Poor Sunset. All this doublethink can't be healthy...

I wonder who post refirmation Sunset will feel when meeting the Dazzlings, specially Adaggio. Will she perceive the Siren's arrogance, selfishness and spite as a mirror of her own?

The subject's awareness would taint the experiment, but thinking of him as merely "the subject" has all kinds of unpleasant implications, and it may well sow the seeds of their breakup.

Script Kiddie, unsung hero of the universe, who saved the world through righteous inaction. I can only imagine how disappointed he was after the Fall Formal, when Sunset lost her edge. (Of course, he wouldn't have witnessed her descent into demonhood. Go to a school dance? Please.) Though he may have actually seen his chance with her during her time of greatest emotional vulnerability... were it not for her being friends with some of the least "outsider" members of the student body.

Good to see Sunset realize and acknowledge the source of her power. A shame her fear still kept her from the logical conclusion: To gain power in this universe, one must befriend the apes. The key to power lies not with Machiavelli but Jane Goodall.

Of course, first Sunset's going to need to survive an encounter with curious parents. This will certainly be interesting.

It is evidently important to have precise timing data. ¿Is NTP sufficient? or ¿does Miss Sunset Shimmer require GPS? Even if NTP is sufficient, GPS timing is a good idea, just to be sure. The easiest way to get cheap GPS-Receivers is from obsolete SmartPhones (the iPhone G3 (iPhone 2) from 2008 has a GPS-Receiver). One can get old iPhones and Androids from the early 2010s for a song. One does not even need to bother to pull the GPS-Receivers; just use the whole SmartPhones as a BlackBoxes for timekeeping. One can synchronize the sensors to within 14 nanoseconds (1.4*10^-8 seconds).

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You're right. It's not healthy. It increases the emotional strain on her, and lets her lie to herself about a lot of her actions. It also stands in the way of her appreciating just what she has in Flash's love, and valuing it properly.

She's lucky that Celestia warned her of the emotional and moral dangers of sex magic, or she might have been impelled to the actions that she almost certainly would have taken in a lot of M-rated fiction -- namely, searching for more sexual "subjects" and "experimenting" with them.

She explicitly thinks of the possibility -- and rejects it.

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My guess is that it is due to the worldline equivalent of "climate" in the thaumic sense -- Equestria's worldline is thaumically "hotter" -- more energetic -- than Canterlot High School's.

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There are hints of this in the vanilla-canon version of Rainbow Rocks. One of the reasons why I feel confident showing Sunset Shimmer as having a sound moral core in this story is the contrast between her and the Dazzlings: Sunset Shimmer ultimately recognizes, regrets, and tries to make amends for her past bad behavior; the Dazzlings, never. The only thing that seems to bother them is that they lose.

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She got the attention of the Night Shadows.

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Oh, not at all. All through "Gauntlet of Fire," Rarity shows her love for Spike.

(1) After expressing her concern that she not get mobbed by the bats (because she's afraid of getting bat poop in her mane and coat, though she doesn't say this explicitly) the moment that Spike seems ill she forgets all other considerations (including gem-hunting) and rushes Spike to Twilight for aid. She does in fact get bat poop all over herself; she shows up before Twilight covered in filth, and she's paying no attention to her cleanliness or appearance. Again -- Rarity doesn't give a damn about her own appearance.

OOC Is Serious Business.

Also, as a minor point, this scene confirms that Rarity and Spike regularly go gem-hunting together, and beyond this that they are still regularly doing things in general together. This is not how Rarity would be acting if she were trying to discourage his attentions.

(2) Rarity is willing to drop everything at a moment's notice and participate in an arduous and potentially-dangerous quest in order to help protect Spike. It's significant that this episode is essentially a sequel to "Dragon Quest," and that Twilight and Rarity are the only two Ponies who went on both expeditions. Twilight is his adoptive mother / big sister, and Rarity is his ___?____ ... whatever Rarity is to Spike, she's somepony who obviously considers Spike's well-being as very important to herself.

(3) Rarity acts jealous of and subtly hostile toward Ember during a lot of the actual Gauntlet. Significantly, her fear is that Ember will take advantage of Spike -- in context, to win the contest, but it comes off very much as take romantic advantage of Spike.

(4) Spike does not show any of the sort of romantic interest in Ember that he has shown in Rarity from literally the first episode of the Show on. He's merely befriended Ember, nothing more -- despite the fact that she is a female of his species, and one who obviously returns at least his friendly sentiments.

Conclusion: Writers may indeed be setting up Ember as a love interest for Spike. Either as a rival to Rarity, or as someone destined to win his love for real because of species (and age?) issues. Indeed, this is the direction I've assumed Show would eventually take, because I've seen the same thing done by other shows in the same situation, most specifically Lilo and Stitch, which introduced Angel largely to counter the clear and obvious Ship Tease between Lilo and Stitch all through every single movie and the series.

