When she returned to the castle, Sunset Shimmer asked the concierge where the music room was for practice. She was directed to a medium sized room on the second floor, with smaller individual practice rooms, which were all lined with acoustic foam padding. It reminded her of Canterlot High's band room, except surprisingly more organized than she almost always saw the school's.
She spotted a small, 20-watt amp that looked like it wasn't being used, and picked it up, taking it over to the practice room all the way on the right. She set the amp down, plugged it in, and then gently set her guitar case on the floor, and unlatched it, taking out the sunburst Flying V guitar. She went into a sitting position, and put the strap around her shoulder, cradling the neck in her left hoof.
This was something she hadn't just been thinking about the past few days; she remembered writing to Twilight earlier on in her senior year about what would be okay to bring back with her, and how she would approach playing guitar as a unicorn, and the princess had suggested a few ideas.
Well, when your Friendship Games over there ripped open the portals all over, Lyra, a friend of mine, got a pretty good look at the bipedal forms over there, and became immediately fascinated with hands. I'm no guitar player, but if you think it would take too long to re-learn as a unicorn, maybe you could talk to her, I hear she's working on a conjuration spell that gives her magic hands.
Talking to Lyra Heartstrings now was quite impossible, obviously, but with all the experiences she had with hands, some conjured digits couldn't be that hard to put together.
There were three forms of spellcasting that she had learned about while in Celestia's school; verbal, motion, and mental. All spells used at least one, and some used two or all three, all depending on the nature of the magic and its use. Almost all conjuration spells were verbal and mental, as you had to clearly picture what you wanted to create out of thin air.
Getting as relaxed as she could in her sitting position, Sunset took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate and clear her mind.
"Creo," she whispered as energy began to course through her horn. She thought back to her bipedal form, sitting up in her room, getting ready to practice, reaching for the neck of her guitar...
She felt the weight on the guitar strap shift slightly, and she opened her eyes, and didn't let her mild surprise break her concentration, as she saw two transparent, disembodied hands; the left holding the guitar neck and the right one resting by her hoof by the pickups. Taking another breath, she 'reached' down into her case, with the right hand floating down and coming back up with her carbon fiber guitar pick that Flash had given her.
Having a third pair of limbs that were ethereal and floating was quite surreal, almost like being in both forms at once. Over the next several seconds, she began to recall all the frets, fingerings, and chords for all the songs she played with her friends...
Pipp stepped off of the elevator out onto the second floor. After knocking on the guest suite that Sunset was staying in and not receiving any answer, she checked with the castle concierge, and informed her that their guest was directed to the music room. She walked up to the double doors and pushed them open, and immediately heard the faint electrical chords coming from the practice room in the back corner, and saw the back of Sunset's mane through the window. The unicorn was grooving to the music, and her horn was glowing with her orange aura of magic. Crossing the room, she stood by the window, and saw Sunset with her instrument, but it didn't look like she was doing anything with her hooves.
Pipp tapped gently on the window to announce her presence, and the unicorn turned her head to see her visitor. With a smile, Pipp opened the door and stepped halfway inside. Sunset turned to her completely, and Pipp's eyes widened.
Sunset's expression was entirely elated, and her instrument hung by a strap around her neck and shoulder, with glowing... Claws, holding the long wooden neck and holding a small thin plectrum down in front of the strings on the body.
"That's... New," Pipp said, and Sunset saw that the pegasus was unable to pull her eyes away from her conjured digits.
"Right, some explanation probably. These are hands. The world I was in was filled with bipedal creatures that had these. I thought I would have to spend months relearning how to play with telekinetic magic, but this is so much better!"
"I see," Pipp replied, trying to wrap her head around it. "Your music sounds full of energy. I'd love to hear more of it soon. I'm actually rehearsing most of tomorrow for a concert. Would you... Be interested in maybe joining us?" Pipp asked.
The 'hand' holding the plectrum floated down to the open instrument case and deposited it in a small compartment, and then both dissipated, and the glow around her horn faded momentarily before she took the entire instrument in her magic, and slowly levitated it off of herself, and set it down gently into the case, before closing the lid and latching it closed.
"Well, it's more than just me, I played in a band. And I only have a six-string, not a bass, and that's generally required, although you could probably substitute in a keyboard for the bass part, and I've seen some of those around here... When I get back to my suite, I'll dig out some of the sheet music, and you can take a look at it."
The princess smiled, and gave the unicorn a nod.
"Sounds great, now I'm famished, let's go get something to eat!"
Cute
Of course Lyra would be so excited after hearing the news that humans truly do exist I I really miss her
These short chapters always leave me pining for more. It’s like, there’s no way it’s done already 😅
Well that's a very interesting tactic to use your magic to translate it as a hand which I think that is pretty neat I mean Pegasus can still use the wings as hands as well and it looks like pipp was pretty surprised to see that it will be interesting to see those 2 perform I wonder what's going to happen next
Hooray! Sunset is happy and can play her guitar!
