Very interesting concept for unicorn horns. I actually put a small extension of the brain in there, which does most of the magical heavy lifting when prompted by the primary cortex, much in the same way a child's mind predicts the position of a thrown ball in time to catch it. (It's also how and why Rarity got dragged to her destiny. The cornic lobe doesn't usually do anything but help with magic, but it can get antsy when special talents are involved.)
Heh. Sunset almost dipped her toe into the aquatic ape hypothesis there. We may be on par with ponies, but we're much better swimmers than most of our taxonomic relatives.
Also, Sunset's gone from wizard to bard. Well, it's certainly forward progress. It will be very interesting to see where she goes from here.
She is impressed by Human technology. She knows it's more advanced than Equestria's. She feels a strong sense of superiority based on Equestrian culture (which she has come to romanticize a little after years of exile), especially Equestrian moral philosophy. She sees Equestrians (and herself) as morally superior to the Human "barbarians."
She has to make exceptions in her worldview for Flash Sentry, because she has to reconcile her assumptions of superiority with the fact that she loves him. She knows that he's as nice or nicer than most Equestrian stallions, and she's further prejudiced toward him because of her love. Some of this is just that she's terribly lonely and has fixed on him as the nicest attractive male in her environment; some of it is due to Flash's genuine virtues.
The problem (for Sunset) is that Flash likes most of his fellow Humans, and would be -- will be -- horrified when he realizes just how ruthless she's capable of being toward them.
will Sunset consider someday share her research about magic with humanity?
Possibly. The problem is that a lot of the magic she's managed to cast as a Human isn't practical -- it's just enough that she could prove magic to Human scientists, if she wanted to do so, but it's not enough to be actually useful compared to technological solutions. Even her success at the end of Chapter Six took a couple of minutes. She could have done it faster with a lighter, and not also set her carpet on fire.
She's especially likely to show her work, later on when she's friendly with Princess Twilight and the Rainbooms. Though she spends a lot of Rainbow Rocks deeply-demoralized and perhaps even clinically-depressed. Part of the inspiration for this story was my realization of how badly broken she was at the end of Equestria Girls.
My opinion is that she demonstrated her skill with musical magic at the climax of Rainbow Rocks, when she defeated the Dazzlings -- exactly what she was thinking of in my story when she was remembering that there had been really-dangerous Sea Pony warlocks.
On the one hoof, my North Amareican Federation isn't precisely the United States of America. It's kinder in some ways (especially domestically), crueller in others (especially militarily). I made it a strangely resonant alternate history because I noticed that the culture shown in the EG movies is one that has never really been through the 60's-70's Counterculture. Our actual country would horrify Sunset far more in its extremely pornographic pop culture and promiscuity, maybe less so in its military history and diplomatic attitudes (she wouldn't blink an eye on what was going on without our interference, Equestria itself is a country who believes that everyone beyond its frontiers are at least semi-barabaric).
On the other hoof, Sunset Shimmer is a more than a slightly biased observer. She's horribly lonely, and still crushed by her rejection by Celestia, and close to going Lone-Mad. She has too see herself and her civilization as vastly superior, because the moment that she doesn't, she's just one lonely little mare trapped among aliens forever, aliens who may in their alienness have points of view as meaningful and valuable as her own. Part of the reason she falls for Flash Sentry is that she is very lonely, and she desperately wants a friend, wants someone to love. And she has to see him as a Pony at heart to get past her own prejudices.
Cloud Kicker was a lonely young filly with too much erudition for her own good when she summoned Winning, which as some people have pointed out to me is a horribly-dark concept -- she destroyed herself through naivete rather than true evil. Sunset Shimmer was older when she turned on Celestia, and she was very fortunate that when she went Nightmare at the climax of Equestria Girls it was right in the presence of Twilight Sparkle and the local analogues of the Element Bearers -- this is why she was defeated, but also why she managed to avoid harming herself (or anyone else) too much in her fall.
The main prices Sunset pays for her pride are (1) losing Celestia's favor (though they are destined to be reconciled -- it's very obvious in canon that Celestia still cares about her a lot); (2) losing Flash's love (in the SWSV, because of who Twilight chooses, she still has a chance of winning it back later on) and (3) alienating pretty much everyone else at Canterlot High School (though by the end of Rainbow Rocks she's pretty much forgiven, because she saved them all from the Sirens). This story is mostly about how she wins and loses Flash Sentry's love, and it's obvious in the story that he really does care for her.
