Chapter 10: Breakfast of the Goddesses
“Good morning, sister!” Celestia chirped merrily as she held aloft a pile of pancakes with fruit and whipped cream strategically arranged into smiley. “Care to join us?”
While she recognized Celestia’s attempt at a good-natured invite, Luna couldn’t help but feel the slightest twinge of annoyance from both her sister’s tone and her attempt at ‘happy food art’. The ‘night shift’, as it were, had been especially gruelling.
The reason was twofold, specifically the two ‘trouble ponies’ who had graced their way into Canterlot. It didn’t help that ONE was already sitting at the breakfast table.
Starlight Glimmer was directly responsible for many nightmares, but those had mostly abided of late because apparently, the unicorn had managed to manipulate and brainwash some VERY forgiving ponies, even by Equestrian standards. However, she was also indirectly responsible for many nightmares, having created or at least tapped into a number of tragic timelines with her past revenge attempt.
It had always been a difficult task explaining how what ponies called ‘dreams’ could be any number of ‘real’ things, from the mundane repressed memories and interpretive psyche plays, to the more intriguing premonitions or visions of things to come, and even snippets from the actual lives of these ponies’ counterparts in timelines. Luna had learned to be quick to offer up the first, carefully suggest the second, and almost never bring up the third option as most were not ready to consider the fact that as much as an infinite amount of them existed across time and dimensions.
The point was, Starlight was sort of a ‘beacon of thought’ for SEVERAL unfortunate timelines through her magic meddling, but her range of influence was, thankfully, rather short. Luna had long since mopped up most of the Ponyville issues.
But now the little time tinkerer was here in Canterlot, one of Equestria’s most densely populated cities and the prime target of almost all the evildoers from this other timeline.
Ooooooh-good-eee.
Half her night had been full of lines like:
“It’s okay, Fancy Pants! You’re quite alive and your prim and proper lover will NOT have sworn a vengeance oath when you wake!”
“I… Well, I suppose even though it’s true your lover did not die, there’s nothing wrong, per se, with dying your hair blood-red, getting piercings, and arranging your hair into a mohawk, Miss Fleur de Lis. Though I would urge sober reflection over coffee prior to any major lifestyle alterations.”
“Yes, Twilight thinks about you all the time, Miss Dancer. I… She dreams of many things, to be honest. I’m not really at liberty to discuss them! Look, could you please just talk to Twilight about your feelings, or at least to a licensed therapist? Half the ponies who need my help are dreaming of war and rebellion and there’s somehow an unrelated other half that’s just on fire ALL THE TIME!”
Right, that brought Luna to her second problem, which was big in a number of ways, several of which did not endear her to her sister but that was somewhat old news, Luna was being respectful enough to give her sister time to broach with her… And yet, it was unbelievably aggravating that apparently her flesh and blood had adopted a DAUGHTER naught more than a SCORE before her own return and mentioned NONE of this even AFTER said pony had surfaced once more.
It perhaps would have at least prepared Luna for the torrent of repressed memory dreams of the ‘tiny demon which consumed everything in flame and anger’.
It was worth noting that these dreams where not all-together rare within the bounds of Canterlot, Luna just thought them attributed to some foe bested by her sister some time past or perhaps some errant dream entity set to cause mischief that Luna couldn’t ever find.
On the - and I loath even thinking this - BRIGHT side, I at least understand the source of these ‘demon filly dreams’.
The point was that Luna wanted exactly zero conversation on the subject, as her sister was never one to really grasp the night and dream realms. She HAD also tried to “visit” the dreams of both Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer with the hope of finding a solution or at least delivering a severe tongue lashing, but the former’s was some sort of… dating game. A dating game in which Starlight was the lucky prize and the contestants were either without form or composed of nothing but writhing masses of vines/tentacles with notable bulbous ends…
Luna had been asked by some tentacled beast with suction cups in a seventy-two piece suit if she’d like to be the next ‘bachelorette’. She had politely declined.
