Retrospective: Alchemy · 6:10pm Dec 13th, 2016
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Welcome to the Retrospective on The Alchemy of Chemistry, the first book set in the Wavelengths Timeline.
The date is May 990, almost one year since a rather ordinary Admissions Day at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. After being forced to become an aide for Professor Apple Polish, Sunset now must face her greatest challenge as Celestia’s student...
Her own legacy.
And so begins the first arc of the Wavelengths Timeline: The Origins Arc. While one of the most difficult stories I’ve written to date (though it’s got nothing on Bards), in the end, I do hope you enjoyed this glimpse at the beginning of Sunset’s road.
After all, despite Twilight’s experiences in the Everfree Forest… I can say with some confidence that Sunset has a long road to friendship.
(Oh don’t look at me like that.)
Phew. This story was a lot more work than I anticipated. By several orders of magnitude. In fact, this is the first story in the Wavelengths Timeline where I wrote almost all of it before deciding to trash about 90% of the words I had written and rewrite it from scratch.
Why? Because I hated the original story I came up with. Now, I’m sure the final product will be quite different than what I have here as I start this retrospective. But still, I’m far happier at this point than I was with the original.
For example, originally Princess Celestia was going to be there during the final exam in her Sunny Skies disguise (a classic I love). However, I started to realize that there was no way Celestia would condemn Sunset like I needed her to be condemned so Moon Dancer could stand up for her. (Though ironically, since I wrote this, she was added back in her Sunny Skies disguise, though in a very different context and with a very different reason). So, I needed somepony else to go after Sunset… and I realized that I needed to give the “mysterious Dean” a face.
I briefly played with the idea of outright ‘stealing’ Dean Bright Spark from Pegasus Rescue Brigade’s brilliant story, Hocus Pocus, but then realized I wanted something a little different.
Then it came to me after briefly reading Bright Spark’s final scenes in Hocus Pocus… that the Dean would have it out for Sunset, just like Spark had it out for Dinky, though for completely different reasons. Bright Spark was a matter of he hated being second guessed, even by the Princess. For him, it was all pride. Silver Slate? He’s seen his granddaughters and his students suffer at the hooves of Sunset Shimmer for years. He’s seen just how horrible she can be. The problem was, he was so fixated on that version of Sunset, he couldn’t see the Sunset that was in front of him.
Speaking of Sunset, I’d like to mention that this is the hardest version of Sunset I’ve ever written. I like the reformed Sunset. She’s sassy, fun and snarky. But this Sunset needed to be much closer to the EqG 1 Sunset. She needed to be “about 80% bitch” according to my workshop notes for the rewrite. This Sunset is very far removed from the Sunset we meet in Applications, History and Cloudsdale. She’s also almost a year removed from the Sunset we meet in Grading Curve.
No, this is the original Sunset. The one who resented the hell out of Celestia for showing her what she thought was her destiny, only to have it snatched away. The one who was forced to be an aide for a bunch of snotty fillies and colts on distant promise of answers that she’d have to wait for almost two years for. The one who’s bitter, angry, convinced of her own superiority and is determined to be the best.
But… she’s also one who picked one filly to help out.
And it was Sunset's idea (originally, it was going to be suggested by either Celestia or Polish, but I decided that it should be hers to align properly with the backstory of Applications), though the motives weren’t good. She was hoping to shorten the length of time it would take to get some answers about the mirror if she showed Celestia how fantastic she was doing, even in these moronic friendship lessons. Like Starlight in “Everything She Does is Magic,” she just missed the point entirely.
But more than anything, I wanted to give you a picture of the Wavelengths Sunset’s fall from glory. Sunset had hurt a lot of ponies at GU. Her reign was just as brutal at GU as it was at CHS. In fact, she’d hurt the faculty too.
And finally, some of them decide to strike back.
I had to go back and re-read Long Road to Friendship by The Albinocorn to help me get a feel for the bitchy Sunset again (the Sunset we get all the way to Halloween is perfect for this version). But I ended up finishing the book and I stumbled across the plotting machinations of Trixie. Namely, her attempt at blackmailing Sunset with the information as to where she lives and how Sunset defeats her with a simple question “Do you want to be me?”
