This story is a sequel to Oversaturation
After the world changed, Twilight Sparkle wasted no time in making a clean break from Crystal Prep High. After all, it wasn't like she was leaving anyone behind.
Or so she thought. No instance of Twilight can totally avoid forming interpersonal bonds, and Dean Cadence doesn't have a monopoly on human decency at Crystal Prep. A few students really do miss Twilight. One is going to do something about it.
Set in the Oversaturated World.
Rated Teen for crude language.
Chapters (2)
Magic girl angst. Gotta love it.
That was...fun. Lemon Zest was a pure joy this entire chapter, and nearly every bit of her dialogue made me smile to outright laugh-particular at the reactions everyone has to her. And Sugarcoat's crush angst was...interesting to witness, to say the least, and the ending really ties it all together wonderfully. Especially Lemon's final line.
Human twilight is all of the adorkable of pony Twilight mixed with fingers, more adorkable and a cute little nose. That's why.
It was during this ice cream social that Criffleball was invented.
That was really very sweet. Some extra characterization of the Crystal Prep Six is always welcome, and Sugarcoat (is best crystal person) with a crush is adorable.
3d-printed Sunset Shimmer religious icons. Huh
YAY! More Oversaturated-verse goodness! The only thing better than that would be EVEN MORE Oversaturated-verse stories! And also more about Ditzy Planeswalker, but STILL!
Also, you've achieved the impossible and made me accept the word "totes" in a sentence, even to the point of laughing heartily at said sentence. "Duffle bags a God,"
This is supposed to be about Sugarcoat soul searching and hashing things out with Twilight...
But Lemon Zest was so damn good.
Well, Sugarcoat was pretty damn good too.
Great fun, thanks for letting me lend a limb n_n You know you have to write more of this now, right?
I really liked how the group interaction feels at the end. You should continue to have stories pairing these characters together. Pinkie, Dash, Sugarcoat, and Lemon Zest are fun together and I can see some really fun situations that they can play off of each other very well.
This was really interesting. I like what you did with Sugarcoat, and I feel really bad for her at the end. Still, at least she got a little closure.
From the sound of it (pun most certainly intended!), Principal Cinch has been turned into a crystal
ponyperson.This reminded me of Better Late Than Never, too, but it's clearly a story of its own. I'd love to see you continue on this track!
Don't take it personally, Sugarcoat. I think that Twilight needs to yell at Sunset a while for playing the Yenta; it says nothing about you and everything about their... er... problematic relationship.
After she's told off Sunset for her plotting, then she will try to respond to your feelings. She will likely do this by babbling, poor attempts at avoidance and badly-botched attempts to try to reason her way out of an emotional tangle for which she lacks the maturity to handle. She'll end up nervously and increasinly frantically telling you why it can't happen even though you're smart and pretty and cool and OhmysweetSunsetIdidn'tmeantosaythatloud!!!
Good job, FoME! I think that you did a good job of catching the pre-FG personalities of the Shadowbolts (as best as we can tell from toys and pitifully minimal on-screen characterisation).
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Sugarcoat doesn't, but it's hard for anyone to enjoy their own angst. Lemon Zest certainly got a kick out of it, though.
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That could have something to do with it, yes.
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I'm tempted to put that M. A. Larson "CANON" reaction image here. Still undecided on it, but tempted.
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Sunset's cutie mark doesn't print as clean as, say, a crucifix, but the demand is very high and Crystal Prep has no shortage of enterprising and ambitious students who can capitalize on it.
And really, with a pun that good, I had to use it.
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That bit was one of the first concrete pieces I wrote after deciding to expand the original snippet. I'm rather proud of it.
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Lemon Zest does have a tendency to steal the show, as one would expect when she's basically fanon Vinyl Scratch.
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Of course, especially given all of the allusions to the Friendship Games.
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I'll definitely explore their group dynamic further in the future. It'll also be quite fun to bring more of their friends (or, in the case of the Shadowbolts, acquaintances) into the fold.
