After an encounter with a certain stranger-turned-friend on a late train to Canterlot, Flash Sentry goes back to where he started from, figuratively and literally, to get some insight. Coming from a heroic lineage filled with legendary guards, captains, doctors, and law enforcement over the centuries gives a lot of pressure to live up to it all. His earliest ancestor was the founder of the Royal Guard, and his own father was a legendary captain. Flash is convinced he doesn't measure up. But some memories might offer some clarity to the situation to see if, by large deed or small; just who Flash is. Not a crush, not a guard, but a Sentry; and just what the legacy of being that entails.
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In canon with "The Bridge: A Godzilla - MLP Crossover" but that is not required reading. This is rather a side story using just the canon Equestrian elements as well as my created Sentry lineage.
I really liked this! Nice job.
An amazing one shot! And we learn more of what happened with Starlight and Moonbeam...
I really needed something like this to cheer me up.
My only question is why did Stalwart give the Hurricane Lance to Blueberry Frost instead of his son?
Great One Shot, Tarb. You really made a great job in showing Flash, and the readers, that the ponies from the Sentry family were normal beings too. Seeing Stalwart Sentry, who was described as a badass dragon slayer, exhibiting PTSD, love for his child, and even flashbacks that showed that he had a close call with the dragon made me like him and find him more relatable than an unbeatable badass. I also loved how Flash Sentry was willing to help everyone he met from a baby Starlight Glimmer back when he was a toddler himself to getting late to a meeting due to helping ponies along the way. I also loved how the ponies that Flash helped are willing to help him back and how much support Shining gave to him. Flash getting advice from his mother and making him realize Ardent Sentry-and by extension all the other "heroic" members-were just normal people who became legends for doing what they loved yet still remained normal.
P.S: I was surprised that Ardent Sentry was born out of wedlock when her flirt of a mother, Speedy Service, shared a night with a mysterious stallion that only the older members of the present Sentry lineage know. I'm going to guess that it's ********* that sired Ardent Sentry. If I'm right, please send me a PM.
8273981
Happy to have helped!
The Hurricane Lance is the weapon of the guard captain, not just the Sentry family. It's more of a 'de-facto' family heirloom given so many Sentrys became Captains over the centuries (almost every single one was either a Sentry, taught by a Sentry, or taught a Sentry). Stalwart also had no way of knowing if Flash would become or stay in the guard when he got older. Audria was a guard at one point but changed careers to a flight team and Stalwart's sister didn't take the military path.
8273873
Mhm, and the stallions who saved them.
8273758
Thanks buddy!
I'll admit good one shot, though now you kicked my curiosity in the ass and now wants to know "who was Ardent Sentry's deadbeat Dad"?
That was good, nice ideas for the Sentry family backstory.
The secret male ancestor thing feels a little funny though. Part of the message of this seems to be that the Sentry family is just an ordinary family of ordinary ponies, with no special ancestry other than what they achieved themselves through hard work and service to Equestria. But with the secret ancestor there's room for that not to be entirely true and that there is some significant bloodline there after all. In the end though, that history of service is there regardless, especially since there appears to be a tradition of not passing the knowledge down until the next generation contributes to the family legacy.
8274723
Yah I can see why it might see odd, but there is a good reason. Allow me to explain. The moral of the story is Ardent might have had a special predecessor, might have been just some random pony and this was all a running joke. One way or another, doesn't add or take away from what she did as she did it by her own volition. She could have had some famous, important father, or just some random drunk her mother slept with; but it didn't stop her from being a normal pony who did the right thing at the right time. Bloodline had nothing to do with it. That's why none of them were ever told until after they proved themselves.
I have idly mused the idea of Flash facing a dragon of gold like how his father had thrown down with a dragon of black.
I know it's not likely to happen, but it'd be one of the most badass things he'd ever do in his life.
He'd bathe a lance in the ichors of a royal, hydra, and dragon so it'd be like he accomplished all three of his ancestors' feats at the same time!
And one day, Flash, you'll be up there too.
8274085
I'm guessing it's King Caesar
8275039
Ponies and Diamond Dogs dont tend to do that kind of thing, and weve already seen that KC was not given a Pony form when he came to the Empire of the past...
Great one shot. This just popped into my head: What stance do Flash's parents have about the Kaiju?
It was a neat idea to make those two cousins, I can see it.
8275403
Cautious, but understanding and thankful for the head. They understand more than most what risking one's life for sake of another means, so as Audria might put it,
"He proved himself one of us the moment he attacked the first gyaos, let alone the hundredth."
8273993
Stalwart's scene is something I've very glad folks caught onto as it serves multiple functions. Of course you have the part with a baby Flash Sentry showing he was literally born with his good deed compulsion, but it's also reinforcement for the moral that "Heroes are people". What Stalwart did was great and while it might not destroy him like a more cynical story might, it does still affect him as he's only human. He breaks down crying after being with his wife and rushing home to hold his son. It's a, for lack of better terms, human reaction from him that goes a long with the lesson Flash learns later that his ancestors were all normal ponies just like him.
I do admit, I was writing a bit from experience here as I am one of those "conscious won't let me rest" types with a family I'm quite proud of and worry I fall short of. And I thought that sort of angle was just what Flash needed to help give him a boost. Many MLP fans complained about him from a core of his relation to Twilight Sparkle, so I choose to instead focus on what trait he had that wasn't related to that. He's nice. He literally was the only character in EG1 to help Twilight purely of his own volition, multiple times, and wasn't a member of the Mane 6/Human 5. So I took that and ran with it. Hence his character as the chronic do-gooder.
Why does this have an AU tag? This could totally fit into the show's continuity.
8283471
Mostly heavy OC use for Flash Sentry's family as well as Starlight having a big sister, was playing it safe. And because it technically is canon with my crossover's greater storyline. For instance the train ride mentioned in passing happened in a chapter of The Bridge. But I suppose I could remove it since I stuck to canon events by just filling in the blank.
8274767
And that was what I liked in The Last Jedi. Rey was not born from some great bloodline and is a literal nobody, she was just someone who was willing to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do.
8718773
Glad you enjoyed it for that :)
Even though I didn't like The Last Jedi, I can understand what they were going for. I just disagree on the choice of character to do it for story telling reasons but that's a big can of worms I won't open here. I will note it's not the end all, be all of this sort of thing though. Some characters benefit greatly by having that legacy status and some work best when they come from seemingly out of nowhere.
Finally read this and I got to say, this was done beautifully! I have my guesses who the father of Ardent is (if he was big name) but I don't wan't to assume. I believe at one point it was hinted/implied who out was but I could be mistaken if you ever had implied who Mr. baby-daddy is.
I digress. Glad to see Godzilla's lineage-legacy impacted Sentry's.
I'd hazard a guess another Sentry was the one pillar?
9621266
I imagine Flash Magnus might have been an ancestor or relative to an ancestor of Ardent Sentry's father, but the name Sentry didn't exist yet.