6899318

Oh, this is glorious!

... Magically reinforcing memories is a thing people can do?

Is that possibly human magic? How good is Pinkie Pie's memory, that she might've been doing it before Twilight? 'Cause Party Pony Memory?

----

Typo:

notes one everyone > notes on everyone

[Sailor Orbital Fanfic]

"So, who do you think the Moon Princess is? It can't be any of us, or we could've used the gates once we found the first one..."

"Hmm... Well, maybe Vice-Principal Luna? Given her Equestrian counterpart's history, it'd make the most sense... But, who else is Moon-themed that we know?"

"Lessee, there's Moondancer, Moonlight Raven, and Trixie?... I think that's it?"

"Wait, why are we guessing, if we could just ask? And no, not Dinky, the Fates!"

----

"Oh, great and powerful Fates, please help us humble heroes on our quest to save the world. Answer us one question, if you please. Who is the Moon Princess?"

[Dunno who to pick, or how to write cool CMC Dialogue.]

6903946
The three girls silently exchanged looks, then looked to the center of the cafeteria.

From her table, Sunset Shimmer nodded as if to say, "Yes, it's exactly like that." Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to be holding each other back from intervening in an increasingly knotted tangle of limbs. Rarity was just giggling to herself and had her phone pointed at their table, doubtlessly recording the whole thing.

Sweetie took a deep breath. "Okay, you do know I don't have a perfect view of the future, right?"

Blue Oyster nodded. "That's what I said, but they insisted on trying to cheat."

"It's not cheating," said Ditzy, "it's using available resources."

"That doesn't mean Razz can go full Shimmerist on them."

Raspberry Fluff might have blushed at that, though it was always hard to tell with her skin tone. "It's not like I hold them above the Divine Bacon Horse. I just wanted to make it sound appropriately epic."

"Ahem." A few people from a nearby table, all with two-toned sun charms on their person, glared at Blue. She glared back.

Ditzy took the air, grabbed Blue by the armpits, and began dragging her away. "Oh no, we're not going down this rabbit hole again."

The other Shimmerists got out of their seats.

"No theological arguments when I'm in the room!" cried Sunset.

The other Shimmerists sat down like their legs had given out.

"For what it's worth," Sweetie said to Raspberry, "I really can't see much regarding the whole alien thing."

Apple Bloom nodded "Our powers don't work well when other dimensions an' such get involved."

"Also, Dinky knows you tried to pull this," said Scootaloo.

"Oh." Raspberry gulped and clasped her hands. "O Glorious Proclaimer—"

"Yes! Fine! Just stop praying to me in the cafeteria!"

A quick reveal: It turns out that the Moon Princess is Spike, because it's not based on 'mooniness' but on 'who has a genetic code close enough to unlock the door to the moon base'.

6903978

Lol. Makes sense though, given that explanation.

How the Moon Princess would ever get to the Gate to activate it... Now that's the big question?? Or they just decode it, and figure it out??

Does the original Moon Princess actually even have descendants?

----

Hmm... Could a techy Earth Aspect just link to the gate, and read what happens when it receives a gene sample to figure out what the right genes are??

Maybe it isn't programmed in an easily understandable way?

Flurry Heart was, by happenstance, conceived the very moment the Saturation occurred.

She was not the only one, of course. On the planet Earth alone, oblivious to the confrontation of world-wide significance, eighteen other children were also conceived to fourteen couples, two women who just wanted a fling with their respective partners, and one unfortunate victim who had no idea what her future would hold. And as magic rippled across the cosmos, through long isolated galactic communities, various nonhuman species would find a smattering of wunderkind, blessed or cursed with strange powers and wisdom that would lead them forward out of the dark age.

Flurry Heart did not learn any of this.

She slumbered peacefully through the events of the Friendship Games, through her discovery (and her parent's panicked realizations), through a hastily thrown together wedding meant to look as though it was well planned. She twitched occasionally in the oncoming months, new eyes opening to darkness, limbs stretching as they grew, testing digits as they came into being. The genetic code for equestrian magic, hastily implemented into humanity, wove itself through every stage of her development, unchecked by the measures that only existed seconds after her creation. A versatile powerhouse grew in the unsuspecting womb, emerging after a long period to the worried love of her parents.

Flurry Heart did not recall any of this.

It was fortune and fortune alone that allowed her condition to be diagnosed by the new guardian of the world. Had she been born further away, to parents who did not have a personal connection to Sunset Shimmer, she might not have been noticed. And because she was noticed, Sunset was able to locate the others like her on the planet, explain the situation to their parents--not all of whom were in the best of places, and some of whom did not appreciate the information. Still, they knew, and they made preparations that otherwise would not have occurred. Some were for good. Some were for ill. And in a secret place, Sunset told the secret watchers what she had learned, and secret protectors were assigned.

Flurry Heart did not discover any of this.

Flurry Heart was a child of the new world. She could not picture a reality without magic--without intelligent animals or computers that talked back, without superheroes or giant monsters, without semi-powerful churches or legitimately powerful demigods. Oh, she knew that such a time had existed, yes, but that didn't mean she understood it; when her aunt was literally holding the universe together and her babysitters could range from being able to grow humongous to having meta-temporal knowledge, the idea seemed incomprehensible.

She wandered through the new world, wide-eyed and eager, for most of her childhood. Unaware of just how protected she was, or just how special she was--not that she didn't know she was special, only that she didn't realize her uniqueness. She laughed, cried, played, threw tantrums, all the usual manner of antics children got up to. It simply didn't occur to her that magic, any magic, had not been woven into such actions beforehand.

So she could not, for the life of her, understand why her parents had grounded her for enchanting the silverware. Again.

6904797

I may spin this off myself...

Sunny Flare crossed her arms as the woman she'd been dating for years now rolled on the ground laughing.

"It's not funny."

Lemon Zest was unable to reply through her guffaws.

"It is... only a little bit funny."

"I don't get it," Flurry Heart said, tilting her head. "Why is she laughing?"

"Oh geez, hahahaaaahaa, she, she, pfffaaahahaha!"

Sunny Flare took a deep breath. "No, Flurry Heart," she said slowly, "we are not the result of Abacus Cinch pouring out all her 'grumpiness' to make a new person. Lemon Zest is her niece, and we did both attend Crystal Prep while Cinch was in charge, so we do know her."

"Ooooooooh." Flurry nodded. "So that's why she looks like Grumpgran!"

Lemon's laughter redoubled as she clutched her stomach. "From thehahaha mouth of babes! Hahahaaaahahahaaahahahaaa!"

Sunny pinched her brow. "I am so sorry for her behavior, Cadence."

"Isn't that my line?" Cadence asked, quirking a brow. "I mean, I'm the one asking you to babysit..."

"Hahahaha.... haaaa... whew." Lemon finally sat up, clapping a hand on Flurry's shoulder. "Kiddo, you and I are going to have a heck of a lot of fun together, I can tell."

6905029
When Abacus Cinch learned why she'd found herself wearing a hideous sweater that read "World's Grumpiest Gran" and drinking from a similarly captioned mug, her only response was, "You are all tremendously fortunate that my great-granddaughter is as adorable as she is."

6904797

What did she enchant the silverware to do?

Also, given long enough, Human!Flurry could meet EQ!Flurry?

Also also, still no description of Flurry. Nice!

6905177

All of them are fortunate? So all of them were complicit?

I would've thought Discord magic-ed it on her or something.

6905532
Oh, he was. But everyone else would've been in the blast radius.

In any case:

When someone lived for centuries, they found themselves returning to the same thoughts time and time again. The world changing more quickly just meant that the cycle had accelerated to match. And thus Adagio Dazzle came to a conclusion that she'd already reached several times in the past decade:

Detention is a punishment because no one wants to be in school.

Of course, the students weren't punished by having to be Mr. Discord's teaching assistant. Granted, they hadn't tried to scrape samples off of Coloratura's heartstone while she slept, so Adagio grudgingly allowed that there might be some justification in her playing science monkey to a bunch of disinterested children.

A bang like a gunshot shocked her out of her ruminations. "And that," cackled Mr. Discord, "is what happens when you take away the strong nuclear force!"