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It's that "pre-FG" rider that was especially interesting and challenging. This is before they decide to band together and start pulling people out of spacial rifts, so I had to work backwards from what little we knew. It helped to consider their counterparts and the ways they twist the Elements. Sugarcoat is Blunt Honesty, Lemon Zest is Inappropriate Laughter, Indigo Zap is Blind Loyalty, and so forth.
As for the Sugarset Twiangle, the dynamic you describe actually applies more to Sunset "Unresolved Princess Issues" Shimmer, who was been avoiding serious conversations on this specific subject.
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Speaking of great puns, yesterday Tabitha St. Germain retweeted this:
pbs.twimg.com/media/Co0diN4UMAAYErD.jpg
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Oh dear God; just by getting that, I've proven how old I am!
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)
I was born twenty years after Hair premiered and I still got it. (Though I did have to look up where it's from.
Will there be a sequel, and I like to see Sugar Coat and Lemon Zest transfer to Canterlot High, they be far happier there then anywhere else.
Well this was fun and random.
Don't worry Sugar, you and LZ can go try making magic babies together!
persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ice_cream_fuck_yeah.jpg
Yes yes yes my favorite parallel pony universe makes a return and it is gloooorious! Also, I'm annoyed that I completely failed to discover that there's a group for this until, like, right now.
Ooooooooh. That's... interesting. Did I miss a detail in Oversaturation, or is this an earth pony power?
Well now, that's an earth pony power. Ouch!
Well, not in this universe.
...right?
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Well, better late than never.
Be sure to check out Group Precipitation. As the title implies, it's an anyone-can-submit setup, similar to FiO: Tiny Morsels of Satisfaction.
Until I published this story, this was an All There in the Manual detail mentioned only in the group forum.
Ha! The Petriculture Cycle reference was entirely unintentional, which actually makes me even happier with it. But no, this Pinkie isn't human Twilight's imaginary friend. She might be the party person Kwisatz Haderach—the Bene Jesterit haven't gotten back to me yet—but she's not an imaginary friend.
Now I'm imagining Sunset in the style of the Theros gods. She'd look so damn majestic with some Nyx on her.
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Some songs are so brilliantly written that they persist in cultural memory long after their original context is almost entirely forgotten, even without being performed or re-recorded. "Aquarius" is one; Orff's setting of the Carmina Burana is another (and the original collection of poems is, to a much lesser extent, an example in its own right). "Aquarius" may come from a cheesy rock opera, but it demonstrates serious compositional chops.
Mayhaps this should be "Sugarcoat"? I don't think this Suagrcoat gets mentioned once in the story afterwards.
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I think she'd prefer to be the Party Kumquats Häagen-Dazs. Then she'd get to live on the dessert planet Arruckus with its geoconfectionary features made of rock candy and use the Abdul Jabbar (aka the dreaded Sky Hook).
Lemon Zest really stole the show for me too, by the way.
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She would, but then she'd need sustained belief to continue to exist. I don't think that's worth the cosmetic upgrade.
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Typo corrected. What did you think of the story?
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Yum. Arruckus. Dessert planet.
Really?
You're smiliiiing.
I am, and I hate it.
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Touching, definitely heart-warmingly touching, and the right smattering of comedy to prevent the whole thing from being too over-serious.
Although my favourite part would be this particular exchange.
In all the other fanfics I've read where Sugarcoat has a major role, she seems a bit “off.” I suspect she's hard to write for, although I've never tried to write the Shadowbolts. But Sugarcoat rings true here. You've captured her brutal honesty and quick wit while still humanizing her. You also write the best Lemon Zest I've read, too. She should keep her headphones off more often.
I don't even ship Twicoat but I liked the way you wrote all of the characters.
Also, am I mistaken or is Sugarcoat using a variation of life pulse (or energy pulse) on her electronics?
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Thanks! Those two were both fun and very interesting to work with. I'll definitely need to use them more in the future.
Possibly; it's hard to say. It's a more explicitly magical form of the strange event that is tool use, endowing an object with an identity and purpose beyond, say, "former limb of a tree" or "mineral aggregate." Technology isn't just made more efficient by earth-aspect people, it likes them.
