YMMV / The Flash Sentry Chronicles

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Why did the Tree of Harmony spare Mean Flash while destroying his other counterparts? Was it because it recognized him as the least malicious of the Mean Seven and figured he didn't deserve as harsh of a punishment? Because it considered him so pathetic he wasn't worth the energy or attention to destroy? Or was it because it predicted Mean Flash would pulling a Heel–Face Turn and being a great help to Equestria in the future?
• Arc Fatigue: In "The Path to Darkness," Flash and Company express frustration over the mystery of why they were summoned to the Lost City of Faust, and why they were forced to play a game with the Cult of Shadow. A number of readers agree with them, that the mystery is dragging out for too long, and express similar frustrations as well. It hasn't helped that the overall story arc is set to be the longest by far (25 chapters long), occasionally has single battles stretched out to two chapters, and set up a draw at the supposed final battle to prolong the story even more, which has slowed down the pacing of the story.
• Ass Pull: In "The Picture of One’s Life", the last orb getting split in half, and reforming into two complete orbs, causing both teams to draw is seen as a contrivance by some readers.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Hiveena is a rather contiguous character among readers. There are some who are not convinced that she has truly made a Heel–Face Turn, and think that she plans on backstabbing the heroes. They also find her relationship with Thorax to be dull and boring at best, or outright controlling at worse. They also accuse Hiveena of taking away Thorax’s uniqueness. Others however, believe that her Heel–Face Turn is genuine, and hope to see her fight along the heroes against Chrysalis. They also find her relationship with Thorax to be sweet and heartwarming, and don’t see her taking away Thorax’s uniqueness.
  • Tempera is seen by some as the least interesting of the members of the Cult of Shadow due to her obsession with Shadow Corrupter. Her backstory didn’t win her any sympathy with her detractors because of how her motivations were due to coming from a loveless family. There are some who still find her as an interesting character due to her art-based magic and wonder why she is obsessed with Shadow. While some still don’t like her, they did sympathize with Tempera when her backstory was revealed.
• Broken Base: War of the Lost City has the most divided opinions among readers. Some fans have found it dull and suffering from Arc Fatigue, believing it to have dragged on for too long with more questions and not enough answers, and believe the battles to be dull and predictable at best or boring at worst. Others however have stated to have no problems with it and believe the battles to be just as fun and entertaining as the rest of the series, and express enjoyment in seeing some of the supporting characters having a chance in the spotlight and getting an interesting group of villains to oppose them.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The last chapter of The Forgotten Darkness reveals that the egg that held the child of Sharp Paw and Calm Paw was actually Springer. Everyone acts like this is a major development, but it can be guessed as soon as the egg first appears and Luna casts her spell on it to protect it.
  • Prior to its proper reveal in Dragon's Awakening, many readers correctly guessed that Malafear was creating dragons corresponding to the elements of the Royal Knights he's captured, though few guessed how Malafear was creating these dragons.
  • By Bomber's second appearance, several readers had correctly guessed that Center Stage was a Red Herring for his identity and that he was actually Number Cruncher all along.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After being a Karma Houdini across multiple stories in this series, seeing Springer lay a beatdown on Shade is equally hilarious and satisfying. Him kicking Shade in the groin cements the deal.
  • Trixie defeating Terror Card in their second match after her previous defeat against her the first time around is seen as very satisfying by readers.
  • Some readers have also expressed satisfaction with Shining Soul unleashing her full power on Shadow Corrupter, who had been creepily stalking her throughout their first battle together and pretty much been a Karma Houdini up to that point.
  • Readers found it immensely satisfying to see that karma is still collecting its due from Shadow Corrupter when Springer defeats him with his Mega Form even after Shadow had gotten his powers back.
  • After getting defeated numerous times, Soarin winning on his own against Wingill and Terror Card in "A Thief’s Tale" by unlocking the Theta Mode was seen as incredibly satisfying for readers.
  • Shadow Corrupter getting his much needed comeuppance when he tries to steal Faust’s power after losing to Flash is seen as immensely satisfying by the readers.
