Happy Sunset Shimmer Day! · 2:34am Sep 23rd, 2016
Hope you all enjoyed the first day of fall! Word has it that Equestria Daily officially declared it to be Sunset Shimmer Day. While I wish I had been able to have something ready in time, I figured it'd be a good time to say something about my plans for my (long-stalled) 100 Followers Special One-Shot. It's an AU HiE (but unlike my main project, the Derrenverse, there's no herding going on), with the divergence point being Sunset Shimmer's time as Celestia's protege.
Here's a small sample of what's to cum come.
Late afternoon sunlight streamed into the expansive windows of the Canterlot Archive, casting long shadows of each object they struck with their intangible force. One particular figure in the building produced a longer shadow than most of the current occupants. It squirmed and wobbled with him as he struggled to find a comfortable position in the ill-fitting chair in which he sat.
For the third time in as many hours, the human rose and stretched, arching his back as he did so. He groaned with relief as weary limbs relaxed and joints gave off satisfying pops and creaks in response to his movements. A frown darkened his features as he regarded the torturous prison of a chair that he had just escaped.
It’s been five years since I got here, and they still can’t make a chair that fits me right, he silently grumbled. You’d think that with all they can do with magic, not to mention the fact that minotaurs exist here, the least they could do is conjure up seating that fits the ergonomic needs of jumped-up monkeys like me.
Another groan left him as he took his seat with the resigned bearing of a condemned prisoner being marched to the gallows. There was no help for it, after all. Sunset Shimmer, Princess Celestia’s protege, had tasked him with research related to an important project of hers coming up, and as her trusted assistant, he would do his due diligence, no matter how uncomfortable the seating arrangements were.
As he plowed once more into the dense tomes of obscure unicorn history, he idly thought back over his life since arriving in Equestria, the magical land of talking ponies. It had all started with a spell. Of course, at the time, he’d had no way of knowing that. All he could remember of the transition was the sudden sensation of his hair standing on end as if he’d been touching a live Van de Graaff generator, followed by a wave of nausea and sudden disorientation as a white light filled his vision.
Much to his mortification ‒ even to the present day ‒ he’d arrived in the throne room of Canterlot Castle stark naked and wet, as he’d been in the middle of a shower at the time. To make matters worse, the alabaster alicorn who ruled the land was in session, and had nearly lost her composure at the full frontal assault she’d received. The hoity-toity upper class ponies who’d been there to petition her for whatever reason hadn’t been as lucky, and fainted straight away. And to top it all off, the unicorn who had cast the spell ‒ a mare with a golden coat and flame-colored mane and tail that resembled bacon ‒ galloped in moments later, having sensed the “disturbance in the Force,” as he’d put it.
In hindsight, Sunset’s reaction to seeing him “saluting” the Princess of the Sun was predictable ‒ and predictably violent. It had taken him a full week to heal the bruised ribs, and he was pretty sure that he’d never have kids, even if by some miracle a human woman showed up and they fell in love. He hadn’t even been hard at the time of Sunset’s assault, but anatomical differences had meant nothing to the temperamental mare.
The human was pulled from his musings by a familiar voice calling his name. “Paul? Are you there, Paul?”
Speak of the Devil, Paul thought with a wry smirk before lifting his head and raising his voice. “Right where you left me, Sunset.”
No herding going on? Madness, I tell you!
No, but seriously, that story sounds pretty awesome. To be honest, I've never read an HiE where the Human appears when Sunset is still Melestia's student. This'll be fun, I'm sure.
4222585
"Melestia?" A portmanteau of "Molestia" and "Celestia," perhaps?
4222816
Pretty much.