Everywhere
"Wait... just... please... don't..." Sunset seethed through her teeth, rising up as she slowly regained her breaths. "Flash... stay... right... where... you are... please..."
"Hey... look at you..." Flash nodded towards the vehicle half-parked on the grass lane behind her. Its lights were still on and the air freshner hanging from the rear view mirror hadn't yet stopped swaying. "Since when did you start driving?"
"I'msogladIfoundyou...!" Sunset stood up straight at last, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Holy Tartarus, you had me so friggin' worried—"
"An Audi, huh?" Flash arched an eyebrow. "Strange. Somehow, you always struck me as the motorcycle type—"
"Will you shut up about the damn car?!" Sunset shrieked, eyes flaring, and Flash was ashamed to feel that it came out as halfway adorable. Within a few seconds, she took a deep breath and exhaled with yoga-like motions of her arms—which he also found adorable. "Just... for once in your young life—please, Flash—will you not make a joke or quip or—"
"I take it you got the letter."
"... ... ..." Sunset's fists clenched as she nodded breathily. "Yes, Flash. I read that letter you wrote. From top to bottom." A firm gulp. "Fluttershy found it first. And she shared it with Rainbow Dash. And then she zipped across four whole city blocks in a blink to share it with me. And for the past frickin' hour the seven of us have been looking all across the dang city trying to find your crazy ass and—"
"How'd you know I'd be here?"
Sunset blinked. She stretched a hand out—motioning down the winding road. "McCraken Trail." Another swallow. "Where the heck else would you be at such a crazy 'soul-searching' moment of your life?"
"Ah..." Flash nodded. He hadn't moved from his spot on the log, and his hands were calmly resting on his knees. "...so you were listening to me when I rambled like a sappy goof after those long car rides."
"Well of course I listened, Flash!" Sunset exclaimed.
"I just figured you were too busy—"
"What? Being a crazy rotten powermongering bitch?" Sunset planted her hands on her hips. "Is that what you were going to say? Cuz it's true! I'd be the first to admit it!"
"... ... ..." He shrugged before saying calmly: "I was going to say you had 'different priorities' at the time, Sunset. But we're both past that. We're different people now."
"What—" Sunset started. "Flash—" She started again. Her forehead creased, and she rubbed her temples with what must have been the mother of all migraines as she slowly approached the log. "Tell me... please... what is it that you're trying to accomplish here, exactly?"
"You read the letter, right?" Flash shrugged once more. "I can't stay anymore. I've chosen to go out and find a better life for myself where I can—"
"No, what you're doing is pulling another Celestia-damned stunt!" She said, bearing an iron-wrought frown. "Just look at yourself, Flash!" She gestured at his three bulging backpacks. "What is this?! Rehearsal for the Hobo Olympics?"
"I don't need any of the crud I left at home," Flash muttered. "Or home, for that matter."
"What you need is a swift kick in the ass!" Sunset frowned, her fists forming fists again. "I mean—what's wrong with you?! If it isn't one psychotic extreme, then it's the other!"
"Sunny—"
"Don't 'Sunny' me!" She hissed, but there was a touch of vulnerability in her eyes, glossed over with fear. "What's the matter with relying on your friends, huh?! What part of 'we're all here for you, Flash' don't you friggin' understand?!" She gestured wildly. "Do you know how many times we tried to text you during your first day back?! Or did you just dump your cell phone on the school grounds again?"
"No, don't be ridiculous."
"Well, alright, then."
"... ... ...I tossed it into a garbage bin two blocks away in downtown."
"Unnnghhhh..." Sunset facepalmed. Hard.
Flash scratched the back of his neck. "Along with the hall pass Mr. Turner gave me for my psychology class, but... somehow I don't think that matters anymore. The hall pass, I mean." He smiled crookedly. "Still, Psychology 101 can go take a swan dive off the edge of my—"
"Flash, just... stop it!" Sunset shrieked, her voice echoing off the nearby pine trees. Her eyes clenched tight with the force of her outburst. "Just. Stop. All of this!"
He gazed at her silently.
She shook. She shivered. Then—when her eyes finally reopened—they were full of tears. "This is all my f-fault." A hiccup. More tears. "All of it. It's all my fault. I kn-know it. But does th-that mean you gotta keep punishing me like this?"
"Punishing you?" At last, Flash Sentry stood up and approached her. "Sunset, this is not your fau—"
She flinched away from him. "It is too!" She hugged herself, fighting hyperventilation as the tears flowed, doubling. "How many months went by with me manipulating you and b-berating you and treating you like you were manure?! And for wh-what?! For me to leave you out in the c-cold?!"