Alright, "disinterested" could never describe a student in that madman's class. And that was putting aside the boys and occassional girl who'd been spending more time looking at her than whatever Mr. Discord was doing. Adagio had to admit, there had to have been something in the water at Canterlot High. There wasn't a bad-looking specimen in the bunch. If things had gone her way, she'd probably have kept the town as a breeding population for eye candy.

One snack in particular made her take a second look, followed by a lengthy third. A glance at the calendar confirmed that she hadn't gone back twenty-odd years without realzing it.

"... and Adagio will return your exams to you." Mr. Discord saying her name brought her attention to the stack of papers nudging her shoulder. She rolled her eyes. Everyone in the room knew he could simply send the things back to their owners, but this was her punishment. Tide's sake, he had to make them tug her towards the right desks; it wasn't like she ever bothered to learn the fry's names.

Though she did pay attention to one. When she got close, she shuffled that test to the bottom of the stack. After handing them back to everyone else, she lingered by her target. "So. Button Mash."

He blinked up at her. "Uh, yeah?"

"I don't suppose you'd know a Brave Heart?"

Button gave a slow nod, incomprehension plain on his face. "He's my dad."

"Really? How fascinating." Adagio knelt next to him, favoring him with a half-lidded smile. "We met somewhere in the Seashells, just off Mount Aris."

"Can I have my exam back?"

That got a throaty chuckle. "You know, I could teach you so much more than—"

At that point, a pillar of bright green magic slammed Adagio to the floor. She lay there, stunned more out of shock than pain or injury. "What just happened?"

"Sweetie Belle used Future Sight," Button said, sounding far more certain.

"That tells me nothing."

"Tells me what she was frowning at during lunch."

"Really, Adagio, I thought a siren would know better than to toy with one chosen by the Fates." She blinked and found herself standing in front of the class again. Mr. Discord shook his head, not even bothering to hide his smile. "And that's another week of TA duty for not waiting until they're eighteen and out of my classroom."

(Ruto, Lulu, Mipha... There's something about Link and fish women. Apparently it's genetic.

And yes, that's meant to be a pun on the Seychelles.)

6905601

So, Button Mash seems like he might look like Brave Heart in the future. Sweetie's thing for him makes so much sense now.

Has Sweetie ever seen Brave Heart to make a comparison?

Sweetie using Future Sight! So cool! I guess she projects the energy presently, to be stored and released in the future, when she's not in the area...

Sounds ripe for Mundane Utility?? Most Unicorn magic has to be used near the caster?

6893616

A little snip about things what have been established:

"Okay, okay, light powers, light powers..."

Abstract "Abby" Cognition flexed her fingers, looking out amongst the crowd. Her eyes glowed briefly as she examined the people around her, trying to figure out...

to...

...that was strange. There, in one corner, sat a woman of pale blue, her own golden eyes locked on Abstract as an amused smile came to her face. She wasn't of any aspect that Abby had seen before, either.

Something about her seemed...

Abby shook her head, shutting her eyes momentarily as she tried to focus. When she looked up again she couldn't help but let out a squeak; the woman was there, right in front of her.

"U-um... hi!"

"Hello, child." The woman leaned forward. "Hmmm... ah. You seek, do you not?"

"I... guess?"

"But of course you would seek. It is in your nature." A single long finger tapped Abstract's nose with a giggle. "There are others who seek for reason, but you... you seek because you are that which is sought."

Abstract Cognition frowned for a moment. "Are you... are you going to just spout cryptic nonsense at me all day?"

"Certainly not, and three times over! I do not have all day to speak, my words are far from nonsense, and you deserve not a spout but only a trickle. Though..." the woman grinned as she leaned back. "I suppose you could be right about 'cryptic.'"

"Riiiiight... I need to get back to practicing."

"Must you truly?" the woman asked sadly. "I know of that power as well, little maid."

"Oh, you've read Habittrapped?!"

"Is it really something that can be merely read?"

Abby giggled. "Yeah, I guess 'reading' isn't the best word for it. Still, Light is an awesome power!"

"Perhaps... but the character of those who have wielded it is not to be envied." The woman ticked off her fingers slowly. "The Seer, whose arrogance led to her acceptance of those beyond her kith, who after her ascension was left to languish in drink and died pointlessly... or, should I mention the other, who saw her daughter and mother slain in front of her?"

"Er--"

"The Sylph," the woman continued. "Such a charming young woman, was she not? Such a shame she turned out to view others as pawns, and disposable ones at that. In her madness, she attempted to defy and control--and so was slain, justly. Do I not recall these events correctly?"

"Well--"

"And of course," the woman finished, "the Thief. Oh, the words that could be said of her... and yet none so easily encapsulate." She smiled. "And now there is you, young maid. Seeking understanding of what you have, for it is what all seek... and yet Light is not Hope, for a very good reason."

"I mean, sure, it can be dangerous," Abby agreed. "But... isn't it better to understand Light? To know how to avoid the dangers?"

The woman quirked an eyebrow. "You will not be swayed, I see. I suppose that is to be expected. A warning--those who play with powers great should beware others as such. I have no quarrel with you, yet... I suspect we shall have dealings in the future."

"...Who even are you, anyway?"

"One who has seen the new board and decided to play."

"What?"

"Abby!" shouted a new voice. Abstract turned to see her sister running up. "Geeze, what were you doing?"

"I was talking to--" Abby turned back, only to find the woman gone. "...what?!"

"What?"

"Did you see the woman? She was just here--"

"Are you okay? It's not like you to hallucinate."

Abstract Cognition looked from her sister's face to the space where her conversation partner had just been.

"I... I'm not... she was right here...."

6911219
"takes a moment to stop Happy Hyperventilating"
Abby's a Maid of Light! Wheee! I was worried about what role I should give her, torn between choices, but you're suggestion feels right.

"inspiration meter is rising fast"

6911459
And Winter is also something, but she plays it very close to her chest. I wonder if you can guess it before I reveal it?

6911639
Hmmmmmmmmm, well, she seems to know everything and is a pretty smooth talker, analyzing things within seconds and adapting accordingly. Her ambition has landed her into trouble and she paid for it dearly, but she still got up, dusted herself off, and marched forward with what she had to work with. She hides in the shadows and hides pretty darn well, to the point where I'm tempted to say she's Void, but all fey can apparently do that, so it's more of a species skill than an individual one.

But Abby didn't recognize her Aspect.....

(fyi, I write things out like this as a means of focusing my thoughts, which are constantly running marathons around queries I find)

She has a minion who loves her and does whatever she wants, even if she doesn't ask for it, which fits into how an Heir's Familiar works (kind of a reverse on the Witch). It also fits that her Dad was a bigshot and her attempt to wrest power from him is what got her into trouble. She knows things, which would put her as one of the Knowing Classes, and she does things to benefit herself, so that'd make her a Mage. She doesn't strike me as one of the Serving Classes, though the Create Classes are linked to the Fairy Archetype and the Maid is the Active of the pair.... She could be a Thief, since she was stealing Zephyr Breeze away from Fluttershy, kidnapped Tree Hugger, and keeps Indigo Zap all to herself. Being a Prince(ss) could work too, though the only thing that she wrecked was the fey's secrecy...."facepalms" She could very well be a Prince(ss) of Void, since Princes ghost their opposing Aspect, but the part about the unknown Aspect confuses-

"goes off to check your chart"

Fey use whatever of the Seven elemental chakra bonds that are offered to them, though Winter favors Water, but its correlation with Time, Space, Life, and Doom would mean that Abby would've recognized her Aspect and since she's not 100% Fey anymore, I dunno how much that assumption would be accurate. The four unrecognized Aspects - Creation, Destruction, Power, Tenacity - do seem to fit Winter's ambitious nature and tie in with what she did throughout Fey Breeze. Her being outside the Color Spectrum would also explain why she's good at dodging everyone's radar and the Metal connection ties in with that one League of Sweetie Belles chapter, even if it's due to her hybrid status, one thing that watching oD taught me is that, in the Homestuck System of Mechanics, EVERYTHING means something.

