After Flash lets his superhero life interfere with his personal life too much, his parents ground him until he can get his act together. But when a new villain called The Hypnotist puts the entire town under his control to commit acts of crime for him, Flash needs to stop him and save everyone from his control, and do it before his parents find out he left the house.
- Answer Cut: The first scene has a news announcer commenting on some footage about the alien heroes, and wonders aloud how they wish they knew what they were doing right now. The very next scene opens with Flash getting grounded by his parents.
- Apologetic Attacker: After XLR8 knocks out Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie, he tells Trixie to remind him to apologize to them later.
- Batman Gambit: The Hypnotist takes control of a mass of people, including the Rainbooms, and have them commit crimes in order to flush out the alien heroes, so that he can mind control them as well.
- Big Damn Heroes: Trixie, who avoided capture earlier, manages to save Flash before The Hypnotist can put him under his control too, and uses her smoke bombs to cover their escape.
- Blatant Lies: After everyone is freed from The Hypnotist's control and XLR8 announces what happened, The Hypnotist denies it and tries to state he is innocent and that the alien was the one who brainwashed everyone, and that he is still doing it to the "weak minded girl", referring to Trixie. Nobody buys this since they all know the aliens are the good guys, and remember him from right before he took control of them.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Flash isn't at all impressed by The Hypnotist's motives for controlling everyone in town, being that he was sick of taking orders from his Control Freak parents and doing jobs he hated like cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors. Flash calls him insane.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Flash's main problem is always jumping in to help even if the situation doesn't need him. It has gotten so bad he has been absent from several classes, his grades have started to drop, and his parents note how he is constantly coming home limping, bruised, and exhausted. Trixie even says it is his own fault he got grounded for not balancing his double-life better.
- Freudian Excuse: The Hypnotist lived his whole life doing everything his Control Freak parents wanted, even taking jobs he hated. When he got ahold of the gem that gave him his powers, he saw it as an opportunity to be the one in control for once. Flash considers him crazy, seeing as how he was basically doing it to get out of scrubbing floors.
- Irony: The Rainbooms have dealt with villains that mind-control others before, but become victims to it themselves this time. This forces Flash, who was brainwashed himself twice before, to step in and save them.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: When Flash is back to his human form, he pretends to be brainwashed like everyone else, walking around like them and helping them carry stolen goods. None of the brainwashed people recognize he isn't one of them, but The Hypnotist doesn't recognize him and confirms he isn't brainwashed when he doesn't respond to a mental command.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Downplayed; Trixie admits she is a little miffed at Flash for him not trying to find her after he arrived, but she accepts his explanation that he thought she was already captured when her call was cut and he was caught up dealing with their brainwashed friends.
- Wrong Context Magic: Whatever the gem that allowed the Hypnotist to control people was, Flash figured it wasn't Equestrian magic since it didn't react to the Rainbooms' presence and transform the Hypnotist.
- You Are Grounded!: The main premise of the chapter. Flash's parents ground him due to his multiple absences from class, which makes it hard for him to do any hero-ing. He is officially ungrounded at the end of the chapter, but is warned not to slack off again.