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No, we've got some ways to go. I've got most of it planned out, and I hope when we get there, it will have an air of finality to it.
Just trying to balance so many other stories and ideas at the same time. Otherwise this would probably be updated more frequently.
Know what it’s to bad the last few stories don’t have any art at the end like the sunset story is having here. It’s not an issue now but I’m definitely loving the Sunset fandom here
awesome.
Interesting
Creo?
11197401
Creo, 1st person singular of the Latin creare, to create or make something
Hold on, I recalled there is already basic guitar plays in several of Gen4 episodes. Therefore, a pony should be able to play guitar without using unicorn magic.
So Lyra got validation after all - that's nice!
Felt a little sad for Sunset, but she's coping well
Can hardly wait for the next chapter
Excellent job on this latest chapter. Definitely liked the work that went into the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Definitely loved how Sunset got inspired to do an "artificial hands' spell (including Lyra getting a reference) and how well it worked. And also really liked how Pipp showed appreciation for the energy Sunset put into her music.
Most certainly looking forward to more of this.
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Yes, but Sunset presumably never learned to play guitar until she was in the human world. While entirely possible, she wouldn't know how to right away, and it wouldn't necessarily be comfortable for her, either. Plus, it seems in most depictions that unicorns tend to think in regards to using their magic above everything else, seeing as they have the ability, which is much more controlled and precise than a hoof.
11197228
Oops, I meant it about the chapter and not the story as a whole.
HANDS!
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/426f09be-a427-4738-85a3-ca2695092837/d56j9i6-8384b248-6d83-44f1-a6f8-b80a59f01195.png/v1/fill/w_900,h_1433,q_75,strp/lyra___hands_at_last__by_kired25-d56j9i6.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi80MjZmMDliZS1hNDI3LTQ3MzgtODVhMy1jYTI2OTUwOTI4MzcvZDU2ajlpNi04Mzg0YjI0OC02ZDgzLTQ0ZjEtYTZmOC1iODBhNTlmMDExOTUucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTkwMCIsImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTQzMyJ9XV19.aRMjouReyL7Fiiw9BCx5yQsHL5IMlat3IdiUniW7-CM
11197436
Ooooooooh, I see thx,
Lyra would be so proud.
11197459
Yeah, but Sunset leaned the guitar in the human world.
Also, pony guitars might work differently that human ones, like the one she brought with her.
Either way, without the spell, Sunset would need to relearn how to play withou hands.
Now she doesn’t have to.
11197459
I'd add that Django Reinhardt proved long ago that fingers are overrated for playing guitar. I'm sure ponies could figure it out!
But hey, magical fingers can work too I guess.
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Well, in one of the comics (which are only semi-cannon at best, mind you), Sunset, in her pony form, actually did return to Ponyville and performed a guitar solo (with hooves, no horn), on stage at a contest, where she was given a standing ovation by Cranky Doodle, who was a judge.
11199507
Hm, fair enough. Outside of the comics we actually get very little in regards to Sunset's backstory- and as you said, not everyone has even read them, myself included. Not to mention that their status as canon is dubious at best. (Personally, if I hear something happened in the comics that sounded cool, I kind of take it and incorporate it into my personal headcanons in some fashion; heck, sometimes I do that with the show itself, too, considering I haven't seen most of the episodes from like, seasons 8 and 9, and also didn't like a lot of the later episodes I did see, lol. Plus I like to try to include things from all gens, tying it all together, bc I really like older gens of pony.)
11199762
Well one of the universal "excuses" is the nature of pony magic
Most writers also assume ponies have tactile telekinesis on their hooves which allows them to hold and manipulate objects, such as instrument strings, with thier hooves. All ponies haveing the ability and it being instinctual. We have see both Pearbutter and AppleJack play guitar in the show.
How can G5 ponies have kept this ability? 2 possible reasons.
1) Equestria didn't actually lose magic, it lost all major magic, "hoof grip" is so low level it was not lost.
2) Magic Power and Psychic power are different and "hoof grip" is psychic in nature.
There’s nothing wrong here, grammatically speaking, at least as far as I know, however, I think it would make sense if a question mark came after the word, “Claws,” especially if this is from Pipp’s perspective.
You can even reword it a little bit, like, “Holding the long wooden neck, and a small thin plectrum down in front of the strings on the body, were glowing…Claws?”
11208097
Reread it and find out.
11199762
I'm not terribly knowledgeable about the earlier generations, but I do remember this one fanfic that had some great world-building concepts such as the "old kingdoms" that the three tribes came from was in or around a place called Dream Valley...