• Complete Monster: Dark Mist is the brutal leader of the Tricksters and the Arch-Enemy to Sharp Paw and the Jakhowls. Wishing to spread chaos throughout Equestria, he raids villages to either enslave or burn them down to exterminate the population, garnering a body count of 100 ponies. When he mind controls one such village, he orders his servants to attack the guards sent to stop him and raze the village to kill everyone present. He later helps create the Alicorn Amulet to strengthen the Tricksters and all them to wipe out the Jakhowls, even when warned that the rune magic associated with the amulet could kill the Tricksters as well. With his tribe, he formally challenges to the Jakhowls to a final battle, threatening to kill Sharp Paw's wife, Calm Paw, if he refuses. When the battle commences, he orders his Tricksters to slaughter as many Jakhowls as they can and tries to kill Sharp Paw himself. When facing defeat, he activates a rune that results in the extinction of both the Jakhowls and Tricksters, maniacally laughing at satiating his hatred for the Jakhowls. A depraved creature who created destruction for his own amusement, Dark Mist stands out as one of the greatest monsters in Equestrian history.
• Continuity Lock-Out: Even disregarding the status quo changes that occur in the show's canon, this fanfic series introduces more major changes that are either present or referenced throughout its stories, including the Heel–Face Turn of Lighting Blitz, the nature of the Sacred Light, and the sibling relationship between Flash Sentry and Scootaloo. Given that this series is over 2.6 million words and counting, newcomers have much to read before they can catch up.
• Designated Villain: Timber Spruce is derided by nearly every other character as a Jerk Jock whose meant to be the villain in the Love Triangle between himself, Flash, and Sci-Twi. However, there are moments where the hatred can be undeserved. For one, his first chapter has him assign tents to the campers and tell Bulk Biceps that he got one of the worst assignments before casually revealing it was a joke, which was intended to be an Establishing Character Moment for his careless, mean-spirited attitude, but it didn't seem to be any worse or harmful than the usual lighthearted ribbing that the protagonists do. In general, Flash treats him with suspicion and apprehension for flirting with Sci-Twi, even though it's shown to be mutually consensual and he doesn't intentionally do anything malicious to him, until Flash angrily confronts him about Sci-Twi and directly initiates the argument. While Timber does sleazily try to separate Sci-Twi from Flash and gets rightfully called out for it, this only happens much later after Flash had already begun to despise him, so his early hatred can come off as irrational and only vindicated by coincidence.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The author seemingly braced for Ruby Scarlet to be a Base-Breaking Character, given that he acknowledges her as a divisive character in one of his blog posts, but funnily enough, she's actually been largely well-received by readers.
  • Although he was just intended to be a one-shot character, Owl/Double Take received a lot of attention for his sympathetic backstory and heartwarming friendship with Iron Core, with many hoping that he'll return again.
  • Number Cruncher was well-liked for his role in rescuing Grand Hoof and for standing up against Center Stage, which makes it all the more disappointing when it's revealed that he was Bomber all along.
  • Camera Trap is well-liked as one of the more memorable one-shot villains for the creepy atmosphere he sets with his crimes, his character development from interacting with Soul, and his tragic demise at the end.
• Evil Is Cool: Evil Flash, largely due to how he’s Flash Sentry’s evil counterpart, and because of how he managed to actually conquer his Equestria after his Sombra’s Assimilation Backfire.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Flash temporarily "dies" in Our Town after taking a bite out of one of Sugar Belle's muffins. His spirit starts leaving his body, only for Pinkie to vacuum it up and put it back in his body, with Flash even telling Twilight her dead goldfish say hi. This is all Played for Laughs before the story starts to get serious. This moment become less funny when Flash nearly dies for real in "The Day Flash Sentry Died", where the whole situation is taken very seriously with little to no jokes.
  • In The Equestria Games, Spike complained about Springer having his own arch-enemy since it made him more of a hero than him. He finally got his wish in Dragon's Awakening when Malafear appeared and he's even worse than any villains. Springer even warned him that having an arch-enemy sucks. Be Careful What You Wish For, Spike.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This fic has Flash Sentry represent the Element of Courage, but Season 7 of MLP reveals that another pony bears the Element of Bravery, which is more or less the same. Even more, his name is Flash Magnus, who bears a striking resemblence to Sentry sans the armor.
