Flash Sentry is a member of the Royal Guard whose remarkable rise got knocked off-kilter when he bumped into the captain's little sister.
Flash Sentry is a teenage human with an unfortunate habit of walking into attractive girls.
Flash Sentry is a hero.
Flash Sentry is a rock star.
Flash Sentry is an angel.
Flash Sentry is many things. The problems come when trying to reconcile them. And when he keeps showing up to interrupt one's train of thought.
Winner of Bicyclette's Flash Sentry contest, and a part of the Oversaturated World with (hopefully) no background information required beyond what this story provides.
Rated Teen for some uncouth moments and Crossover for a brief dalliance with Kill Six Billion Demons. Again, no familiarity required.
Chapters (1)
This fic was very good! I liked all the different Flashes meeting with all the different Ditzies.
Flash as a protocol droid makes way too much sense.
Excellent work and a welcome return for the OW. Best of luck in the judging.
Had this story concept come from just about anyone else, I probably wouldn't have read it. But since it came from you, I gave it a shot, and -- I'm not at all surprised to say -- I enjoyed it.
I'm also reminded of my take on a certain beloved pony, named Dawn's Eastern Rays of Perfect Yellow, who could see (but not travel) into alternate realities.
NormalHorse!Tempest wins the upvote for this one. I love the visual.
Nice opening about how Guard recruitment works!
Took me until "golden eyes" to figure out who the girl was, because I didn't read the tags!
Wooo! Flash, and Ditzy, getting exactly what they deserve.
11492119
Or the author?
That was a fun trip. Praise be to Warsteed Tempest
My brain was melting its processing unit reading the 'walker-of-the-paracausal-plane Ditzy,' but goddamn did I enjoy the trip. Not at all what I'd expected going into this, but nice to see Flash get what he actually deserves.
Some love, appreciation and an actual plot
11492009
All the same Ditzy! But now I wonder if all those universes had their own Ditzies/Derpies/Muffins/Bubbles/whatever, and the local Flashes just hadn't met them (yet.)
"What's the matter? Lives flashing before your eyes?"
This quote came into my head the minute I saw the title of this story
Goddamit.
Goddamit
This is friggen excellent. Its perfect. I'm envious infact of how good it is. My favourite Flash pairing, alt universes and strong drama/thematic resonance.
How did you get in my head FOME?
I'm no chemist, but I've read enough to know that anything with that many nitrates is probably bad news.
11492319
I for one would really like to see this Ditsy Doo meet and help/talk to different Ditzies/Derpies/Muffins/Bubbles Equine as well as Human.
11492009 11492319
s, though her name is terribly inconsistent across different realities. She's presumably in the Realm somewhere, possibly stumbling through fae logic in a way that will either indenture her to the fair folk for a century or vice versa. As for Throne, goodness knows there are enough souls there that one of them could resonate with Ditzy. It's just a question of species.
The Equestrias and Magical Moments definitely have their own
11492017
He may be fluent in seven million different languages, but his proximity sensors are a bit dinged up.
11492024
There's an argument that Best Pony is focusing along exotic dimensions even in canon, given stunts like showing up in a snowglobe. Thanks for giving the story a chance; I'm glad you enjoyed it.
11492090 11492163
She was originally going to be Sparkler/Amethyst Star, but I realized I had a much better candidate for "aggressive unicorn with far less patience for diplomacy than Flash."
11492119
As Flash Magnus observed, the curse is really more of an opportunity.
11492235
Huh. I hadn't really thought of probability space as paracausal per se, but not only does it work in the Lancer sense of the term, it also applies given varying rates of time flow between worldlines. Now I'm imagining Ditzy having to dodge around the occasional blinkspace-tunneling giant robot.
In any case, glad you enjoyed the story! See here for Ditzy's even more awkward first day with these abilities.
11492323
Thankfully, no avatars of Death are involved in this story. Except in Throne, but that one was just getting a bowl of noodles.
11492459
Didn't mean to be there, but I'm glad I was able to provide something so perfectly catered to your impeccable taste.
11492579
It may help to know that nitroglycerin is also known as glyceryl trinitrate.
11492671
Ditzy is one of the more inconsistent entities out there; she may not always be able to relate/help with her counterparts' issues. Could still be fun, though.
Welcome back, Oversaturated World!
You've once again wrote an amazing piece! You captured the emotional turmoil of Ditzy and bring it to life in the form of her multiversal journey for clarity, only for said multiverse to shove the answer straight in her face time and time again :P "hugs Ditzy" Still, glad these two finally managed to get some time to talk things out
This is one of the best stories I've read from you in a while, the sort that demands a reread for context. Hopefully it does well in the contest!
