Sunset Shimmer at Hogwarts story mission statement · 4:11pm Nov 23rd, 2020
I am not feeling very eloquent today, or least not this moment, but I've decided to nonetheless try and give an update on what's going on, and why I'm writing an crossover where Sunset Shimmer ends up at Hogwarts and not something else.
So why this story and not other stuff? What gives?
I guess we'll start with what's going on with me. I am in a bit of a rut when it comes to writing mlaabq-sequels, and writing in general. This has been a trying year for many, and I won't bore you with the same tales of stress and uncertainty that we all know by heart by now.
I hope you're all being nice to each other in these trying times. One always have to be careful when setting oneself up as the receiver of recognition, especially on the internet, as it is a form on neediness, which is something many people are repulsed by, even though it's something they need themselves.
But mlaabq is a, if you'll excuse my lack of modesty for a moment, "serious" story. By that I mean that I've put an arbitrarily chosen amount of effort into it, I've had a certain vision for it, enough of the story clicked in my head, I did research, and the climax of it was pretty close as I envisioned it when I wrote chapter four.
This story however, with Sunset at Hogwarts, is a much more spurious story. It's not entirely unplanned, I have some pretty good ideas in my head for what might happen in the future, but not all that much. The title is even something I decided after about six seconds of thinking.
I've read several fanstories which I've enjoyed, but it's obvious that the author had very little planned beyond a cool opening and some cool events, and then it petered out when those cool ideas quickly dried up. I'm not condemning anyone, they have no real obligations to finish anything and it's often fun while it lasts. This story might end up a lot more like that.
Like I said, a lot less planning. This is more of a learning experience. Simply writing is good practice, of course, but the reason I've started writing this, beyond the fact that it's fun and easy, is that I'm doing a specific experiment: How entertaining can you make a power fantasy?
Now, power fantasy is one of those kinda nebulous terms that slightly changes meaning from conversation to conversation, like "Mary Sue", sometimes it means one thing, sometimes it means something similar. What I mean by it here is that Sunset is capital letters OverPowered in her new setting. It doesn't become clear right away, but besides breaking many of the rules of the Harry Potter universe and doing things that no one else can, she also has oceans of raw power. Many aspiring storytelling hedge-gurus scoff at the "power fantasy", especially in belles lettres, but I suspect they enjoy a typical power fantasy as much as the next person (about 15 minutes).
But the fact that it's fun for a short time means that it is just that, fun, and so there's potential for expanding it. Some key-figure behind the Halo games once said that if you can have 30 seconds of fun in a video game, you can pretty much stretch that out to 30 hours. I've always been a little sceptical about that sentiment, because it makes me think of mouth-frothing arena shooter-players who will play in simultaneously the most intense and most boring way I can imagine so long as the right numbers go up, but perhaps this is what he actually meant.
There have been quite a few stories on fimfiction where the characters of Equestria makes big splashes in the magical world of Harry Potter, and I've often felt that that's fun, but that the potential of that has not quite been fully realized, and I'm gonna see if I can manage it.
So that's that. I suspect that no one will point out the flaw of having a Mary Sue in the story, but if they do, here's a pre-emptive congratulations on picking up on that. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Also, when picking series-tags, I assume this should be Equestria Girls?
Edit: I've written a little ahead in the story, and as an experiment, when Sunset starts at Hogwarts, I decided to try and emulate Rowling's quasi-montage style of writing, which I don't think worked all that great, so there's a section there where things move very jerkily, as I never managed to make that style my own.
5403595
Hope you like it
I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of an OP Sunset but previous stories I've read that attempted the idea (OP ponies in general) either result in a story where there are no meaningful conflicts and the OP ponies are mostly just used as a tool for bashing the wizards at every turn or we wind up in a bizarre situation where the ponies end up the least interesting part as they mostly just turn into plot devices for making "fun" things happen.
I'll be interested to see if you can manage to avoid falling into these common pitfalls.
In all honesty, the only good HP/MLP crossovers I've read have mostly all been left incomplete (including one particularly interesting Sunset centric story) but I have faith you can manage to reach some kind of conclusion.
5403598
Don't pressure me too much, like I said, this is a sloppier story than my others
I think I know which ones you mean, at least some of them, but I've always felt that there's something entertaining about how the ponies are OP, and that it can be expanded upon. We'll see if it works. I am planning a slightly different approach with this story though, where instead of the OP Mary Sue character impressing everyone so much their hats explode, she'll try and keep it hidden, with people only catching glimpses of what she can do and being intrigued instead, which will turn the whole concept around, or at least an element of it, and opening up a new avenue of entertainment: Sunset trying to be sneaky rather than trying to be impressive, which I suspect has a longer shelf life.