But Show will have to go a bit further to kill Sparity in this fashion. The relationship (whatever its nature) between Rarity and Spike is well-founded and has repeatedly passed Friendship and Love Tests; Ember's friendship with Spike has just begun.

I actually think that Show, impelled by Moral Guardians, will try to kill Sparity. The fact that they haven't done so already makes me think that the Writers ship Sparity as well.

(2)

That scene with Script Kiddie was funny, awesome, and heartwarming at the same time. He resisted the temptation to take advantage of the video, but kept and watched it all the same.

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I'm glad you appreciated Script Kiddie. Yes, I meant the scene that way. Script Kiddie, despite the fact that he's a social outcast, a rogue, and not entirely trustworthy, isn't full-on evil. And simply because he has some basic goodness at the core of his self, even though he consciously denies the very categories of "good" and "evil" as morally-simplistic, he didn't fully betray Sunset, and thus didn't tempt her to greater evils (which, I should emphasize, she would probably have committed upon him, given how angry she would have been at that point -- this is Pre-Reformed Sunset Shimmer, and even Post-Reformed Sunset Shimmer has Bad Temper as a character flaw).

I may have him show up again, either here or in some other story.

Good to see Sunset realize and acknowledge the source of her power. A shame her fear still kept her from the logical conclusion: To gain power in this universe, one must befriend the apes. The key to power lies not with Machiavelli but Jane Goodall.

That's very well put.

Of course, first Sunset's going to need to survive an encounter with curious parents. This will certainly be interesting.

... and she strongly-suspects that they know that Flash is more than mildly-interested in her, because Flash is honest and trusts his parents and has told her of his good relationship with them. And she is utterly-terrified that they will realize that she's taking advantage of Flash, the more so because she HERSELF feels ashamed of her own conduct in this matter, because SHE loves Flash TOO.

Yep.

Hey, is Script Kiddie anothet name for Microchips or is it an OC of yours? I want to think of him as such, but just want to make sure.
I always love a story with reasonable and fun world building, and this story, is a good example of one. I like Morningstar, Fauna Luster, NAF, and some othet things. Keep riding!

I really like Sunset considering the various classes of magic-generating activities, and how effective they would be in public. Goodness knows how the big finales of the first two movies would have gone, if there were no type M emissions!

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Well, if both the Dazzlings and the Rainbooms had attempted to battle using only the type S ones, it would hve been very different sort of story ...

... no, I'm not writing it. But anyone else is welcome to do so.

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Script Kiddie isn't Microchips, he's a different character, and an OC. But he's almost certainly a Techie, almost certainly knows Microchips, and almost certainly considers him to be a goody two-shoes.

The living-away-from-home-at 16-18 thing is one of the major cultural differences between the early 21st-century ATM North Amareican Federation and the early 21st-century United States of America. The children often begin separating earlier than in our world. Flash, by living at home at 17, might be accused of being a mama's boy. Sunset doesn't care.

That's an explanation for Twilight turning into a teenage girl that I've adopted as well. Most authors have Twilight be twenty-something and de-aged, but I figured with Equestria's universe literally giving you hints about what you'll be good at and enjoy, ponies probably leave school much earlier.

Never mind that much of Equestria's society is still relatively rural. Ponyville has one school with one teacher, for example.

Even so, there are temporal anomalies between the two worlds. For instance, I doubt Principal Celestia is over a millennium old.

Congratulations, Sunset; you have experimentally proven that Friendship Is Magic! I suggest you proceed directly to the "potential applications" section of your research paper.

... sadly, no, she won't.

In the meantime, 7257577 , let's nominate Script Kiddie for a medal of unmerited valor in Saving The World. Yes, Sunset very likely would've destroyed or enslaved at least the town, if not the country or world. And because of that... would it be entirely out of line to guess that someone else might've been whispering to his conscience there? We know he's saved at least one alternate worldline of the Humanoid world, and as it was said, "... they did not know whence came the fair visions or promptings of wisdom that he put into their hearts..."

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A little of all of the above. In Equestria, there are two factors at work: (1) Ponies have distinct Talents represented by Cutie Marks that make it easier to enter the career for which one is naturally suited, and (2) Equestria is a late-Industrial Age civilization and in our world such cultures (i.e. America c. 1900) had people start serious working careers earlier than we do today (15 or so as opposed to 20 or so). In the North Amareican Federation, there was a far less sharp division between Greatest Generation and Counterculture, and in consequence their culture has changed less in general over their 20th century than it did in ours. Plus, they have Talents and Cutie Marks too -- the marks just don't appear on their bodies (I think).