"But you're a changed person now, Sunny—"
"How can I pretend to be any better than I was when I let you... let you..." She fought it, whimpered, then let loose: "...become so unraveled?" She avoided his gaze momentarily, if only to wipe her cheeks dry—a futile maneuver. "I thought I was doing the r-right thing... by giving you space... j-just as I once t-told you to give Princess Twilight space." Next came a frown, this time aimed at herself. "But I was wrong. I realize that now, Flash!" She looked at him, her lips quivering. "You're my friend. I sh-should have b-been there for you all this time. Instead... I-I hung you out to dry because I was selfish and I was lazy and I h-hid behind the pretense that you were stronger than you actually were!"
"Sunset," Flash spoke gently, calmly. While Sunset was a sobbing mess, he was steady amidst the storm. "I no longer blame you for what went down between us. If nothing else, our relationship together set me down a path that I desperately needed." He braved a daring smile between them. "Now I'm all the stronger for it—"
"You call this 'strong?!'" she yelped, and just like that the tears held sway yet again. "This isn't strength! Flash, you're running away! That's what you've been doing this whole time! Running away via one extreme or another! First it was to Equestria, but now... now..." She seethed. "Do you even know where the Hell you're even going anymore?!?"
He shrugged and smiled. "I guess I'll find out—"
"Bullshit!" She leaned into him, fiery, a second sun. "Flash, this is your life we're talking about! Don't throw it away on some... pretentious gamble for a moral crusade!"
"But I'm not throwing it away."
"Yes you are!"
"I'm not—"
"Yes you are! You just don't know it yet! Please, Flash..." Sunset moved forward, both hands extended in a desperate, almost-pleading gesture. "Trust me on this. Don't do it. Don't go... blindly flailing into some crazy unknown life. Don't punish yourself. Don't punish me. Or your friends! Think about what this means for you... your life... in the long term!"
He hadn't moved a single inch. He was like a statue, in most respects.
Perhaps this was what shocked Sunset out of her resolve. She shrank away from him slightly, as if staring at a stranger.
"I had a vision today," Flash murmured, cool as fog off a glacier. "I was swimming in a tide full of drowning, blind people. The water was shallow, and any of us could have walked to shore at any time. I suddenly understood this, and I understood that I didn't understand it for so long. And when I looked around, I saw the source of my misunderstanding. It was the levees built out of excuses—by those ahead of us and ourselves included—that keep us drowning. Slowly. Over time. And just because the flood guards were designed to make the drowning seem slow and painless over a long period, it still drowned us all the same. With no reward, no benefits, no gain." He shrugged. "You see, Sunset... in more ways than one, what's right in front of us can very easily—very comfortably—becomes the 'long term' way faster than we'd like to think. I'm no longer satisfied with that. I'm prepared to walk ashore."
"Flash..." Sunset shook her head rapidly. "Flash Flash Flash..." She clenched her teeth. "Take one small step outside of your own ass for once, mkay?" Her brow furrowed. "What do you even think you're going to do? Huh? Solve all the problems in the world by being homeless? I mean... what's so damn sinful about having a support group of friends and... and-and-and... a foundation or a home to work with?! I mean—is it your folks?! Just say the word and we'll find you a better place to live!"
"Sunny—"
"There are people who are able and willing to help you with these kinds of issues, Flash!" Sunset insisted, her angry voice teetering on a sob once again. "The world isn't as horrible as you think it is! And even if it was, we can still find you a better place to start living!"
He looked her squarely in the eye. "It's not about moving to someplace better, Sunset, but doing what I can to make it better." He slowly shook his head. "Besides, I've been to a better place. And it's opened my eyes to what I can do... to what I've denied myself from doing for so long." A warm smile crossed his lips. "You should be proud, Sunset. Equestria—your Equestria—harbors faith to move mountains—"
"No..." Sunset shook her head vigorously again. "No no no will you just shut it?!?" The frown came back. "Okay, Flash! Let's say we let you have your glorious crusade! What's the outcome, huh?! The end game?!?" She pointed angrily down McCracken Trail as the last vestiges of light twinkled over the western mountaintops. "You know what happens to people who run out full-ham into the world on some extreme quest to fix things?! They disappear, Flash! They disappear and they change nothing! This whole crazy 'rotten' world?! Nothing changes with extreme stunts like that! Like this!" She slapped one hand against the other. "It. Takes. Order—Flash! Order and harmony! And friends! Everything I've ever learned—every lesson I've ever suffered through—proves this to be true! Social networks and groups are what make life flow down the proper channels! Surely somewhere in that martyr-fetish heart of yours you have the capacity to understand that!"
Flash was already nodding. "All too well. Which is why I can no longer afford to wait or pretend."
"Pretending—nngh—h-has nothing to do with it, Flash!" Sunset practically bellowed. "No single person can change the whole world!"
Flash stared back at her. "But every single person should."
Silence. Even the cicadas had retreated from the scene.