Somehow, Sunset’s dream was worse… FAR worse…
Despite her immense magical powers, especially in the dream realm, the general atmosphere of Sunset’s ‘thought plane’ was so overwhelming that it forced Luna from her alicorn form into some sort of bipedal one in a strange realm of alarms that sounded each hour and walls made of metal storage boxes.
Luna took a mental note that Sunset was an empath the likes of which Equestria had possibly never known before and that future dream visiting was likely something that should be done with plenty of forewarning to Sunset.
Stripped of her dream powers, it was impossible to skip the nightmarish line of creatures that were waiting to talk to an increasingly exasperated Sunset Shimmer about problems usually so mundane Luna couldn’t help but wonder if they really needed Sunset’s help. Also, worthy of note, many of which resembled ponies back in Equestria, if one could mentally transpose the concept of these ponies as ‘people’ as Luna understand it.
Worse yet, it was a place where everyone asked if she was ‘Vice-Principal Luna’s daughter or younger sister’ and everyone was CLEARLY weary of her for being a younger version of that world’s Luna. She also found it to be impossible to be friends with one of the more attractive ape creatures… Specifically, the one with purple skin and shortcut ‘mane’ of two-toned purple hair held in place with a diamond-patterned band.
No, this other Luna couldn’t even compliment said ape-mare for her attractive clothing choices and luscious deep purple eyes because this amethyst-skinned STAR of Luna’s attraction couldn’t get over the ‘Mini-Vice-Principal’ look.
The night concluded with teenaged, biped Luna eating several pints of ice-cream while crying. She had fled the dream to talk to Miss Moondancer about her Twilight obsession because that seemed the least likely to cause her ongoing mental strife.
Luna took all the pent up frustration of the previous night, rolled it up into a brusque, “Too tired,” and fired it off in Celestia’s direction. Still, she needed SOME substance to fuel herself with, so she magically grabbed hold of the largest piece of produce from the decorative ‘Let’s just pile all the perishable stuff in the center so it looks pretty and it can rot because aesthetic is apparently more important than actually making sure such foodstuff doesn’t go to waste.’ Taking a bite, whatever-it-was was sweet, acidic, and cut deeply into the roof of Luna’s mouth.
Perfection. Thought the quietly raging princess of the night. This delectable fruit would have likely been Luna’s last memory before sleeping if it weren’t for the fact she’d caught sight of a certain orange pony making her way to the dining area and directly towards herself.
Despite her ‘dead on her hooves’ feeling, Luna considered saying… SOMETHING to the young alicorn. Something vaguely unpleasant that hinted her presence had caused more trouble than she imagined. However, Luna saw something in Sunset’s features that made her feel an immediate kinship with the orange alicorn.
Sunset likewise sported a bleary-eyed look. However, where there was a tiredness in Luna’s features, there was a simmering rage in Sunset’s, and while Luna trudged through the morning barely conscious, Sunset walked in a forced march as if someone had done her a great injustice somewhere in between getting out of bed and walking to breakfast.
“Move it, Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way!” Sunset snarled as she made zero effort to correct her collision course with the Princess of the Night.
“Ex-excuse me?!” Luna exclaimed in a flustered-if-more-lucid tone as she sidestepped out of Sunset’s way.
“Excuse denied!” Sunset bellowed to her left as perfectly kept her pace towards the dining area.
Luna paused for a moment and eyed Sunset carefully. Was it possible the fledgling alicorn didn’t know who she was addressing? Yet, a few of the words she used to address Luna suggested she knew exactly who she spoke to. Did she truly not concern herself with the fact she was talking to the Princess of the Night?
Celestia cringed. “My Little Shimmering Sunlight?” she said in a soothing tone. “You shouldn’t talk to your aunt tha—”
“Oh, it’s alright,” Luna said as she mustered some coherence. She began to walk toward the table with her partially eaten sweet-but-pain-inducing fruit. “Perhaps I will stay for ‘breakfast’,” she added, placing a particular emphasis on the word ‘breakfast’, perhaps in the hope that Celestia would cotton on to the fact that it was essentially bedtime for the Princess of the Night.
“Oh! Delightful!” Celestia exclaimed as a smile exploded onto her face.
