Okay so I'm sure a lot of people don't like self insert stories. Well that's what this is, but it's different. I started a story were a better version of me gets sent to Equestria to become a destined hero. Here comes the spoiler part: he isn't actually the hero! In this story young Starlight Glimmer was adopted by Twilight and brought back to the present. In this story Starlight turns out to be the hero and all my alternate self was for was being a father figure to her.

So here is the main concept: Your sent to Equestria and you are told you are destined to save the world. What you don't know is that you are the role model for the real hero. They look up to you and in the end they save the world.

It is important that the reader dose not know who the real hero is. It is meant to be a twist. Everyone will think it's a self insert story to fuel your ego. This is what makes the twist more effective because they don't expect it.

Is this a bad idea? Or a good one? I have no clue.

the overall idea is interesting, and the twist IS good, but there is a problem with it.

Like you say, a lot of people don't like self-inserts, and especially not "better version of me" inserts (OP-feeling, too much ego-fuel, etc.)

Which means, if they think this is just another such fic, they won't read it, and thus they won't actually GET TO the twist end,
since the story would be specifically designed to look like any other self-insert fic until the end.

And the people who DO like self-insert like it because that's what they are, so they might NOT like the twist at the end,
since it would be like, the entire story boosting your ego, just to suddenly burst it completely, when it's at its absolute peak.

I think SOME people might like this, but they'd be quite rare and hard to find, and since you can't spoil the twist in the description,
you'll just alienate readers, because they'll all expect it to be just another self-insert.

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I'm basically just going to echo TP here. The obvious problem is the self-insert part. I judge stories on their content but a description does turn me away or draw me in. I believe that any story can be done well, just as often as they're badly written. But for something like this specifically, it'd take a special kind of author to make it work, otherwise people are just gonna pass it up, and some might just downvote it out of spite.
It's just like what TP said, the twist will alienate the people who do like the story, and the people who I think would appreciate the twist won't even get that far because they'd just write this off as another bad self-insert.

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Okay thanks It's probably a good idea that I remove my story instead. I wonder if I rewrite it with Flash Sentry instead of a different version of me. If any of you want to write something like that go ahead it's only an idea so it's free for anyone use.

5303473 Better, but still wouldn't work, I think. Keep in mind, Flash is one of the LEAST liked stallions in the fandom,
and the Flash-Light ship is one of the least popular ships. So having him instead of self-insert wouldn't make enough difference
to make it a popular story, a lot of people woud avoid it based on the Flash-shipping and the idea that he would be the hero,
since they won't know the twist that he's actually NOT until the end, and most readers wouldn't get that far due to dislike of
the ship, so it's basically the exact same problem as before, if you use a character most people don't like, AND a ship
even fewer like - some people openly intensly HATE Flash, and him being shipped with Twi.

Furthermore, lots of people still Dislike Starlight too, thye haven't gotten over her villanous beginnings yet,
so having the least popular shipped ponies "adopt" a third character of questionable popularity is extremely risky.

I'm sure it CAN be done good, but the problem here is that it would take a really good, well-known author with several
amazing stories already written to even get people to be willing to give it a chance.

Personally I don't mind the Flash-Light ship, and I have nothing against Flash per se, and I like Starlight,
so I would probably consider reading a story like that if it was well-written - However, I belong to a (very) small minority
in those regards - as I said, the majority of the fandom does NOT like Flash, or the Flash-Light ship.

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Flash isn't actually more hated than he is loved. More than half the fandom is okay with or likes Flash. The people who don't like flash are more vocal about it so it looks like most of the fandom hates him.

5304942 Maybe, but the problem still applies to some degree.

Point is, this idea CAN be a good story, but it would require a fairly skilled writer.

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That's why I'm not writing it anymore. I'm hoping someone else with good writing skills will take it.