Flash Sentry has gone missing. Sunset is desperate to find out what’s happened, and contacts Twilight to ask about the Flash in her world, but it seems as though nobody else really cares.
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- Member Since 4th Mar, 2021
- offline last seen April 26th
eemoo1o
Just a writer. Not good with descriptions, though.
eemoo1o
Joined 4th Mar, 2021 ·
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Interesting and very unsettling. The universe seemingly retconned Flash out of existence? I'd assume he was a ghost or a spirit but Pony Flash makes that a bit odd. Perhaps the "thing" behind Sunset is wiping people from reality?
Don't tell me that whenever someone dies in the FiM world that the person behind the portal "disappears" into being unknown. This is… wow, an interesting thought on how the world are connected.
Grandious fic, a nice touch of mystery and unknowning, and the feelings of Sunset… that desperation, that sadness… Just wow. Honestly, the "leaving out in the open" what happened only adds to the mystery, but I think there is enough clues to guess what happened.
I'm so glad you wrote it.
Good heavens, that was great. A chill is running down my spine right now.
Awesome story, eemoo1o. You had me hooked from the very beginning. As I was reading, I became more and more concerned for Flash, but then my concern shifted to Sunset. She’s in danger, isn’t she?
And that last line. That last line.
You could’ve explained what was happening to us. Make a sequel or a second chapter. But you didn’t. You left it to our imagination, and that is scarier than any explanation you could provide. Not telling your audience what the “thing” is is the best route you can take. This is called the Nothing is Scarier trope and it works so well here.
Wasn’t going to respond to any of these but I couldn’t resist.
11340425
So close. Almost there. You’re practically touching it.
11340456
That’s a very interesting theory regarding this. A nice interpretation. Satisfying. I’m loving all of these speculations! But unfortunately there’s a line from Twilight disproving this.
And thank you for the compliment! I appreciate it a lot, seeing as I’ve never written mystery / thriller before and was apprehensive over publishing this, mostly because I had no idea what I was going to do with it, or how to wrap it up.
11340518
Oh, thank you! You’re too kind.
I don’t know! I have absolutely no idea!
And neither does she.
Regarding the ending, like all of you have so diligently pointed it out, I went for the cliche because I had no idea how I was going to wrap it up (insert winter wrap up parody here), and to be honest I want to change it, but seeing as everyone’s pointed it out, I don’t think I can.
11340546
Well, that is very reassuring.
I didn't think I'd ever be writing another unauthorized sequel to a story the author refused to finish!
Disclaimer: I probably won't really do that. Maybe.
11340592
Well damn. I suppose if you did, you’d have to know what really happened.
11340595
What, does this mean it's ok for me to write an unauthorized sequel? That I have permission?
11340546
The thing WAS Flash? Hes been dead all along?
11340612
As long as you give me credit (for the inspiration/“prequel”, not the writing). Feel free to DM me about it if you really need to—would hate to have a mile-long string to cause the rupturing of many thumbs as readers try scrolling past at breakneck speeds.
11340619
Unfortunately not.
11340621
🎉
Yay! And thank you! You ~
won't~ might not regret this!11340645
Send it to me if you finish, and feel free to message me during potential production.
It's not often I find a story that explores Sunset and Flash's relationship as friends. I really appreciate how much you make it feel like their friendship was important and how Flash's absence effects Sunset mentally. It's nice to see people treat characters who are normally hated in this fandom with respect.
A very good read, my dude. Great job.
Hmm Flash Sentry is quite on the not well regarded end of the Fandom consideration... A LOT of people in the fandom would definitely prefer he doesn't exist altogether... So I'm guessing that is what's happening here...
11341096
Oh my god I love youI’m pretty neutral when it comes to Flash, but in essence, yes, the whole book is basically just a commentary on that, from his “disappearance” in canon and the negative feedback he had received from bronies.
I mean just look at the title(s). If Fimfic still allowed 3< genre tags, this would have been satire.
11341122
Well... Personally I know very little about him, what I know is from the fandom here mainly. Sincerely he has not struck me as... necessary ^^;;;
11341373
That’s the problem. I feel like he easily could have been. He just… wasn’t executed properly.
