I'm currently in front of a manor in the Inner city, having already knocked on the door. Or rather, one of my guard did.
Rapid hoofsteps can be heard and the door swings open.
"Prince Solus! You made it!", Sunset says, beaming.
"Of course I did, Lady Shimmer, what do you take me for?" I say in my worst imitation of a noble.
*snort*
"Heh-eh, sorry, of course you, eh, wouldn't!"
I smile.
"On a more serious note, I'm glad to see you again, Sunset."
"Me too, Prince. Please come in!"
I follow her inside. The interior is exactly as what I expected: banners, tapestries, paintings, marble and gold. I wonder if the nobility would have a collective heart attack if I built something out of granite and silver? Hmm, something to consider for the future...
Anyway, let's set aside the inner monologue for now.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"Hmm, do you like chess?"
"I never really played, but I'd be willing to try."
Not exactly a lie, since I never played in this life. In my previous one, I never won at chess, I always got beaten because I had no idea what to do.
"Come on then! We have a set in the garden!"
She runs off and I hurry to follow her. We soon arrive outside, in a, well, a garden. Surprise, surprise.
Enough self-snark.
The garden is quite the sight, with exotic flowers and fountains. I'm pretty sure the exotic birds are enchanted to stay here, but it's still quite beautiful.
Sunset is already at a table which has a chess set deployed on top of it. I sit opposite her, and look over the pieces. Seems the pawns are earth ponies and the knights are pegasi. The king is a unicorn, rooks are towers, fools are also unicorns and...
The queen is an alicorn. Obviously.
"Prince?"
"Uh, oh! Sorry, I'm listening!"
She shakes her head, smiling.
"As I was saying, do you know how to play?"
"Superficially."
"Right. Well it's rather simple, see that piece there? It can..."
Thunk!
"You'll win one day, Prince."
"Right."
Considering I currently had my muzzle pressed against the table, It probably came out as 'vraith', or something like that.
Thunk!
"Oh, come on it wasn't that bad."
"I do not appreciate false compliments."
"It wasn't a compliment."
Thunk!
"You didn't lose that often."
"Sunset. 29 to 1. And I'm pretty sure you lost that one on purpose."
"What? Noooo..."
Doesn't that sound sincere.
"And it has just been an hour since we first began to play. Two minutes per match."
"Well...don't feel too bad? You're just six after all."
Oh, right. Wound my pride even further. It's not like I'm actually nearly three times your age.
"Not that I'm not having fun, but can we do something else?"
"Hmm, oh! We could go swim!"
"Swim? I didn't know you had a pond nearby."
If only because we are on a mountain.
"No, silly! We have pool! Come, on I'll show you!"
Pool? Did medieval societies have pools? Hmm...
Well, it's not like it requires any kind of special technology...
Meh, whatever.
I follow her out of the garden to another area, where there is a rather large pool. A huge pool. And I just thought about something.
"Uh, Sunset?"
"Yeah?"
"I...I don't know how to, uh, how to-"
"You don't know how to swim? That's not a problem, I'll teach you!"
"Really? Thank you!"
I glomp her, holding her neck.
"A-ah, It's, uh, nothing, Prince! Let's do it!"
I let go and follow her to the edge of the pool. She jumps in and begin swimming.
"See my legs? You simply paddle in rhythm. It's a lot like galloping, in fact!"
Is it really that simple?
"Come on! Jump in! I'll hold you with my magic!"
Oh, dear. Here we go!
"Cowabunga!"
I jump in. Eeep, it's cold! Paddle, paddle...I'm not doing it! I'm not doing it!
"Help!", I shriek.
"Hold on! I got you!"
As she says that, I feel myself being lifted up and I can finally stop flailing.
"There, it's okay. Why don't you try it again? Don't worry, I won't let go."
I do as she says, slowly. Move right foreleg, move left hindleg...
I "swim" for a few minutes before Sunset talks again.
"I'm going to let you go now, tell me when you're ready."
"What? I'm not ready! Not even close!"
"It's not that complicated, Solus. You're already doing it."
"...Fine, I'm ready."
The support slowly fades away and I struggle to continue without it.
"Relax. If you keep your legs that stiff, you won't be able to do it."
Relax, Relax...
Hey! I'm doing it!
"I'm doing it! Sunset, I'm doing it!"
She laughs.
"That you are! Told you you could do it!"
I swim in circle around her, smiling like Pinkie Pie. And then I have a sudden impulse coming from my childish brain.
"Oy, Sunset!"
"Hmm?"
"Take this!"
I proceed to splash her. Now her mane is down in her face and she's spitting out water. She also has a murderous look in her eyes.
"Wait until I get you, twerp!"
Curse you, child's brain!
"Huff-hurph, you...you didn't need to -hurf- nearly drown me."
"You started it!"
"I just wanted to have fun!"
"Well...I didn't know that!"
What else could I have meant?
"So? Did you really think I was attacking you? After everything you've done?"
"N-no...ugh! Fine! I'm sorry! There! Happy?"
Didn't that seem honest.
"I'll take it."
"Whatever."
A bell rings out.
"What's that?"
"It means dinner is served. Come on!"
She starts to walk away.