Also, I like the refernce to the Earth Maiden and Sky Maiden story...can't remember the name, though...
Yeah. I really liked that story, can't remember the name or the author, but I know it's somewhere on the site. The concept of the ritual was great, but it didn't sound like something that fit at all into modern Equestria. That's why I located the ritual in pre-Windigo Tri-Tribal times, and had Sunset Shimmer (a modern Equestrian) be shockd by discovering that it was once practiced (it violates her morality for at least two reasons -- the impersonality of the sex and the publicity of the sex). Celestia has of course known about it for a long time (my Celestia probably heard about it either when she was still in Paradise Estate or soon afterward, when she researched the Three Tribes at the Great Library of the Crystal Empire, about 2500 years ago) and merely points out that such rituals are bad ideas but can become customary due to having worked at least once to produce good outcomes.
The relevance of the story is that, ironically, Sunset is now warping her own life in pursuit of power in a manner even worse that a participant in the old ritual, in pursuit of power, and it's corrupting her. She originally dates Flash as a political machination -- when, with greater luck than she really deseves, she discovers that Flash really is a kindred spirit and possible soul mate, she then assumes that she must throw his love away because it doesn't fit her own (poorly-conceived) ambitions. The irony here is that Sunset considers herself morally-superior to the ancient practicioners of the Marriage of Earth and Sky, but her moral superiority is questionable to say the least -- at least they engaged in their sex magic for the good of their people, and did so openly and without deception, while Sunset is behaving selfishly and surreptitiously, including toward Flash.
A lot of this story is about Sunset's arrogance and moral hypocrisy, if you've noticed.
Magic was never adapted to practical purposes in the EG Humanoidverse because it was far too weak and unreliable. Science grew up disbelieving in it (because they couldn't reproduce even trivial results) and hence would now require extraordinary proof to accept its reality (a whole school falling into a dimensional rift and gateways opening to a parallel world might have done it, though). Sunset has the huge advantage that she knows magic can work, and precisely how to work it. Even she can't do anything which she couldn't do far more practically with chemistry and other forms of known Humanoidverse technology -- even when she sets fire to her room, it takes her two minutes and a lot of effort -- she could have achieved the same results faster through conventional arson. Plus, she didn't actually mean to set fire to her room!
Things may of couse change now. After Equestria Girls, magic becomes terrifyingly easier to do, especially in the vicinity of Canterlot High School. And the barriers between the planes are weakening.
I think a big part of why she seems so strongly to believe that humans are mostly barbaric rapists is because she is afraid if she allows herself to admire the human world to much, it will be harder for her to go home, and especially hard for her to use humans as pawns in her plans. By constantly telling herself humanity sucks, it's a lot easier to justify acting selfishly.
Exactly. If you've noticed, Canterlot High School is an elite high school with a fairly moral student body who are more inclined to hang out and make friends with each other than go on rampages of brutality and sexual violence, in a society which is if anything a cleaner version of the modern West. We're talking Archie's Riverdale here, not Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi's Caliphate or Hitler's Germany.
They are slightly more violent, sexually-aggressive and promiscous than are most Equestrians (especially in the little upper-class scholar-gentry bubble in which Sunset Shimmer was raised -- and note, she was around 15 when she exiled herself -- not exactly a mare of the world -- so her perspective on Equestrian culture was that of a smart but somewhat innocent teenaged filly); but not terribly so. We would find them to be compassionate, polite and moral by modern American standards, let alone worse ones.
Note that in the first love scene, she's actually afraid that Flash is going to lose control and rape her. Instead, the instant he realizes that she's not entirely comfortable with how far they're going, Flash demonstrates empathy and concern for her; he backs off and has a conversation with her. Flash is a good guy even by the standards of his world, but he's not as uniquely nice as she imagines. He's a superior product of his social environment. A lot of the guys at Canterlot High School are fundamentally decent fellows.
