and that he's going to sit this one out.
  • Valentine's Day Episodes:
    • "Hearts and Hooves Day" shows several members of the Mane 7 each spending time with their love interests on the titled holiday.
    • "The Break Up Breakdown" has Fire Heart observing the Mane 7 on Hearts and Hooves Day, seeing what romantic things they are doing together so he can understand why love is so important, and discover the various forms of love.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Sunset openly flirts with Flash in the human world, even forcing a surprise kiss on him and asking him if he wants a second one while he's flustered, and telling him she'll make it up to him for framing him and Twilight by letting him take her out on a date sometime. Downplayed as Sunset is not actually in love with him and makes it clear she only wants him around to act as a boy toy.
  • Villainous Crush: Sonata develops a crush on Flash immediately after seeing him, drooling a bit at him and giving him suggestive looks. Adagio invites Flash to join them when they are done because of Sonata's crush on him, but when Flash turns down the offer Sonata pouts before teasing Flash that he "just missed out."
  • Villainous Legacy: Dark Mist, the leader of the Tricksters in the past. Although he is long gone in the Present it is revealed that his actions led to the near genocide of both the Jakhowls and the Tricksters when he ended up sacrificing both races for the creation of the Alicorn Amulet. He also intrusted a young Shade with the mission to kill any Jakhowls that survive this, which Shade declares he will complete in the Present by killing Springer.
  • Villain Team-Up: At the end of "Shadow Play Part 1", Void proposes one to The Pony of Shadows, recognizing they have a common enemy in Flash Sentry, which The Pony of Shadows accepts.
  • Virtual Training Simulation: Twilight's new castle has a room that acts as one of these. The training hall has a crystal that, when touched, could create solid illusions of whatever the one touching it imagines. Flash and the other Defenders love the room since it lets them train anywhere, becoming their favorite place in the castle and replacing their old training grounds.
  • Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Wolf, the leader of the Crimson Masquerade Gang, saved Double Take from a life on the streets and expects him to repay this act by joining his criminal gang and giving him his Undying Loyalty.
  • We Can Rule Together: Sombra offers his childhood friend Ruby Scarlet a chance to rule by his side as his queen, which she refuses.
  • Wedding Episode:
    • The series adapts the wedding episodes from the canon show, "A Canterlot Wedding" and "Slice of Life", but changes some events in them and offers new perspectives.
    • The final scene in "Viva Las Pegasus" skips to Soarin and Rainbow's wedding in Ponyville, after he spent the entire chapter preparing to propose to her.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Trixie's father is a teacher Manehatten Institute for Magical Learning, which has a very high standard for students. Trixie attended for awhile but dropped out when she couldn't keep up with the standards due to her average magic, disappointing her father. So she travels Equestria with her show and boasts about herself to get praise from others to make up for her father never giving her any.
  • We Will Meet Again: After Spitfire expels Lightning Dust from the Wonderbolts Academy, Lightning vows she'll have revenge on Rainbow one day.
    Lightning Dust: I'll get you back for this Rainbow Dash. One day...one day, you'll pay.
  • Wham Episode:
    • The Forgotten Darkness as a whole counts as one. Showing what happened to the Jakhowls and Tricksters of the past, the creation of the Alicorn Amulet, Springer getting a new form, and finally confirming that Springer is the offspring of Sharp Paw, the leader of the Jakhowls of the past.
    • In the ending for Our Town, Flash Sentry gets a scroll from Grand Hoof, calling him to the Crystal Empire for a test, and that if he passes, he'll finally become a Royal Knight.
    • Chapter 2 for The Knight of Friendship finally reveals the circumstances behind Flash Sentry's birth as well the source of his mysterious power, the origins of life in the world, and how Discord came into being.
    • From season 5, "The Day Flash Sentry Died": this is the closest that Flash has ever come to dying. After he saves Scootaloo from a mysterious flower called the Flos-Mortem in the Ponyville Park, he gets a full blast of its pollen and suffers a Dying Dream that not even the Sacred Light can save him from. Even though his friends save him at the last second with a remedy from a rare plant called the Golden Acanthus, the fact that the Flos-Mortem came close to killing Flash all but heavily implies that its a creation of the Sacred Light's polar opposite, the Corrupted Shadow.
