Cast out of the Celestial Palace, the former Royal Student, Sunset Shimmer, is about to take life into her own hooves and seize what rightfully belongs to her, on the other side of that mysterious Mirror Portal.
Only problem is, somepony else got to the mirror, first. It's gone, vanished.
So is Celestia.
On the bright side, the new Acting Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza (or Cadance, as she likes to be called), is willing to ignore that banishment and give Sunset a second chance. She's heard the rumors about the reclusive, disobedient, and just-generally-mean Royal Student, but the Acting Princess needs all the help she can get.
So, all of a sudden, Sunset goes from being a disgraced scholar, banned from the palace grounds, to serving as a valuable asset of Princess Cadance's desperate scramble to hold the Principality of Equestria together and figure out what on Equus even happened to the Princess of the Sun.
Now, Sunset just has to avoid royally peeving off the ponies giving her a second chance: to ingratiate herself to them, even; to make herself indispensable. She can lie, cheat, and swindle like nopony else in the Celestial Palace, and it's time she used those talents for somepony other than herself.
Starting with this little project of Cadance's. The Princess needs to recruit a young group of friends to serve the Crown and Harmony, and she's already got a lead. Sunset just has to do the actual hoofwork of meeting the candidates, and then she can dust her hooves of this and go back to her studies, secure in her appointment as Royal Student.
What's the worst that could happen?
Comes after Stay of Execution, but that work is not required to appreciate this one.
Oh god YOU JUST SUMMONED THE FANDOM!
RUN!
Anyways this is neat!
A Difference from the regular "sunset is twilight" story
Ill be watching
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Do those kinds of stories really exist?
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I've definitely seen at least one story where, instead of fleeing through the mirror, Sunset teleports in uncontrolled rage to a random spot that happens to be Ponyville, and ends up filling in Twilight's spot among the Mane 6, though I don't remember much more since I couldn't get into the writing style.
But I'm assuming Fever isn't talking about Sunset literally taking Twilight's place, and is instead talking about Sunset being the leader of her own Mane 6 set in general, in the same way that Lunaverse Trixie heads her gang of background ponies. From what I've seen, these Bearer-swap sort of fics are usually set in a "Bizarro Universe" where it's not just the Bearers who are different, but also things like the reigning Princess.
Therefore the difference from other swaps manifests in the way EiM's setting is merely the result of an unexpected change in events that spirals out of control, rather than an altogether different universe. All the ponies you know are here... just ten years younger.
Really great so far!
I am so glad to see someone else come to the same conclusion about captain nepotism.
Really interested to see where this story goes.
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Strictly speaking? Not every conclusion Sunset jumps to is entirely correct.
Celestia is a graceful manipulator, at least as I see her. She puts the ponies she needs in the places she needs them, well in advance of when she needs them. When the stallion Cadance hit it off with in secondary school just so happened to bear a cutie mark ever so similar to the one that's been carved into the Tree of Harmony for centuries, encouraging Cadance to encourage him to apply for the Royal Guard was just Celestia's way of putting a pin in him.
But Sunset has no way of knowing any of that. She sees the deliberate appearance of nepotism and assumes that's as deep as the rabbit hole goes.
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I'm aware is isn't actually that bad, one of my favorite series on this site actually centers around Shing Candence and sunset and their interaction.
I just don't like the fact the audience is usually expect to just accept "he is a good guard who totally earned his position". But then every instance we see of him is him doing either the bare minimum, or in fact just an outright bad job.
I'm actually hoping to see him portrayed as someone who actually is worthy of his position.
Woo-hoo, I love when we get to see Sunset portrayed in her element. Thank you for letting a small, almost, xanatos moment.
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My pleasure. An asshole protagonist is most tolerable in the depths of their assholery when there's something admirable about them.
Of course, she won't always come out on top when she goes snake-mode. She's an impulsive mare; a pile of kindling and dry wood masquerading as a pony, just waiting for an errant spark.
How many parts is this story series going to have?
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Part 1, roughly corresponding to FiM episode 1, is projected to have about 13 chapters, followed by an intermission and a part 2 of hopefully equal length.
Dude same. If I'm reading a Shadowbolt fic, I'm expecting the allegedly functional pack of goblins we got in the movies. Give them the therapy Crystal Prep clearly should have if you have to, just make sure they're still the Warios and Waluigis to the horse girls instead of Rated E For Everyone cardboard cutouts. Or paper-thin Heathers knockoffs, that's just as lame.
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YOU. You understand my vision.
If you want them to get better? Great! They start awful; each of them alone would keep two of the Mane 6 busy with their friendship problems. Their personalities push anypony who would want to help them away, and they're not evil enough for a Harmonic blast to rewire their neurochemistry and fix them. They're gonna have a long, hard road ahead of them.
And if you want them to stay bad? These girlies would be fantastic in a horse-themed It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia knockoff.