Well, how far will you go to defeat the monster? Will you become the monster yourself? Trixie didn’t. She pulled back. And she became this incredible, adorable and totally lovable character.
Cinnamon and Slate chose a different path… and they paid for it dearly. Cinnamon will have a black mark on her record for the rest of her life. Slate lost everything because of his hate.
The reason this story took so long is because I originally didn’t anticipate just how much work I needed to do to build Sunset up so she could fall far enough. After the chaos of the test, Sunset’s lost everything. She’s doomed. There’s no way out. She’s gotten to the point where she’s started to doubt her own sanity, questioning if she actually did the things she’s accused of. That’s how thorough Tart & Slate were. Even with Slate’s threat… she didn’t think him capable of something like this. Sunset thought she was ruthless, but doing what he did to the class… that was beyond horror for her. To use an entire class’s suffering to accomplish your goals? That was just evil.
Part of me didn’t like writing this. I was fighting myself the entire time. Part of it is because I struggled with this “semi-evil” Sunset. The other main reason was I’m not good at being sneaky. My real problem was the first draft didn’t have the details on what Cinnamon had fully planned. In fact, I had to tell myself it was okay to change the story Sunset tells Twilight in History. That was the thing that allowed me to unleash my creativity again (and also why I intend to publish most of my stories in chronological order from here on out).
I had to really think up of an effective plan. I had to fully undermine everything Sunset had done in the last year (though honestly, she had gone from active terror to snarky indifference. It wasn’t a huge change for the positive). And for that, I needed to attack Sunset on all sides. Tart was working on the students (though Sunset losing it on her, even if it was a setup, didn’t help at all) and worst of all, she was working on Moon Dancer while Slate was riling up the faculty and sending information to the Princess.
And then… the perfect moment appeared. Everypony knew Sunset was following in Celestia’s hoofprints. And Sunset was ambitious. This wasn’t a secret. So when Slate found out that the Princess herself was giving Sunset a test to see if she would steal the experience cores that might just give her an edge… it was too good to pass up.
And frankly? It would have worked. There’s still a bit of the story that I left under the hood. For example, Tart wasn’t supposed to tell Moon Dancer about the events. Slate thought it was too much of a risk. But Tart got cocky after Moon Dancer ripped Sunset a new one before the exam… and talked too much when Moon Dancer asked for a way to get back at Sunset.
You also don’t know exactly why Raspberry Tart hates Sunset so much. That might be revealed a little in Bards, but only a little.
I can’t give you the entire thing, after all, can I?
But the real moment of truth came right after Slate accused Sunset and Celestia had abandoned Sunset to her fate. Moon Dancer just stared at Sunset and had to make a decision: was Sunset was being honest to her earlier?
Moon Dancer needed to take a leap of faith. She did it… and in so doing, saved Sunset’s life. In more ways than even I can count.
She stood up for the pony she decided was her friend, giving Celestia enough questions to investigate further. Enough information to plant that seed of doubt and finally demand answers of Tart and her friends.
They didn’t stand a chance.
Now, since I started this retrospective, Ebon Quill and I have been literally tearing this story apart and putting it back together again. He has been simply and literally invaluable during this process. He was the one who came up with the idea that Slate wasn’t going to try and destroy Sunset in front of the school… he needed to do it in front of Celestia. She was the real roadblock for him to get his revenge. He also came up with the simply magnificent idea of using the Waterwalking Potion throughout the story. This became a miniature version of the “Princess Twilight Sparkle” unicorn doll Long Road’s Sunset has throughout the story. Originally, he planned for it to end with the potion being destroyed casually by Slate, but that was depressing. So instead, I had Celestia reconstitute it. But even better, when I actually wrote down the scene, I thought about my cover… and realized how perfect it would be if they each got the bottles for what happened.
Celestia could have given Sunset’s to Moon Dancer and Moon Dancer’s to Sunset’s… but I think it was far more effective and poignant for them to give them to each other without a single word. In that moment, both have truly forgiven one another. They need each other. Trust me, they really do.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a story go through such a brutal editing process. The story got whole sections cut, entire scenes destroyed. The story originally started in Chapter 2 with Sunset hating her desk. Well over 5,000 words were added during the course of the editing to this story.
