//------------------------------// // You CAN Train Twice (Sunset Shimmer) // Story: Potty Training Tales // by SuperPinkBrony12 //------------------------------// Coming to a new world, even of your own accord was a learning experience. Sunset Shimmer had found that going from a pony to a human (what the world beyond the magic mirror called the species she had transformed into) came with some difficulties. Even the most basic of behaviors and actions were different now. There were so many things she had to either learn about for the first time, or relearn how to do. Some were obvious, such as walking on two legs instead of four and styling her hair with hands instead of hooves (to say nothing of the lack of a horn had been quite a blow to the frustrated girl). Others were unexpected and gave her a fair deal of trouble. Among these was potty training. Now, despite the fact that ponies could answer the call of nature in nature itself if they wanted to, where Sunset had grown up that had been discouraged. Her mother had instilled in her from her earliest days that to “fertilize the soil” was horribly uncouth, something that only uncivilized farmers did. And when Sunset was old enough she was trained in how to use a bathroom, though that might have been too generous a description considering it only had a small tub and a sink. Although ponies did have access to indoor plumbing in Sunset’s time, her family couldn’t really afford to have an indoor toilet installed. So for the young filly it was chamber pot usage until she could prove she didn’t need diapers, and all the usual fanfare that came with this milestone had resulted. It wasn’t until years later when Sunset Shimmer was studying under Princess Celestia herself that her bathroom habits would change. But now that the young mare turned apparent teenage girl (she couldn’t really tell how old she was in this world) had to learn what human toileting customs were like. Since it seemed she was stuck in this world for the time being, and didn’t have much money on her, she would need to blend in. It would be hard to do that if she couldn’t do what all humans did. Well, the first stop for the teenage girl, actually a pony was a nearby convenience store. She used some of the little money she had to buy diapers. “I probably won’t need them, I hardly ever wore diapers in Equestria after I turned two. But it’s better to have them than risk leaving puddles. Especially because there aren’t any guards or maids I can bully into cleaning up.” She thought to herself, settling for the cheapest brand she could find that would fit her. She then started to think about the time when she was in Equestria, living in the castle with Celestia, particularly how she'd been introduced to the ‘throne toilet’ as it was called there and had been so fascinated by it. On the evening of the day she moved into the castle, Princess Celestia was giving Sunset Shimmer a tour of her new home when she noticed that the young unicorn was bouncing around with a worried look on her face. “Sunset? Do you need to go potty?” She asked the filly who quickly nodded her head. “Very well. Follow me please.” Reluctantly, Sunset did as she was instructed and she soon found herself inside Celestia’s bedroom. When Sunset Shimmer got her first glance of Princess Celestia’s bathroom, she let out a loud gasp! It was a lot bigger than the one back when she was still living with her parents. She quickly recognized the bathtub, the sink and even the separate walk-in shower. The only object the young unicorn didn’t recognized was tall, light pink, and appeared to be shaped like a bowl with a fully rounded seat and a lid which was raised at the time. Attached to the back of the bowl was a tank, which featured a shiny gold handle placed off to the left side of it.  She turned her head back over to the princess. “What is that?” She asked, pointing a hoof at the strange object.  Celestia smiled. “This is a toilet,” She answered. “This is what I use whenever I need to go potty. I guess you've never seen one before, haven’t you?” Sunset shook her head. “Now I know that your parents said that you are able to use a chamber pot, but the toilet is a lot better than using chamber pots. Since this is your first time seeing one, let me explain how it works,” The princess cleared her throat and the young unicorn listened carefully. “All you need is to sit down on the seat, but be careful that you don’t fall in because it is very slippery. Once you feel comfortable, you do what you usually do in a chamber pot,” She then pointed a hoof to a roll of a paper-like substance attached to the nearby wall. “This is toilet paper. Is what you use to clean yourself up when you're all done. After that you put the used rolls into the toilet.” Celestia paused as her horn lit up and lifted the filly up and placed her on top of the tank of the toilet. “And finally you pull this down to flush, like this.” To demonstrate this, she used her magic to pull down the gold handle. FWOOSH! Sunset Shimmer winced as a loud roar reached her ears. When she looked down into the toilet bowl, she saw the water inside was spinning rapidly around and around before turning into a mighty whirlpool! The young unicorn’s eyes widened in surprise as she watched as it swirled down a hole at the bottom of the bowl and disappeared! Then a couple seconds later, it came back as if nothing had happened. The filly smiled as she looked back at the princess. “Wow!” She loudly cheered. “I know, right?” Celestia said. “In fact, I believe that someday everypony will have a toilet in their own bathrooms.” “That might take some time,” Sunset advised. “Everypony will need to understand how it works like I did, and get use to them.”   “Now that I think about it, you have a good point,” The princess agreed. “After all, I was one of the first to install a modern throne toilet. So, would you like to try using it?” Sunset Shimmer nodded and from that day forward, she used the throne model toilet whenever she had to go. She was always fascinated seeing it flush after she was done using it. She started to think about what else could be flushed down the toilet. A few weeks later however, she got a chance to find out for herself. One afternoon, Celestia was running late for a meeting, when she accidentally forgot her crown and when Sunset Shimmer found out, she decided to see if it could be flushed down the toilet. So taking the crown with her magic, she went into Princess Celestia’s bathroom and after closing the door behind her went over to the toilet. When Celestia’s crown landed in the toilet bowl, she pressed the gold handle down with one of her front hooves. Now realizing that she had forgotten her crown, Celestia ran back to her bedroom as fast as she could! When she arrived, and saw that the door to her bathroom was closed, she at first thought that Sunset was going potty. But upon noticing that her crown was missing and heard a loud splash coming from her bathroom, she realized that Sunset had her crown and went over to the bathroom door. “Sunset?” She called, as she started to knock on the door. “Have you seen my crown anywh-?” FWOOSH! Before she could finish her question, Celestia heard the toilet flushing! “Oh-no!” She gasped as she opened the door and ran over to the toilet as quickly as she could. But it was too late! The rapidly spinning water inside the bowl had already became a mighty whirlpool! By the time the princess had reached the toilet, she could only watch as her crown was sucked down through the hole at the bottom of the bowl! “Princess Celestia? I'm so sorry for flushing your crown.” Sunset Shimmer apologized afterward. “My curiosity got the better of me. I promise I won’t do it again!” The young unicorn was shocked to see the princess smiling. “It’s okay, Sunset. I understand,” Celestia replied. “This isn’t the first time that something like this happened. Luckily, I have several similar crowns for such emergencies. So I can just wear one of those to the meeting instead.” This made Sunset feel a lot better. And she even felt more relief when the original crown was eventually retrieved from the sewers. Suffice it to say, Sunset had learned the hard way what not to flush down the toilet. Just as Sunset Shimmer had snapped out of her daydream, by a stroke of luck, the most unexpected of persons (boy was it weird for Sunset to say that so regularly) showed up. This person looked exactly like Sunset Shimmer. “Hey, you look just like me! You could be my twin sister!” The other Sunset had giggled upon finding her doppleganger. Groaning, the Sunset not native to this world forced herself to smile. “Well, I don’t know about that, unless we were separated at birth and our parents never told us.” The native Sunset just replied. “You’re so grumpy all the time. Don’t you have any place to call home?” “No,” The other Sunset answered. “I have no home to go back to,” A hint of regret crept into her voice as she commented. “I doubt she’d want me back anyway after the way we parted.” The native Sunset blinked in confusion and asked. “Who’s ‘she’?” Having realized her mistake, the other Sunset told her human world counterpart. “Nopon… er nobody you need to know about. All you need to know is that I can’t go back to where I came from, and I unfortunately don’t have much in the way of money. I’ve been trying to find someplace where I can live and get by until I can start making money.” “Well why didn’t you just say so?” The native Sunset smiled! “You can come live with me! I always wanted a sibling, but my parents said I was enough of a handful,” Then she noticed something that had escaped her attention earlier. Namely, what her otherworld counterpart was wearing. “Hey, why are you wearing diapers? Only babies and people who are unable to control their own bodily functions wear diapers.” The foreign Sunset reluctantly confessed to her native counterpart. “Let’s just say that I have some ‘issues’ and the diapers are the only thing that helps.” “Well if you’re going to live with me, you’re gonna have to learn how to use a bathroom. Because I’m not changing diapers, and I don’t think my parents will be too keen on it either.” The native Sunset insisted. So it was that Sunset Shimmer came to stay in the household of the human who was native to the world she was in. This Sunset even had the same family, with some key differences. As there was no “princess” or any sort of royalty that ruled over the land, this Sunset’s mom worked on a cleaning crew at a hotel, and the dad worked for some kind of business. Just as the native Sunset had said, her parents were quite insistent that if the “other Sunset” as they took to calling their guest was to stay, she was going to have to either change herself or use a bathroom. The non native Sunset chose the latter. It’d be hard to take her seriously in this world if she was wearing something that was only meant for babies. And if she ever came back to Equestria, she didn’t want the first thing ponies saw being her in a diaper. The only thing that really annoyed Sunset was how her other self practically forced Sunset to be taught by… well… herself. “Okay, it’s really easy,” The native Sunset instructed the other her. “You take off your diaper. Then you sit on the toilet, making sure you put the lid up and the seat down. And then you just do whatever you need to do, then wipe, flush and wash.” The foreign Sunset groaned, even though she followed through on every instruction given to her by her other self. “You’re not going to actually watch me the whole time I’m doing this, are you?” She asked. The human world Sunset Shimmer giggled. “Of course not, silly. I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” Left to her own devices, Sunset was able to use a human toilet pretty easily once she got used to sitting on it the way humans did. It sometimes reminded her of the time when she was in Equestria, living in the castle with Celestia, particularly how she’d  been introduced to the “throne toilet” as it was called there and had been so afraid of it. Celestia had reassured her that it was nothing to be afraid of and that someday everypony would have similar models in their own bathrooms (something that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t seen become a reality in her time). Wiping was definitely not as carefree as it was when she was a unicorn and could just use magic to levitate over the toilet paper to clean up. Doing it by hand was much more of a burden. But she managed. This “potty training” was thankfully short in its duration. Sunset was out of diapers within a week of beginning the training, and she never again needed to wear them. But her other self annoying, cheerful presence and desire for friends drove Sunset crazy. It was so difficult to plan her revenge when her other self kept treating her like a sibling. So after Sunset found a good paying job, she left her other self behind. It wouldn’t be until about a year later that she’d learn this world’s version of her was going away to a private school somewhere else, which was fine by Sunset since she was enrolling at Canterlot High. Its location being close to the portal back to Equestria had cemented that decision. At least her other self had been good for something, though. If not for her, Sunset Shimmer was certain she would not have survived on her own in the human world. Though at the time her ego refused to admit it.