Original Story - Overprotective Celestia

Overprotective Celestia

Now this idea was something that started of as vague concept that took on a life of it’s own. It started off as a question of “what if the events of The Fall of Sunset Shimmer happened completely differently and how would that effect the events going forward”. In this interpretation of the stories events, Sunset does not go through the mirror, but does get expelled. However, what she did not know was that this was a hastily constructed plan by Princess Celestia to get Sunset to see the error of her ways by using the “learning the hard way” mentality. So the plan was for Sunset to be expelled for a month in order to learn what it was like to live alone and (hopefully) learn the magic of friendship. After a month, Sunset would then be brought back to continue on with her studies. As a way to keep an eye on her and keep her safe, Celestia assigned an undercover guard to tail her.

So Sunset, thinking she was just tossed away by her mentor, decided to start over in another city on which she decided on Manehatten. So on the latter part of the month, a devastating accident occurs in Manehatten that Sunset was a victim of. The exact details of the incident I will leave up to your imagination. But during the accident, Sunset sees the error of her ways and, as a result of the revelation, pulls of a hero's sacrifice action that saves many ponies lives at the cost of herself. This results in Sunset being critically injured and rushed to Manehatten hospital to be treated for her injuries. The undercover guard, aware of everything that happened, goes and sends a letter to Princess Celestia of what happened. Princess Celestia, who has a very close bond with Sunset (As the show heavily implies) immediately takes off to the hospital to get a better understanding of what was going on.

The hospital manages to stabilize Sunset and get a better understanding on the extent of the damage. The accident leaves Sunset with some brain damage that causes her to blank out and wander every once in a while (as well as other things) in addition to severe physical injuries that where just shy of crippling her. All in all, a life changing incident that could have been much worse on Sunset. However, for Princess Celestia, it was a blatant reminder that she could lose those she cares about and, unlike her sister, would never be able to get them back. So she makes a promise that she would never let Sunset leave her side again.

Princess Celestia first starts with having Sunset quietly transferred to Canterlot Hospital, during which she had her personal chambers renovated with a secret bedroom built specifically for Sunset when she is cleared from the hospital to live in the castle again. She also has the magical barriers around the castle renovated in order to prevent Sunset from leaving the castle without a chaperon. This was done in order to prevent her from wandering off the castle grounds and go missing by accident. And in the event that Sunset does get through the barriers, when she was released from the hospital, Celestia put a necklace on her that had a tracking spell on it that would show where Sunset is at any given time. And, in true obsessive fashion, Celestia made it impossible to remove without a special spell that only she herself knows.

So fast forward a bit in time and Twilight becomes Princess Celestia’s new personal student. Just like in canon, the incident with Sunset taught her the problematic ways of her teaching and corrects them for Twilight. So that stays the same with the exception of Twilight interacting with Sunset, and Sunset helping teach her (As the brain damage did not effect her intelligence). The story at this time would then go similar to how the show went with Twilight going to Ponyville and meeting her friends while Sunset goes with her in order to be protected from Nightmare Moon. While things would mostly follow canon, as things progress Twilight and her friends would eventually find out about Celestia’s over-protectiveness and would get themselves involved in the matter to try and help both of them out. This idea is something I would love to see in the future as I see a lot of potential in the idea but of course, the choice is always up to you.

(The idea is working under the assumption that Sunset is an Orphan)

(UPDATE: I recently heard about Taylor Swift and the situation relating to her general conservatorship. While I wish her all the best in that case, the concept of conservatorship gave me an idea on a concept for this story. A way that Princess Celestia could get full control over Sunset would be to put her into a general conservatorship. She would probably do this with the reasoning that due to Sunset’s mental damage, Sunset can not conceivably live alone as she would be unable to function properly without risking getting lost or being taking advantage of.

Therefore, putting her under a conservatorship with Celestia herself as the guardian would ensure that a credible pony would be able to keep her protected and help her with day to day living. While Celestia has nothing but the best intentions with Sunset, she also understands that she would also be able to hold onto one of her students when the others ultimately leave to live their lives. Also considering the fact that she, at the time, is the only ruler of Equestria, she has all the resources needed to get it done. This would allow Celestia to have legal standing with all the actions that she takes to protect Sunset that many would see as overbearing and restrictive. Just another possible idea that I believe would fit well into this story.)