  • When Scootaloo's canon parents, Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood, finally appear in Season 9 it is revealed they have nearly the same job as her and Flash's OC parents, Trail Blazer and Misty Veil.
  • In this series, Pinkie Pie says she prefers to date Wild Smile instead of Cheese Sandwich, because she doesn't want to date a carbon copy of herself, mirroring Banshee531's thoughts on the ship. Then in the canon series finale it is revealed Pinkie ended up marrying Cheese and having a kid with him.
• Ho Yay: Solid Script’s friendship towards Lightning Blitz becomes this in “Following the Grand Script”, due to him perceiving Lightning’s exile as Grand trying to keep the two of them separated.
• Informed Wrongness: The chapter "Bats!" suffers this same problem as the canon episode. Several OC characters, like Iron Core, Springer, and Lightning Blitz, protest that the most of the Mane Seven's peer pressure for Fluttershy to use the Stare on the vampire fruit bats is no different than Discord mind controlling ponies. However, as Twilight points out, they're not really equivalent because the former is going to benefit the Apple family and the latter was done out of pure malice, but Iron's later thoughts narratively portray the argument as wrong anyways. They also complain that driving away the bats will just cause them to wreak havoc on another pony's farm, which doesn't appear to hold up either because Twilight's spell is going to stop them from draining apples altogether and the bats are never shown feasting on other crops to validate the concern. It also doesn't help that Applejack's complaints about pest control from the canon episode are still fairly valid here.
• Like You Would Really Do It: At the end of the chapter "Malafear's Restoration", Spike attempts a Heroic Sacrifice to seal Malafear away for good with a Suicide Attack like his father did. Many readers expressed doubt that Spike would actually die, considering he is a major character in canon. Their doubts were proven correct in the following chapter, when Spike survived thanks to the soul of Silverbolt inside him protecting him.
• Love to Hate:
  • Shade. Despite the fact that his plan is to eliminate the last of the Jackhowls, i.e. Springer, a number of readers have found him to be quite a compelling villain compared to the others.
  • Evil Flash only appeared in the final two chapters of season 5 and is unlikely to return due to his Uncertain Doom fate. Despite this, his Evil Is Cool nature and surprisingly intimidating presence made him one of the most popular OC villains of this series, in which some have hoped that he'll fight the main universe Flash at some point.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Shade crosses it when he threatens to kill a young filly and destroy all of Appleloosa to get Springer into fighting him, especially when he tries to go through with this after being beaten.
  • Dark Mist crosses this when he signals Vile Rune to start the ritual that would wipe out the Jakhowls, despite knowing that said ritual would wipe out the Tricksters themselves in the process.
  • The cult as a whole crosses it when they attack Shining Soul after she’s chosen to fight for Team Flash despite the fact that she’s only a filly. When its revealed that she’s an alicorn, Shadow Corruptor immediately decides to go after her himself, just so that he can steal her power.
  • Shadow Corruptor’s parents manage to be even more depraved than he is when its revealed that they groomed him to be part of a sacrificial ritual for thirteen years so that he would serve as the vessel for the Corrupted Shadow.
  • Storm Blade, another member of the cult, crosses it on a personal note when it is revealed that he was the one who murdered Noble Banner, despite the two of them being friends, to steal the Celestic Gear that was intended for Noble for himself.
  • Hard Sell crosses it when he tried to stab Flurry Heart while she's sleeping.
  • Malafear crosses it when he killed Fira in front of Silverbolt and Spike, especially she happens to be Spike's mother.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Solid Script received plenty of vitriol for his stubborn refusal to stop resenting Grand Hoof in "Following the Grand Script," but this was later rectified when he puts his apprehension aside to save Grand's life in "Birthday Battle Blitz" and finally drop the hatchet with him, which a lot of readers agree was for the best.