Hope was dead and the goddess of the sun had killed it.
Luna wandered back into the room but kept her attention focused on Sunset. Sunset, who made her way to Starlight’s end of the table where she took note of the unicorn not with the pleasant look of a pony who was seeing a friend after a good night’s sleep, but with the look of a pony who was seriously considering unmaking the thing in front of her. “You’re in my seat,” Sunset said coldly.
“Oh, uh…” Seemingly sensing Sunset’s odd killing intent, Starlight hastily took up her plate of pancakes and utensils in an electric glow and scooched them over a bit… then a bit more when she wasn’t sure she was giving Sunset adequate space, scooched them over even further. She then proceeded to stand awkwardly at the table which soon had Luna added as another member of the ‘Why am I standing?’ club.
Celestia quickly produced another pre-made stack of pancakes and floated it across the table in front of her daughter. “Sorry!” she said to the group at large. “Sunset is a bit grumpy in the mornings,” she said as if that somehow explained the boiling mass of pure disdain Sunset had somehow transformed into in between when she was last observed and now.
Despite the sudden appearance of stackable foodstuff in front of Sunset, she quickly picked out the missing pieces from the four-pony equation. “Mom,” she began in a clearly vexed tone, “why the heck are there only two chairs at the table?!”
“Oh!” Celestia exclaimed. “I guess I didn’t know how many ponies would be joining me for breakfast.”
Sunset’s face began to twitch as if it had just suffered a complete short circuit. A small and worrying trickle of blood came out of one nostril, only to be snorted back in. “Okay, but you clearly made four stacks of happy pancakes!” she exclaimed, motioning at the food on the table. “How can you prepare food for four ponies, but only think to bring out chairs for two?! Come on, Mom! You’re the morning pony! Literally! How can anypony expect you to run all of Equestria if you can’t remember to place a couple more chairs for breakfast?!”
Starlight’s mouth hung open wide as Luna’s lower jaw involuntarily unhinged itself from the rest of her skull.
“I, erm… I’ll be right back!” Celestia announced as she beat a quick retreat past the open golden door.
It was that moment that Luna looked upon Sunset as if truly seeing her for the first time. She looked upon the pony not as an adopted family member or even another princess of equal standing, but as a goddess wrapped in crude flesh who had somehow deemed the ponies present worthy to bask in her glorious magnificence.
Luna struggled to get her sister to accept or even acquiesce to many things she asked, but apparently to Sunset, the longest standing ruler in Equestrian history was nothing but a nail that occasionally needed to be hammered down.
The goddess suddenly took note of Luna, her own jaw dropping slightly. “Auntie Luna are you… are you eating an entire pineapple for breakfast?”
Luna winced. That DID explain the mouth bleeding and also light-searing pain from the acidic content. She had simply grabbed the piece of fruit in a near-unconscious daze. Oh, how foolish she must look to her niece.
“That’s pretty hardcore!” Sunset exclaimed as she offered up her first smile of the day.
“Oh thank Celes… uh… her mom she didn’t burn down the place…” Starlight murmured to herself.
Luna took little note of Starlight’s outburst, except to note that one of Equestria’s greatest threats apparently held Sunset in complete reverence.
Or fear. In Luna’s experience, there was a very hazy line separating the two.
“Oh!” Luna replied. She didn’t know what ‘hardcore’ meant, but she could understand she was clearly being praised.
But what is the appropriate response here?! Think. Think. Hmmm… Sunset Shimmer is still a bit young. Perhaps she would respond to me taking the compliment by being ‘chilly’. Luna also favored Sunset with a smile. “I just grabbed the first thing I saw on the table and began consuming it. Do you know what I am saying?”
Oh, sweet Equestria. I must sound like a raving lunatic.
Surprising Luna, Sunset let out a laugh. “Gotcha. It’s a ‘no bucks given’ kind of day, right?”
“I, er… Yes! All ‘bucks’ shall be retained for the duration of the day!”
Sunset snorted out another laugh. “Mood. I like your style, Auntie.”