    • Also from season 5, "The Lost City": Flash sees a vision from the Sacred Light in his dream, showing him the Lost City of Faust, the original home of the alicorns. After discussing his vision with the rest of the Mane 7, the Royal Knights, and the princesses, it is agreed that Flash will go to the city and find out what the Sacred Light was trying to tell him, but he will only bring the ones he saw with him in his vision: Springer, Soarin, Trixie, Ruby, and Cold. Meanwhile, all the members of the mysterious cult Cold Steel has been investigating are finally revealed, including their master Shadow Corrupter, and they begin to make their way to the city too. This all sets up for the next original story, War of the Lost City.
    • "The Trial of Flash Sentry" is this for Season 6: we learned the bugs that bit the Royal Knights were gathering their DNA for the mastermind who has been creating their clones and using the Corrupted Shadow as the source.
    • Early in Season 8, "Viva Las Pegasus" has Rainbow Dash and Soarin getting married.
  • Wham Line:
    • Defender of the Peace S2: In the chapter "Into the Forest", Scootaloo is attacked by a unusually large Scorpentine, and by the time Flash and the others extract its venom to create an antidote they arrive too late as the venom had already infected too much of her blood, which required a blood transfusion in order for the antidote to work. Flash Sentry tells her that he had the same blood type as she did, and that the only way for them to have such a similar blood type was because they were related.
    Flash Sentry: You're my sister.
    • The Forgotten Darkness: When Flash Sentry and the girls go to confront Celestia and Luna about the history of the jackhowls and the tricksters after defeating Shade, Luna reveals that she doesn't remember any of it. Its not until Celestia does a scan on her brain does she find out why she can't remember:
    Celestia: I... think I found what's preventing your memories. You have a magic seal in your brain Luna.
    • Our Town: After escaping the town, and returning to Ponyville, Flash Sentry is given a scroll to him by Iron Core from Grand Hoof that leaves him stunned:
    Twilight Sparkle: Let's see...it says Flash is to come so he can be tested, and should he pass-
    Rainbow Dash: What? Ponies have got to start finishing their sentences.
    Twilight Sparkle: If Flash passes this test...
    Flash Sentry: I'll... I'll finally be a Royal Knight.
    • The Knight of Friendship: In Chapter 2, Misty Veil and Trail Blazer show everypony some scriptures they wrote with runes that they found in an ancient temple dedicated to the Alicorns. However, nopony is able to read the runes as Script's translation spell wasn't able to decipher them, until Flash looks at them:
    Flash Sentry: Great, just great. The one chance I have at learning what's up with me and I can't because... I can read this.
    • In "The Cutie Remark", as Twilight was chasing Starlight across time, a mysterious figure had been following them, and unbeknownst to them, was going around the different timelines, killing their versions of Flash Sentry. When the figure finally confronts them, the figure's identity is revealed:
    "In every future, every timeline...Flash Sentry is a pony who stands for justice, courage and protecting others. Every future...except one." he reached for his mask, swiping it off with his hoof in one swift motion, "MINE!"
    Everypony gasped at the sight. Staring down at them was Flash, but different in every way. His coat was bleach gray, face covered in scars and his still blue mane was cut so short you could barely notice it. But the most noticeable change was his eyes. Gone were the sky blue eyes that constantly burnt with courage and determination, and were instead bright red with green instead of white.
    • In War for the Lost City, the chapter "Ruby's Rage" reveals a secret that Shining Soul and Fire Heart had been trying to hide from everyone:
    "No way," Flash gasped, closing one of his eyes as he knew it had to be his injuries. "This... can't be real." His words mumbled in his mouth as he saw the jumper burn away... to reveal a pair of silver wings. "Soul's... an alicorn?"
    • In "Gauntlet of Fire", When Heart ask Flicker to do the Dragon Mail ability like Spike does, Flicker reveals he and the entire dragons don't have that ability.
    Flicker: Dragon....mail?
    Fire Heart Yeah! Spike does it all the time, He uses his breath to burn something, and the ashes fly to whoever he wants. When they get there, they turn back to the thing he burnt. Beat You can't do that?
    Flicker: No. Heck, I don't know any dragon who can do that, Your friend Spike is a very curious dragon, especially if he can do something like that.
    • In "The Next Generation of Aura", Springer receives a scroll from Celestia and he says only one word after reading it.
    Springer: Shade...
    • In "The Trial of Flash Sentry", Flash realizes the power source of Mecha-Flash after he was unable to touch it while others have no problem of touching it.
    Flash Sentry: I've seen it before. The only thing on this planet that can give life to something so powerful, heal it, and give it the power to nullify and absorb my Sacred Light." He turned to the others with a scowl, "It's Corrupted Shadow.