Sunset exhaled. She was past anger and hysterics at that point, and the moment had roped her back to regret. She wiped at her tears again, shaking her head into the darkening hush of the world. "I... I shudder to say it... but I wish I could just... pinpoint the moment where I went wrong with you, Flash." She sniffled, trembling under the weight of the thought. "I... I wish I could just understand what has caused your heart and mind to be... to be twisted and polluted this way... so that I can more properly help you... help you c-come back... come back to me... come back to us."
"... ... ..." Flash glanced at a shiny pendant around her neck, orange and reflective. It danced with the residual touches of the sunset. "Doesn't that thing let you read the thoughts and memories of others?"
Sunset blinked, waking out of her pitiable stupor. She looked at the pendant, then at Flash, then at the pendant once more. "Uhm... yes. As a matter of fact, it does."
"Then use it, Sunny," Flash suggested in a soft tone. "Use it on me." He held a hand over his chest. "Feel what I feel. Go through what I've gone through. Then... after that... tell me if you still think that what I'm doing is crazy or not."
She looked at him, contemplatively, for a long time. Then, chewing on her lower lip, she inched slightly forward. One hand clasped around her geode while the other hand reached for the exposed flesh of his neck.
Flash stood still. Patient. Waiting.
There was a flicker of light; the geode responded to another soul within Sunset's reached. She leaned forward... forward still...
...but she stopped before her fingers could come within a centimeter of Flash's skin.
For once, he blinked at her. Actually surprised.
Soon enough, the moment had passed. Sunset sealed it with a sigh. When she leaned back, she was frowning... not in defeat but in determination.
"No, Flash," she said. And her hands clenched by her side. "I won't. I can't."
He slowly nodded. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," she spat. "It's because I refuse to welcome whatever mentality that's strangling you inside of me. I can't allow it to persuade me." Her lips quivered, and she sobbed through the struggle it took to say: "As a friend, I owe it to us both to stand here firmly in place and tell you that what you're doing is wrong." She slowly shook her head. "And you don't have to believe me. Not now. Not ever. But the truth is this isn't going to end in any possible way that's good, Flash. Not for you... not for the world. Please... I'm begging you... come home." She pleaded. "Come home, Flash," she cried. "In all things I've done in this life—good and bad—I've yet to lose a friend. And... and I-I don't want the first one to be you."
"Will you make me come back, either way, Sunset?" Flash asked with such swiftness that it stole the breath out of her. "Will you force me to stay in one place, kicking and screaming, for as long as we'll ever know each other, spitefully and bitterly? Fully aware that I will forever be unhappy and unfulfilled in my role in this life? And the mark I have to leave upon this world?"
She blinked at him. Her lips hung open, but she had nothing to respond with.
He stepped closer to her, and this time his eyes were moist. If only slightly. "The first friend you make in this world is yourself, and I need to make sure I'm right with him. Just like you had to make sure you were right with yourself. But where it worked for you, it can't work for me. We're just different people, Sunset. I can't find who I am—and how I can help the world—in this place... in this prison." He shook his head. "Nor can I do it in the home where you're from... which is a fantasy. But out there...?" He gestured down the trail. "There's reality waiting for me. And I have to go find it. No matter how difficult it may be. I have to go help it... heal it... just like I've been. By you and by others." He finished this with a smile.
It could just as well have been a dagger. Sunset hugged herself, trembling. When she saw him make a move towards his bags, she jerked forward—if only slightly—but her hand grasped nothing but naked air. She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering in the pallid terror of the moment.
None of which was lost to Flash. By the time he picked up his things, he moved back over towards her. His voice was a lasting warmth against the suffocating tide.
"I was born to do things. I only had to realize it. And now that I do, I know that I can't go back." He grinned, a lasting smolder, something else that was new. "And I'm starting to understand why you can't go back either, Sunset."
She looked up at him, a pillar of trembles. All that persisted now was a repeating, ardent: "Please, Flash. Please..."
"Shhhhhh..." A hand reached out between them, brushing her cheek, gathering a finger-full of tears. When there was enough to catch the last glimmering touch of the day, he held them affectionately between them, like a memento. "They're a good thing, aren't they?"
Sunset Shimmer was silent. Flash couldn't tell whether or not it was a sign of agreement, for he no longer had an anchor to stay there and listen.
Without another word, Flash Sentry departed, shuffling quietly down the lengths of McCracken Trail. Sunset Shimmer watched as he drifted further and further away, vanishing gradually amidst the shadows of mountains and forests, and when night finally fell and washed over the quiet basin with its dark grays and melancholic blues, it was almost as if he was everywhere.