It’s honestly scary how realistic everyone’s reactions are to a person going missing. Most people just didn’t care or didn’t see a reason to. After all, why would they. None of the girls were particularly close to Flash except for Sunset (if you want to go based off the evidence from the show).
What stinks is that, in a writing sense, there was so much potential for him that was never used. Instead of being flushed out and developed as a character he was brushed to the side and replaced with a different character that had a more outgoing personality.
11341484
…Timber Spruce? Or the house being remodelled?
I kind of used hyperbole for the reactions, because there’s not even an “oh, that’s horrible!”. Not even from Fluttershy.
Oh, and thank you! I tend to fare much easier with emotion than I do with situation, so it’s always nice to see people compliment or react to it.
11341486
Flash being replaced by Timber Spruce in the show
11340612
I would love to brainstorm with you on the sequel if you’re up for it
Hm… the reaction at the empty house with light on and phone ringing is “wrong” on Sunset part too. I mean Yes she is under a LOT of conformity pressure, BUT that is the kind of situation where YOU DO break down the door an damn the consequences. ^^;;;
11341577
It’s the light on upstairs, as well as the fact that she’s hoping that he’s “out”. She’s trying to be optimistic. RD probably told her not to worry, but she didn’t mention that to Twilight because she’s going off of what she remembers.
I like what this story has to say, particularly using Sunset as a way to say it! Their relationship as friends is underappreciated in canon, so I always love to see anybody take it on in fanon. Also Flash totally deserves better than what he got.
I will say personally, I would've preferred to read what was happening in Sunset's letter in real time. It feels odd to me that she would go into that level of detail in a letter/in writing, even as distressed as she is, and that there's very little back and forth while she's telling her story over text. In prose, it makes sense to focus on the details that she does and add dialogue tags, but in a letter, it doesn't feel entirely in-character. Basically, the story is great, I just feel it would've been more effective fully dramatized than told to us after the fact. But that's me, and you might feel differently!
I actually have an idea for a follow up. It's my own interpertation on what happened to Flash And it involves the Loki television show setting. If I do it, I'll credit you for the "prequel". One of the plots I thought up of involves Flash and Pony Flash working together to escape the TVA or a story that is pretty much the same plot as the Loki series, but with Flash taking Loki's place, but then I have to come up with a good name for Female!Flash..
Tell me you don't remember who Juniper Montage is, without telling me you don't remember who Juniper Montage is, Sunset Shimmer.
Reminds me of a scarier take on the Pendragon series to be honest.
He's a person and his name is Flash Sentry!
Damn it Bradley! You promised you wouldn't do this sort of thing anymore!
Now how is Sunny supposed to react since you've earased one of her nearest and dearest friends?!
11340546
Okay I almost never link directly to the author unless they link to me first, but I just have to guess...
The thing behind her is Flash Sentry, isn't it?
Displaced from reality, or something like that I would imagine.
11341780
She's using the journal, which is a form of instant messaging. It makes she would go into more detail there.
Plus it's possible to speed write messages, and Sunset Shimmer is most likely classically educated, being a student of a princess.
11344810
No, not her, but rather her boss/colleague.
I didn’t kill him, I just made him disappear!
You made Flash disappear? That’s killing people!
Oh, god. If I’ve just quoted the wrong thing I’m gonna look like such a clot.
Why are everyone else’s speculations so much better than mine!?
But no.
I actually mentioned in another one of my comments that I wanted to change it. It’s just that everyone pointed it out and quoted it in their comments that made me decide not to. . . I only chose the cliché ending because I was already 1k words over what I’d originally intended, and it was breaching 3 AM.
I actually wanted to change it to either “and neither did [answer]” or “neither did the [possible answer that isn’t really the answer but is certainly the most literal]”. But eh, it is what it is.
There are actually a good few hints imbedded or inferred that point to what tf happened. I won’t say, especially in the comments, but they’re there.
This reminds me of that one episode from the Amazing World of Gumball where everything in the show that was boring was sent to the realm of “The world’s biggest mistakes.”
11344980
Better than Sunset Shimmer pulling a Wallflower Blush on poor Juniper.