“Yes, thank you, Sunset. I do indeed make good use of words.”
More laughter poured from Sunset as Celestia burst into the room, two ornate chairs floating behind her in a canary yellow glow that matched the aura of her horn.
Starlight cocked her head slightly. “Why didn’t you just teleport them in?”
Shockingly, Celestia’s face flashed anger, REAL anger for a second at Starlight and she snapped back with. “I don’t know, Starlight Glimmer, didn’t you just NOT almost destroy reality when you began tinkering with TIME magic because Twilight and her friends unraveled your little brianwash day-camp?!”
Starlight clamped her mouth shut and stared down at her partially eaten pancakes. The rich, creamy based smile had begun to smudge and melt from the heat and seemingly melted into a crooked frown that mirrored Starlight’s expression perfectly. “Don’t worry…” Starlight murmured to her partially eaten, doughy counterpart. “We’ll make it out of this somehow…”
Sunset suddenly let out another outburst of merriment.
Taking note of Sunset’s jovial reaction Celestia quickly floated the chairs over to the standing ponies while she took a deep breath and gave Sunset a little smile. “Glad my theatrics can bring some joy to you this morning.”
“Huh?” Sunset replied in confusion as she ceased talking mid-sentence to Luna and turned to face Celestia. “Oh, not you, Mom!” Sunset motioned towards Luna with a forehoof. “I was just bonding with Auntie Luna!” she exclaimed happily.
“Indeed, sister!” Luna said happily as she took her seat. “We were just talking about my unconventional breakfast choices, a ‘zero bucks tolerance’ mandate for the date, and my unique styling of words!”
“Hahahaha! Technically all true!” Sunset exclaimed mirthfully.
Celestia couldn’t help but keep the frown from her face. “Oh, that’s… good,” she said, unable to hide the jealousy from her tone.
“Oh by Starswirl’s Beard, I’m going to die eating ‘happy pancakes’.”
“Did you say something, Starry?” Sunset asked.
“I said, ‘Thanks for getting me a chair and making these delicious ‘happy pancakes’, Princess!” Starlight answered as she forced a smile that went from ‘too symmetrical’ to ‘unnervingly broken’ in a matter of seconds.
Celestia managed to put some happiness back onto her face. “You’re welcome my little po—”
“Okay, time out,” Sunset declared while holding her forelegs in a vague ‘T’ shape. “Mom made breakfast, but at least two ponies here would be STANDING at breakfast if it weren’t for me. Thank her for the food, sure, but not for the chairs. She was just correcting a mistake I had to point out!”
Luna swore she could hear her sister’s teeth grind together.
“My darling, light of my life, Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia began, her tone wildly fluctuating from maternal joy to one of ‘screaming match incoming’, the second of which Luna was QUITE familiar with, “I have a lot of my mind, as you know, and sometimes I forget the little things.”
And then Luna saw something quite terrifying from Sunset Shimmer. It was a look of pure murderous rage, as if she could unmake everything before her.
To reiterate, what was before her would be Celestia, Princess of the Day and Master of the Sun and all that the Sun touched.
It was soon replaced by something that made even Luna’s centuries-old blood run cold in fear.
For a brief moment, Sunset Shimmer…
Smirked.
It was a smirk of pure, unrelenting demonic joy. The kind of look one reserves for when their arch-nemesis is begging for mercy as the executioner is ready to drop the axe.
The kind of smile that makes it clear that there was nothing more to be said, and to drop said axe.
And then Sunset’s face became even once more, practically blank in fact.
She replied with, “So Starlight, your SISTER, and myself are ‘the little things’?” she said in a twisted parody of innocence that somehow defiled the very meaning of the word. “Oh wait, there was one chair. Were we supposed to guess your favorite, or was it just whoever happened to show up first?”
Luna watched in awe as something happened behind her sister’s eyes that had never happened before in her long memory. The light which so often meant she was preparing for verbal fisticuffs dulled, as if it was unexpectedly routed.
Celestia, wise, some might say ‘ancient’ Celestia... stood there… dumbstruck by a filly of prime birthing age.