Sunset has to see them as monsters because it excuses her own bad behavior toward them. But she can't believe this regarding Flash, beause she's falling in love with him -- and coming to know him too well to maintain her self-delusion. So she instead sees him as an exception -- a "credit to his race" in mid-20th century terms.
One of the great and wonderful surprises which greeted Sunset Shimmer in her exile was the Human menstrual cycle. By the point at which the story begins, she's been Human for a while, so she's more or less used (and resigned) to it. But it must have scared the heck out of her the first time (even though one of the first things she would have researched was her own new form). It probably still rather revolts her.
On the plus side, she doesn't have an externally-obvious estrus cycle any more ... her ovulation is covert. That means she doesn't have to suppress the smell and the sexual desires for three days every three weeks, as she did as a Pony mare.
Instead, she has constant sexual desire. Which is one of the reasons she's a bit paranoid about most Human males. We take this for granted, but it's one of the odd things about our genus.
Sunset Shimmer is highly-intelligent and does not like the idea of losing emotional control -- these are character traits she shares with her somethingth-cousin Twilight Sparkle. She also comes from pretty much the same cultural background, and has very similar sexual morals.
So the fact that she's fooling around with Flash is a strong sign of her attachment to him.
Being in the human world seems to have affected the way Sunset thinks as well, perhaps, since she keeps using 'Kind' instead of 'tribe' when referring to ponies.
FiMFiction has a bug which prevents notifications if replies are not in the same chapter as the original comment.
This is a response:
The Menarche of Sunset Shimmer might make a good side story:
After going through the mirror, Sunset Shimmer finds herself an ape. She learns that this kind of ape is called human. She does a little research for determining what humans eat and what the males look like without clothes —— ¡The males have small pendulous genitals!
She leads a double life; for learning about the humans and their world, she pretends to be in her midteens and matriculates as a freshwoman in the local high school; while she lives the life of an independent adult woman in her early 20s out of school.
A fortnight after arriving, she is in class, when she notices a spreading bloodstain on her skirt and realizes that she sits in a puddle of her own blood. She screams in panic. The whole class looks toward her. Flash Sentry sees the problem and selflessly sacrifices his blazer for wrapping her and the teacher Cranky Doodle walks Sunset Shimmer to School-Nurse Read heart.
Red Heart explains menstruation to Sunset Shimmer and gives to her menstrual pads. She explains how to use them. She gives Sunset Shimmer a change of clothing and sent her home with a note to her parents, admonishing them for not explaining menstruation. She told Sunset Shimmer to see her when she returns for a talk.
Red Heart wanted to talk to Sunset about human reproduction to Sunset Shimmer because she did not want Sunset to end up pregnant with no idea how it happened because she has no idea how reproduction works; that happens all too often. She remembers that 1 time she had a 7-month pregnant girl who neither know that she was pregnant, nor knew what pregnancy is because she believed that storks delivered babies.
Cranky planned to finish the lesson and then clean the seat after class, but the seat was clean:
After Cranky and Sunset left, Flash Sentry cleaned the seat. When some of the other students started making fun of Sunset, he declared, "¡If anyape has a problem with Sunset, you have a problem with me!". By the time Cranky returned Flash quieted the class, so that Cranky could resume the lesson immediately.
On the way home, Sunset thought about how disgusting these apes are. The only way that these apes could get more revolting is if they start throwing around their own poop.
The menstruation story strikes me as a good idea. No matter what she's read, this has to hit Sunset as an unpleasant surprise, because it's bleeding and it's something Ponies don't do.
And it would be interesting if Flash did something nice for her before they were even dating. And wholly in character for Flash. Back then in my verse, he would have been either with Lyra or just making friends with Lyra -- the first of the three "horse women" (actually, displaced Equestrian mares) for whom he falls.
"Tribe" versus "Kind" -- "Tribe" is political, it refers to that type of Pony as a polity or faction. The Three Tribes were a loose confederation or (originally) tight alliance in the Old Homelands just before the Coming of the Ice; under the stress of the Great Hunger and Migration they nearly fell apart into three warring Tribes again; but (loosely) reunified in Equestria. In my history, they weren't a true nation until after the Age of Discord, over a thousand years later, and then they united under the Sisters. The last Tribal war was the Lunar Rebellion, in the early 7th century YOH.