How to Disappear Completely
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Well, that was quite the story. Overall I think it was pretty good, not amazing but pretty good. In the end, I think Sunset is right Flash is doing nothing more than running away again. He wants to pretend to fix things and in the end, it's going to accomplish basically nothing. Sure he will likely help a few people here and there but not as many as he could by doing something constructive like starting a soup kitchen or a charity or something along those lines. Or heck even donating would likely help more.
I understand that his crisis is about more than that, but anywhere he stays is just going to end up feeling the same in the end because he never really truly dealt with his underlying issues.
... Yeah, he's going to be dead in a ditch inside of a month.
Maybe it's because I didn't have a transcendent, reconstructive experience in magic horse land myself, but I have to side with Sunset here. Flash's ideals are admirable, but his execution leaves a lot to be desired in terms of practicality, viability, and sustainability. It's an inspiring message, one that would truly revolutionize the world if everyone took it to heart... but this is not the way to do it.
Of course, I suppose that is the ultimate question this story poses: Is this the way to go? Has Flash truly achieved pastel horse Nirvana, or is this just the latest in a series of ever more extreme escape attempts? Is it actually both at once, and this attempt is not just sincere, but also one where he's trying to bring seven billion others with him?
Whatever the case, this has certainly been a fascinating exploration of a philosophy that I ultimately cannot get behind. Thank you for one hell of an experience.
ugg... this ending. I wanted this to end with Sunset telling Flash that he's an idiot but I also wanted him to stop being an idiot so I'm kind of torn. But yeah Flash is an Idiot, nobody has ever changed the world by going off on their own. So this story just seems to end with Flash not learning a damn thing.
8946976
You may be right but he needs to find it out for himself.
The conversation here was the one he needed to have the most. I'm glad he got threw to her on WHY he had to go and why she couldn't make him stay. Flash needed a fresh start and Canterlot High can't give him that.
I think the EQG gang kinda mirror's Twilight's Canterlot 'friends' as in they weren't really friends.. more acquaintances ,friendly but not real friends. He's gotten a taste of that in Equestria but now he needs to find it out there.
Hnnnnng! That ending.... It's just so... so... Please tell me there's gonna be a sequel for his return trip because I can't find it in me to imagine him succeeding without seeing it.
People do change the world by themselves. I'll spare you the rest of my thought. Except that I like this story and it's ending.
8946976
8946980
It's telling that he claimed to his pony friends he would have the strength to deal with his world now, and decides to just run away again once he's back.
He should've stayed in Equestria, like Sunset stayed in the human world. They both had a life worth staying in there.
Now that I think about it a little I'm more worried how Sunset will feel about the rejection then about how Flash will be out in the world
8947030
I don't think any sequel could do any justice to how this ended. Unless it was focused on Sunset in the aftermath of this.
Thank you for the amazing experience, I hope I can carry a bit of Flash's resolve with myself.
see you space cowboy....
I wish Flash would just take a bunch of Prozac.
Flash is a teenager, with a rapidly changing teenagers mind, exitement is teh drug that bounces around the washing machine on a rollercoaster with a pinball machine inside, just to even try and achieve a sense of normality. Teach by rote? You say something three times? the brains rewired itself midway between second and third repetition to be something else, neeing something totally different to trigger satisfaction. Meanwhile, no matter how fast technology evolves, civilisation moves in generations, One step at a time, 20 years a step.
Little has changed in many ways, between 1988 to 2018, compared to between 1958 and 1988.
If the tech was permitted though, the change between 2018 and 2048 will be totally alien.
The tech will reach such differences between those that have it and those that demand its restriction, supression, that the Crusades might be reformed.
Can you handle the idea of your Smartphone, truely being Smarter than you? You have no idea just how powerful those things actually are.
The trouble with saving the kid by helping them out of a flooded ditch, is in 30 years time, are they going to become the leader or the free world, or the person who carries out the atrocity?
You are hurtling down the tracks in a runaway cart. You can see two school busses ahead on each side of the switch. You have one bullet in the gun. Which option do you select.
This story ends, but its the end of another beginning. Do you want happiness and climb out of the pit, or demand that everything is nothing but a downward spiral and help drag everyone else down with you because the more people feel that way the more it becomes true.
Florence, or Masada. Where do you prefer to live.
I think I really shouldnt post with even mild sleep deprevation and upset stomach.
He won't end up in a ditch he'll get in a gamma radiation accident and every adventure ends in this music
He's been handed everything that he would need to become a more capable person or start making a difference, and has refused all of it. He recognizes that terrible things are happening, but turns down the opportunity to learn more about why they happen. He wants people to help each other, but doesn't want them to help him. He hates passivity, but when faced with the one problem where he's the only person in the world positioned to make a real difference, he chooses to run away and hope that things resolve themselves without him. He rejects Equestria because it's easy, but rejects his home because it's hard.
There is absolutely nothing out there in the world for him, at least that he'll be able to recognize or appreciate.