Now, I want to pause for a moment to give a shoutout to Ebon Quill.
Ebon Quill joined the Manehattan Project several months ago as a Worldbuilding Writer, whose responsibility it would be to create the various terminal entries that would populate the game. It would effectively build up the world around the player. He would eventually rise to the position of Quest Designer and just recently was promoted to Vocal Director.
However, I learned something very quickly about Ebon Quill.
He is a very different kind of writer than I am.
His vocabulary is completely different. His sense of drama and tension is different. His perspective on character reaction and character perspective is different. His word flow, his plot twists, everything is different from mine. He likes making things insanely complicated—though I’m pretty sure that’s to drive me more crazy. So you’re probably thinking… why the heck would I want someone who’s so different editing one of my stories?
Because I needed it.
Ebon made me look at the stories in completely different ways. The arcs, the plots, the ideas, everything. He challenged me to defend why a character was acting a particular way. At first, this was very difficult. I don’t like conflict and I don’t tolerate drama. I didn’t want to cause it by rejecting his suggestions. He didn’t want to come across as overbearing or a harsh critic. Once we both learned to get over that fear, we worked pretty damn well together.
We don’t always agree when it comes to storytelling. In fact, his version of Celestia for Alchemy was far harsher and more authoritarian than any of my versions of her. I rejected suggestion after suggestion about his changes. But here’s the thing… I might reject his changes, but they get me thinking about a specific line or idea and I end up replacing what I had with something even better.
It’s the simple concept of tempering. He makes me work at it. Sometimes I want to strangle him because he wants to add this new complex storyline to the story twelve hours before it’s supposed to go live… but let me tell you, the benefits far outweighs any itty bitty annoyance.
Anyway, I think Moon Dancer and Sunset summed it up pretty well. Friends are supposed to annoy you a little. It’s a method to show they care.
Little Tinker, as always, is invaluable. He’s one of our main Scripting Engineers at GoE, but he also likes reading. Tink is fantastic at taking the pulse of the ‘normal’ reader. Ebon and I tend to get too close to the story (forest for the trees and all that) and we have trouble seeing things. Tink gives me reaction pieces. (Popcorn/Pitchforks) And it’s so very helpful to have that voice of the normal ‘reader’ to refer to.
But even better was the special addition of Tchernobog. As I was driving forward in the last week of October, desperately trying to finish this so I could get it out for NaNoWriMo, I realized I was too close to the story. I needed to test the arcs. Make sure the characters were consistent. Make sure Slate/Tart’s scheme was solid. Make sure that Sunset was truly screwed. Moon Dancer’s reactions were honest, etc. Tchernobog did a wonderful job and even let me interrogate him a little on his perspective in a great many places. I desperately needed that fact check and he gave it to me in spades. Best part? He said he loved the story, even before the edits went through!
So props to him. Yes, AJ and Rainbow will be shipped in a future story. I even have it worked out exactly how and when. It’s a small price to pay. And you’ll like it. And if you don’t, oh well. I’ll live.
Not only that, but a very special thanks to Beltorn, (I'm still trying to get the guy to use an avatar.) the most recent member of the Wavelengths Editing Team! His comments were some of my absolute favorites, because they were insightful, interesting and just plain ol’ fun. He offered some suggestions on a few chapters of Alchemy and Ebon and I were so impressed we invited him onboard to help out! He jumped at the chance. And I’m sure it was at least partly for the editing and not only because he was just dying to find out what happened next.
Only problem is now I have to edit his comments to make sure he doesn’t give away too much.
Oh, and for the record? Doing an audible edit (reading aloud) an entire 33K story in one day after attending BlizzCon? Nightmare. Total nightmare. GAH! Drove me nuts! But I did it.