"Kind" is simply a biological description. I use it because the Ponies have a taxonomy very different from any other mammalian species -- they have five interfertile morphs (plus Alicorns, who Fusion tacked on long after the Eldren created the original Five Kinds) and each individual is decisively of one morph or another, which may not be the same morph as their parents.
The Five Kinds are: Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Flutter Ponies / Changelings, and Sea Ponies / Deep Ponies / Merponies / Kelpies / Sirens / etc. The complexity regarding the last two are that the Flutter Ponies have been Twisted into the Changelings, and the Sea Ponies diversified into all sorts of sub-Kinds.
In the far future -- what I call "the Poniternity" -- the Kinds will further diversify into numerous variant morphs, under the adaptive pressure of expansion into many different planetary environments and high-tech genegineers with entirely too much time on their hands. The Earth Ponies will produce (among other things) the Paradise Culture and the Rock Ponies; the Pegasi the Nocturnae and the Highdwellers; the Unicorns the Beautiful Ponies, the Far Walkers and the Minds; the Changelings the New Flutter Ponies and the Soul Dancers; and the Sea Ponies the Spaceselks, Joveselks and Flame Ponies. More or less, subject to change with my ideas.
The Poniternity is essentially a Ponification of my main science fiction universe.
Personally, I've entertained the idea that the Sirens are the seapony equivalent of Alicorns—larger than the norm, with extremely powerful abilities compared to a regular pony and (perhaps) an equally long lifespan. In that framing, the Dazzlings could be the lost princesses of some hidden Kelpie enclave who went to war against Equestria and were defeated and banished by Star Swirl.
I still figure that Sunset Shimmer could fail to stumble upon information about menstruation before it happens. That would make it extra terrifying for her. Unless she has experience with another species which cannot recycle its uterine lining such as dogs, she may not know that uterine lining could just spontaneously exist the body. Menstruation blindsiding her could be very horrifying.
Flash Sentry sacrificing his jacket for wrapping around the waist of Sunset Shimmer and then cleaned up the mess on the seat. He stops the other teenagers from making fun of Sunset Shimmer. He is a nice guy, so this seems in character for him.
Very interesting concept for unicorn horns. I actually put a small extension of the brain in there, which does most of the magical heavy lifting when prompted by the primary cortex, much in the same way a child's mind predicts the position of a thrown ball in time to catch it. (It's also how and why Rarity got dragged to her destiny. The cornic lobe doesn't usually do anything but help with magic, but it can get antsy when special talents are involved.)
Heh. Sunset almost dipped her toe into the aquatic ape hypothesis there. We may be on par with ponies, but we're much better swimmers than most of our taxonomic relatives.
Also, Sunset's gone from wizard to bard. Well, it's certainly forward progress. It will be very interesting to see where she goes from here.
6822848
She is impressed by Human technology. She knows it's more advanced than Equestria's. She feels a strong sense of superiority based on Equestrian culture (which she has come to romanticize a little after years of exile), especially Equestrian moral philosophy. She sees Equestrians (and herself) as morally superior to the Human "barbarians."
She has to make exceptions in her worldview for Flash Sentry, because she has to reconcile her assumptions of superiority with the fact that she loves him. She knows that he's as nice or nicer than most Equestrian stallions, and she's further prejudiced toward him because of her love. Some of this is just that she's terribly lonely and has fixed on him as the nicest attractive male in her environment; some of it is due to Flash's genuine virtues.
The problem (for Sunset) is that Flash likes most of his fellow Humans, and would be -- will be -- horrified when he realizes just how ruthless she's capable of being toward them.
Possibly. The problem is that a lot of the magic she's managed to cast as a Human isn't practical -- it's just enough that she could prove magic to Human scientists, if she wanted to do so, but it's not enough to be actually useful compared to technological solutions. Even her success at the end of Chapter Six took a couple of minutes. She could have done it faster with a lighter, and not also set her carpet on fire.
She's especially likely to show her work, later on when she's friendly with Princess Twilight and the Rainbooms. Though she spends a lot of Rainbow Rocks deeply-demoralized and perhaps even clinically-depressed. Part of the inspiration for this story was my realization of how badly broken she was at the end of Equestria Girls.