Not everyone is made the same, and no one solution works for everyone. In that much Flash and I agree. Just because friendship worked for Sunset doesn't mean it's the cure-all for him.
In terms of probability, he's going to fail and wind up either dead in a ditch or horrifically broken within a few years time. But.... he also might not. In either case, he has made his choice.
Interesting ending. Overall, I really did enjoy this story, but man... I'm not sure if I really share Flash's opinions at all.
The ending really pulled this together for me. I love that for all of the growth we saw Flash go through, for all of his struggles and epiphanies, he's not magically perfect. He's still entirely capable of being caught up in the same bullshit that he was before, he's just reacting to it differently. I personally don't think this is going to work out particularly well for him, at least not physically, and that leaving is going to hurt everyone around him a lot, including his Equestrian friends. But, he wouldn't have been happy staying, either in town or in Equestria, because he's convinced himself that he can't.
This is Flash Sentry. He's impulsive, for better and for worse. He gets caught up in the moment and uses it as justification to do whatever he has convinced himself is the right decision. Sometimes it leads to an alliance between the Diamond Dogs and the Crystal Empire, sometimes it leads to a lot of broken hearts across several planes of existence. I don't need to know what he does next, this is the culmination of his character with all of his virtues and flaws on display. Well done Skirts, you made me think and that's exactly what I'm looking for in a story.
8947357
Obviously the only acceptable end credit song is :
Is there going be sequel or something? Shortshirtsandexplosions?
Ps If was sunset grab him and drag him and throw through the portal!
8947418
Yes, there's something in fact very teenage about this story, which is appropriate when considering Flash's actions, but in the end I feel ambivalent. I enjoyed most of the ride but the destination has me feeling pretty hollow. Speaking as someone who has not only had to deal with depression but has known many people who have done the same, isolating yourself, no matter what the latest 'epiphany' is, just makes you more vulnerable. Flash basically chose suicide by another means, given that he knows the odds of what he's doing. Sunset, by letting him go, is complicit, but in the end, Flash, not even taking the money needed to survive, has chosen a path where the only logical ending is him dead. He's learned nothing, changed in no way except now having martyrdom as an excuse. Maybe that's the point the story was trying to make, that nothing changes and that people don't change, but all of this added up to less than the sum of its parts for me.
No matter what happens to Flash, I really hope that Sunset can accept that this isn't her fault. She already has to deal with the pain of him leaving, I hope she doesn't also put the weight of his decision on her own shoulders. Hopefully her friends can keep that from happening, she's smart enough by now to let them help her.
Flash was given every opportunity to get what he needs; he has support networks in both dimensions who are actively trying to help him, and yet he chose once again to isolate himself from everyone he loves. If and when Flash decides he wants help, he knows he has plenty of places to find it, but he has to make the choice to stay somewhere. In human world Canterlot, in Equestria- it doesn't matter, he could find the people he needs in any place where people care about him so long as he's willing to look. I hope he realizes that someday, but for now he returns to his self-imposed isolation. Whether fueled by apathy or altruism it's not going to do him any good.
Edit: As a final note, Flash needs a The Things Tavi Says style intervention here. He has a home, he has friends, he needs to let them help him.
And so it ends as it began. With Flash Sentry being kind of a dipshit.
This been really a awesome story I hope to see a sequel to it!
Flash isn't at a point where being smothered in what other people think is help is a path he wants to be dribbled down like a basketball. He hasn't developed enough of a sense of personal control to be comfortable in that environment. And to be fair, the Canterlot High crew are teenagers and have limited experience in providing a solid support base. The Principals might be able to help to some degree, but they're also constrained.
Flash does have two things going for him - he makes friends more easily now, and in the human world Canterlot High (and the principals' office) is only ever a phone call away. Maybe not fast enough for genuine emergency help unless Sunset and Sci-Twi come up with a teleporter, but anywhere with a telephone and ten minutes would be enough to leave a message that could have someone turning up the next working day. (Or he could use a library computer or something to send email; same result.)
I suppose there's some ambiguity in that we as an audience don't really know how close the world of CHS is to our own, and what kind of dangers might await a teenage runaway. Sunset's words are difficult to interpret, given that she herself was presumably in a similar situation when she originally arrived, and seems to have been able to integrate into both society and the school system without too much difficulty or any kind of personal documentation. (And it doesn't appear to be one of those fics where she lugged a crateload of gold/gems through the mirror originally.) Although she is canonically presented as quite possibly genius-level intelligent in both intellectual and social pursuits, which might skew the results somewhat. Possible she's just scared that anyone without her personal experience would have a much harder time, and her Equestrian background is clashing with the far greater population numbers and reporting detail in the human world, making statistics of things like disappearances take on vastly greater proportions in her mind.
8947655
THe Joke son.. ya.. I say ya... missed it.
