@StarTheBrony
Well, Fluttershy got a boyfriend, anyways, even if it was never outright said…

@Background Pony #6F65
Supposedly, in the initial concepts for G4, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy all were supposed to get boyfriends.

Because, Spike, she’s one of them.

@SunlightDrifter
I mean the most interesting relationship Twi has with a male character is Spike and yeah I don’t think I need to explain why shipping THOSE TWO would be an issue for people. Had g4 had a male mane 6 member like hitch is for g5 things would be different

I see Twilight has a type…

Spike’s girlfriend has lesbian harem, he can gets all the mares there along with her as well.

@SunlightDrifter  
Completely understandable. It DOES come off a bit as ‘He was a boy, she was a girl; can I make it anymore obvious?’
 
“It just so happens that the characters with the most personality are usually female in this magical pony show and the characters Twilight as the most interesting relationships with are also female.” That really is what it comes down to, isn’t it? Have you ever, like, looked up fanworks for a shounen anime, and found that they’re mostly made by m/m shippers? People ponder over it, complain about it even, but then you look at the statistics, and it turns out that the core cast of characters totals twelve and only like three of them are female, and canonically most of the attention is given to like two or three of the dude characters? I feel like the inverse of that is what happened with Friendship is Magic. Regardless of the fandom, shippers gonna ship; that’s just how it is. And they’re going to use what’s been given to them; if you give them mostly female characters with meaningful canon relationships with other female characters, then so be it. That’s the fan content you’re gonna get. A lot of it boils down to statistics, really.
 
…Sorry. Did not mean to turn that into a mini ramble. :B
 
In this particular case, you’re right; the most likely male suitors for Twilight are already taken. Maybe if there’d been male characters introduced that had more of a rapport with Twilight, there’d be more m/f works about her. But in the meantime, we got what we got, and I, personally, am not gonna throw any fits about it.

@Background Pony #5197  
Honestly, that’s understandable and valid. Official romance in media is all well and good, but if it’s too forced it’s not going to be much fun. I mean…Flash Sentry was literally only created to be a character interested in Twilight; I can see how people would find that obnoxious. (Thankfully fanfiction/art/comics exist; if a ship you don’t like is made canon, or done in a way you don’t care for, then the fans have you covered! This fandom has literally made some of the best I’ve ever seen, to boot; I don’t doubt that there are people out there who have made Flashlight work)

I mean, I wouldn’t mind Flash Sentry if he had an actual dynamic with Twilight beyond “obligatory teen love interest”. He didn’t even have a real character when he and Twilight were expected to like each other and the fact that the relationship could never realistically go anywhere was just icing on the cake.
 
It just so happens that the character’s with the most personality are usually female in this magical pony show and the characters Twilight has the most interesting relationships with are also female.
 
Shipping Twilight with a male would be more popular if the shows had more dynamic male characters. As it stands, the only male character that sort of meets those qualifications and wouldn’t be creepy to pair Twilight with is probably Discord or Sunburst, and they’re taken as far as the fandom is concerned.

@H.L. Xkcess  
Not to open a giant can of sand strikers, but at least for me, the problem with FlashLight wasn’t that it existed. It was the way that it was executed. FlashLight in EG, SciSpruce in LoE and RariMuffin in SB were utterly blatant examples of Token Romance and Strangled By The Red String, both of which are tropes I loath with a passion. And frankly, the latter two also came across as Ship Sinking about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the skull.
 
I’ve read enough fanfics that make FlashLight work to know the ship isn’t inherently problematic. Again, it’s all about execution and optics.
 
@K_Zanuels  
I agree. Flash isn’t the problem. Its the tropes around his introduction that were the problem.

@H.L. Xkcess  
I don’t hate Flash Sentry, TBH. He doesn’t have a WHOLE lot to him; he’s…just…generically nice. But, on the other hand, he’s nice! There’s WAY worse ways to get characterized! I like him okay, and by extension I like Twilight x Flash okay, too. I swear, I didn’t mean to like…discriminate against heterosexual MLP fans with the sheer amount of femslash my bi self has made for the fandom so far. XD

@SunlightDrifter  
“Yeah, but they all got better.”

@Midday Sun  
THAT was an accident, I assure you. Princess Twilight Sparkle is NO racist, I promise. (…or would that be specist, in this particular case?)

@Background Pony #978F  
Quite! (…not gonna lie, there is at least ONE stallion I ship her with, so uh…just be grateful the herd isn’t bigger?)

@Background Pony #DA53  
That’s the sole reason why Flash Sentry was hated, it makes me wonder what would’ve happened had Hasbro gone through with making him and Twilight a thing.

@Midday Sun  
Spike: And, no offense, haven’t they all tried to ruin and-slash-or end your life before?

It’s called a harmen, Spike!

Spike: And why are they all unicorns anyway?
 
Twilight: Th-that’s not true…Luna is right there.

a bulky herd