7496708 That actually sounds similar to what life pulse does to plant life and minerals in my headcanon. I think the earth tribe's "special connection to nature" can lead to the stereotype that they are Luddites, but there's no reason technology and nature can't coexist.
Your the second and more Review like section In the video and the thumbnail woo- Mod Griev
A nice bit of fun.
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I still can't quite envision the change to fingernails/toenails you describe in this world. My brain simply doesn't want to parse it. I mean, I'm getting kind of a Hobbitism vibe from it, but that doesn't seem quite right, and I think my brain is just actively rejecting the entire concept on general principle. I guess it's always struck me as an unnecessary "change"? I mean, if it's meant to be evocative of an equivalent of earth pony magic...why? I mean, the only distinguishing features of earth ponies is their lack of distinction...
Just me nitpicking something about the OSverse I never quite got/liked.
MEOWCH!
I think I love the way you write Zesty.
*SPITTAKE* OH MY GOD--
"Butterscotch and rum raisin. Hold the butter, hold the raisin."
Well she does have an eminent pair...
...I'll just...I'll just go...
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It may help if you think of each nail as a thin, finger-sized hoof.
As for why, I wanted to make Mr. Discord the only person on the planet who wasn't changed a little, because I appreciate the irony.
And yes, I had tremendous fun writing Lemon Zest. I also had quite a bit of fun with Sugarcoat, but Lemon is just solid entertainment. Pinkie Pie plus Vinyl Scratch a la Nowacking plus intelligence and guile sufficient to be one of Crystal Prep's top students minus all sense of tact equals hilarity.
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Yeah that's the part that makes it impossible for me to visualize it. My brain rejects the image because it's honestly kinda disgusting.
But, your fic, your verse.
Passing over the obvious comments, I wonder if one day the city will be plagued by stray kittybikes roaming the streets looking for roller skates to snack on.
The moment Lemon Zest went "What it is, my citric sister from another mister?" was when I this became a total fave. Best Lemon Zap I've ever seen.
7582578 but...hooves are fingernails. There is no difference.
It's the bookish types; it's ALWAYS the bookish types.
Either that, or the silent types.
I don't know what story to post this to, so I'll post it here.
I really like the fact that this 'verse you've created only has one Sunset Shimmer. I'm all for the alternates of the EoH; hell, even Sci-Twi is fine. However, I really do like the idea that there's no alternate Sunset Shimmer.
That doesn't mean that I don't like the fics that have one; I actually do. Most of them seem to be shipfics, which is fine; the point is, I really feel that the world that Sunset is a part of has no alternate is because she was always meant to be connected to both.
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That was the original intention, yes. Because Sunset was a potential Spirit of Harmony and the human world didn't need one until recently, she had no analogue.
Turns out I forgot to mention that in Ovesaturation, so there are a few Group Precipitation shorts about human Sunset dealing with her divine counterpart and unwanted fame-by-proxy. I haven't decided how to feel about that, but I do kind of like the idea of a character that was never meant to exist even on a Doylist level.
We learn that Lemon Zest has got audio-tech-empathy in Good Vibrations, but what's Sugarcoat's power?
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Sugarcoat's tech empathy is probably strongest with measurement and surveillance devices. Anything that unflinchingly determines, presents, or reveals the nature of reality is going to work better in her hands. She'd make a great spy if she could ever keep to an alternate identity for any longer than it would take for her to open her mouth.
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Does that apply to her glasses? ... Could her magic apply itself to her body to correct her vision?? Nah?
Feels like it might relate to alethiomancy and enhanced mirrors...
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Sugarcoat may brutal, but she's still Honest. Though the fact that one who should see clearly needs glasses should tell you something about what Crystal Prep does to people.
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Which is what? ... That she got bullied and had eye injuries?? Or wanted to look smart? Or tried to mimic Twilight like Moondancer? Or needed to distort the way she sees the world to live at Crystal Prep?
... Should we move to the worldbuilding thread in the Group, or something?
Self-note: Wonder about Crystal Preppers' parents who we don't know.
Honestly, I'd have preferred it if Sparklebutt was attracted to Sugarcoat. The rarer ships always seem so much shinier to me.