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Spending the holidays with your girlfriend's parents is never easy.
Especially when they think you’re a magical gangster hell-bent on corrupting their daughter.
A Valentine's Day fic... sorta. 
Pre-read by Themaskedferret. Thanks to FloydienSlip for help with the title.
Cover art by little-tweenframes.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Oh hey this is new.
Telepathic mind dates are an amazing idea, one that seems shockingly obvious in hindsight.
Ohhh dear. My immediate family always hosts Thanksgiving, so I know how stressful it is. Springing a surprise guest at the absolute last minute? My mother would probably never speak to the inviter again. Enough food wouldn't be an issue. Enough space at a table would be a different matter.
No, that was Cinch. And Twilight's own investigations into that which man was not meant to know. I take it she never mentioned the whole "dark ascension" thing to her parents.
In any case, definitely an interesting presentation of the conflict between significant other and parents. Twilight seems to shift her stance on her parents' protectiveness rather abruptly, and the rest of family other than the twins quickly fades into the background. Still, when the mockery's largely in Sunset's head, that does work. In all, a very nice story, if a little rushed.
I was not expecting an ending like that. The entire time, I was expecting something to turn Twilight's family over, whether it was Sunset helping someone with their trauma, her pulling out a little speech on what she's thankful for (letting it slip she's lived alone for 3 years), or the full story of the Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree to come out (Sunset did save Twilight after she nearly killed Sunset's friends and almost destroyed the world, then singlehandedly helped her through her Midnight ptsd). I do like the idea of how it ended, along with Twilight's part, but the entire thing felt too unpleasant towards Sunset. When she got pushed to the point of completely doubting herself and feeling like she's a threat to Twilight, then Twilight's parents getting off completely scottfree, it felt a bit dirty.
This story reminds of this song for some reason. Dunno why.
Ah, family. Thanks for reminding me how happy I am that I live fifteen-hundred miles away from mine.
7948643
Well, depends on which part of it you mean. The first sentence was written four months ago, and the last sentence was written last night.
7948751
With that line about the magic, I was referring more to the events of LoE than Friendship Games, and how at the end Sunset encourages Twi to use her powers to save them. In addition, there's a sort of running theme throughout the story that if Twilight and Sunset had never met, Twilight wouldn't even know about magic, let alone be able to use it freely.
Thanks for reading, FoME. I always appreciate it.
7948866
I specifically didn't want to end the story with Velvet and Nightlight turning a corner on Sunset, just because I felt that'd be really contrived. Sometimes families don't get along, and sometimes assholes don't get any comeuppance. That's just life.
7948896
I can imagine Sunset loving that funky guitar.
7948985 So what are the chances there will be a sequel for Heath's Warming dinner? Seems like a good time to get the parents to lay off a little lest they ruin the Christmas spirit and a certain Santa shows up with briar whips and all to punish them, ala Krampus. Especially if they realize that Sunset's not the only one responsible for Twilight's magic, but Cinch is and was the actual problem for Twilight. Not to mention the whole blackmail thing.
7949003
Heh, that wouldn't be bad—maybe the Windigoes could show up?
Unfortunately, I think this is gonna be my last Sunlight fic for a while. And besides, I've already written two fics about Hearth's Warming—you can only go back to the same well so many times.
awe, this was so sweet
7948985
Yeah, I understand and like the idea, it just feels like human Twilight's family was one of the worst choices for this kind of story for me. I've seen something similar twice with pony Twilight, where it made much more sense, as EG1 was the first time the two met and Twilight was burned by Discord, so her parents being less trusting makes sense. With human Twilight, Sunset's first real interaction with her was the math off, followed by yelling at Twilight for almost killing her friends, followed by saving her life (and the world) and helping Twilight out of her shell (I'd expect Cadance to have at least put in a good word for Sunset). After that, Sunset helps Twilight through her ptsd as well. Sunset basically amounted to human Twilight's savior, and they never knew old bully Sunset. Compared to everything she's done for this Twilight, a few superficial details like a motorcycle or leather jacket shouldn't really matter, and Twilight was the one researching magic and getting herself into that mess (with some pushing from Cinch).
My other issue was just how far Sunset was set up to fail. It was a case of literally everything that could go wrong going wrong, just not far enough for Twilight to snap at her family or Sunset to fully breakdown. Her not knowing you should be well dressed for a large holiday gathering felt a bit much, as did the entire family knowing and blaming her about magic. Plus, every interaction with Twilight's parents went cartoonishly bad.
I wouldn't expect them to instantly accept Sunset, but I'd hoped that by the end of it, either they realize that they're being unfair, maybe have a reason to soften up towards her a bit (actually consider giving her a chance, not jumping immediately to her side), or at least have Twilight snap at them. Sunset did nearly breakdown and got pushed into really bad self doubt. That it was set during Thanksgiving of all times in particular felt off.
