Starlight Glimmer, reformed villain and pupil to the Princess of Friendship, one of the most powerful magic users in all of Equestria, needs a change of pace. Twilight is a great teacher but after many a magic duel the two have less and less to teach each other magically. Sunset Shimmer on the other hand is very much ready to have a go at this new pupil.
Edited and proofreaded by Galactic Raincloud and Arzoo. Thank you for all the help!
Cover art by: dsana
Cover art link: http://dsana.deviantart.com/art/Commission-Duel-Of-The-Manes-646366495
Chapters (1)
Sunset wins.
Wonder what the other 3568 words are.
7767331 damn straight!
glad sunset won because starlight is kid for irritating like hwo she can somehow take on an alicorn in a fight when she is jsut a normal unicorn plus her crimes were more severe than sunset's yet she doesn't even get the cold reception that sunset faced before everyone at the school warmed up to her.
7767331 Yelling at the top of their lunges for
20 episodes5 minutes.Never underestimate paper-cuts. Never!
Nice story.
Very interesting headcanon. (Except for the glass jaw. Where did you get that from???)
Some people theorize Sunset became an alicorn during her quests in the human world. What do you think about that?
7767900 They only threw Twilight out of the library.
The glass jaw thing is mostly from TV Tropes and as a way to balance out Starlight's magical powers.
As to the Alicorn Sunset I think she can be one but I'd rather her not be one.
>Implying Starlight's tutelage under Twilight ever had anything to do with learning magic.
Seriously, Starlight would have won in the S5 finale had Twilight not talked her out of it. She is much more experienced in combat magic(1) than Twilight. I would assume—after watching that episode—that Celestia only really teaches her students how to dissolve a situation without violence. It was strongly implied that Starlight's studies are meant to be about friendship, because apparently thats something that needs to be taught (easiest class ever.)
(1) Twilight being the element of magic might have more raw power and probably knows more about less practical forms of magic.
Let the headcanon battles begin.
Still an enjoyable read. Nice job!
Fun fic, yeah, while (unfortunately) Starlight probably has more raw magical power than anypony, I could Sunset being more clever at fighting (ah, one of the most useful DBZ moves ever). A bit surprised that Twilight let them fight in the library in the first place rather than some other room in the castle (or somewhere outside), considering how Twilight and Starlight's last spar went. And I see you added in references to some other fics (if Sunset had used that newspaper in the fight, it would have been over in seconds... then again, Sunset did go unconventional, which is something Twilight probably would have never resorted to).
Big sis sunset is best sunset. I like the characterization here, starlight has problems but she isn't a monster and sunset can sympathize and help her be better, wheras twilight is kind of a doof.
7768125
Your common-sense has no place in this dick-measuring contest.
7769434 Ummm no not really.
Where have you been?
Enslaving villages I guess....
This is a very nice and well thought out story. The characterization of all three felt spot on. I'm glad to have read it.
Cheers from a fellow author in Iowa.
7768125
I think it's a bit premature for that. The only time we've seen Twilight & Starlight "fight" has been heavily modified by outside influences.
In the Season 5 Finale Twilight had been away from home for multiple days giving a presentation in Canterlot. She was obviously not taking great care of herself (sleeping/eating) while doing so (given Spike's reactions), as Twilight is known to do when stressed/being a perfectionist. Then as she returns home, she is ambushed by Starlight who knows this battle is going to happen and has likely done everything she can to give herself edges (scouting the area of engagement, resting, perhaps doing any short term power amplifying abilities she can, ect...).
When the battle actually happens, the majority of the time (especially the first few engagments where Twilight is less tired) Starlight has surprise firmly on her side, often attacking Twilight while she is distracted and from outside of her vision.
During the fight their mentalities are entirely different. Twilight is surprised, confused, and emotional unbalanced (especially after seeing the alternate realities brought on by Starlight). While she certainly stands firm and isn't about to let Starlight win she isn't enraged as much as she is determined (and rage is quite useful for magical power, see her fight with Tirak). Starlight on the other hand is both enraged and fanatically driven during this fight.