"Right, right I'm following you."
"Also, I have my lessons to attend this afternoon, so dinner is all the time we have left."
"Lessons? I thought this day was a free day?"
"Only losers and underachievers take breaks like that."
"If you say so."
"That's what my mother says and considering she's one of the top nobles, I'll believe her."
I think I'll shut up now. She's clearly disinclined to discuss this. Wait...
Mmm, sweet, sweet food...how you smell divinely tasty...
"I was glad to spend the morning with you, Sunset."
"Likewise, Prince."
"See you later, and good luck with your lessons!"
She grins.
"I don't need luck. See you tonight."
"'Kay! Bye!"
She waves as I enter the carriage. I don't think I ever felt this happy in this life. Just...playing and fooling around. Getting to act like a child. I wonder if I could get away with acting like that with Shiny, Mac and Cady...
Probably not, but I'll make sure the next generation can. And maybe Sunset will help me do that.
o-o
...
...
...
The ship has sailed.
dawwwww this was a nice chapter a nice reak from all the scheaming and plotting
Well it's a good chapter. Now I feel like plot will come in at any moment
Hah!
Sunset= Laughter!
Double down that bet!
Time skip incoming! (hopefully)
8331604
Ok, I'll admit I didn't see anything there that would hint at a shipping.
I kind of want a time skip honestly I feel like he's been six long enough that ageing him wouldn't be a bad thing or too sudden.
8331636
My thoughts exactly. This little 1k words chapters every day are nice and all, but they give a little the impression that there is no "plot" where they are leading to.
They feel more like Slice of Life episodes. Well, to me at least.
Her face scrunched up in thought. "Hmm, do you like chess?"
Chess? That's the first thing Sunset thought about? Neeeerd.
Her eyes went wide as she beams, "Come on then! We have a set in the garden."
Sunset must really like chess.
She placed a hoof on her chest with a mock surprise. "What? Noooo..."
Your story has so much potential that I'm loving it. Buuttt... Butts.
Solus raised an eyebtow, "Swim? I didn't know you had a pond nearby."
I'll stop here, I really encourage more on world building, movements, cause they bring more life and action that stimulates the imagination. I can see improvements and I am loving it. I, myself, am not a professional writer but the things I learned would greatly benefit this story because it has tremendous potential and glory.
Keep on movin, mate.
...I just realised that Sunset's name could be a metaphor in this reality, she is the one who will set the sun... Ooh, rhymes.
I mean it's more likely that Solus will be the one who usurps Celestia but it's still an idea.
good chapter
kinda short
update soon
8331604
I'm gladly onboard of this one! I think they could become a good couple!
I think Sunset could be a good addition for Solus' team because she is the closest thing he could have as an equal, and is on pare to him in inelegance, isn't dependent to his parentage, unlike like others, so more interdependent minded and is much more liable to have her own opinions and especially not afraid to voice once she can see she can let her guard down with him. I think she would work better a a partner to Solus rather rather then other his underlings. She is probably much more resourceful, has much more ambitions then Solos has and he could learn a lot from her and could become a great support him when it comes making plans. At the moment, I think she is probably very mean and can dominate other through intimidation if only, but I think she can use her commanding presences to get everyone to work a a team and know s how to muster all her resources at her disposal.
I think that rather then trying resist her desires of ambitions she should learn to rechannel her ambitions to something more constructive ends so that. I think she looks cuter then she is denied think to her and work all the harder to get reach it. I think pride would be a good motivate for her become a better pony.
All doe she might be lacking is a goals at the that she can say that she left a permanent mark of progress in this Equestria's history as part of her legacy. If I were to give her the name of the element she could embody it would be Generosity, if only in the sense that she could teach others on how to empower themselves and help spread knowledge to all classes of ponies, and be a patron of illumination.
One thing that I wonder if all nobles goes to the same school institution later on in life. From the sounds of it Sunset attend some school of sorts at the age of nine. So I wonder if Solus will have to attend it in order to create his own connections there later on in life during his rule?
Can't wait to see the next chapter.
8331681
Early childhood friendship obviously going to build up to romance when they're older.
I know the Romans had pools, as did that odd religion that spawned Jesus...what where they called again? I know it was a tribe of Israel.
There was a heated swimming pool in the Vikings TV series which is circa medieval.
Also, while 'Courage is Magic' the role playing game wouldn't technically be cannon, the game implies inspiration, sub heading idea theft actually is an act of generosity. So, imitation really is the best form of flattery and acts of selfishness are technically generous when the other party is your enemy.
Sunset and the protagonist? I ship it.
Perhaps Sunset will be the element of laughter? Only time will tell.
8358795
it's not bad, but I image a different personality for his girlfriend somehow, I think I'm kind of expecting something that would fit in this world.
Till now there is also the chance of Solus x Celestia if he wants it or not, even if I don'T believe it would happen, I think she only tried to get an alicorn.
8333569
Tribe of Juda, AKA Jews
8507447
Hi, I'm late to the party! Also I think as of this chapter it could happen if he does manage to purifier her though the same could be same about Luna if he saves her.
Um, well, if you want a CLEAN pool...
11290315
*Wiggles hooves*
Magic