My opinion is that she demonstrated her skill with musical magic at the climax of Rainbow Rocks, when she defeated the Dazzlings -- exactly what she was thinking of in my story when she was remembering that there had been really-dangerous Sea Pony warlocks.
6824365
Well ...
On the one hoof, my North Amareican Federation isn't precisely the United States of America. It's kinder in some ways (especially domestically), crueller in others (especially militarily). I made it a strangely resonant alternate history because I noticed that the culture shown in the EG movies is one that has never really been through the 60's-70's Counterculture. Our actual country would horrify Sunset far more in its extremely pornographic pop culture and promiscuity, maybe less so in its military history and diplomatic attitudes (she wouldn't blink an eye on what was going on without our interference, Equestria itself is a country who believes that everyone beyond its frontiers are at least semi-barabaric).
On the other hoof, Sunset Shimmer is a more than a slightly biased observer. She's horribly lonely, and still crushed by her rejection by Celestia, and close to going Lone-Mad. She has too see herself and her civilization as vastly superior, because the moment that she doesn't, she's just one lonely little mare trapped among aliens forever, aliens who may in their alienness have points of view as meaningful and valuable as her own. Part of the reason she falls for Flash Sentry is that she is very lonely, and she desperately wants a friend, wants someone to love. And she has to see him as a Pony at heart to get past her own prejudices.
6822878
Cloud Kicker was a lonely young filly with too much erudition for her own good when she summoned Winning, which as some people have pointed out to me is a horribly-dark concept -- she destroyed herself through naivete rather than true evil. Sunset Shimmer was older when she turned on Celestia, and she was very fortunate that when she went Nightmare at the climax of Equestria Girls it was right in the presence of Twilight Sparkle and the local analogues of the Element Bearers -- this is why she was defeated, but also why she managed to avoid harming herself (or anyone else) too much in her fall.
The main prices Sunset pays for her pride are (1) losing Celestia's favor (though they are destined to be reconciled -- it's very obvious in canon that Celestia still cares about her a lot); (2) losing Flash's love (in the SWSV, because of who Twilight chooses, she still has a chance of winning it back later on) and (3) alienating pretty much everyone else at Canterlot High School (though by the end of Rainbow Rocks she's pretty much forgiven, because she saved them all from the Sirens). This story is mostly about how she wins and loses Flash Sentry's love, and it's obvious in the story that he really does care for her.
Yeah. I really liked that story, can't remember the name or the author, but I know it's somewhere on the site. The concept of the ritual was great, but it didn't sound like something that fit at all into modern Equestria. That's why I located the ritual in pre-Windigo Tri-Tribal times, and had Sunset Shimmer (a modern Equestrian) be shockd by discovering that it was once practiced (it violates her morality for at least two reasons -- the impersonality of the sex and the publicity of the sex). Celestia has of course known about it for a long time (my Celestia probably heard about it either when she was still in Paradise Estate or soon afterward, when she researched the Three Tribes at the Great Library of the Crystal Empire, about 2500 years ago) and merely points out that such rituals are bad ideas but can become customary due to having worked at least once to produce good outcomes.
The relevance of the story is that, ironically, Sunset is now warping her own life in pursuit of power in a manner even worse that a participant in the old ritual, in pursuit of power, and it's corrupting her. She originally dates Flash as a political machination -- when, with greater luck than she really deseves, she discovers that Flash really is a kindred spirit and possible soul mate, she then assumes that she must throw his love away because it doesn't fit her own (poorly-conceived) ambitions. The irony here is that Sunset considers herself morally-superior to the ancient practicioners of the Marriage of Earth and Sky, but her moral superiority is questionable to say the least -- at least they engaged in their sex magic for the good of their people, and did so openly and without deception, while Sunset is behaving selfishly and surreptitiously, including toward Flash.
A lot of this story is about Sunset's arrogance and moral hypocrisy, if you've noticed.