Don't get me wrong, I really liked this story. This is only the third story I've seen actually tackle the powers in a meaningful way, Sunset and Twilight's relationship was great, as were the two of them in general, and the little cousins were neat. It just felt too pessimistic for the choice of characters.
7949012 Windigo demon elves maybe? I see, well it could be done for the whole White Day thing Japan has which is basically Valentine Day part 2. I think it's a month or 2 away or something.
True but it different for everyone cause different personalities and customs. So having something like Krampus showing up and everyone getting angry at Cinch knowing now she's responsible for a lot of trauma and such could make for a good story sequel. Sunset might even point out she's a unicorn for an interesting reaction.
Except shooting stars are the result of space rocks passing through the Earth's atmosphere, so it shouldn't be possible to see any on the moon, which has no atmosphere.
SHAME ON YOU, TWILIGHT. AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A NERD?!
Y'know, I wanna see more of this setting.
I like the story, and I like the relationship... also, I wanna see more of Sunset trying to fit in.
Not bad for a quick read and one of these days I'll have to write my own Sci-Twilight/Sunset romance story as I ship them.. LOL..
Not often you see Night Light and Velvet being the mean inlaws, but I really liked the twist for this story.
That was both cute, touching, and funny all the way through. I really like that you had Twilight's parents actually not like Sunset very much-a rather refreshing change of pace. Also, I liked the way you had the children talk. It sounded like kids, which may sound odd, but it's a surprisingly rare thing to see done well in fiction, so it should be commended.
I caught a typo for you.
By the way, this was really good. I've been itching to read more Equestria Girls stories and this one really hit the spot. Thanks for writing it.
7948751
The grace thing probably put her fairly off. She tries to defend it, but geez, there really is no good reason for them to have ambushed Sunset that way, and Twilight is bound to know that. The guest, as far as I have ever known, are not the ones who say grace.
Sequel where they have the babies when?
Just give her time, Sunset. Twilight will eventually want out of there as desperately as you don't want to hang out with these people.
You need to write a sequel to this. I desperately want to find out how Sunset deals with Sci-Twi's parents in the future.
Sequel PLZ
7949583
Ooh, thanks for catching that. I'll just erase it and pretend it never happened...
Thanks for reading. Glad you enjoyed it!
7949749
I have had it at my family's thanksgiving that if we have a guest of a different creed dining with us we will let them have the option of leading a second grace so as to be more inclusive. I've also seen it to where a new boyfriend/girlfriend is offered the option to lead grace as a way to welcome them into the fold, so to speak.
But yeah, that was a pretty dick move on the Sparkle's part.
I want to slap both of Twilight's parents and give Sunset a hug.
Absolutely adorable, Dubs, I can't handle this! I love how the conflict progresses. That's legitimately how self-doubt works, after all, and it's so fucking nice to see the two of them work it out together.
Took me until they talked about the mind-melding to feel grounded in the story. An interesting start---and I LOVE the idea---but if you forced me (FORCED me) to nitpick, that's about the only thing I'd nitpick. The rest is too good for me, writing senpai.
'Twas wonderful, a down to earth, and charming Slice-of-Life Romance.
Felt like home.
Have a good Valentines y'all.
This story made me squee. I actually like how Twilight's parents were super-judgey, along with Sunset's complete outsider perspective.
Meh, basic family.
but then again nothing unusual is nothing unusual when coming to family
Poor Sunset, POOR TWILIGHT!
Don't worry Sunset, I laughed XD Hahahah
Well... this is already going to hell
Hahaha, what a nice story well done, well done!
Good show
Awesome use of Sunny's mind powers!
Turkey culture? Aside from Phoenixes, there isn't much evidence for birds being fully sapient in the Equestria world. They don't talk, and Elizabeak in "Stare Master" does not exactly display much in the way of sense. (To be fair, neither do the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but then they're smart enough to rationalize stupidity.
) Of course, Sunset Shimmer may be dramatically exaggerating, the way many vegetarians do. 
I wonder if Twilight has told her mother that Sunset's 'native culture' are vegetarian naturist pagans? I've got a feeling that the top of Twilight Velvet's head would pop off!
However, you can't help but wonder if this is a 'gay' thing for Twilight's parents and Twilight's powers are simply an excuse for them to drop their daughter into a 'corrupted by an Other' box.
You didn't miss much, Sunset. It went something like this.
"Yo, god is good, eh? And he expects us to be good. And if you're not, he's gonna come down and bust yer freakin' skull. Amen."
This was too damn sweet. I loved it all, but I do have one complaint.
I would have liked to see Sunset properly confront Twilight's parents, or win them over somehow. As it stands now, the story is a bit unsatisfying from a plot standpoint. Sunset has a problem, she battles with that problem, so the next logical step would be for her to solve the problem. That's not what happened here. What instead happened is that she dodged the problem entirely, and Twilight's parents got away with bullying their daughter's girlfriend without learning anything about her. I thought this would end with Sunset understanding why the Sparkles were the way they are and the Sparkles starting to accept (if not flat-out start to like) Sunset dating their daughter.