“May I be excused to the nearest bomb shelter?” Starlight asked politely.
Luna mustered enough interest to turn towards the pony and ask a quick: “What is a ‘bomb shelter’?”
“Oh right!” Starlight replied. “I should probably help you all build a few bomb shelters before I start testing Balefire bombs…” she murmured.
Luna cringed. “Almost every word that just came out of your mouth filled me with great unease, Starlight Glimmer.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Starlight said casually as she shoveled a massive bite of pancake into her mouth.
Celestia took a deep, deep, breath, and let it out. “Sunset, you of all ponies understand your mother is not perfect.”
Sunset smirked again, clearly prepared to add all of the hero’s metaphorical friends and family to the line for the chopping block. “I used to use that line all the time! You never cut me any slack!”
“You were setting fires to drapery in protest of long meetings and letting loose cockatrice on the nobles!”
Sunset nodded, “But I also was younger… and still am by a ridiculous measure! Yet I somehow managed to remember how counting and chairs worked!”
Celestia narrowed her eyes and grunted in displeasure. “This conversation is asinine!”
Sunset pointed to the center of the table. “Like the stupid fruit bowls you keep leaving out?”
“Finally, some pony says something…” Luna said, the words slipping out before she had time to think.
Celestia tossed her sister a much-annoyed look.
Starlight took a deep, stress-filled breath, and let it out in a concerned whimper. “He-hey! Did you know Sunset’s current home dimension has a space program?!” she said, forcing some sense of levity into her tone. “They’ve even landed on the moon!” Quietly she added, “So far away from a planet that might be blasted into dust…”
Luna’s head snapped around fire off a glare so smoldering at Starlight that it felt like the temperature in the room increased. “Oh? Is their moon likewise a prison?”
Starlight let out a sound much like a quiet scream then shoveled in some more pancake. “These sure are some bomb-diggity pancakes!”
“The fruit really ties the ambiance of the table together!” Celestia exclaimed. “And ponies are welcome to grab anything they want from the table to eat!” she added, as she motioned to Luna’s partially eaten pineapple.
“Flowers would work just as well!” Sunset insisted. “And they’re also edible!”
“I’m partial to lavender,” Luna chimed in.
Celestia tossed her sister another errant dirty look. “Luna, could I have a moment? I’m trying to talk to my daughter.”
Luna nodded. “‘Trying’ seems to be the operative word, sister. You’re not doing a very good job!”
“Ooooooh, ice burn!” Sunset exclaimed.
Luna snickered. “Yes, we’re playing with ice magic now.”
Celestia moved her pancakes to the side and slumped forward onto the table. “Does any pony else want to belittle me first thing in the morning? Starlight?”
Starlight pursed her lips. “No, but if you’re taking requests can sunrise be an hour or two later?”
“No!” insisted Luna.
“Maybe,” said Celestia before she and her dark sister shared a glare.
Sunset’s lips pulled into a tight frown. “Kinda agree with Mom here… But Fruit bowl is still stupid!”
“Where else are ponies going to get any fruit they want, Sunset?!” Celestia exclaimed.
“The KITCHEN, mom! Or we can ask Kibitz or any number of the castle attendees to get some frickin’ grapes! Look, everyday you put out the frickin’ fruit plate, and then at night, tons of stuff needs to be thrown out because you and your guests are the ponies who know about the fruit plate and never eat it all!”
Starlight looked at the plate, worry still marching across her face. “If I eat everything on that plate right now, will this argument be over?”
There was a moment of quiet while everyone stared at Starlight.
“Can you eat that much fruit?!” Sunset demanded.
Starlight put on a thoughtful look. “Nope,” she admitted. “But, if I create a reality tear—”
Luna’s foreleg shot up. “I disagree strongly with this course of action!”
Sunset groaned. “Oh, for Equestria’s sake! Kibitz! Could you come here, please?!”
At once one of the double doors swung open and Kibitz, looking as dignified as ever, walked in as if it was any other morning in the castle. However, behind him sat a very nervous white-coated unicorn mare with black-framed glasses, a brunette mane tied up in a bun, and a firehose held at the ready in her forelegs.
