Tantabus, Chapter 1 (Sunset) · 6:57am Jan 4th, 2016
[ T ] Tantabus by McPoodle
[ Alternate Universe ] [ Drama ] [ Equestria Girls ]
Sunset Shimmer’s plan to conquer Equestria goes horribly awry, and now it’s up to the most unlikely of heroes to save the human world from becoming a nightmare.
(The image is a time-elapsed photo of the Matterhorn, from the linked blog. Good luck trying to figure out what connection, if any, it has to the story, other than looking really awesome and ominous.)
[ Incomplete ] (More like as Complete as it’s going to get.)
Applejack ▪ Sunset Shimmer
Tantabus
An Equestria Girls fanfic in fragments,
By McPoodle
1 - Sunset
September 23rd, 6:30 am CST
Well, diary, this is it. In less than an hour, I’ll be back in Equestria. I won’t bother to go over my plans again, seeing how I have described, analyzed and re-analyzed them over the past few weeks in these very pages. Every contingency has been anticipated and allowed for—after all, I was Princess Celestia’s greatest student, and therefore cannot possibly have failed to catch on to all of the tricks she used to pass herself off as all-knowing and all-powerful.
So I have considered the possibility that it may take more than a few hours to steal the Element, or that the absence of the Fall Formal Crown might be detected unreasonably quickly. As the major force behind replacing the costume jewelry crown we used to have with one indistinguishable from my rightful Element of Magic—and for single-handedly getting the local community to kick in the $70,000 to pay for it, I am the obvious suspect if it ever goes missing. For that reason I have prepared online gambling receipts and pawn tickets that will shift the blame onto one who has long deserved her comeuppance for daring to outshine me in the public eye. The prospect of seeing her humiliated is so great that I would almost wish to hold onto the Element instead of use it, just to see the look on her face as the police haul her away to JV.
Almost.
No, the plan will go through as it’s supposed to: I’ll steal the Element out from under the nose of that false princess Twilight, I’ll activate it in the magic-poor setting of the human world (making me more powerful than any being in history), and then I’ll bring the entire gang of self-important pony princesses to their knees!
Signing off, this is Sunset Shimmer, or, as I will undoubtedly be addressed by this time tomorrow: Sunset Shimmer, Empress of Equestria!
Author’s Note:
Alright, to address the most-immediate question on your minds, this is not being posted as a story because it’s actually entry #4 in my long-neglected Misappropriated Fanfiction Theater series. What happened was that I stumbled upon a fanfic consisting of two intertwined plots: Plot A was absolutely brilliant, succeeding at both drama and comedy. Plot B was completely dull, forgettable, and worst of all, neither dramatic nor funny. Unfortunately, Plot B is required for Plot A to work.
I soon came up with what I thought was a great replacement for Plot B—it does exactly what is required to get Plot A to work, while being much more entertaining. Unfortunately, it appears that I am the only person who sees anything whatsoever wrong with Plot B—both the author in the blogs as well as the readers in the comments are full of nothing but praise for the plotline that I despise.
Nevertheless, I really like what I’ve been writing, so I’ll post it here, without revealing what story I am criticizing by writing it. That way I hope to avoid any unpleasantness with writer or readers who might be annoyed at my butting my nose in where it isn’t wanted. The unfortunate side effect for the readers of this blog is that I’ll be leaving out any material in this story that would make it too obvious what story it belongs with. Hopefully you’ll still find it entertaining in its own right.
Update: OK, it's been more than a year now, and there's been no retaliation, so I'll give away the spoilers. The comments below this entry give away the story. The setting is an Equestria High where Princess Twilight never showed. The A plot was about various humans mysteriously transforming into their pony counterparts, starting with Apple Bloom. The B plot involved time travel loops and endless pages of Princess Twilight and a reformed Sunset Shimmer trading exposition. The story is still not over, and I'm still fascinated by it, but I still think a time loop story written after all of the loops are done is pointless.
So this is the Plot B replacement, or with Plot A mixed in as well?
I get not wanting to start any arguments, but now I'm curious about checking out that other story for myself. Is it relatively easy to stumble across?
This is the "B" replacement, while referencing "A" as little as possible. The story ID is 244343, and I wrote this when it was only about nine chapters long.