• Squick: Twilight's family adopts Flash Sentry and later falls in love with/has Ship Tease moments with Twilight Sparkle...his adoptive sister. Needless to say, a few readers were creeped out by this. Word of God has tried to mitigate this by claiming that Flash wasn't "adopted", rather "fostered" and that any mentions of him being adopted were merely errors that were left in during the editing process.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • In "Rarity Investigates," Wind Rider accuses of Soarin being biased towards keeping Rainbow Dash on the Wonderbolts because of their relationship together. While he admittedly doesn't provide any hard evidence to prove his claims, he is right that their relationship could be detrimental. Workplaces tend to look down upon fraternization because it can create favoritism within the workplace and lead fraternizing workers to exclude others, disrupting work performance. The Wonderbolt directors (Status, Azure, and Afterburn) make similar complaints in "Newbie Dash" and, while still lacking hard evidence, have pretty legitimate reasons to be suspicious.
  • At one point, Chancellor Neighsay makes an off-hand comment about the Storm King's relatively easy invasion of Canterlot and the need for Equestria's allies to beat back his forces, blaming it on the incompetence of the Equestrian military and the Royal Knights. His snide tone and Flash's frown is supposed to establish his characterization as an overbearing bureaucrat who is ungrateful about the heroes' efforts to save Equestria, but there is validity in his central point. The Storm King's army effortlessly captured most of the heroes in their invasion and Void was dangerously close to threatening the entire world, which wouldn't have happened if there was greater vigilance against it. It's not a one-time instance either; the Equestrian military is just as laughably incompetent as in the canon series, rarely doing anything of substance in the series and often leaving it to the heroes to solve the crisis instead. While the Royal Knights have a far more successful track record, they have a consistent weakness of getting ambushed and taken out throughout the series, in which it's fortunate that the culprit grabs the Villain Ball rather than kill them right then and there. While having reliable allies is good, Neighsay has a point that Equestria also needs to defend itself in case those allies don't come in handy.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Snips and Snails get hit with this several times:
  • In this fanfic series' version of "Slice of Life", Snips and Snails attempt to help Flash and co. deal with the bugbear in Ponyville. However, all of their efforts to defeat the bugbear are laughably futile, they suffer quite a bit of physical humiliation, and their presence is hardly acknowledged by the rest of the cast.
  • Later in the chapter "Quest for the Golden Apple Tree", their only scene is at the end when they try to steal some apples from Sweet Apple Acres on a dare, only to get scared away by Rogue.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Everyone was surprised when a counterpart of Shade appeared in the Equestria Girls world as a fox, despite only being a One-Scene Wonder before being scared off by Flash.
  • No one expects Foxhelm's OC appeared in "Bat's the Way Home".
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: When the Rainbooms fight Gaia Everfree, Timber freaks out and screams in terror, which is portrayed as him being a Dirty Coward and a blow to Sci-Twi's confidence before Sunset and Flash assure her to ignore him and focus on unleashing her own magic. However, given that he's in the middle of a battle involving previously unheard-of magic and his sister is going on a rampage, it's pretty understandable to see why he would start losing his composure.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • In "Following the Grand Script", we are supposed to feel bad for Solid Script after he suffered from bullying and was being threatened by Grand when he became friends with Lightning, but he came across as a massive Jerkass who was being nothing but a jerk toward Grand and constantly accused him of being responsible for his son and grandson's villainy. He also refuses to move on from the past and continues to act like a brat who holds on to grudges, even when Grand wants to make amends. Worse still, a previous flashback showed Grand and Script interacting with each other, where Grand actually tries to look past his grudge towards Rune Magic makers and be polite to him, which Script thoroughly rejects and needlessly antagonizes Grand, making him even more unsympathetic. Instead of portraying the conflict as Both Sides Have a Point, it comes off as a pointless grudge that the opposing side wishes to drop, but Script simply refuses to do so out of pettiness.
  • In "Once Upon a Zeppelin", Flash warns and intimidates Star Tracker from getting too close to Twilight, before berating him over stressing Twilight out by hanging out with her all day and inadvertently preventing her from enjoying her vacation. These moments are meant to portray Flash as a good boyfriend for looking after Twilight and preventing Star Tracker's clinginess to her in the canon episode, but his harsh scolding is pretty hard to stomach when it's delivered to an adolescent, who's clearly upset when he's being rebuked. Flash even threatens to throw him overboard if he isn't a leg's width away from Twilight, which comes off as horribly excessive. It also doesn't help that Star Tracker listens to Flash and maintains his distance from Twilight barring a single accident, so his presence was generally undisruptive in the chapter and Flash's second scolding can come off as unjustified.

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