So a freak
stormdisaster materializes out of the Everfree, presumably Rainbow Dash and some other foals go off and investigate, Indigo goes looking for them and brings them home unharmed, then Rainbow's family complains that it was Indigo's fault and starts up an inquiry.That doesn't sound like Rainbow's parents at all. They'd be relieved their daughter was okay, maybe a little proud of her for being so brave, but they aren't going to sue anyone. So either 1) something is very wrong here (besides the Incident). 2) this is in fact not Rainbow she's talking about. Or 3) Indigo's memory is not reliable.
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There is indeed a little more going on there, which I intend to touch on in the episode after Part 2.
But I'm willing to talk characterization now. Personally, I find it rather easy to believe that RD's parents' obsession with their daughter could be turned against somepony whose believed negligence resulted in harm, perceived or legitimate, to their daughter. I'm curious as to your reasoning against them pursuing such a course of action, though.
I desire this unhinged retail horse carnally. I'm pretty sure I can't fix her, but we can definitely make each other funnier.
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Did we skip ch8
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We didn't skip anything; I just apparently made a typo when uploading. Kinda embarrassing, but easily fixed.
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Then I have done my job.
sad eee
Thats disrespectful!
I WILL HAVE ECHO ON YOU!
but not now
This is great
This is really good. So far I'm defitnly getting the entire "these are bad elements of harmony" but like how Sunset is a bad element of magic, I can't wait for them to grow. As for Rainbows parents. Yeah I defintly believe overzealous parents could do that. I bet their going to apologize to indigo after the investigation and indigo will understandably not forgive them.
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I'm glad you're enjoying it! Definitely keep thinking about how these mares fall short of the elements that end up with them.
LOVE IT
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THANK YOU
i await more this is 11/10
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let's see if we can get that up to 12/10
Mean Sunset has her charms
Yeah ok, I'm interested.
Let's see what you got in store.
~Skeeter The Lurker
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Glad to have you! Seen your avatar around.
Will the Dazzlings be appearing in this story?
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In this AU? Yes. I love the Dazzlings and can't wait to write them into a later episode.
But in this two-part series premier, the Dazzlings will not be appearing. The analogous threat to Nightmare Moon is going to be something I've already set up.
All right! This is quite interesting, and the interplay between Sunset, Cadance and Shining is good. And I like your magical terminology; good magibabble is always nice to see!
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Aw, thank you! 'Reminds me the last chapter of Part 1 (which will be posted in ~2 weeks) has a bunch of that magibabble at the end.
Oh hoh! Enter Cinch and the Shadowobolts; nice!
I really like the word "sinecorn", it's an excellent neologism and seems like something Sunset would use. And I'm also glad to see her using those manipulative skills she has. This continues to be a very fun read!
The various character ages, especially with non-ponies like Smolder, and the timeframe of the show (as well as when, exactly, Sunset left through the mirror in the canon), are wonky enough that you are pretty well justified in setting things up just the way you like.
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Wish I had good equivalents for non-pegasi and non-earth-ponies. Really loving the comments btw! <3
Oh, Sugarcoat! My favorite Shadowbolt, for whatever reason. Her bluntness and obvious intelligence are a nice combo, plus she's got a good design.
Giving Lemon a timberwolf pet? Awesome. Indigo being a social climber... yeah, works for me.
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"Unhinged Retail Horse" is a perfect summary of Sour Sweet here! She's... a bit unstable, isn't she?
Also, lol at "unsupervised salamander".
Woah, family drama! Pretty interesting take on Sunny Flare, I'd say. I wouldn't be surprised if she was more capable than she feels herself to be, too.
Whoa. That was one heck of a heartsong you gave to Cady.
And I'm, again, quite liking your takes on the history of Equestria, and the wider world. It's always fun to see how people deal with all those inconsistencies you mention, or the deuterocanonicals (ha!) material from the comics, Equestria Girls and so on.
Whatever Sunny's full name is, it must be interesting. (I can just imagine Sunset's reaction if she, too, is a Sunset!)
Ooooookay. That's an unmitigated disaster, so far, and Sunset... you're just making it worse, even when you realize it's against your own best interests, too. Seriously now, Bacon Horse. What the hay are you thinking?
She's a very silly pony, and she's about to get sillier.
You can play with it more interesting than that.
Overall, pretty cute story, would be glad to look into it more later
Aww! It's so fun watching you lay the ground for (SPOILER, MAYBE!) a potential conflict between the Cinch-plus-Cadance-spawned plan of picking these Shadowbolts as the APPOINTED Bearers, and the possibility that Sunset makes some friends who turn out to be the proper candidates for the job.
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Frankly, I do think pegasus vamponism is the more interesting option. Stapling bat wings to a horse and calling it a distinct tribe feels like an undercooked, throw-it-in whim, and I've never seen a properly-cooked batpony tribe implemented in a way that didn't detract from what I felt were the most interesting aspects of the lore. For instance, using them to give Nightmare Moon an army detracts from the intimacy of the violence between the sisters; I prefer the Ecliptic Crisis to remain a duel, not a war.
Besides, there's only room for one fourth, half-forgotten and disenfranchised tribe in my Equestria. Shoo-be-doo, motherspawners. Accept no griffic fakes.