She stole the secrecy of the Fey, now she uses it herself. She takes for herself. She stole the Memory Stone from Wallflower, used it to her own benefit. She stole three people from the mortal realm, used them to further her plans before they got rescued (though one returned to her willingly). She stole from her Father for a time, before getting her butt kicked, but then she got up and worked with what she had. All of this points to the Power/Tenacity dynamic and Abby combined the Class/Aspects for the Humane 7 because she felt that - as Elements of Harmony - they pulled Double Duty for the Universe. But that's likely not the case here....or is it?

Thief of Power, Rogue of Tenacity, Robber of Will (and I use Robber because the term Exile has another meaning in Homestuck)
That would be how Abby would see it and I use it as an answer to cover all bases in my theory.

6912013

...That is an incredible chain of reasoning that I did not consider at all when defining Winter's Classpect.

I'll say this much: Winter's Classpect is one of the basic Homestuck possibilities, and the reason Abby didn't recognize Winter's Aspect was because she didn't take the time to look. Winter is an expert at diverting attention, by the time Abby would have thought to examine her she was gone.

Is, um, that meant in terms of a compliment?

Thief of Void, then: stealer of secrets, background characters, obscurity, but also misfortune (hence her exile into the Mortal Realm).
I'd also say Mage, but she seems to have a theme of 'taking' things, so I'm gonna follow that thread.

It wasn't that Abstract Cognition's house was small, far from it. Heck, even her bedroom was spacious enough for her to fly around without tumbling over the foot of her bed.

"...and there's this girl who has her own blog and she had some awesome theories of her own, one of them being that everyone has two Hero Titles as a result of the flux between Aspects..."

She even had a whiteboard in her room.

An honest to goodness whiteboard.

"...Like, say, if you were a Prince of Heart as your primary, you could also be seen as a Sylph of Mind, because the absence of emotional baggage gives you a better grasp on the logical functions of the mind.”

But the fact that Abby was currently buzzing around her person like a hummingbird high on sugar wasn't helping Twilight in terms of note-taking.

“That's-”

“Crazy complicated, I know, though she sorta inspired me to include a Double Hero Title for all of you," Abby continued to orbit the purple girl with a big, excited grin on her face, "Which then evolved into the singular Master Title for all seven of you, because you all honestly fit the bill for the term.”

Twilight blushed, looking away from the cluttered whiteboard.

“I... wouldn't say that, exactly.”

It was only then that Abby stopped flying in circles, hovering motionless in midair, only moving her head to level the flattest look to ever be leveled at anyone on Twilight.

“... Out of all the humans on Earth, in this city, Magic itself chose you to be its personal avatar to discuss its very existence with the girl who is now endowed with cosmic power and quite literally holding together our known universe to keep it from evaporating. How does that not qualify either of you to have a Master Title?”

Well, when she put it like that, “... um-”

“Heck, Jade 'Witch of Space' Harley needed help from her Denizen Echidna and a Fenestrated Wall to take her Session with her to the Alphaverse in order to win her team's Game," Arms now akimbo, Abby managed to aim one at Twilight, finger pointed for emphasis, "You and Sunset basically hacked your Game to win and got away with it.”

Needless to say, despite her research into the online 'comic' that had inspired the most recent magic system into existence, Twilight had no idea what Abby was talking about.

“.... er....”

“You dive headfirst into the unknown with the intent to learn as much as you can for the greater good of science, ergo Seer of Void. But you've also been burdened by the knowledge you learn and, despite the aforementioned hacking, feel as though you're lagging behind despite the leaps in progress you’ve made, thus a Mage of Light," Abby's frustration evaporated as though a switch had been flipped, her giddiness returning to her features, “You embody the Knowledge Classes and the two Aspects associated with Understanding, so I figured you deserved a Title that captured the essence of both. Now, I admit, for a while I got tied up with Horsey's rule of single-syllable designations-”

“Wait, what?”

“-but then I figured that by combining Titles, that's basically creating a double-syllable system," Abby zoomed right up to Twilight, her grin reaching Pinkie Proportions, "That's why, in your chapter, I refer to you as the Scholar of Stars. Because that's what sages of old used to study for guidance, the stars.”

The glow that seemed to resonate deep within Abby's light purple eyes itself didn't unnerve Twilight. Rather, the fact that both glows looked to be shaped like a pair of stylistic suns however, did. A pair of stylized suns that looked an awful lot like one of the cutouts that'd been Scotch-taped to Abby's thesis paper.

"That's...um..."

"And it totally has a thematic connection to your Icon,” Zipping backwards to a respectable space, Abby resumed her excited orbiting, “It's the perfect synergy!”

For the umpteenth time since she agreed for this little study session, Twilight Sparkle didn't know whether or not to be impressed by the other girl's drive or afraid.

Draft 2.2

Sunset lay on Twilight’s couch, utterly defeated. Every one of the gifts she’d tried to get Twilight had backfired. The Super Library was... unavailable, creating life from nothing was impossible so she couldn’t build Twilight her own planet, Twilight could already build herself a lair or robot army if she really wanted one…

She groaned. Forgetting her anniversary wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t literally been turned into a national holiday without her noticing. Hey Twi, I’m sorry I’m the only person out of several billion with nothing to show for today, but you love me anyway, right?

The worst thing was that Twilight wouldn’t get upset. If it weren’t for Ruby then Twilight wouldn’t even remember. Twilight wasn’t going to raise her voice or even get mad. She was going to be disappointed.

There was a click as the door opened, and Twilight stepped. “Sunset? Are you in here?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said without getting up. “Sorry I just let myself in, it’s been a long day.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight called as she went into the kitchen. “I love having you over. There’s a documentary about Magitech Racecars on in a minute, you want to pop popcorn and watch that?”

“That could be fun,” Sunset said. “I’m sorry about today.”

“What’s there to… be…” As Twilight’s voice trailed off Sunset sat up. She didn’t any magical threats in the kitchen, and her only-mundane-by-comparison senses only registered Twilight alone. “Sunset,” Twilight asked. “What’s this?”

Sunset peered around the corner and looked in with her normal eyes. Oh no. “That’s just a painting I did of you, it’s not—”

‘It’s beautiful,” Twilight whispered.

“What?” Sunset looked at the painting again. It wasn’t anything special by anyone’s standards. She hadn’t even used her powers or increased intelligence to make it. The proportions were funny, the shading was completely wrong and the background wasn’t going to stop driving her crazy. “But it doesn’t look like you at all!”

“Okay, but— look at my hair! And my eyes, and the stars!” Twilight reached out and brushed the canvas with her hand. Sunset reached out to stop her, but magical runes were already forming over the painting.

Twilight squinted at them. “What’s all this?”

Sunset formed a second avatar far away in a desolate wasteland for the express purpose of screaming in panic. It helped. “That’s just… some notes I took… Of you.”

“While Twilight loves studying and laboratories, she also enjoys things that make her feel alive. Good examples of this are dancing and friendship adventures. She does not enjoy anything messy. Give her as much control as possible, as she likes helping people and views her intelligence as her greatest strength over her compassion, tenacity, and creativity.” Twilight sat the painting down and looked at Sunset with teary eyes. “Did you think of all the things you love about me and then, instead of wasting time with some lyrical poem thing, put them into an organized checklist?”

Sunset glared sternly at the members of the Make Twilight Happy Committee. “I must stress that we cannot let Twilight know I wrote this list. I don’t know how she’ll react, and I don’t want to take any chances. Okay?”

“Yep,” Sunset said, trying to recover from the emotional backlash. “That was my plan all along.”

“This is the most romantic thing I could imagine anyone doing for me!” Twilight squealed and pulled Sunset into a hug. She felt Twilight’s heart beating against her chest, and smelled chalk dust and lavender in her hair. “I love you!”

Sunset squeezed her back. “I love you too, Twi. I just wish I had more to give you.”

Sunset felt Twilight pull back but didn’t open her eyes. She leaned her forehead against Twilights and relaxed. “Sunset,” Twilight said, “I know you love me.”

“I know, I know—”

“Sunset, look at me.”

Sunset opened her eyes and was struck dumb by Twilight’s eyes. The younger girl reached up and tucked Sunset’s hair behind her ears. “I know how much you love me. You are an amazing person and that is always enough. Okay?”