7269262 On the other hand, suppose the quasi-humans do have visible Marks appearing on their bodies, in exactly the same place as their pony equivalents. We wouldn't see them at all. What it would do is prove the theoretical existence of some non-mathematically-based physical principle, which might as well be magic. That might go some way toward explaining why no one acts like the Fall Formal events shatter their whole worldview; the only one who's even strangely excited by it is Twilight Sparkle, who's probably been gnawing away at that problem for years.

... well, okay, "there is some physical principle which has a weird connection with human minds" is still miles away from "popular girl turns into demon and is defeated by friendship!" But it'd make interesting background material for some other story.

I love your Sunset Shimmer. She's such in incredible douche and doesn't even realize it. She goes to an alien world calls everyone a savage and herself civilized. She talks about how her people are so peaceful and have such great philosophies but instead of trying to spread civilization and help us advance she decides she's going to become the cruelest, savages person she knows. And she does this without any self reflection whatsoever.
Which brings up one non-tech thing we're probably way better than them at, psychology, if they even have the field. I doubt they do considering they had a princess go insane and a few of the villains are unicorns that have gone crazy.
Anyway great story, I hope you keep writing it. I need to hear more about the lovable bigot.

This is very very good. It's 3 am, and a bit late for a detailed review, but its gem's like this, that go into detail and really expand upon the character and workings of the world and its inhabitance that keep me coming back to fimfiction. You definitly require more view's, being classifed as 'clop' is likely hurting your view rate's, but its an intergral part of the story.. Its not clop with plot, its SCiENCe with a horny (please forgive me) pony prude.

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You might be amused to know that my original concept for this story was to try to write a one chapter clopfic about Sunset Shimmer. I instead became fascinated with an aspect of the character that the movies and a lot of the fanfics miss -- namely, that she's an exile from her own civilization, which has a different culture from the Humanoidverse. The explicit sex remained, but the plot and theme got much more complex.

I don't think I can write simple clop. I keep remembering that I'm writing about people, which turns it into romantic drama.

Thanks for the follow.
Equestrian Gentlemare has become one of my favorite stories here, mostly by the way it incorporates and expands on the canon between both universes, their counterparts, and the logical evolution of the same.

I look forward to seeing how it goes on.

Oh no, I started reading with out checking the publication date, it’s been 4 years. Sadly I think it’s dead.

Very sorry to see the date of the last update 😢 This is just so good! I'm such a fan of fics that explore Sunset pre-Equestria Girls, especially ones that focus on her relationship with Flash. The way she acts around him in the movies, you can tell that she really did care about him when they were together- I'd always wished they'd explore it more. And the way you have her trying to figure out the magic in this dimension is so interesting to read! I honestly don't think I've seen another fic do something like that before. I love how experimental she's being (like you mentioned how she said she was in the shorts). This is such a good read, it deserves to be more popular! 😍

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I loved Sunset Shimmer since Rainbow Rocks. She's a strong and complex character, determined and passionate for good and ill, but now on a quest to become a better person. I honestly find it hard to see her successfully faking love for very long, and I think that the most reasonable interpretation of her avoidance of Flash is that she cannot face her mistakes.

Sadly, in real life, this sort of avoidance can all too easily become permanent.

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Another thing I think some fanfic writers miss is just how much Celestia deliberately exposed her proteges to court intrigue from an early age, under her own guidance, to ensure that they would always be masters of any serious social situation. Celestia was looking for a successor, and willing to take lieutenants as a secondary product, and Celestia herself is very much a social manipulator (for good rather than evil, to be sure, but still a manipulator).

They write Princess Twilight Sparkle as naive, and she can be in certain everyday situations, but she's not at all anyone's tool. She can be influenced by Celestia and the Mane Six because she loves and trusts them, but she is not so easy to influence by those she does not have good reason to trust.

Sunset Shimmer is the product of the same social background; the Royal Court at Canterlot, which for all Equestrian morality and niceness is real, is still the center of administration for a continental empire that dominates its oeconomia, its world, and is hence a place where factions intrigue for influence and the power that comes with it.

This is why she could dominate a mere high school. Through cunning and savvy, not through direct physical threat. (Seriously, does anyone really think that Snips and Snails are terrifying minions?)

And when she ashamedly says that she "used" Flash Sentry, she does't just mean sexually, though that is one of the ways she did, and one of the reasons she feels guilty. She means also that she took his gift of love and spent it for mere influence over others, and she knows that she tossed away a great treasure.

She doesn't think she's worthy of it any more, at the point of the movies.

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I hope so.