“Yes, Miss?” Kibitz said, in a perfectly even tone.
Sunset took the fruit bowl in a red glow and floated it over to Kibitz. “Just like.. I dunno… pass out the fruit to ponies you run across today! It’s fruit day! Whatever!”
Kibitz stood for a moment as if considering the request. He gave Celestia the slightest of looks.
Celestia sighed and gave Kibitz a nod of assent.
“Very well, Miss Sunset Shimmer.” Kibitz took the bowl in his own magical aura and trotted out of the room. “If that’ll be all.”
“Thanks, Dad! Love you!” Sunset said with a genuine smile, which turned back into a smirk as she faced her mother once more.
Now Luna had, on occasion, flustered the castle’s dear majordomo, but never intentionally. With a literal monocle pop, Kibitz was so out of sorts by this response from Sunset that the poor pony had likely forgotten what pocket his watch was in as the bowl slipped slightly and some of the oranges, apples, and peaches spilled out onto the floor.
Laughing, Sunset closed the door.
With a huff, Celestia got up to her hooves and did an about-face as she marched towards the door. “Well, I suppose I should be on my way. I have many important duties to get to.”
Sunset nodded. “Okay, just keep in mind that four is twice as much as two.”
Celestia’s entire body seemed to quake for a moment as she mumbled something to the extent of, “You’re twice as much as two… no… half as much as two…” with a heavy sigh and without another word, Celestia simply departed.
Starlight let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Any pony else surprised we all lived? I’m surprised.”
At once, laughter poured out of Luna’s mouth and she found herself scooching up to the table and pulling over one of the pancake piles in a midnight blue glow of her magic. “Oh, my dear niece, I haven’t seen someone get the better of Celestia like that since…” Luna thought for a moment as she cut a modest bite in her pancake. “Well… ever!”
Sunset chuckled. “Hey, some pony has to keep her on her hooves, otherwise being able to raise and lower the sun might go to her head.”
Luna laughed once more. “Here, here!” she said as she raised a glass of juice with her magic that was ‘clinked’ against as Sunset raised her own glass.
Starlight just looked at one pony then the other. “And ponies say I’m going to get the world destroyed…”
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Now I want to see Daybreaker smack Sunset around a little
I suddenly wish I had any artistic talent whatsoever, as I'm imagining a .gif of a filly Sunset laughing maniacally with flames everywhere and ponies running around on fire and I desperately want it now.
Wary, I think.
I was about to wonder at Sunset surprisingly not having a "showing up to school naked" dream, but then I thought about it some more and realized I'm more surprised that Sunset doesn't dream that she, and her entire school, are naked all the time. Which then lead to some amusing dialogue in my head.
"Please, I've seen you naked."
"What?! When?!"
"In my dreams. Oh, not like that. Everyone is always naked in my dreams...not like that."
Between this and Sunset's reaction to Flurry's apocalyptic power, I really never know what to expect out of your take on Sunset. And I like it. Honestly I think Luna and Sunset would get along pretty well once they got to know each other.
Genuinely, yes. Also I'm wondering if Starlight is going to swap all three of their cutie marks. Though I can't see any reason for Sunset to get Luna's mark, which means she gets Celestia's, which means we're all gonna die.
" and then at night, tons of stuff needs to be thrown out"
Fruit generally does not spoil by just sitting out one day, unless the day is under open skies in Calcutta in mid-summer. If the staff object to day-old fruit, it can be passed out to the orphans at risk of being setting on fire by Lyra (a real danger in realities like this)
Poor Celestia... She never had a chance. She was utterly disarmed in this battle of wits. No one knows your weak points like your own children.
9797509
Depends on the type of fruit. If it's sliced, it can go bad very quickly. I suspect that's Sunset's primary objection. Better to share it out amongst the staff than have it go to waste.
9797609
you don't slice fruit that's sitting in a bowl
Dude, those are some seriously angry ponies.