“Okay,” a helpless Sunset said. She shivered as she watched Twilight smile and lean in.

They’d shared hundreds of kisses in the past, and would share more over the course of their lives. Some were under more romantic circumstances, some under more passionate ones, and at least one was incredibly bittersweet. But whenever Sunset thought about Twilight, this was the kiss she thought of. Because this moment wasn’t about a situation, or even a feeling. It was the moment where two people truly understood one another, and stayed anyway.

Eventually, they needed to breathe. Sunset was annoyed by this limitation and elected work on it later. “Wow,” she said. “So. Uh, you want to watch that documentary.”

“Or we could make out.”

“Let’s do that one.”

And until Shining Armor and Cadance came back from their date, it was the best night ever.

6922511

Aww! Niice!

...

"at least one was incredibly bittersweet"

Ominous...

6922682
I figured it'd be good to have a bullet in the chamber for later. If we don';t need it we can say it was something that got resolved but if we get a chance we can be all like "look at this foreshadowing! We know what we're doing! All proceeds according to our intricate plan!"

So, with MoonSugar, I need to remember who's unattached now of the Shadowbolts...

And if I can get the Mane7, and Shadowbolt Unattached to meet up in the mall for some funny discussion.

Might all the 'bolts, be attached?

6927830
Actually, every member of the Shadowbolt counterparts has a significant other to some degree. To review:

Sugarcoat and Moondancer are each other's second choice after Twilight.
Sour Sweet and Second Person love each other and have a very clearly defined power dynamic... which depends on whether or not she's having a bad day.
Indigo Zap loves and idolizes Winter Lights, and Winter... well, who can tell with elves?
And Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare are not an adorable old married couple and have no idea why people keep saying they are.

6928337
I think Winter has feelings for Indigo in return. I mean, she DID freak out when Indigo got hurt during the Silvertongue Prophecy.

The lights turn up amid soft strains of violin music , going from darkness to something gentle and intimate. A woman with an exotic aspect sets down her glass of luridly red wine and faces the camera. "Hello, human scum," she says as though it's a little inside joke, just between the two of you. "Welcome to the live premiere of 'This Is Your Fault,' where we'll review the laughable follies and shameful failures of your species from the present day back to when you were too stupid to stay in your trees, where you belonged.

"Our first topic is the typewriter." Her smile turns coy. "Now I know what's passing for thought in that woefully limited little brain of yours; Why the typewriter? After all, we could cover genocides, nuclear meltdowns, climate devastation that you're still doing." She shakes her head as though you confessed persisting a bad habit you've been trying to quit. She lifts the wineglass again band contemplates the contents as she swirls it. "Ocean acidification is no joke, my little monkeys. But the reason for today's topic is simple enough that even you can appreciate it." The glass comes to a halt as her lips tighten the slightest bit. "I got my hair caught in one of those infernal devices back in 1947 and I have no intention of forgiving any of you for that embarrassment."

"It was hilarious," says a voice from off-camera. "She shrieked like a beached dolphin the whole time."

"Quiet, Aria." The genial demeanor shows cracks, as does the hostess's voice. And the wineglass. The violin music continues unimpeded.

"The best part was how she wouldn't let us cut her hair at all."

The hostess throws the wine on the floor, earfins flared and fangs bared. "Shut it, Aria. You can get your own show."

"Come on, Adagio. I was actually impressed when you ran around the entire office with that thing trying to eat your scalp. And it never came out! Thing must have weighed, what, ten, twenty pounds? I figured it would've just torn a chunk out of your scalp, but no!" The offscreen voice turns thoughtful. "Pretty sure it's still in there somewhere. You still do the 'wash it every century whether it needs it or not' thing, right?"

Adagio screams and lunges just off to one side of the camera. As hellish screams ring out, the violin music finally comes to an end. Another girl, her instrument still in hand and a smile on her face, sits in Adagio's place.

"¡Hola, tacorinos! Welcome to Queso Corner, where we discuss only the finest cuisine in the tri-county area. And place bets on those two." She jerks a thumb at in the direction of the ongoing scuffle, audible mostly as snarls, shrieks, and the odd meaty thwack. "Who wins? Who dies? You, the viewer decide!"

Sunny Flare paused the stream. "They should probably just stick to Siren Spell Stories."

"Debatable," said Lemon Zest. "We should see what Aria does when she's hosting first."

(Refined from one of my typewritten story ideas from Bronycon.)

6948601

Sorta knew it was a Siren, after a little bit.

After all, "exotic aspect".

Unexpected and hilarious!

Adagio's hair is ripe for jokes!

Aria needs more details revealed, yes!

...

""Quiet, Aria." The genial demeanor shows cracks, as does the hostess's voice. And the wineglass. The violin music continues unimpeded."

Nice multi-crack!

Sunset took a deep breath and, far from the first time in her life, wished there was something she could pray to. "Fluttershy, know that I love you."

Fluttershy offered a rather wooden smile. "That's very sweet of you, Sunset."

"To be clear, I mean that in a familial sense. I love Twilight, of course, but the rest of you are like the sisters I never had." Another deep breath. It wasn't helping much, but it wasn't like she needed the oxygen. "And given Sweetie and Apple Bloom, you know that's not always a good thing."

"Sorry."

Sunset began pacing. Fluttershy could only watch. "There comes a point where sorry doesn't cut it anymore, Shy. It's like the saying goes, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'" She turned back, not angry, just disappointed. "What does that say about the fifth time?"

"Um..." Fluttershy bit her lip, eyes darting about. "Shame on both of us?"

"That's certainly a valid answer. However, I think there's a far better one. If you absolutely must do yoga outside, on moist soil, while barefoot, maybe don't do the tree pose."

Fluttershy nodded as best she could with her skin turned to bark, to say nothing of her arms locked in place above her and her whole body balancing on one leg. At least the roots helped. "I'll try to keep it in mind."

"That's what you said last time." Sunset disentangled the other girl's morphic field with increasingly practiced ease. "Do or do not." She glared at the tiny shoots still sprouting out of one of Fluttershy's knees. "And while you're doing, do get a set of pruning shears."

6967797

Huh. Yoga is magic?

Or just latent tree magic + the concept of "tree" in tree pose.

Better also get a yoga partner.

If it's happened five times, I think it'll happen more.

Maybe having Sunset free her each time is making her complacent?

Does Big Sunset keep track of when she's doing Yoga now??

...

"wished there was something she could pray to. "

Niice! ... She might not pray to it, but maybe curse the laws of thaumodynamics for causing this whole mess in the first place?

Maybe pray to Equestrian Harmony??

-----

Lol if Sunset Worshippers do the Sun Salutation at her.

Or Sunset doing Sun Salutation is magic.

WiiFit Trainer Super Smash magic Sun Salutation.

Dating the debatably divine came with a number of perks and at least as many issues. Foremost among the latter was the recognition factor. Nothing put a damper on a date quite like petitioners prostrating themselves before one's girlfriend. Twilight imagined it was something like being part of a celebrity couple, only the fans and paparazzi got rolled into one. (Most of them, anyway. A few genuine gossipmongers still hovered around Sunset in the hopes of the scoop of the century.)

That was where one of the perks came in. Unicorn aspect magic wasn't one-to-one with pony spellcasting, but it was similar enough that Sunset had easily ported over a number of spells, including a perception filter that kept people from consciously registering the two of them as important enough to bother or bother with. Neither Twilight nor Sunset was entirely comfortable with screwing with onlookers' minds like that, but the alternatives were all illusions, and a being composed partially of Honesty found that more discomforting.

Also, the disguise spells kept giving Twilight her mother's coloration, and that was just creepy.

Thus the two were able to enjoy a simple lunch date at the local Hey! Burger in peace.

"Fried hay," said Twilight.

Well, peace from external interruptions anyway.

Sunset held her transmuted order close to her, as though protecting it from Twilight's protestations. "It's a lot better than it sounds."

"Fried. Hay."

Sunset shrugged. "Honestly, frying's optional. Why do you think I like celery so much? One of the first things I did after I could spare enough focus to manifest a body was alter it to digest cellulose properly."