6827364
Magic was never adapted to practical purposes in the EG Humanoidverse because it was far too weak and unreliable. Science grew up disbelieving in it (because they couldn't reproduce even trivial results) and hence would now require extraordinary proof to accept its reality (a whole school falling into a dimensional rift and gateways opening to a parallel world might have done it, though). Sunset has the huge advantage that she knows magic can work, and precisely how to work it. Even she can't do anything which she couldn't do far more practically with chemistry and other forms of known Humanoidverse technology -- even when she sets fire to her room, it takes her two minutes and a lot of effort -- she could have achieved the same results faster through conventional arson. Plus, she didn't actually mean to set fire to her room!
Things may of couse change now. After Equestria Girls, magic becomes terrifyingly easier to do, especially in the vicinity of Canterlot High School. And the barriers between the planes are weakening.
6827386
Exactly. If you've noticed, Canterlot High School is an elite high school with a fairly moral student body who are more inclined to hang out and make friends with each other than go on rampages of brutality and sexual violence, in a society which is if anything a cleaner version of the modern West. We're talking Archie's Riverdale here, not Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi's Caliphate or Hitler's Germany.
They are slightly more violent, sexually-aggressive and promiscous than are most Equestrians (especially in the little upper-class scholar-gentry bubble in which Sunset Shimmer was raised -- and note, she was around 15 when she exiled herself -- not exactly a mare of the world -- so her perspective on Equestrian culture was that of a smart but somewhat innocent teenaged filly); but not terribly so. We would find them to be compassionate, polite and moral by modern American standards, let alone worse ones.
Note that in the first love scene, she's actually afraid that Flash is going to lose control and rape her. Instead, the instant he realizes that she's not entirely comfortable with how far they're going, Flash demonstrates empathy and concern for her; he backs off and has a conversation with her. Flash is a good guy even by the standards of his world, but he's not as uniquely nice as she imagines. He's a superior product of his social environment. A lot of the guys at Canterlot High School are fundamentally decent fellows.
Sunset has to see them as monsters because it excuses her own bad behavior toward them. But she can't believe this regarding Flash, beause she's falling in love with him -- and coming to know him too well to maintain her self-delusion. So she instead sees him as an exception -- a "credit to his race" in mid-20th century terms.
So yes -- she's a very biased observer.
6829753
One of the great and wonderful surprises which greeted Sunset Shimmer in her exile was the Human menstrual cycle. By the point at which the story begins, she's been Human for a while, so she's more or less used (and resigned) to it. But it must have scared the heck out of her the first time (even though one of the first things she would have researched was her own new form). It probably still rather revolts her.
On the plus side, she doesn't have an externally-obvious estrus cycle any more ... her ovulation is covert. That means she doesn't have to suppress the smell and the sexual desires for three days every three weeks, as she did as a Pony mare.
Instead, she has constant sexual desire. Which is one of the reasons she's a bit paranoid about most Human males. We take this for granted, but it's one of the odd things about our genus.
Sunset Shimmer is highly-intelligent and does not like the idea of losing emotional control -- these are character traits she shares with her somethingth-cousin Twilight Sparkle. She also comes from pretty much the same cultural background, and has very similar sexual morals.
So the fact that she's fooling around with Flash is a strong sign of her attachment to him.
More about which in the next chapter or two.
Being in the human world seems to have affected the way Sunset thinks as well, perhaps, since she keeps using 'Kind' instead of 'tribe' when referring to ponies.
6829940
This is an aside:
FiMFiction has a bug which prevents notifications if replies are not in the same chapter as the original comment.
This is a response:
The Menarche of Sunset Shimmer might make a good side story:
After going through the mirror, Sunset Shimmer finds herself an ape. She learns that this kind of ape is called human. She does a little research for determining what humans eat and what the males look like without clothes —— ¡The males have small pendulous genitals!
She leads a double life; for learning about the humans and their world, she pretends to be in her midteens and matriculates as a freshwoman in the local high school; while she lives the life of an independent adult woman in her early 20s out of school.
A fortnight after arriving, she is in class, when she notices a spreading bloodstain on her skirt and realizes that she sits in a puddle of her own blood. She screams in panic. The whole class looks toward her. Flash Sentry sees the problem and selflessly sacrifices his blazer for wrapping her and the teacher Cranky Doodle walks Sunset Shimmer to School-Nurse Read heart.