Now, let’s talk about the dream. I bet a lot of you (including Sunset) was thinking “Seriously? Is he really doing this stupid shoulder angel/demon thing?” Come on. You should know me better than that. Instead… I turned the Angry Little Pony on its head. At this point in Sunset’s life, she’s got two voices. The voice of her past self and the voice of her future self, the ones I named Red and Yellow. I wanted for each to get their say. But in the end, Sunset does make a decision and in that moment, one of them goes quiet as it becomes part of Sunset and one gets a little louder every day until…
Well, you’ll need to keep reading to find out what happens for that.
So this story? Completely frustrating, but an absolutely critical part of Sunset’s development. This is her opening piece. This is how the Wavelengths Sunset starts out. With a single friend who’s just as snarky as she is because Sunset’s been tutoring her in a lot more than magic. She’s been tutoring her in confidence. And for Sunset, that confidence comes out in sass.
Sadly, Moon Dancer’s picked up on some bad habits.
But that’s why I love her. Honestly? Their banter at the end was sorely needed. And reminded me of the banter I used to have with my old best friend. And their banter is my favorite part of these two.
This story gets a bit grim in places. I’ll admit that “The screaming started twenty seconds later” was totally evil on my part. This isn’t a comedy. I don’t think it’s dark and it’s not sad, but Sunset’s got to go through all sorts of stuff here, so I’m pretty sure it qualifies for the Drama tag.
But thankfully, this particular chapter of Sunset’s life is over.
That being said, she’ll be dealing with the ramifications of the pony she once was for years to come (as we’ve seen in the Applications trilogy) and this special event will change the course of her entire life. While the lack of a Sonic Rainboom definitely made an impact (after all, it not happening caused Sunset not to go through the portal), as Celestia said in Cloudsdale, Sunset would had been in an even darker place at the end of this if not for Moon Dancer.
Think about it. Sunset would be brought up on criminal charges. She’d be blackballed in high society and academia. She would have almost certainly been kicked out of Canterlot Castle. Assuming for the moment she doesn’t go to jail… can you imagine what the loss of everything would do to somepony like her?
All from something she didn’t even do.
Yeah. Serious implications.
There will be far darker things ahead. And far more dangerous and deadly threats for her to fight, but thankfully… this is the last time she’ll need to fight alone.
Speaking of fighting alone versus fighting together…
One of my favorite parts of the new Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree is Sunset Shimmer’s new powers. Twi’s got levitation. Rarity’s got diamond shields (and apparently a form of conjuration like the Radiance Power Pony’s magical constructs if that chandelier at the end is a sign of anything) AJ’s got super-strength. Flutters can… surprisingly… talk to animals! Rainbow’s got super-speed (shocker). Pinkie can BLOW STUFF UP (seriously, WTF?). Now, all of these abilities are useful (in various contexts) in and of themselves. They work on their own.
Sunset? Sunset’s abilities don’t do anything without someone else there. But she makes it for it by having two abilities. First is the telepathic/empathic sense where she can understand the motivations and concerns of others (the perfect character growth for her. She has come so very far 
). But the second is even more powerful. I don’t know if you noticed, but she only ponied-up when she reached out to touch Twilight and encourage her to use Twilight’s telekinesis to get through the vine wall. Not only that, but her hands (is it weird that the word ‘hands’ now bothers me?) glowed with power at that instant.
But wait, there’s more! Sunset’s hands also glowed when she reached for Twilight when Twi was fighting the fear of Midnight Sparkle (who I believe wasn’t actually a real ‘person’ but a manifestation of Twi’s own fear of losing control). She was the first to appear in Twilight’s mindscape and I believe Sunset acted as the conduit for the rest of the Mane 7 to join her in that mindscape. She had the first and last line there.
Translation: Sunset’s power is both empathy and inspiration.
Which just means Sunset is even MORE awesome.
I’ll likely try and work some of this into the ongoing storyline of Wavelengths. After all, the Sunset we get to know in Wavelengths is a lot closer to the Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree Sunset. So who knows what you’ll end up seeing?
A couple last thoughts.