Twilight looked back and forth between Sunset and what had become of her order. "Dried pasture grasses that are then dropped in simmering oil."

"I've already told you about the daisy sandwiches, and this is what trips you up?"

"'Daisy' is actually a very taxonomically vague term. Some human-edible flowers are called daisies. But frying hay..." Twillight sputtered for a moment as all the objections tried to come out at once. The winner was "Why even bother making hay?"

Sunset smirked. "The sun shone."

"Ha. But couldn't you just fry the grass without the extra step?"

"Couldn't you just fry a side of beef without grinding it and who knows what else into a pink slurry first?"

Twilight pouted. "Don't you badmouth my slurry."

Both giggled at that for a few moments. "It's not like the average Hayburger springs for the best stuff available," Sunset said afterwards. "Fast food is fast food no matter what the universe; you get what you pay for, but first they slather it in grease so you don't notice."

"About that. Putting aside the parallels between the chains and how much fat an equine sophont might actually crave—"

"I've seen Princess Celestia's cake vaults, Twilight. Trust me, it's a lot."

"Cake vaults? Plural?" Twilight shook her head. "Putting that aside, is 'Hayburger' literal?"

Sunset tilted her head in thought. "How do you mean?"

"Is a hayburger an actual patty made of hay, or is there some town called Hayburg somewhere in Equestria?"

"Both."

Twilight sighed. "I'm not even remotely surprised. At least tell me the patties are grilled."

"Of course." Sunset held up a box that had contained potatoes a few minutes before. "Hay fries are a side dish. It'd be like making a sandwich full of nothing but onion rings."

"Yes." Twilight cleared her throat and straightened up in her seat. "That is definitely something no one has ever done."

A loaded tray hit the front counter. "Order 78!"

"Oh, that's—" Sunset blinked as the order teleported in front of a salivating Twilight. "You know, the perception filter works best when we don't draw attention to ourselves."

"I specifically ordered separately from you because I knew how long mine would take. I am starving right now. Let me have this." And with that, Twilight began to feast, magic tearing off wrappers, gathering ketchup from across the restaurant, and otherwise contributing to the obliteration of her meal.

Sunset watched in silent horror for a few moments. "A non-negligible part of me wants to blast you with rainbows for what you're doing to those poor, innocent sandwiches. Just saying."

"Can't talk," Twilight said around her latest mouthful. "Brain needs calories."

Lemon Hearts blinked. "Huh."

"What is it?" her roommate said as she lay on her bed.

"Sunset Shimmer posted something in the 4-S MyStable group."

That got Moondancer to look away from her textbook. "Why is she posting something in the Shot-Down Sparkle Suitors Society?"

"It's a video. The caption just reads 'This is what you're missing out on.'"

Moondancer scowled as she got up and moved to get a better view. "I didn't think the spirit of Harmony would be capable of trolling the less fortuna—"

She paused halfway to the laptop. Anyone would when faced with the sounds of such... enthusiastic mastication.

"Holy bark," said Lemon Hearts, her face pale and unable to look away.

Moondancer completed the journey and nodded as her suspicions were confirmed. "You didn't say it was a video of Twilight eating." She noted Lemon's attention on her. "What? Don't you remember Minuette's twelfth birthday party?"

Lemon's complexion approached that of a lime. "I do now."

It'd be like making a sandwich full of nothing but onion rings."

"Yes." Twilight cleared her throat and straightened up in her seat. "That is definitely something no one has ever done."

----

"A non-negligible part of me wants to blast you with rainbows for what you're doing to those poor, innocent sandwiches. Just saying."

Wow. That makes Twilight so terrifying!

----

Don't you remember Minuette's twelfth birthday party?"

Lemon's complexion approached that of a lime. "I do now."

Oh, she blocked it out out of horror. Makes sense.

----

Lol if the 4S group leads to couples among its members.

----

I wonder how the opening of this fic would go if it focused on Sunset's thoughts on dating Twilight instead...

6982838
Doss Twilight know about the Shot-down Sparkle Suitors Society?

"Now, for a word from our sponsors!" said Sonata, as she handled the boilerplate dialogue with her usual cheer.

Sonata then continued being the informative one. "As the only public Siren Aspects in the world, we get to try out new products to make sure they work for everyone. And we get to tell you about it!"

She took a breath and continued.

"So, without further ado, from Fancy Industries and VivoWare, comes the new Magitech Multitool. coming to a store near you, and available at our online store!"

Aria then butted in, not content with letting Sonata speak all the time. "Well, right now, it's not a full multitool, it's literally just a Fancy Toothbrush. No hardlight knives here. I tried. I can't even hit things with it."

"How about that comb? And the loofah setting." said Sonata, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Thanks for that enlighting summary." snarked Adagio before she took over the explanation.

"So, Fancy Industries has improved on the toothbrush to make it work as any brush. A comb, a loofah, whatever. If it brushes, you can use the Multitool. What's really nice is the Toothbrush setting. Use it right, and you don't need flossing or toothpaste."

"We used to regrow our teeth, but now, we have to take care of them!", Aria grumbled some more.

"If you're done telling the audience about our biology..."

"The amount of magic we spent on them...", Aria trailed off, as Sonata interrupted.

"But now, it's not our magic we're spending!"

As all the explanation was complete, Adagio took the conversation elsewhere. "... Speaking of oral care, are these in dentist offices yet?

And Sonata ended the segment with some disappointing news. "Oh, no, not yet. So, Dentist appointments are still here, for now."

"This has been Siren Spell Stories, your channel for worldwide magical news, giving this Fancy Toothbrush, a rating of: Pretty Fancy! Stay tuned for our next segment: How electro-magical energy storage works!"

7024852
Could you flesh this out a bit? A little dialogue attribution, maybe?

Though on the topic of the sirens...

Adagio sometimes felt an almost physical pain when she thought about how much she had regained while still not having her voice: Gills. Magical facsimiles of fins. Fangs that at least came close to proper ones. But her heartstone was still lost and broken, and she still couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. But one ability she'd retained for all of her long, strange, and often frustrating life was perfect pitch, above or beneath the waves. If there had ever been a siren who couldn't tell one note from another, she'd been eaten by her siblings shortly after hatching.

As such, she was able to tell that the shriek filling the house was very nearly a perfect A# six octaves above middle C, with just enough dissonance to bring back the sting of loss. She was also able to tell that it was too-damn-early o' clock on a Saturday.

Adagio staggered out of her bedroom to see Sonata holding up a black T-shirt and gasping for breath, presumably gearing up for another shriek. "Whatever it is," Adagio growled out, "don't."

Sonata pouted for less than a second before she started to snicker. "You—"

"I am aware that I have a pillow trapped in my hair, yes." It wasn't the first time, and they both knew it wouldn't be the last.

"Oh, hey, you're actually up before noon." Aria said as she breezed by. She turned to Sonata before Adagio could cajole her woozy brain into producing a proper comeback. "Those them?"

Sonata nodded. "They look even better than I'd hoped! I knew this was the guy to ask." She held up the shirt again, still pointed away from Adagio.

"Huh. These actually don't suck. We might sell a few."

"Sell?" The salt-choked gears of Adagio's mind finally started to turn, even without coffee to dissolve the crust. "The new shirts for the online store?"

"What else would they be?" Sonata flipped the shirt around, revealing a grumpy portrait of Adagio herself. It was actually fairly accurate, aside from her hair being the wrong color. And far greasier than it should be.

And then she thought to read the caption.

"No. Absolutely not."

Sonata nodded. "I thought you'd say that." She gave a grin sharks would envy. "Which is why I already ordered a run of five hundred."

Aria high-fived her. "Nice. I'm gonna go punch zombie cops."

"Have fun!"

Adagio snatched the shirt out of Sonata's hand. "I refuse to let that moment be memorialized like this."

"It's already all over EweTube. Besides, the shirts are super-cheap. They'll probably fall apart by next year." After a moment, Sonata added, "If anyone washes them. Which might be asking a bit much."

Adagio threw the shirt on the floor hard enough to make the pillow follow suit. "My name is not Asiago Dazzle, damn it!"

Sonata winked and said the same thing she did when they were on stream. "But if Sunset's the Bacon Horse, you're totes the Cheese Fish!"

