Celestia and Sunset sat there, both contemplating the other Sunset Shimmer. Celestia had anguish written all over her face, horrified by the fact that she had indeed created another monster.
I should have guarded the mirror more closely, or waited until she was truly ready. She looked down at the other world's Sunset Shimmer. Her knees had given out after she read the last page of the journal; she hyperventilated as she imagined what her counterpart could be planning for her home.
Celestia too wondered at her plans, and she flinched when she remembered the Sirens that Starswirl had sent there years ago. What could Sunset achieve with their help? She tried to calm herself by recalling how more or less innocent two of the three Sirens were. But she couldn’t deny that the leader had power. She was a true monster. Celestia shook her head, attempting to focus on the moment at hand rather than moments from millennia ago. Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer sniffled on the ground, grasping for ways to ease her new pain.
The Princess watched her with great guilt. “Please do not fret. She is incapable of performing any magic in your world." Celestia fought back a grimace as she bent down and gently nuzzled Sunset.
"How do you know?" Sunset asked, almost accusingly. "What if she's already taken over, or she's hurt all my friends and family, or she's done some other horrible things? You read the final entry. She's planning something awful!"
Celestia began to speak but held her tongue. What did she know about the human world? She realized she knew what Starswirl had either written or told her about it, and other than that she had no real idea. Starswirl had told her that magic doesn't work there, because of a transformation that occurs while one travels through the portal, but Celestia didn’t even know what this transformation was - having never been there herself.
An idea popped into her head. "Tell me. In your world, do humans have wings or horns, or even the use of magic?"
"No?" Sunset mumbled.
"Then the other you will not either, you said she looked exactly like you did right?" Sunset nodded in response. "So, as you said, humans don't have magic, and neither did you correct?" Sunset nodded once again. "So it stands to reason that seeing as she looks like you, sounds like you, and in short is you for the most part, that she no longer has magic."
Sunset thought this over for a moment. She wasn’t sure if she believed her, but she was certainly willing to accept some consolation.
"I guess that makes sense..." she sniffed. "But still. That...girl has taken my place, and she's probably planning horrible things in it even as we speak!"
Meanwhile at Canterlot High.
A previously snoring Sunset Shimmer shrieked as she was brought back to the waking world by the sound of a ruler smacking her desk.
"Good morning, Ms. Shimmer. See me after class." Her sharply dressed History teacher retreated to his desk, every step seeming to be calculated.
“That is the scariest human I've ever seen,” Sunset whispered to herself as she pulled her legs onto her seat and hid behind her hair.
Back in the Canterlot Castle suite.
"Sunset, I really don't think that she could do anything that evil,” Celestia sighed. Sunset’s imagination was really getting the best of her. "Not even the worst being in all of Equestria would dissect your parents."
“But what if she does?” Sunset sat shaking, biting her hoof as more and more images flowed through her mind. "What if she still has her magic and she turns them into potted plants?! Oh no! What about Flash?! He doesn't know either! What if she's got him committing crimes for her?!" Sunset gasps suddenly. "Or what if she's shrunk him?! Or maybe she's dumped him?! Or worse she's shrunk and dumped him! He might never speak to me again!!!" Sunset began hyperventilating again.
Celestia decided at this point that Sunset was beyond consoling. In fact, she was beginning to remind her of another of her students, one who often overreacted just at the thought of doing less than perfectly on a test. Maybe I should introduce them, she thought as she walked to the door.
"The servants should have been here by now,” she said over Sunset’s anxious breathing. “You don't have that much luggage." Just as she finished speaking, there was a knock at the door.
Sunset gasped in surprise, quickly rubbing her red eyes and straightening her mane. The distraction allowed her time to process Celestia’s words a little more, and she realized that she might have been slightly overreacting. I wonder if she's even figured out how bras work yet. Sunset smiled to herself. Probably not.
Celestia opened the door and several unicorns brought in Sunset's luggage. It really wasn’t that much, and it surprised her that more than one servant was needed for the job. She stood and peeked into one of the two bags they brought. It held a chess set, a deck of cards, and some writing utensils. After a grey unicorn dropped the other bag onto the ground, Sunset used her magic to unzip that one too. It was filled with books, some of which tried to tumble out. Sunset caught them with her aura, and smiled up at Celestia, who nodded back.