First of all, you might notice a minor disconnect with Sunset’s conversation with her friends in Applications and the events that transpire in Alchemy. There’s a couple reasons for this. A few of them I’m not going to tell. But one of the main ones is the simple fact that seven years pass between Alchemy and Applications. This wasn’t a good time for Sunset. She was sleep-deprived to the point of narcolepsy, she saw her entire world fall apart and she was framed for a crime she didn’t commit. She remembers some of the parts very clearly (such as Moon Dancer asking to be her friend), but a lot of other parts have been forgotten or repressed. It’s why she remembers partway through her conversation with Twilight in the Archive Stacks that she was worried that Twilight might be a threat. After Twilight tells her off for stealing her friends away from her, she’s reminded of the events.
I also don’t know about you, but I can barely remember details from one year ago, let alone seven.
Alchemy truly sets the stage for the entirety Wavelengths. Arcs begin in this story that will echo across time to fifteen years in the future. This single relationship will be the foundation that will, some day, save the world. Many times.
And it’ll save more than just one world, too.
By now, it should be sometime in December, even though I started writing this at the end of October. This is my first weekly story. And while it was done already, I wanted to give you it over the course of November while I did NaNoWriMo. After all, that seems to be what a lot of long-form story authors do. We’ll see how well this one works.
…Considering the cries of outrage from some of you, I think it worked pretty damn well.
Now that Bards of the Badlands is going through its final edits and How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative has started the editing process, it’s time to look forward to the future.
So, what can you expect from me now?
Well, first of all, you get a special Christmas and Hearth’s Warming Eve surprise!
You’re getting a new story next Monday.
That’s right. You get a previously-unannounced short story next Monday at 10AM!
This story is a full-on fun and random comedy. It’s set about six weeks after the events in Applications. It’s only 3,500 words (making it my first actual short story) and it’s not some huge battle against the forces of dark magic. The girls finally get a day off. The idea came to me out of nowhere the day after decorating my house for Christmas. I wrote the first two scenes in about four hours and the last scene in another two. The entire story was done (including custom artwork) within 12 hours.
Yeah, it sets things up for A Study in Chaos Theory, but really, it’s just designed to be a fun Christmas story.
So come on back on Monday to enjoy Tactics of Snowbound Unicorns!
Not only that, but my current plan is to get you Bards of the Badlands on January 2, 2017. In addition, I’m hoping that Prerogative will launch near the end of January, but Prerogative will likely be a multi-week story (though I might do two a week like I did for the end of Alchemy).
Well, I think I’ve yammered at you long enough. It’s been one hell of a ride this time, hasn’t it? I hope you’ve enjoyed it and you’ll stick around to see what comes out next in the Wavelengths Timeline!
Thank you all for reading and I’ll see you next Monday for Tactics of Snowbound Unicorns!
-Novel
P.S. I got to take a trip to Las Vegas this last weekend for a special party with Painted Heart (Props and huge thanks to Ebon Quill for getting us tickets to see KÀ, which is amazing and you should totally see it.). And I decided to have some fun with Sunny and Twi. I took pictures all around the city, but I'll just have one up here for now. 
This one was taken at the top of "Paris" with the Bellagio in the background!
P.S.S. What do you folks think of the new Retrospective Cover Design? Pretty neat huh? I actually quietly redid all the covers for all my Retrospectives for all of my stories. You can check them out below!
Glad to be of service.
The effort you all put into Alchemy of Chemistry definitely paid off. It's one of the best stories I've read here--or possibly anywhere--in recent memory. The penultimate chapter was executed perfectly. Not, like, really well. Perfectly.
So excited for more Wavelengths. This series is like single-handedly dragging me kicking and screaming back into reading ponyfic. I'm grateful for the change.
My pleasure to help you!
I'd read and enjoyed your stories here before, but I think with the completion of "The Alchemy of Chemistry" and the promise of even more stories to come, I can say that I'm full-on hyped for this series now. I think this story is the best one of yours yet, and that's not exactly a low bar to clear.
I look forward to your next stories with great anticipation. This site can always use more Sunset Shimmer, after all!