7025610

Yeah, I should expand it. Too sleepy atm. TTYL.

Say Fancy Industries is their sponsor, talk more about the other functions... Comb, Mascara Brush? Eyelash Crimper thing... Scissors? Razor?

The Sirens are used as test case for other Siren aspects... Hint / Not Hint, or maybe state Rara's Siren Nature depending on if she made it public...

Discord as initial test subject since he's literally the most human...

How scissors are like knives... Maybe don't dive into hardlight weaponry possibilities...

How there's a limited battery life, charged by magi-electro conversion...

If I set this as a podcast, needs to be more podcasty or something.

...

Still not happy with it... Thinking if I can come up with a Barnyard Bargains EQG version... Thinking about calling it Big Bash, 'Cause I'm a Recettear fan... Maybe Big Box... Best Box?

Rules To Live By
-----------------------

CHS Cafeteria, lunch time. Around one table sat six young adult humans and one young adult deity. The topic of conversation: the recent re-introduction of magic and the current undertaking of saving the universe. 

“Sunset, something I’ve been meaning to ask. When you integrated magic into the universe, what did you have to change to make everything continue to work? Adjust the speed of light? Tweak Avacado’s Number? Round off the value of Pi?”

“I’m a Pie and I’m round!”

“Heh. Sorry, Pinkie not that type of pie,” Sunset chuckled. “To answer your question, Twilight, nope, I didn’t muck with the default settings: your flashlight still turns on or off just as fast as before, Max’s constant still is, and Rule 34 still pervades the Internet.”

“Yowza!” Pinkie blurted.

Rainbow Dash choked on her soda. “Seriously?! Did you seriously just go there?”

Rarity rolled her eyes at Sunset. “Oh, darling, there’s no need to be so crass.”

Twilight blinked in confusion. “Rule 34? What’s rule 34?” 

“Twilight, you don’t... don’t know… oh, my.” Fluttershy stuttered, blushing slightly. “Even I know what what rule 34 is.”

“So, what is it?”

“It’s one of the core rules of the internet,” Rainbow helpfully offered. “Even I know that one!”

“‘Rules of the…’? There are no such things! I’ve read all the documentation surrounding the protocols and operation of the internet. There are no fixed ‘rules’ to using the internet!”

Sunset said, “These aren’t ‘official’ rules towards the operation of the whole thing, they’re more a humorous response of how the internet get used by the general populace.”

“Ok, that doesn’t explain anything. So what exactly is Rule 34?”

“It’s a joke, or at least started as one in some dark corner of the internet. It basically says, ‘If it exists, there’s porn of it.’” One of Twilight’s eyebrows shot up above the frame of her glasses. Sunset continued,  “or alternatively, ‘If it exists, there’s porn of it somewhere on the internet.’” The other eyebrow joined the first. “And, more or less, it’s a true statement. Even worse, from what I’ve seen of other universes that have an internet or something like it, that rule seems to always come into play. Thus, a universal constant.”

Except for Rainbow, silence overcame the table while the rest of the girls waited to see how Twilight would respond to this new nugget of information that had somehow slipped through the cracks of her academic endeavors. Rainbow was too busy trying to not fall over from laughing at the whole thing.

“That’s ridiculous! I know there’s porn out there,” as a quiet aside, she added “just ask my brother.” Fluttershy’s blush increased and Rarity raised an eyebrow of her own.

Twilight continued, “but, really? ‘If it exists, there’s porn of it?’ Come on, there’s some weird people out there, with some… ‘weird’ fetishes, but there can’t be that much porn, or at least there can't be that much ‘weird’ stuff’”.

With a squawk, Rainbow lost her battle against the double onslaught of her own laughter and gravity and fell out of her chair.

“Um, Twilight, I think you’re underestimating how much…,” Fluttershy paused, searching for a tactful way to explain her thoughts, “...how ‘weird’ and pervasive people can be, especially on the internet. One time, I did a search on “gardens gone wild” expecting weeding tips, but.. that wasn’t what I got.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Twilight deadpanned.

“It’s true, darling, what ever your, um, “bent”, shall we say, someone else has already addressed in on the internet.”

“And you know this how?” Twilight asked Rarity.

Rarity’s pristine alabaster appearance suddenly took on a pinkish hue. “I will admit I’ve had to... do  some ‘research’ for the occasional ‘odd’ commission before. And there are some ‘interesting’ ideas out there.”

“‘Interesting’, huh?” Applejack smirked.

“Quiet, you.”

Sunset turned back to her purple friend with a slight smirk, “Don’t believe us, well, why don’t you just test it? You’ve got your phone on you.”

Twilight sputtered, “you want me to go look up porn? On my phone? Now? In the middle of the cafeteria?”

“Why not? Think of something that there can’t possibly be porn of and do a Gillion search for it, just enter your item and add the word ‘porn’. It’s that simple. If you’re right, you won't find anything. And if you’re wrong…,” Sunset shrugged, “just think of it as an education.

Twilight looked at her phone like it was going to bite her. She looked to the rest of her friends for their thoughts on all this. Applejack calmly said, “it’s yer funeral”. Pinkie screamed, “Wave off! Wave off!”. Catching Rainbow’s eye, Rainbow just fell back on the floor laughing even harder. Rarity was back to her normal prim and proper self, but there was just a hint of a smirk in the corner of her mouth. Fluttershy had blushed so much her normal yellow skin tone was turning orange. 

And then there was Sunset: smug and confident. 

In her short life, there were two things that Twilight Sparkle had come to despise: the first, not knowing everything; and the second, letting her best friends pull one over on her. “Fine!” she snapped. Pulling out her phone, she opened the Gillion search app. “Let’s see, what to search for?” she said, staring at the screen and tapping her chin in concentration.

“Ah, ha!” As fast as she could, she entered her query but paused before hitting the final ‘search’ button.” She held her phone up to the rest of the table, they read two phrases in the search box: “Fancy Industries Magic Spectral Analyzer” and “porn”. 

Sunset just gave another non-judgmental shrug.

Twilight hit the ‘submit’ button and waited for Gillion to do its thing.

A moment later, the results popped up. Twilight looked at the results.

Then Twilight looked at the results.

The phone clattered to the table, barely missing Twilight’s neat half-eaten sandwich with carefully removed crusts. Twilight sat staring at where the phone had been in her hands a moment before. Pinkie waved a hand in front of Twilight’s face. There was no response.

Sunset sighed, reaching over she picked the phone off the table and looked it. Then gave an impressed whistle.

“What? What is it?” Fluttershy asked, cautiously.

Sunset cleared the search, as well as the browsing history, and turn the phone off with a click.

“Lemmie put it  this way, once Twilight.exe reboots, something tells me she’s going to go back to her lab and sterilize everything.”

7027633

7027633

That's glorious!

I'm guessing Gillion trolled her, since she can do that. But wow. Porn of "that". My mind reels at what it could be. Changes things depending on if it's a search for that exact phrase, or just using every word...

And there's those random sites that auto-gen search results somehow...

Okay, so Fancy Industries has a Magic Spectral Analyzer. Huh.

----

Typos:

fram > frame

Fancy industries > Fancy Industries

7027717
Typos fixed - thanks.

Actually, I hadn't thought about Gillion trolling Twilight, that's a hilarious concept. Personally, I figured she found "the genuine article" and saw things that was most probably violating the manufacturer's warranty. (Not to mention violating her view on the sanity, ingenuity, and depravity of her fellow humans.)

And of course, Fancy Industries has a Magic Spectrum Analyzer. Would wouldn't? Especially when their CEO is secretly a genius super hero that uses magic who is also a genius business dude. He probably made something like this during his time fixing his own gem, then he just figured he could sell the tech and make more money.

...but the of course there's also the following questions:

A) What exactly does it work on? ("magical spectrum"?)
B) How well does it work?
C) And is Magic laughing at him, rolling it's (metaphorical) eyes at him, or annoyed with him for the whole thing?

7025610

How's the Fancy Toothbrush short now? Too much attribution? I feel sorta wordy...