"Well done,” she said. “Now, I have some royal duties to attend to. This will give you time to settle in. If you need any assistance, that rope there signals the servants. Remember, never pull more than once unless it's a dire emergency. The servants are very punctual and do their jobs well. A member of the kitchen staff will be by at 5:30 to take your dinner order." Celestia's horn lit up and from somewhere in the room a piece of paper fluttered forward and hovered to the coffee table. "This is the daily schedule for the castle. I'll send you a note tomorrow morning, telling you when and where we will be meeting for your first lesson. Welcome to the castle and once again to Equestria.” Sunset’s smile had disappeared, and she began to feel a familiar pain in her chest. Celestia frowned, and continued. “I apologize for your unwitting exile here, and hope you'll grow to cope with it. Good luck, Sunset Shimmer."
With this, Celestia left the room, as the servants finished returning Sunset’s items to their original places and followed her down the hallway. Sunset looked around at her new home once again. "Welcome to your new life, Sunset Shimmer.” The pain in her chest became a soft flame. “This is where it all begins."
Huh...okay. Interesting way to end the chapter, well done!
Can't wait to see what happens when this gets to EG
Hold up- since Celestia has Human Sunset, does that mean Twilight will never become her student? Or does she have both of them as students at the same time?
6332323 Lol, maybe.
6332323 im pretty sure twilight become her students because human sunset still trying adapting into equestria world
i was hoping if she was involved during the progress of the episode in each season
Hmm. Twilight and Sunset never met originally, so presumably Celestia not only defaults to keeping her personal students separate (i.e. no group teaching, no matter how much more efficient that might be), but actively ignorant of each others' existence (or Twilight would have no doubt investigated). Unless Celestia only spent a tiny fraction of each student's week with them, I suspect she may have been using magical shenanigans - perhaps time distortion or perception spells, making her students believe she is spending far longer with them than she actually is according to an external clock. Or she uses psychic doppelgangers for lessons not involving active magic (ie theory, philosophy, history etc).
I assume she doesn't physically or magically split/replicate herself as it would be too useful a technique to not have been used for other things in ways which would distort canon, and doesn't use waking-daydream techniques (or at least no more than crude ones) as that's more Luna's realm. (Tangent: Celestia + mirror pool is probably out of bounds, too, given that Pinkie's clones were different enough from Pinkie to be distinguishable.)
Anyway, to curtail those trains of thought, I guess Celestia's thought here prompts the question of whether or not this story going to diverge from canon. I'd honestly like to see it not do so; stories are a little more intriguing when there's always the question of how they're going to remain 'within the lines', so to speak. As soon as a story goes AU, that suspense factor goes out the window, and can't be retrieved even by using the old "and then everyone had their memory wiped" cliché.
On another note, I see that Sunset's dysmorphia seems to have faded into the background. Presumably the story is going to focus on other areas. She also seems to be acclimating to Canterlot rapidly enough to assume that this won't be a significant feature of the plot. Not entirely sure where the storyline is heading, at this point...?
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I'll go with the unconscious during the "ride" to Equestria as being the reason she needs to get used to her new body more than Twilight did, then add in that it basically caused a delayed start-up time for it to explain how she got used to it so quickly.
Well, going by the canon, we don't even actually know how much time Celestia spent with her students, let alone just how many protégés she has. So for this one I'm going to say since she also has the task of being a monarch, she spent some time with her students but it would have equated to be more of a possible few hours a day sort of thing.
Personally, I love to keep to the canon as much as possible, so that is what I intend. Though, I may or may not have "human" Sunset Shimmer have a behind the scenes role in an episode of the show or two.
The story's current focus will be more or less an interpretation of life in the castle and studying under Celestia, it's probably going to start skipping through time in the slice of life kind of way. I mean for it to eventually catch up to the show, and to also eventually cross over into another story of mine.
Either they will get along swimmingly... or they will collapse part of the castle.
...perhaps both.
If I may make a suggestion?
It may help your readers if you italicize thoughts (with the [ i ] and [ / i ] tags) so that you can easily tell when they end and regular narration begins.