Fear not! I was just making stuff up.
You'll all good.
Maybe I'll give it a second read through then. I doubt I'm going to find anything though.
Outside of Flash Sentry being erased via the collective power of Flash hatters, I've got nothing right now.
Okay, so I need to slap my thoughts down into words because, wow, I am more invested in this story than I thought I was going to be going in:
My initial idea was that Flash was erased from time, but the effects of that ripple out slowly, so the memories of him and feelings/relationships he has with people fade (or "melt" like chocolate or ice cream) gradually, numbing everyone to his disappearance. Sunset could be unaffected as she's from Equestria, but that's just a theory within this theory. The problem with that theory is that it doesn't explain his parents vanishing, or how his house had debris all over it as if there were a fight, or why the thing that was in the reflection/behind Sunset which presumably caused all of this is now following her.
My next thoughts were in a similar vein of getting erased from existence/time, but the entity that causes it is something that gets passed on. Could be passed onto the person with the strongest emotional connection, could be that it deliberately spares one person of the "melting" in order to pass onto them, who knows. When it latches on/creates a connection, it starts with that feeling of dread that never goes away, because the entity knows that the last victim has been erased, and the new victim initially gets just enough feedback from that connection that they subconsciously know that something isn't right, and who the last victim was, but consciously all they know is that something is very, very wrong. The idea is that one of Flash's parents got stuck with it, got erased, passed the entity onto the other parent, got erased, and then passed it onto Flash, who has been erased... and now it's latched onto Sunset.
Perhaps at first, the new victims can't fully perceive the entity, like how Sunset is seeing it in reflections but not there when she turns around. Like how she can feel it's presence, etc. Maybe as the entity's effect grows, it becomes more and more visible and present to the victim, which could be a reason behind the debris in Flash's place - he finally saw it there while he was eating, not in a reflection or a mirror, but there, and tried to fight it or escape. Not that it worked.
Behaviour-wise, the feeling of someone lying down next to Sunset and staring at her, maybe the entity instills a sense of the previous victim in the new victim, only that sense is twisted so that it feels distinctly wrong due to the entity's very nature? Flash and Sunset were exes, it makes sense that they could have stayed over at each other's places in the past, so Flash lying down next to her could be an impression that's been taken and mutilated by the entity into something more skincrawling.
This may not be at all accurate, but those are my initial speculations. Regardless of my theories though, I love how this was written and the building sense of a horror that isn't quite happening in front of us because it's past tense from Sunset's POV. Love stories like this, and this was a great one.
11367431
You are a beautiful human being.
11367439
Well I've never been called that before after I've just described a dark horror parasite, but I'll absolutely take the compliment!
Thank you again for this story though, it's been a while since a story has made me think of theories like that.
Although if I'm at all close to the truth... then Sunny is in trouble.
*shrug*
I went to a high school with 2000+ students split between 4 grades. More than one kid dropped out, “disappeared” or “passed away”. Oh and 9/11 happened less than 100 miles away during my sophomore year.
The true story of what happened to Flash.
interesting mystery
Nice worldbuilding and finished at just the right time.
Yep, that really gave me the chills, being erased from existence is one of the scariest tropes yet, because you live a seemingly normal life and suddenly things are just gone without a trace, and some others don't even notice.
I just thought that whatever is behind Sunset is a figure that she came up with because of Flash's disappearance. What's it called? A tulpa?
Anyway, authors don't get to decide the ending of an unsolved mystery because the ending isn't in the story, so I'll say this: (which If You're wondering, is just a little meta extra thought, no offense to anyone)
Next time you see Flash Sentry, tell him:
Dig the swell hair, and keep rocking your guitar.
And I'm proud to be the 100th to like this story! Yay~
11646987
(Haven’t been here in a while — god, I’ve missed you ponemojis.)
Oh thank you for your kind words!
I was actually thinking of making a short sequel to this fic
but writer’s block for it is strong (despite somewhat knowing what I wanna do). Have to wonder whether I should at all… 
Wonderful story. Getting shades of Richard Matheson with this, which is always a delight. Just great.
Fantastically disturbing story.