Overall, this was fantastic. Much like Sunset's meal, however, it was just missing one good piece of meat
(I'm sorry, that was terrible)
Y'know I am seriously wondering: why does this story have 12 downvotes? Because there aren't any negative comments at all. Is there some kind of flaw in this story I cannot see, or are the downvotes completely frivolous, such as idiots hating on the ship?
Why is this tagged "Sex?" There's nothing here even remotely close to sex.
Also I have to admit I'm in full agreement with 7950359 here, the complete lack of resolution to the primary conflict definitely hurts this story; thinking in terms of a 3-act structure, it feels like it completely skipped everything from the act 2 climax (I kept waiting for a breaking point that never came between Sunset and the family, or perhaps even with Twilight, given how much they were arguing) to the tail end of the resolution (there was no acceptance or truce or even agree-to-disagree to speak of, just skip straight to the parting-shot kiss). I'm not saying they should have resolved all the tension, or even much of it, but thematically it feels jarring to resolve NONE of it and sidestep the thing entirely.
(I'm also a little iffy on the arbitrary exclusion of Shining, his input would have been interesting and probably valuable as well, and dismissing him from the story felt really contrived and handwave-y.)
All that said, what IS here is very enjoyable, I could especially feel a very real, visceral awkwardness when Sunset was asked to lead prayer, very well done on that bit in particular. It's a really good, solid story, it just feels like it lost several thousand words off the end.
--CG
Why did Twilight setup Sunset to fail? You don't invite your girl or boyfriend without asking first. Especially if they are not liked. And not talking about the dressed code or the Grace thing. Bad form, Sci-Twi. Bad.
this is how I do see twilight parent be if twilight ever bought home a girlfriend/boyfriend,
This could have been really great if they were just over-protective parents instead of emotionally abusive ones.
Gas-lighting her feelings of safety? Spilling their daughters deepest secrets to everyone in the extended fucking family? And doing it in a way that makes her sound crazy rather than the whole truth?
The idea of not everyone being horrible all the time is a nice lesson and definite fact, but in this fic Twilight's parents are grade A pieces of absolute shit.
It's hard to say when the characters don't really have a canon personality, but considering 99% of Fanon Velvet/Light are perfectly fine to amazing parents, this felt basically like character assassination. From my perspective, anyway.
Oh, and although I'm not really religious anymore, I do come from a big family that says Grace every Thanksgiving, and asking a guest that you don't know for an absolute fact is the same/similar denomination is incredibly rude, and Velvet would know that. Based on their little conversation at the end I'm not sure if it was intended that she really was trying to embarrass Sunset, but if you know the norms, Velvet was very obviously putting Sunset on the spot, on purpose, to illustrate to the entire family in no uncertain terms that Sunset is very different.
I really liked Twilight and Sunset's chemistry, and her little cousins were cute, but otherwise this was a total miss for me.
My two bits.
Uh, what? Sci-Twi magic power are result of her own stupidity. If she didn't try to analyze magic and after this don't go with this whole "release the magic" shtick she would never ended up with Midnight Sparkle and magic abilities. How that a Sunset fault?
7951053 Sunset "forced" magic on lots of people, albeit accidentally. Her going through the mirror set off that chain of events, so it was unavoidable, really.
7950461
It's tagged Sex just because there's a few sex jokes/etc. littered throughout the story.
Thanks for reading!
7950406
There are quite a few negative comments, actually
Thank you for caring, though.
7950244
Originally, I had a line about turkeys discovering the cure for the common cold in Equestria. That's still my headcanon.
7949959
Oh Marvel, don't you dare worry about giving criticism. I welcome it from authors I respect.
Thank you for reading!
7950153
Thanks! If I can toot my own horn for a moment, I'm very proud of myself for thinking of the "mind-dates" idea.
I'd like to order a sequel please.
7951185
No offense, but by that logic creator of first gun can be blamed for every death by gun in our history.
Sunset start chain of events that bring magic to EG world? Yes. But can she be blamed for Sci-Twi own action like "unleashing magic" on Cinch demand? I doubt it. In this case fault solely lie on Sci-Twi. She start research magic on her own volition and she unleash gathered magic by her own hand. Sunset never ever forced her to do any of this.
7951288 hence the quotes around "forced"
I just about died here! This is arguably the BEST lines in the ENTIRE fanfic! Totally amazing!! <3
What are the odds of us getting a sequel?
I know what sunset was feeling I have a stepmother that is as mean as twilights mom and dad, I can't talk at family gatherings with out her giving me the stink eye and making me feel like I said something stupid and we can't go two minuets with out fighting
7951665 Twilight Sparkle's Guide to Impressing Your In-Laws?