Finally the very nature of the fight means Twilight has laughably fewer options than Starlight. Twilight can't afford to draw any attention to the fight itself (so no light or sound) or Starlight wins. She can't let Starlight affect the race in any way (even a minor shove) or Starlight wins, She can't be seen by any random Pegasus (who is that Mystery Alicorn Princess?) or she loses. Starlight begins with a headstart (as we can see when Twilight comes back and Starlight is already talking to the young ponies about being bullies) which means she both gets the first attack and Twilight has to "catch up" with whatever she's doing this time.
One of the only times we've actually seen Twilight enraged in a fight (especially post ascension) was during her battle with Tirak. While she had the powers of the other three Alicorns at the time, even if we only ascribe a small fraction of the power displayed there to her, it's still an order of magnitude stronger than anything else we've seen in the show.
Starlight's "greater experience" with "combat magic" is also completely unsupported. We've been given no indication that she has had any specific training at all in any form of magic (combative or not, she is either very well self taught or has some training though). Likewise we have no idea what Twilight's training with Celestia consisted of (or what "combat training" consists of in Equestria, after all one assumes Shiny has more combat training than Starlight or Twilight does yet he has never displayed anything resembling special combat techniques. Then again he's only been against the big bads each time... All of whom overpower him laughably).
I'm not saying the writers can't/won't make Starlight stronger than Twilight (would be pretty stupid if they did but that's just my opinion) but I wouldn't say it has been shown as such just yet.
7772235
A large portion of your explanation is based on assumptions. Don't get me wrong, its very logical and you clearly put much thought into it. But seeing as it's a cartoon with cartoon laws, much of your argument just doesn't feel like something the show writers would take into account.
You were correct that the odds were heavily stacked against Twilight, so even if she did overpower Starlight, the unicorn could very easily just alter time again and have a small breather. But in the scenes where they did fight, Starlight clearly had better aim and overall just felt more combat-ready than the alicorn who almost never solves her problems in fights (Not ignoring the Tirek fight, but she was pumped with the power of two goddesses and one love-magic demi-goddess.)
While likely unintentional by the show creators, your explanation could provide for a very logical headcanon if it's needed. Hell, my argument is nowhere near as structured as yours. I'm pretty much stating that either of us could be right because the show is so obscure and open-to-interpretation on how magic works, that unless the writers give us an actual guide on it, us fans are doomed to argue over it until the eventual death of the show.
Honestly, I imagined something more like this (try to ignore the hands from the creator):
Oh yeah, I can see the fight going like this. Starlight's got power, but Sunset's got smarts.
Sequel image link Sequel to the cover art I used.
The one on the left is obviously the correct one.
I love the newspaper bit. Once again, a newspaper solves everypony's problems. :)
As for the Starlight/Twilight/Sunset power level argument, it's pretty clear that Starlight is one of those prodigies Celestia would be looking for all the time. And with Sunset on Earth, and Twilight having become a princess, it actually would be about time for the Princess to find a new student. So it's not unreasonable that prodigies show up every ten years or so, with Starlight being the (currently) youngest magical prodigy in Equestria. The fact that her education can be farmed off on Twilight is probably something of a break for Celestia. Although given that she probably enjoys teaching, she might actually be finding herself at loose ends without a student to teach. Which, of course, means she might start sneaking glances in the general direction of the mirror, to see if just maybe an older student might be willing to finish her education once she graduates from CHS...
“No... Just that you stole one of the Elements of Harmony to brainwash an entire school, turned into a she-demon before being stopped by the very thing you stole, and redeemed yourself around to blast 3 evil sirens with rainbow lasers,” Starlight said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
I know that this your head canon and all, but according to the canon timeline,starlight glimmer is only with twilight after the 3rd movie of equestrian girls.Did you just make it so twilight didn't mention that to Starlight or something?
part of me want the reason for the fight being that they both were in love with twilight
The fandom sure does love Sunset.
Sunset literally went Kung-Fu on Starlight lmao