    • In Chapter 2 of "Dragon's Awakening", Malafear, who possessed Flicker, drop a bombshell on Spike.
    Malafear: I knew it, You may have changed your appearance, but that power is something I'll never forget! You won't stop me this time...Silverbolt.
    • In Chapter 6 of The Movie, Void reveals his true identity to Flash, Twilight and The Twins.
    Flash Sentry: Shadow…
  • Wham Shot: In "Seven On One: War's End Part 1", after Cold Steel, Fire Heart, and Ruby Scarlet have been defeated by Shadow Corruptor, Sombra heads to the recovery room to check up on them... only to find it empty.
  • What If?:
    • The events from the tv show and movies are retold with Flash Sentry now playing a main role.
    • "Wonderbolt Academy" is retold with Soarin being present at the academy.
    • "Hard To Say Anything" is retold with Rogue present when Big Mac and the CMC travel to Starlight's old village.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Twilight Velvet calls Misty Veil and Trail Blazer out on leaving Flash Sentry off at the orphanage. Even when they explain themselves, she still doesn't forgive them for what she sees as giving away their children.
    • Cold Steel tears Grand Hoof a new one after he defeats Flash Sentry in their battle. Saying that he disgraced the Royal Knights for taking in someone as unworthy as Flash Sentry.
  • Whole Episode Flashback:
    • The entirety of Grand Hoof: The Legend Begins takes place in the past, prior to the start of the series, showing Grand's origins and rise to becoming a Royal Knight, as well as several events that had previously only been alluded to.
    • "The Princess's Apprentice" takes place during Flash and Twilight's childhood.
  • Whole-Plot Reference:
    • Confirmed by Word of God, The Forgotten Darkness serves as one to the final arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. The characters all experience a Pensieve Flashback, experiencing events from the ancient past but are unable to touch or talk to anyone they see, and it is eventually revealed that everything they are seeing are actually part of a "game" being played between The Hero and his Arch Enenmy. invoked
    • The flashback in "The Princess's Apprentice" is one for Fantasia, specifically the The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment. Twilight and Flash try to use a spell to get cleaning done faster, only for it to go out of control and flood the entire room, until Celestia manages to fix it.
  • Woman Scorned: Played for Laughs; after Twilight and Trixie realize that Flash is completely oblivious to both of them having feelings for him, they both respond by angrily beating him to a pulp, despite Twilight finally beginning to realize her feelings for him and Trixie having made plans to ask him out.
  • Written by the Winners:
    • The final chapter of The Forgotten Darkness has Luna telling Shade that now that the Jakhowls and Tricksters have returned it is her duty to add them back into the history books, and she plans to make sure the leader of the Tricksters, Dark Mist, who Shade idolizes as the greatest Trickster ever, is remembered as the dumbest Trickster who ever lived, who nearly killed both races due to his own stupidity. She also plans to make the Jakhowls triumph against the Tricksters so great that everyone will wonder why the Tricksters even bothered to try.
    • This is involved by Flash and the others during "Reinforcments from the Future" to make sure history isn't changed. After realizing the Fire Heart from the future wasn't told about any of these events from his own Flash, and just knows about the conference from history books, Flash and the others realize they can change anything about the conference as long as nobody outside of it learns about Tragus or what they do to stop him. They just report everything exactly the way that the Future Fire Heart says it happened.
  • X-Ray Sparks: This happens to Shade when Springer throws him into his own machine to destroy it.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
    • Soarin assures Rainbow Dash that she is going to be a great leader, when she starts to feel pressure from the position. He says that he felt the same way when he first became a lead pony, and he turned out just fine, and Rainbow is already ten times the leader he ever was. This reassurance leads to the two of them sharing a kiss, and becoming a couple.
    • A flashback showed Princess Luna reassure Trixie about her skills and position as her student when Trixie questions her own abilities.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: Flash throws insults and taunts at his enemies enough it would make even Spider-Man proud.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Flash says this when he sees Rainbow Dash faking being injured in "Rainbow Falls."
  • Your Days Are Numbered: During "Reinforcements from the Future", Flash learns from the future version of Fire Heart that at some point in the future, Flash will die saving every single kingdom. Flash seems to accept this fate at first, but by the end he swears to himself that he is going to survive.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: Malafear can absorb the souls of other dragons to steal their elemental powers.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: Flash and Twilight both stress themselves when trying to prepare for their first official date. After they both calm down and try to forget about it for a day, they end up going on a date together without actually realizing it was a date until it was over.

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