Though your's is a good end credit song to this story.,,,
Mine was the song that plays just at the end of the episode as Flash walks away from who he helped this weeks episode before the end credits play.
Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeah...
mythrilmoth.net/misc/bspills.jpg
Let's just say Flash is the bear.
Well, it’s finally over....I can’t say I liked the ending, but I sure as hell enjoyed the ride.
All these people saying Flash is jusg running away again. Not to sound like a hippy dippy newage asshole, but maybe he's running TOWARDS. I don't see it as him trying to escape the problems of the real world like he did when he went to Equestria, but rather him embracing them and setting out to find his own path to counter them. It doesn't matter if the Mane 7 are at CHS if he doesn't want their help in the first place. And staying in that place was clearly harming him, so sticking around would really more for their benefit than his. And people saying that he can't change the world by himself. It's not like he's going off to My Side Of The Mountain his life away, living as a hermit in a hollowed out tree until he dies. He's going off to find new people he can help and people who can help him. It's not like CHS is the only place with people in it. Just because he's leaving there doesn't mean he's going to be by himself.
The problem with Flash here is that he wants to escape a toxic system and help people overcome it, except he doesn't realize that before you can help others, you MUST help yourself.
A little money, an incomplete basic education, and no real world experience are not going to support him past his money running out.
He'll be broke, hungry, lost, and in desperate need of a bath inside a month. He can't get a job because The System requires credentials at this point he doesn't have. And because he's not even 18 or a high-school graduate, he's not even going to get that far.
In short, no matter how admirable his goals, he's a fool who doesn't realize that the only reason he got away with it in Equestria is because it didn't have The System. He didn't need credentials, and he met the right people at the right moments to capitalize on it.
If he'd actually LEARNED something from his stint in Equestria, he would have confronted the people in the cafeteria being so toxic and engaged them, trying to get through to them. If you want to clean up a mess, start with the part closest to you.
If he'd learned anything, he would have used his experience to get in the middle of his parents argument and shut them down. Even if he had to be ambiguous about it, he could relate Equestrian Flash's late parents and at the very least, guilt-tripped them into toning it down.
He hasn't learned, and he's not planning very well. Honestly, that is realistic, but not solid story structure for anything other than a disguised tragedy.
It's very important to remember that even if The System has become The Suck, if you are outside The System, you will have a very hard time getting even the most basic of necessities. Rejecting the system in this day in age is actually borderline illegal, at least in this country, and there's no doubt that even though this is a cartoon universe, CHS is still in the United States.
Unless flash goes squatter hermit in the woods somewhere and subsists off fish and taters, the only thing he can expect is to be picked up by the police the next time he's spotted in ANY town during school hours. And forget getting out of the country. Without a valid passport or proper ID, he won't be getting on a plane. And even if he does have a driver's license, he wouldn't make it through security before they detained him as a runaway/missing child. Likewise, he's not making it over border checkpoints. And he'll be dead if he tries to cross a border in the middle of nowhere on foot. Assuming he's anywhere NEAR one for him to make an attempt.
So, yeah. I give him a week, post story, before he's back in his room with Sci-Twi explaining why what he's trying won't work anywhere but in Equestria.
I don't have a large comment about the story as a whole or this ending. But I do take away something silly!
... SEQUEL?
This was an interesting story, but kind of took a nose dive into silliness at the end.
Eh, not much to say on this one. Finally slogged through that last little bit and I have to say, this entire story has felt more like a complete waste of potential and as Mythrilmoth mentioned, full of disconnected moments because the author wants to have his soap box to wax poetically about the harmful nature our reality consists of for the mentally unprepared and forcing real world situations and events into Magical Girl version of Horsie Land.
Dislike my comment as much as you want folks, I just fail to see what's so good about this story. It takes several leaps of logic I find myself questioning completely. It throws in references to regular character names, I mean Flash's three buddies feature a Hank and two other REAL WORLD names, which tells me that the author originally intended this to be a traditional HIE type story and then shoehorned EqG in for potentially the sake of getting more hits.
I mean seriously take out everything and anything to do with Equestria Girls and this could just be about any other snarky self-obsessed teenage self-insert complaining bitterly about the hand life dealt him. It fails and fails so hard to live up to any sense of potential and forces a ton of stuff to just sit there, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle someone has crammed into the wrong spots to make them fit because they've lost all patience with the damn thing and just want it to be over with already.
Even the conclusion of the story is just as pathetic. Where Flash has decided to coast along wherever the wind may take him and fuck anybody else who actually cares about him. He's going on so much about how toxic the environment has become and how he wants to make things better by just cutting all ties to it, going even so far as to think that showing Sunset the truth will somehow make his decision all ok. Yet he never stops to think about any of the actual consequences he's about to face. Which I guess is kind of fitting in some small way. The character self-professes to having learned a great epiphany, but in the end he's a complete tool of a human being who has LEARNED NOTHING, EXPERIENCED NO TRUE CHARACTER GROWTH, and is simply redirecting all of his flaws or flawed perceptions on others and ultimately making the SAME DAMN MISTAKES he just made last time.