5403599
Oh yeah OP ponies are fun but I've only really seen one story do it well, though it does have other problems. Course I think the main problem is everyone just trying to copy what that story did so by not including the CMC you're already ahead of the curve.
Sunset at Hogwarts? Yo I'll read that.
5403792
Do tell me what you think, especially if you like it
5403795
We'll see. Honestly, with Harry Potter stories it's the depiction of Dumbledore that really makes or breaks my experience. I just don't like the manipulative Dumbledore trope and it tends to sour my enjoyment whenever it crops up. I've high hopes for this story though, I'm quite fond of your writing style.
5403818
Ah, I can see that. I'm not so ticked off by the portrayal of a nasty Dumbledore as I am confused, perhaps because when I read the last book, the big "revelation" in that just left me befuddled. I must have missed something, but I didn't care to go back and read it again. Now, Dumbledore is pretty manipulative, of course he has a master plan in the works, what old wizard would he be if he didn't? But I take it that it's how he's sometimes portrayed as being very callously manipulative and sinister that you have a problem with?
5403823
Aye that's the one.
My impression was of a very old and well-intentioned man forced into a series of increasingly horrible decisions. He's tired , he's old enough to have personally fought in the first world war and now here he is again with disaster on the horizon.
I think the Dumbledore we meet in the first book is the "real" one, and every book after stacks more and more stress on him.
Someone else doing an HP/EQG crossover? Sweet! This may sound like self-promotion, but I'm looking to do something similar:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/922203/new-fic-announcement-the-elements-of-ilvermorny-series
5403860
Which ones are they?
Also, might have to respond tomorrow.
I like the idea of Sunset being RELATIVELY overpowered (which is what has been shown up till now), and even makes sense to me as we know MLP magic is objectively more OP than hogwarts magic in general. That lets you explore the nuances of how Sunset (a unicorn) acts when being OP, and trying to become immortal vs Voldemort for example. Her alien perspective, and also her having to deal with moral issues that will test her (I can see her saving a goal or two - I mean a child or two, and being weirded out that it is such a big deal)
I'm waiting in tenderhooks for her to meet HP Unicorns or Dementia though. Sensing Magic like she does might not be all it's cracked to be.
*thinks about most shooters I've played or seen other players*
No yeah that's basically what is meant by such.
This is making me glad the story idea I'm working on (or just writing an outline to get an idea out of my head, I'm not sure which yet) I decided to not go with making use of Sunset Shimmer, even if she's a favorite character of mine. *I should also work on the outline a bit more today or tomorrow morning x3*
I might go ahead and read what's present so far in a bit, the idea has me interested a fair bit and its with Sunset Shimmer so there's that too!
5404118
Sunset is gonna have a few game-changing tricks up her sleeves in addition to her vast raw power, but I don't aim for the appeal being her besting villains in combat, so her abilities are going to be portrayed in other ways.
Dementors and Unicorns will be interesting for her to run into, yes, and hippogriffs
5404121
Hope you like it. What character will you write about?
5404133
The idea I'm going with is to make use of the Mane Six themselves, since admittedly as far as I'm aware most stories just have a single character or the CMC being the one to go to Hogwarts.
Its something I want to try and write the story, but I might also just be doing something also useful and getting ideas out of my head that demand to be written down at least.
If you're interested in seeing what I've got I could always pm/dm the outline link.
Oh, and if you ever find yourself in need of or wanting help, I'd be happy to do so. I helped with some of gerandakis's stuff for her Sunset HP story chapters and am always someone who likes collaborative writing anyways.
5404143
I can take a look at it, sure. I just don't know how much time I'll have in the near future. Maybe I will have time though
tl'dr: Sunset could give Dumbledore, and lord Moldybutt a run for their money and could potentially wreck most Aurors no probs
5503091
Pretty much. Sirius and Bellatrix duelling, spells gradually wrecking the furniture and pulling the wallpaper off in places, cue Sunset floating in all avatar-state, tearing the whole building apart with her sheer presence.
Just commenting to say that I'm attempting something similar. My factory line job gives me time to think, and I was considering what elements a Sunset Isekai story needed to work. For Hogwarts, I figured she would need to start as a first year student, need some kind of guardian or sponsor to pay for her supplies early on, and a way to find out about the magical world in the first place. My mind stumbled into a scenario, and I have some rough notes in Docs for the first 2 years, along with a list of tropes I want to try and avoid. I'm not sure if it'll go anywhere, but I like that I'm writing something.
Anyways, I haven't read your story, and it's probably best I avoid it for now, but judging by the summary, I think it's already distinct enough from what I have in mind.