Day 13: The Flash Sentry Paradox Explained · 3:37pm Sep 13th, 2016
Don’t read this blog unless you have read the chapter of the same name.
Now that you have, allow me to answer a series of questions.
How does this paradox work? Does it have a name
This paradox, the Parentverse as I call it, is a world where Night Dancer didn’t die in the car accident described in Rise of the Maximals. Not only that, but Seville and Blue Permain Apple are alive and well too, able to see their children graduate and beyond. However, there are tradeoffs; while Night Dancer does live, Sunset Shimmer takes her place in the car accident. Also, the magical side of the Jongojiverse’ Equestria Girls never occur; Roma Candle is absent, thus Cogsworth isn’t paralyzed, the Battle of the Bands moves normally, and the Friendship Games ends with Canterlot winning fair and square without any hitches.
What happened to their Flash Sentry?
One snowy day, the very day that claimed her mother in the universe you know, Sunset wanted to bring Flash Sentry over for Thanksgiving. When she found him in an affair with Trixie, Sunset drove off in a fit of sadness and confusion. In these conditions, the emotions dulled her senses when a car smashed at her driver’s side. A similar cycle of depression followed for the children of Great Valley Drive with one core difference. In the universe you know, the children who would be the Maximals would save Sunset, Reeka, and Draggle from the Diamond Dogs. Here, realizing that Flash was partly responsible for her death, turn the other way. Flash is then beaten to near death, remaining in a comatose state for months.
Who’s child is Apple Biscuit, and where are they?
Applejack and Caramel’s. Even good people make mistakes; AJ and Caramel lain with each other while they are at college. Her parents were more than happy to take the child in, though Big Mac did give Caramel a warning: if he ever cheats on Applejack, he'll personally come over and knock out his teeth. Like the Sunset/Night Dancer tradeoff, it too happened to AJ and Caramel. Several weeks after their purported absence, after her fifth birthday, Apple Biscuit overhead a late night conversation between Apple Bloom and Cosgrove about the police finding a John and Jane Doe near Austin Texas whose fingerprints match theirs. When she became ten years old, out of self-pursuit, she looks up just what “John Doe” means, and how jurisdiction varies state by state. The following dinner, the young Apple Biscuit decides to test her family's renowned sense of honesty.
“They’re not coming back, are they?”
Her aunt stops eating, dropping her feeding utensil before sobbing. That isn’t a strike against her as her surviving niece embraces her. Since their absence before finding their bodies, Apple Biscuit is living with her aunt under guardianship, forming a little common ground between her aunt and Cosgrove.
What happened to Dapplewood? Does Cosgrove’s shrapnel wound have something to do with it?
Dapplewood was just two weeks away from graduating middle school. Before a rehearsal, someone, wanting to perform a hate crime, strapped a pressure sensitive bomb underneath one of the chairs. Cosgrove sat close to him, ready to pick him up when the rehearsal is done. It was when the student who sat on the chair stood up that it went off. The mixture of fire and shrapnel claimed six middle schoolers, Dapplewood’s included, and injuring several more children, Cosgrove, and the school teacher. When he awakes from the hospital, Cosgrove, wounded along the left side of his body, calls out in desperation for his brother.
Your stories imply a light shipping between Apple Bloom and Cosgrove. Since their adults in this paradox, how deep is this, and how did it come to be?
To understand this is to recall a blog from a few days back. With Seville living to see his youngest child growing up, and seeing how his neighbor’s son being just comfortable volunteering at his home, he started to notice a connection, something similar from when he was near their age. He talks it over with Blue, who warns him that it is just a friendship (Similar to how Cosgrove answers with Dapplewood after taking Apple Bloom back home). In this secondary alternate universe, Sci-Twi doesn’t transfer to Crystal Prep, and therefore there wasn’t a reason to be jealous enough to set up the Anon-a-Miss profile. No built up guilt, or Predacons created in petty revenge, the dance went on, and began a slow but growing relationship.
Four years pass; and the two have built a very strong relationship. They’re not married, but the relationship is deep enough that they could appear married. Years since he lost the one person he considers a sister, Dapplewood develops a surrogate sister bond with Apple Bloom, while in turn Apple Biscuit looks up to him as a surrogate brother.
Tragedy strikes again. With his brother’s abrupt death, Cosgrove enters a state of depression, wishing to be alone for a while. That becomes a few weeks; he hasn’t returned or answered their calls. Blue reminds her daughter that this is similar to how Sunset’s death impacted him and his friends. Though the wound gradually healed, the little communication and visits for the next six years have made the former Crusader feel lonely. To keep her mind off things, she decides to enroll in a dance class, though she is a klutz when dancing in rhythm. Enter Tender Taps, who offers her private lessons. While on duty, an investigating Cosgrove stumbles on the development, developing a sense of jealousy. When he gets severely injured once more, he rushed himself back to Sweet Apple Acres, coincidently finding Big Mac. When asked about what’s been going on as he patched up Cosgrove’s wounds, the former Maximal tells him that he was searching for the person responsible. Suspecting a revenge ploy, Big Mac warns Cosgrove that for his sake, for Apple Bloom’s sake, that he doesn’t spend this time away just to chase a white whale. Cosgrove calms himself, wishing to spend the night at the barn before returning to his house one last time.
With Tender Taps in the picture, do Apple Bloom and Cosgrove hook back up? Yes, in a way akin to Daniel Dreiberg and Laurie Jupiter.
Do you plan to expand on this universe in the future?
With this amount of information given, may be. Cosgrove and Apple Bloom’s arc explained, I would go in depth on the other characters. It would be my first Mature rated fic, as it would have a little “Watchman” vibe.