Red Heart explains menstruation to Sunset Shimmer and gives to her menstrual pads. She explains how to use them. She gives Sunset Shimmer a change of clothing and sent her home with a note to her parents, admonishing them for not explaining menstruation. She told Sunset Shimmer to see her when she returns for a talk.
Red Heart wanted to talk to Sunset about human reproduction to Sunset Shimmer because she did not want Sunset to end up pregnant with no idea how it happened because she has no idea how reproduction works; that happens all too often. She remembers that 1 time she had a 7-month pregnant girl who neither know that she was pregnant, nor knew what pregnancy is because she believed that storks delivered babies.
Cranky planned to finish the lesson and then clean the seat after class, but the seat was clean:
After Cranky and Sunset left, Flash Sentry cleaned the seat. When some of the other students started making fun of Sunset, he declared, "¡If anyape has a problem with Sunset, you have a problem with me!". By the time Cranky returned Flash quieted the class, so that Cranky could resume the lesson immediately.
On the way home, Sunset thought about how disgusting these apes are. The only way that these apes could get more revolting is if they start throwing around their own poop.
That would make an interesting side story.
6830968
The menstruation story strikes me as a good idea. No matter what she's read, this has to hit Sunset as an unpleasant surprise, because it's bleeding and it's something Ponies don't do.
And it would be interesting if Flash did something nice for her before they were even dating. And wholly in character for Flash. Back then in my verse, he would have been either with Lyra or just making friends with Lyra -- the first of the three "horse women" (actually, displaced Equestrian mares) for whom he falls.
6830048
"Tribe" versus "Kind" -- "Tribe" is political, it refers to that type of Pony as a polity or faction. The Three Tribes were a loose confederation or (originally) tight alliance in the Old Homelands just before the Coming of the Ice; under the stress of the Great Hunger and Migration they nearly fell apart into three warring Tribes again; but (loosely) reunified in Equestria. In my history, they weren't a true nation until after the Age of Discord, over a thousand years later, and then they united under the Sisters. The last Tribal war was the Lunar Rebellion, in the early 7th century YOH.
"Kind" is simply a biological description. I use it because the Ponies have a taxonomy very different from any other mammalian species -- they have five interfertile morphs (plus Alicorns, who Fusion tacked on long after the Eldren created the original Five Kinds) and each individual is decisively of one morph or another, which may not be the same morph as their parents.
The Five Kinds are: Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Flutter Ponies / Changelings, and Sea Ponies / Deep Ponies / Merponies / Kelpies / Sirens / etc. The complexity regarding the last two are that the Flutter Ponies have been Twisted into the Changelings, and the Sea Ponies diversified into all sorts of sub-Kinds.
In the far future -- what I call "the Poniternity" -- the Kinds will further diversify into numerous variant morphs, under the adaptive pressure of expansion into many different planetary environments and high-tech genegineers with entirely too much time on their hands. The Earth Ponies will produce (among other things) the Paradise Culture and the Rock Ponies; the Pegasi the Nocturnae and the Highdwellers; the Unicorns the Beautiful Ponies, the Far Walkers and the Minds; the Changelings the New Flutter Ponies and the Soul Dancers; and the Sea Ponies the Spaceselks, Joveselks and Flame Ponies. More or less, subject to change with my ideas.
The Poniternity is essentially a Ponification of my main science fiction universe.
6837057
Interesting.
Personally, I've entertained the idea that the Sirens are the seapony equivalent of Alicorns—larger than the norm, with extremely powerful abilities compared to a regular pony and (perhaps) an equally long lifespan. In that framing, the Dazzlings could be the lost princesses of some hidden Kelpie enclave who went to war against Equestria and were defeated and banished by Star Swirl.
6837047
I still figure that Sunset Shimmer could fail to stumble upon information about menstruation before it happens. That would make it extra terrifying for her. Unless she has experience with another species which cannot recycle its uterine lining such as dogs, she may not know that uterine lining could just spontaneously exist the body. Menstruation blindsiding her could be very horrifying.
Flash Sentry sacrificing his jacket for wrapping around the waist of Sunset Shimmer and then cleaned up the mess on the seat. He stops the other teenagers from making fun of Sunset Shimmer. He is a nice guy, so this seems in character for him.
I thought of a title for the story:
The Menarche of Sunset Shimmer