7028035
I can trim it down in post.

7027995
A) Given the patchwork nature of the Oversaturated World's magic, it probably has a number of settings. Or it gives data that no one's entirely sure how to actually interpret quite yet.
B) At this early stage, the fact that it works at all may be a mark of quality.
C) The aspect of Magic that is Twilight certainly isn't laughing right now. Communing with the rest is tricky business. She's the least prone to losing herself to behavioral urges, but that's still a lot of power to lose herself in. Though overall, it's probably still acclimating to the idea of not hiding from anything that seeks to understand it.

7028063

C) The aspect of Magic that is Twilight certainly isn't laughing right now. Communing with the rest is tricky business. She's the least prone to losing herself to behavioral urges, but that's still a lot of power to lose herself in. Though overall, it's probably still acclimating to the idea of not hiding from anything that seeks to understand it.

You sure about that?

------

“20 thaums… 22 thaums… 23 thaums… 24 thaums… 26 thaums… Moustache.... Wait. What?” 

Fancy Pants re-read the freshly printed calibration output from the latest prototype of the next generation Fancy Industries’ Magic Spectrum Analyzer (pat. pend.). Right in the middle of the printout was an image of a very familiar looking moustache. It had the same basic appearance as the one he saw in the mirror every day.

“Ms. Spice?!” he yelled. A moment later, the door to his office opened and his secretary entered. “Sir?”

“Has anyone been in this room today?”

She shook her head. “No, sir.”

“Hrm…” He squinted his eyes at the prototype on his desk. “Please send a note to the R and D division, inform them that I want a review of this unit completed as soon as possible. I’ll provide notes as to why shortly. Thank you, Ms. Spice.”

------

Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle sat eating lunch together. Suddenly, a luminescent glow suddenly filled Twilight’s eyes. Then Magic giggled.

Pinkie’s eyes also started to glow. “What did you just do?”

“Nothing.”

“Really.”

“Just a harmless prank.”

A Brief History of Pink

Being friends with Pinkie Pie wasn't easy. It certainly wasn't relaxing; even Rainbow Dash could feel exhausted watching Pinkie go for too long. But sometimes the exhaustion was more mental, especially when they had to work together on school projects. Pinkie could be fun, yes, but getting her brain to wrap around a given concept when it didn't want to could be a tremendous struggle.

Performing a scene from Zothello had seemed like it would be simple at first, but when it had taken their entire social circle twenty minutes to convince Pinkie that "the Moor of Veneighs" didn't refer to the harbor and another twenty to assure her she wouldn't have to perform it in stripeface, Dash knew she'd be in for the long haul.

Still, they needed to rehearse, and between the two of them, Pinkie was the one with the backyard. As such, Dash landed on the Pies' front step one balmy November morning-okay, afternoon, but that basically qualified as morning on weekends-and rang the doorbell.

Marble answered the door, which Dash knew was a big step for someone who was basically Fluttershy squared. "Hey," Dash said with a small wave. "Here for Pinkie."

"Mmhmm." Marble moved aside, letting Dash in as she went upstairs.

Five seconds later, Dash found herself both terribly bored and terribly curious. She spent almost no time in the Pie household outside of Pinkie's room, and the overall effect was like being in an old timey photo, all blacks and whites and beiges. And a lot of rocks. Every surface seemed to have at least one, some of which appeared to be furniture in and of themselves.

Then, in a moment that might have been surreal somewhere where Pinkie didn't live, Dash realized that part of the old-timey photoness came from a wall of mostly old timey photos. They formed a timeline of the Pies going from left to right, and it was hard to tell when color film got involved. It was still gray people in gray clothes against gray backgrounds, only now there was the occassional bit of brown. Pinkie's baby photos were the only thing to break the trend.

Dash frowned. Well, not quite. There was one woman in some of the photos, her complexion what Rarity might call a pale rose, her hair in giant ringlets. She was big; not obese but scaled up, normal proportions but just bigger than most people.

She trailed the woman back and found her mother, a woman with a much more wiry build but with a smile on her lips while the other's was mostly in her eyes. And as Dash trailed that one back, she settled on what must have been a dance club almost a century ago. The picture was yellowed and cracking beneath the frame, but the girl in it was full of energy. Familiarly so.

In fact...

Dash squinted and leaned in closer. She had plenty of firsthand experience with the limits of the human body, and the girl's arms seemed to extend past those limits, acting more like rubber hoses than flesh and bone.

"Yeah, it skips a generation sometimes."

"Wha!" Dash flinched back, putting a bit more distance between her and Pinkie, who'd said that directly into her ear. "Say what?"

Pinkie was still looking at the photo, looking more thoughtful than Dash had ever seen her. "The pink. Mom didn't get it, but Nana Pinkie did, and Great-Nana Pinkie before her. And it took Mom and Dad three or four tries before it cropped up again, depending on how you count it."

"So Pinkie's like a family name?"

Pinkie shook her head. "Not like with Twilight. We did a little genealogy research over the summer when she heard the pink was hereditary. You go back in her family tree and you've got Twilight Velvet, Twilight Twinkle, Twilight Realm, this big long line of female juniors. But Nana Pinkie's real name was Rose Quartz." She pointed at the large woman. "It was just that she was pretty much the only pink person in the family other than her mom, Pink Spinel."

Dash looked along the right edge of the wall and smiled. "And until you came along," she said, pointing out an image of Rose Quartz gone gray and smiling down at a beaming little Pinkie Pie in her lap, both wearing party hats.

Pinkie nodded, looking at the wall without seeming to see it. "Long, long line of miners and prospectors and quarry owners, and every so often they got someone who... wasn't."

"You okay?"

"Nana Pinkie passed on when I was eleven." Pinkie said it matter-of-factly, like they were studying for history. Except even then she'd be excited when she said an answer. "First funeral I ever went to. And Granny Pie was a few years later. After Sunset broke us all up."

Dash waited for Sunset to show up, apologize, break up the awkward atmosphere, and take over talking about people's feelings. Sunset did precisely none of those things. "Oh."

"Yeah. It... It was kinda rough for a while." Pinkie noticed Dash looking at her and gave a desperate smile. Or at least exposed her teeth. "But everything's okay now!"

"You sure?"

Pinkie bit her lip, but nodded. Then she latched on in something even Dash could tell wasn't a hug. It was the same thing Scootaloo had done when her parents had been stranded in Mozebrique for a few weeks with no way of contacting her.

It was clinging on for dear life.

Dash stood paralyzed, unsure if she should hold Pinkie or not. Before she could decide, Pinkie let go, wiped her eyes, and said, "Come on. We have a scene to rehearse."

"If you ever need to talk—"

"You're here for me. You all are. I know. It's just memories." Pinkie managed something that at least resembled her usual smile. "Come on, you need to convince me my wife's cheating on me."

Dash tried to suss out what Pinkie really felt and knew there was no way she was going to manage it. "If you're sure."

"I am." Another embrace, this one far less desperate. And one that Dash instantly decided to reciprocate. "Thanks."

("Moor" derives from Moroccoats, and historically from those who invaded this world's Iberian peninsula from across the Marediterranean. The following centuries of cultural, political, and religious shifts in Espoña are beyond the scope of this short.

I know I reversed the relationship between certain holographic space rocks, but if you deny an instance of Spinel the opportunity to do the Charleston in a Roaring Twenties jazz club, why even bother using the character? Besides, Rose Quartz as Cloudy Quartz's mother makes more sense, inasmuch as pony naming conventions ever do. And no one said she was that Rose Quartz.

On the topic of naming conventions, the concept of the female junior, i.e. a daughter named after her mother, is lovingly borrowed without permission from Fylifa's Terms of Forgiveness.

Also, the mental image of the Bearer of Loyalty as Iago is too amusing for me to not do it.)

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Niice! Except for where it's sad. Then it's just "Wow. This is good."

Wait... We dunno what Granny Pie is like... Hmm. Oh, I guess she's the Surprise ref... Who gave birth to Igneous. Soo different personalities!

...

Spinel could still be the childish one and Rose would be the adult of their relationship... But, that makes Rose have sorta a bad childhood, having to parent her own mom, and stuff...

Eghh.

...

So, Pinkie's parents stopped having kids once the Pink one arrived? Huh. Interesting.