And regarding the rejected universes, I imagine Lancer-universe Ditzy is the one who somehow created the Lich.
11492930
The heart knows what it wants. The trick is convincing the brain to cooperate.
11492996
DERPFRIEND_68: so, uh...
CARROTULA: Yeah?
DERPFRIEND_68: remember that mystery print?
CARROTULA: The exabyte fabrication file?
CARROTULA: The one that just showed up one day in our much smaller local storage?
CARROTULA: The one we'll apparently make ten thousand years from now?
CARROTULA: Nah, completely slipped my mind.
DERPFRIEND_68: [f_u.omif]
CARROTULA: Don't tell me you're actually thinking of printing that thing.
DERPFRIEND_68: i don't think we have a choice
CARROTULA: What's this "we" business?
DERPFRIEND_68: take a look
DERPFRIEND_68: [who_dat.omif]
DERPFRIEND_68: that was recorded last week
CARROTULA: You falling on your face in public with weird hardlight accessories?
CARROTULA: Congrats, you're a fail meme. What's this have to do with the mech from RA's golden years?
DERPFRIEND_68: literally the opposite end of the galaxy from where we are
DERPFRIEND_68: either i went superluminal and forgot or there's time shenanigans afoot
DERPFRIEND_68: also i don't have anything like that in me
DERPFRIEND_68: yet
CARROTULA: I mean, would causing a paradox be that bad?
DERPFRIEND_68: i'd rather print the monster mech than get lost in a negative time wedgie
CARROTULA: Bold of you to assume one won't cause the other.
>//TRANSCRIPT ENDS
We can all hope Flash's new songs will be ruined.
Because if all goes well, he won't have the muse to express a wounded, broken heart anymore.
Oooh, after many days and dreams, I finally thought of what this all means to Dinky! Since she sorta lost her dad for a while. ... The "curse" seems to be hitting the family younger and younger? Possibly concerning?
ahaha that does explain his appearance in Forgotten Friendship!
hehe yay Princess Twilight’s new Equestria!
aww so true. non-ponies must seem stoic and unreadable to the expressive ponies
ahaha love that the unicorn is Tempest
ooh, the eyes again!
i am glad Flash knows better, and aww, love Tempest as a more literal horse
ooh, love how such a sight is sacrilegious to this Flash
dang, this Twilight really does it all!
ohh so that’s who she is! love never reading tags
yay Wallflower’s also in this
damn, the multiversery escalated quickly! love it
hehe, love how it is both Flash and Twilight that we see as constants across all of these multiverses
perfection
damn i love this worldbuilding
now that is an overdeity!
augh what a fantastic adaptation of her character’s elements, love this
hehehe yay guardsmare R63 Flash Sentry!
oof, love how double-edged all of these are
so true bestie (also always love the use of “Fillystine”)
and augh yes that is exactly Twilight’s idea
so relatable (except stories instead of songs)
and oof, that does bring all of this together
oof the background pony complex is strong with her :(
hehehe but he has the spirit!
and what a great line to end it with
all of these are great and i love them (though is Twi’lek Sparkle herself a Twi’lek? would it be weirder if she were or if she weren’t?)
11513719
See also what I did with the title in the cover image.
Note that the city of Throne and great YISUN are not my own creations. Credit where it's due, and in this case the credit goes to the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons. (Similarly, the strange tale of Sir Flash and the sun faerie draws a lot of inspiration from a Magic: the Gathering plane.)
Ditzy flying between realities like a friendly, humanoid Yog-Sothoth is my creation.
The intent was for that to be more of a nickname/summary concept. She'd probably still be named Twilight. Part of the reason I dropped that one was that I have a surface-level understanding of Star Wars at best.
Very glad you enjoyed the fic. Winning the contest is just the cherry on top. Thanks for giving me an excuse to tell this story!
11492805
At the very least Ditsy can listen to their problems and share a Muffin or two or three or a dozen.
D'aww.
The idea that he joined the military because he wasn't quite cut out for football amuses me.
He's just ignoring the fact she knew his name? I bet he didn't think that through.
Oh, it's Ditzy! Hi there! ...Yes, I know she can't hear me.
Can they do that‽
Hmm, did she get in a fight with Sunset? Could it have anything to do with Flash, I wonder.
I bet it varies from author to author.
I wanna say the curse is originally Chinese, but don't quote me on that. I do know it's old.
Also, I think this is her Sentry, which makes this part important.
11492323
Yep. All over the place. They just won't stand still and resolve into one plane.
11513965
The title? *Looks* I don't get it. ... Ooohh. Clever.