Yeah, I know this was a necessary part of Sunset's story, just still unpleasant to see Sunset at almost her lowest. It is interesting to think of what could have happened if Moon Dancer hadn't spoken up. EQ1 Sunset was bad, but she in some twisted way thought she was still going for her denied destiny. Here, Sunset had put up with the "friendship lesson" Celestia had given her, had to deal with working as a teacher's aide, and still everything could have ended in tears due to being framed. Even if she hadn't ended up doing time for her supposed crime, it would have probably acted as "proof" to her that friendship really is worthless, that Celestia is wrong, and then... well, a powerful unicorn can get up to a lot of trouble (as we see with Starlight and even Alicorn Amulet Trixie).
Wonder how many other ponies Sunset has angered over the years. CHS was one thing, but that's still just a high school, and everyone already hated Sunset there. In Canterlot, Sunset was the Princess' personal student, which makes for a more complicated situation. I was surprised when it turned out the Dean was the mastermind, from previous stories I was expecting Cinnamon Tart would be the main antagonist rather than just the accomplice (though understandably Sunset's recollection of events isn't perfect of course). I thought Cinnamon would turn out to be an even worse Sunset, a young manipulative amoral pony. Though with how complicated the scheme was, yeah, it needed a faculty member. And then there's still Raspberry, but that'll probably be revealed someday.
Happy to see another story added to this timeline, looking forward to the next one (aw, that Sunset in scarf looks so adorable, but then that applies to most Sunset pictures).
I personally like the retrospective covers. But nice as they are, aren't they too... polluted?
I'd like to volunteer to sort of maybe design a cover for a future story of yours? I got not way of asking this without sounding needy.
PS: Tsk. And here I thought you'd call human!Sunset the Element of Friendship
...why is the word "eye" fairly prevalent in each of the retrospective covers? Is there some special significance?
We now need an AU to this AU where Sunny goes darkside after Moon Dancer doesn't stand up for her... now I'm imagining another whole story revolving around that.
Still rather have Steel/Iron/telekinesis than Nicrosil/...eleventh metal?/empathy/inspiration. Mistborn is always on my mind. So sue me.
I am imagining them finding out about the whole time screwery thing and deciding that they are going to sail the multiverse fixing all the other timelines. XD
Awesome story. I shall be reading Tactics sometime soon. I expect shipping. Or at least snowball fighting tactics. But let's be honest, I expect shipping in my tactics games. Fire Emblem has spoiled me.
4338220; 4338263 - You are both indispensable.
4338227
4338250
./squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee-squee
*Cough cough*
Thanks!
4338331 All hail the astounding Sunny! And don't fear, ain't no stopping this hype train!
4338617 Yeah. This story was really rough on Sunny. While it is the last time she'll fight alone... there are even darker things ahead. But fear not, for I know the path!
Lots of questions were asked. Lots of potential vectors are hinted at. There are many what ifs. You'll just have to see which ones are revealed!
4338701 i.imgsafe.org/443594f83a.png
She's also confirmed by the director to be the wielder of "Empathy!"
The covers are a bit chaotic and I'll probably play with the background. Ain't perfect yet.
4339565 I have no idea. The word "Up" was like that as well, but I ended up removing that manually from the word cloud generator.
4355526 Sorry, they're not going to be Hoid... even if that would be awesome. As for powers, well, I wouldn't mind levitation, but people confuse the hell out of me, so I think empathy would have so much greater long-term possibilites. And considering I am a devout student of Sanderson (Actually listening to Well of Ascension on Audiobook in the last few weeks. Probably my fifth listen/readthrough), I understand.
...even if I can't decide if you're Breeze or Wax.
That being said, if you want to see dimension-hopping Sunny and Twi...
4355958
Technically I named my username (I use it in everything) after Breeze, after remembering the line in the original Mistborn books where Breeze told Sazed not to call him Lord Ladrian.
Then Sanderson goes and releases a book with a badass main character named "Ladrian" and now the name is taken everywhere I go. Seriously, on steam when I made my account, Ladrian was unique. Now there are several, and one even has a nearly identical avatar...
Alright, Hipster rant over.
Although I can't really get mad at him...
I prefer to think of myself as closer to Wax anyway. Manipulation isn't my style, deciphering clues and general badassery is cooler.
And as for the power, that's completely fair. I don't understand people very well either. I would just rather be able to break things with my mind than rely on others, even if I could read their minds/pasts/pertinent memories/whatever Sunset does.