----

"Come on, you need to convince me my wife's cheating on me."

Lol! ... I hope the play goes well!

"Salt."

Sunset nodded. "Yup."

Twilight got up from her unpronounceably Scandineighvian chair and started pacing about Sunset's living room. "Not alcohol. Salt."

"Swear on Celestia's horn," Sunset said, still lounging on her couch.

"The primary intoxicant in Equestria is sodium chloride."

"Sodium more than anything. The equine nervous system is really sensitive to those extra electrolytes." Sunset smiled, looking of into the distance. "When I first got here, I couldn't believe I was allowed to buy instant ramen and not beer."

"I... I just..." Twilight threw up her hands. "Salt!?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You know, I could always turn you into a pony, see how you handle it."

"I thought the entire purpose of how we reintroduced magic to the world was to keep us from turning into ponies." After a moment, Twilight added, "Excepting headgems and such."

"I don't see why you should be the one who gets to cuddle me all the time." Sunset crossed her arms and pouted. It was admittedly a very cute pout.

Twilight, however, had a secret weapon in the war of cute. A blend of memory and imagination called up a much smaller version of herself in a star-spangled party hat who gasped at Sunset in delight. "You weren't the one who wished for a unicorn best friend to do magic science with when she blew out the candles on her sixth birthday cake."

After a moment looking at the tiny Twilight hugging her leg, Sunset said. "I don't even remember what I wished for on my sixth birthday." She patted the little illusion on the head and gave a disappointed "Aww" when it vanished.

"I kept meticulous notes."

Sunset rolled her eyes for some reason. "Of course you did."

"Getting back on topic, salt?"

"Do we really need to get back on that topic?"

Twilight pointed towards the kitchen. "I've seen how many instant ramen packets you keep in your pantry. I know you've altered your digestive system. Should I be concerned?"

That got another eyeroll and a sarcastic "I can stop anytime I want."

"Sunset, seriously."

"Don't worry, Twilight." Sunset sat up and tapped her temple. "My mind doesn't depend on a physical brain these days. I could down a dozen Pickled Slugs and not even notice if I didn't want to."

Twilight screwed up her face. "Pickled Slugs?"

"They sound a lot more appetizing in Equish."

"What are they?"

"Not every species in Equestria produces alcohol as part of their digestive processes. Legend has it Princess Celestia invented the Pickled Slug as a sort of universal social lubricant during a Convocation of the Creatures." Sunset hummed in thought. "It might have actually been Princess Luna. A lot of her accomplishments got attributed to Celestia during her banishment."

"I see." Twilight spent a few moments contemplating her next question, then decided she was due for a bit of spontaneity. "I... don't suppose you recall the recipe?"

Sunset blinked. "Really?"

"I've been told some degree of underaged drinking is a vital part of a full high school social experience. And you've piqued my curiosity."

That got a smirk. "I can pique more than that." A golden flash manifested two shotglasses on the cheap table. Sunset floated one to Twilight's waiting hand. "Cheers."

Twilight awoke to a pounding headache. And neckache, limbache, tailache, hornache...

Wait.

Yes, she did in fact appear to have hooves at the moment. And a sleeping Sunset—a rarity in and of itself—was cuddling her like a beloved stuffed toy.

"I'd think this was all part of some cunning scheme," Twilight whispered at a volume that wouldn't split her head open, "but I'm too tired to care."

Twenty minutes later, the alarm went off, resulting in an angry whinny and a horn blast. Which, to be fair, worked just as well in terms of waking up Sunset.

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Considering how much salt most food, especially junk food, has in it, if it weren't for her cosmic powers she'd be permanently sloshed.

draft 2.0, not sure if I'm happy with it.
There were a lot of reasons Sunset didn't shape-shift often, but mainly she just ended up feeling self-conscious. Most times she intended a minor change only to notice something else that could be improved, and eventually she'd end up going in circles. Sunset had asked Twilight if she had any opinions, but she'd panicked, insisted Sunset was exactly perfect, and when Sunset had tried to calm her down and asked again she'd pretended to use the bathroom for twenty minutes while texting Rarity, which only ended when Rainbow pointed out that she'd used the Group Text to do it.

Point is, she generally didn't alter her appearance, but she was enjoying experimenting for Nightmare Night. She shifted her hips in a little, before frowning and putting them back out a little further. "Deciding is harder than I'd thought it'd be."

"Darling," Rarity insisted, "you look stunning as you normally do. You don't need to change a thing."

"Easy for you to say," Sunset grumbled. "You get to wear a shirt." She reached up and felt the twitching Lekku that she'd replaced her hair with. "Besides, I'm not even human right now. There's a lot of fine-tuning to do."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "There are plenty of ways to fake being an alien, especially one from a movie."

"Yes, but this is more authentic." Sunset looked in the mirror again. Turning her skin a darker red hadn't been a challenge, but Sunset had wanted to really feel what it was like to be something new. Besides, she could conjure up any costume she wanted. Really cosplaying took work, so she'd set out to reverse-engineer a Twi'lek body. The extra stomache's didn't serve a purpose, and wouldn't help someone survive a desert planet anyway so she'd ignored them. The Twi'lek were specifically described as enjoying alien foods, so she had modified her olfactory senses to match an alien that lived off mushrooms on a desert planet. Her sense of smell wasn't stronger, but everything was so different. Like looking at the world in a mirror, but transcribed over a sense that wasn't visual.

She was really proud of making her lekku work. They were described as 'brain-tails' and didn't actually do that much according to the internet. They could feel and move independently, but that wasn't alien enough. Twi'leks were also supposed to be incredibly graceful, and the lekku were supposed to have some kind of connection to their sense of balance, so she'd shortened hers and re-worked how her body perceived gravity. Rather than checking gravity with an inner ear, her lekku tracked gravity and momentum of everything around her in a four-foot bubble,

It was invigorating, and it didn't help her calm down. As she paced, she could feel the subtle way the floor bent under her, and was beginning to learn how to step on creaky boards without making noise. Experimentally, she sat a book upright on the bed and slowly knelt on it. "Do you know what Twilight's going to be?"

"...No," Rarity said from behind as Sunset smoothly slid across and stood on the other side. The book hadn't toppled over. "Could you please sit down, dear?"

"Sorry." Sunset sat in the office chair, but found she couldn't sit still. She conjured a rubber ball and closed her eyes, bouncing it off the wall and catching it with just her new senses. It was easier than she'd thought it'd be; while the ball bounced out of range fairly quickly, she had more than enough time to catch it and instantly knew where it was in relation to herself. "She didn't ask you?"

"She said she had some sort of technical component she was working on. When I asked about most of the ensemble, she'd said she'd bought it online." Rarity said online the way she referred to thieves or, since she'd begun dating Applejack, strawberries. Her voice turned mischievous. "Imagine if you two accidentally ended up with matching outfits?"

Sunset, who as a Sith Lord was wearing a lot of leather, blinked and missed the ball as careened past her head. She caught it behind her before it could knock anything over. The chair began to turn, and she pulled her feet in and enjoyed the feeling. "This isn't exactly a technical costume," she said, "she's probably Iron Mage or something." She leaned back to keep the spin going, and began to bounce the ball off the celieng. "What about Applejack?"

"Ah. um," Rarity stammered for some reason, "She's in Russia for.... something. Are you doing that on purpose?"

"Huh?" Sunset opened her eyes, and looked at Rarity. It took her a moment that her pose; arched back, legs curled, chest... up, was more than a little suggestive. "Sorry!" She exclaimed as she summoned a cloak. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking I swear!"

"It's fine," Rarity said as she reminded herself she had a girlfriend. She glanced at her phone to see if there were any new messages and noted with some relief that Twilight had just shown up.

There will be more, I'm late for work.

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Niice! Interesting Rarity X Sunset ship tease!

....

Typo?

stomache's > stomachs

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Thanks, though I hadn't pictured it as shippy, just funny... if I switched Rarity for Twilight it'd be funnier because she's easier to fluster, so total win! Thanks. I'll work on it tomorrow, I'm on my phone.

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Nice!

...

Oh! Does this have any connection to the hungover Twilight chapter of GP? I guess not. That one seemed like a worse hangover.