So, yeah. The premise was interesting, but the ultimate decision, the setting and the constant oddly out-of-character moments for the reality that it was trying to follow along with is just not good enough. I'd give it a piddling C- if I were to grade it, but as I'm not a teacher that is meaningless anyway.
The worst offense is the entire bullshit of telling us, but not showing us what's going on around Flash when he gets back. It's all from his dumb perspective where we have no dialogue at all, not structured scenes and just some bland and boring expositional... or perhaps something similar to expositional... narrative that just SHOUTS AT THE AUDIENCE saying, see, see, Flash is all existential and shit he's an artsy super deep philosopher now. When really, he hasn't earned that title in the least, he's done jack squat to earn anything he's done in this story from beginning to end and I'm quite frankly pleased to see him take off, don't let the door slam him and shatter his bones when he's gone.
Thank you for the journey I suppose, but as it stands this monument to the mediocrity of real-world teenager minds shall simply have to remain ignored by me. I didn't feel like I was wasting my time as I read it, but now that we're over and done, I just feel as if the message of the story was ultimately not my particular brand of Kool-Aid and so I shall leave it at that. Flash in this story is just as horrible as he espouses the rest of humanity to be and I don't come here to read stories like this, at least not stories that fail so hard at doing anything to better establish themselves. The disjointed lengths of some of these chapters and the constant repetitive bullshit Flash has spewed out into the world of Equestria concerning our race as a whole, while perhaps true for the pessimistic sanctimonious scumbags of our world, just don't fly in the setting established by the canonical creators of EqG and MLP.
Had this been a different beast, a story honestly using a HiE setting without EqG I probably wouldn't have read it, but at least it would fit what the author was going for a bit better rather than forcing the pieces of a disconnected and disjointed mess together to make some sort of horrible mish-mash jigsaw image.
Perhaps I am being too harsh, or my words aren't being used correctly, but I am forced to comment as I see fit and critique how I see things.
Fun and interesting to read. He is right if most people would be good and helpful like him the world would be better but that is most likely not going to happen. Though if there is a afterlife he is winning, or if there is no afterlife and he still is able to die fulfilled then he also wins. It is sad though that he is obviously needs some helps since he actually left a magical world of fulfillment for his one. If he does not regret his decision at his death then at least he will have lived greater then I have....
I've loved most of this story, but while I can kind of see what Flash is trying to get at in the last few chapters, his utter unwillingness to even entertain the idea of listening to Sunset's (pretty damn reasonable) issues with his plan and to attempt to make or rely on friends with anyone at CHS at all was incredibly jarring. It honestly felt quite out of place tonally with a lot of the rest of the story - it was like Flash took all the character development he had made throughout and used it to go full circle. I could understand needing out of his environment, a new start and change of scenery - but the way he is going about it is pretty damn stupid.
Go out and try to save the world, sure, but at least graduate high school first. As is this is highly likely to just be a short-lived disaster.
Very, very strange choice to just wander to nowhere. fun ride, but Flash makes some questionable decisions.
Flash Sentry walks west.
I feel like Flash wasn’t the main character in this story at all. It ended as it began for him; he was always going to leave somehow. Full circle. It’s everyone he touched who changed.
Like throwing a rock in a pond. The ripples made by its passing are what remain...
But the rock disappears completely.
Thanks for the story.
this story has had up's and down's but the last few chapter and the ending of this story,,,,,,,,,,,,, well to say it is amazing is ceiling it short.
this story has cemented a place in my top five.
i will tell any one reading this post you defiantly need to read this story but be warned this is the kind of story that will have you looking at your self.
Harts Fire
ps i am hopping at some point shortskirtsandexplosions comes back to this story for a sequel this story really needs a look at how things work out in the long run.
i would like to see Flash back at CHS if only to pass back threw the mirror.
Sucker doesn't even have a guitar to grift pretty change with, yeesh.
High School is poison, and Flash was wise to get out of there, just not in the method he chose. Since school was so easy for him now he should have just gotten a GED and graduated early, then maybe signed up for a trade school of some kind like plumbing or driving an 18 wheeler. In other words, take a week to do some basic planning and then go out on his own.
8950182
That was in fact a lot to say but I agree with it fully.
That was one fuck up of an ending. The lesson Flash learned (or should have learned anyway) in Equestria is that making friends is easier than you think, and that it's much easier to improve both yourself and the world if you have friends to help you. Instead he completely ignores all that and fucks off to nowhere. He hasn't actually learned anything and has merely convinced himself that he has. God damn what even happened to posess you to write this ending? It takes a complete dump on the whole damn story!
8947710
Yes. I really don't see a why he's going to do anything. At all. He's going to end up dead in a back alley, and all the philosophical talk in the damn world isn't going to stop a bullet.
Well, I liked it. I'm sorry I can't be more specific than that, but I relate to a lot of the thoughts Flash was going through about the world. Not all of them. Maybe not even most. But something in there struck a chord with me, and I'm so glad it did. Thanks for a wonderful ride.
I really don’t know what possessed me to slog through this entire story. I wanted to give up on it so many times, but I perservered.
It was not worth it.
The entire story is nothing more than segments of edgy teenage wangst, tenuously held together by an out-of-character Flash who spouts unfunny real-world references every other sentence. Real world issues that have literally no place in the EQG world (such as race in a world where everyone is technicolour) are constantly brought up. Characters have real-world names, because the world of the story is named after that of the EQG world, despite having no real relation to it. The story is misanthropic to the point where if it weren’t for the bits of plot in between the misanthropic rants, I would have taken it for parody.
Flash is consistently out-of-character. He is literally just a bad reference machine with no actual personality or endearing character traits. He puts on a great show of learning things, of developing his character, and then tidily discards it all in the end. The story begins pretentiously, waxes poetic at great length, then ends pretentiously with nothing having been accomplished.
Like another commenter said, this could just as easily have been a generic HiE and the story wouldn’t have changed. I only read it because it looked EQG-related. I wouldn’t have even touched it had I known it was just going to be an edgy wank-fest.
TL;DR this is the only Skirts story I’ve read that I can honestly say I actively dislike. The entire story feels like it was pointless.
My favorite part of this story was the use of background Characters. Their characterization and growth was well written and enjoyable to read.
I enjoyed Flash's character up to a point. Maybe 8-10 years ago I would be more enraptured by his state of mind.
If this story is supposed to be a dismal black hole of teenage angst, rebellion, and short-sightedness, then well done. You nailed it.
Currently, I am unsatisfied with the ending. There was no victory for Flash, no satisfaction in his resolve. What I see next for flash is a fast forward 10 years and he's living in poverty. Maybe he finds a small town or 3rd world country and finds satisfaction in labor... with no continued education or skills, he is limited to a life of labor, homelessness, or state/government dependence.
At the end of the story he still had not found himself. Again, the teenage angst is great if you're into that, but the lack of resolution, however intentional it may be, left me feeling like I wasted my time reading this story. The theme of friendship was there, but the protagonist never put it into application, which means he left Equestria too soon. What else can he learn and ignore in his next "adventure"?
As a fan of your work, it is sad for me to say that about this story.
After being a lurker for upwards of 8 years since the beginning of this website, I feel it may finally be time to comment on a story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, not because I agreed with his actions or his thought process, but because I can understand his choice and his mindset. What I like about the ending is that it leaves the ultimate conclusion up to the reader as to how the story ends.
How to Disappear Completely's Flash Sentry is a thoroughly depressed soul which is understandable for his background and his age, How I feel about his situation is that he is so new to the wealth of choice in our land of free will that he is simply lost. With nobody to lead him, he has left himself to the grueling task of learning things on his own, for better or for worse.
But despite this, his journey through this story was not a total wasted time and I do not feel that same level of wasted energy that so many other readers feel. The reason why is because I feel that this version of Flash is a far more human character than readers give him credit for, and no one changes their fundamental self on a dime. I don't expect someone to change completely in the course of a week, it takes much longer than that. What I do see is a young suicidal man who had the courage to step away from the cliff and to walk the other way entirely, which is an improvement. This is why I see him walking away from everything to be a good thing. Choosing to live is a good starting point although probably not the best direction. At least he'll be alive.
I think he doesn't yet know how good it is for him or just where it will get him, but he's got a solid head on his shoulders and a good conscience despite the fact he has no idea how to live life and will most certainly return to his family for the same reason that he returned to the human world (that reason being that he wants to ultimately make the world a better place and needs to go to a place where he can do it).
Overall, I greatly enjoyed it, its about a boy who looks into the abyss and says to himself, "Not today."
Now how I personally imagine the ending to turn out would be something as simple as :
One Month Later.
Flash Sentry walks into a gas station to get himself a bottle of water and a clif bar. After groping around and finding his beaten wallet, tattered beyond reasonable use, he looks inside to find only three dollars and fifty cents. He looks up, biting his dried lip in an apprehensive grimace.
"Shit-."
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/6/24/1764531__safe_artist-colon-asktheinfiltrators_artist-colon-larrykitty_flash+sentry_clothes_equestria+girls+ponified_fanfic+art_jacket_male_ponified_pon.png
Couldn't help but draw this for the story