Oh Starlight, don’t worry you’re still easily in the top 5 most likely methods of bringing about the end.
This was just the best chapter. I really shouldn't have laughed near as much as I did.
9797614
No, you arrange sliced fruit into displays within the bowl.
9797609
As Garfan said , it's not sliced.
https://derpibooru.org/1459038?q=animated
9797485
What, you don't want to see Sunset Shimmer is MAD about the Entire Canterlot Nobility?
9797701
I'm seeing sliced strawberries in there. Also berries in general tend to mold quicker than most fruits, and can cause other fruit next to it to mold.
nice work.
Yeah... she does that
XD
Huzzah! How many points does Luna receive?
D'aww, they're bonding
Run away!
Ditto
Somebody grab the Newspaper Of Discipline and nip that RIGHT IN THE BUD
huh?
Me too
Left unsupervised, you WOULD
The only way things could be going better is if Discord showed up, lured here by the chaos that was growing in the Capital. Actually... has Sunset met Discord?
media2.giphy.com/media/iIsbwcn6oaKS4/source.gif
Now that's a pretty meme, exquisite.
Give it time.
Brianwash? That's a new one.
That's a bit harsh, isn't it?
She does that a lot.
Not helping.
Why is destroying the world always your plan B?
Because you think testing Balefire bombs is just a thing you do.
9797711
Now that you mention it that actually sounds hilarious.
'Here Here" ought to be 'Hear Hear', btw.
Otherwise great chapter :)
I was really expecting Luna to be more interested in a actual Space Program that went to the moon.
9797869
Harsh, but not inaccurate. Starlight did in fact throw Twilight and her friends into a room spouting propaganda after stripping them of their cutiemarks. While Twilight is willing to let that slide, it would be foolish to think Celestia was just entirely unaware of such a thing.
9797963
Sunset was only adopted by Celestia, so she only thought of herself as having a mother. But she very much had a father figure who cares about her far more than she ever suspected in this universe. She only found that out because of her Amulet of Empathy.
Poor Celestia, taking it from nearly all sides.
Wary*
Weary is to be tired, exhausted. Wary is to be alert/possibly anxiously so.
9797463
Not going to lie. Celestia's taking a lot of unnecessary abuse here. She has a long, long time of being a master of diplomacy (yet she's treated as a senile old woman here for some reason) which requires incredible observation and pre-planning-on-the-fly skills otherwise she wouldn't be a good head of state. But that doesn't mean she's not building up some utterly horrible, righteous anger from how she's treated by those around her and those who look up to her.
Daybreaker may be the angriest, most powerful entity ever conceived of in that case. Which will probably be defeated by Sunset giving it a tongue-lashing instead of losing terribly because she's the main character and her being angry at things means she's won even though she really deserves all the crap she has to deal with, considering how she treated everything and everyone.
9798258
Naturally so. Sunset and Celestia are falling back into old, unhealthy patterns. Luna and Celestia are doing much the same, save that Luna tends towards avoidance vs confrontation.
Glorious insanity.
I'm sure there's a term in psychology for stating that one is angry about subject X, and fighting about it, but really it's subject Y that's causing the anger. This chapter is hilariously stuffed to the gills with that phenomenon.
Okay, the story has officially stopped being funny with this chapter. Right now, all I want to see is Daybreaker, perhaps in a nice, quiet, tranquil fury voice, strangling Sunset and beating the shit out of her until she apologizes.
Starlight made the situation bad enough.
Rampage Shimmer is gonna make Daybreaker REAL if she keeps up her usual raging bullshit.
...Yeah, I'm overreacting, but I was actually shocked with this chapter. Justice, you usually write Rampage Shimmer a lot smarter than this. Here you just made her a bully.
9798668
The thing to remember here is... We've got three ponies wracked with guilt for past transgessions against one another. Luna and Sunset have both been told they're forgiven, but are acting out, maybe subconsciously testing how much that means. 'Are you sure? Because I was horrible. Remember?'
9798747
It felt like Rampage was going way too far to me.
9798247
what reason do they have to be tired of Princess Luna being younger and appearing in their midst. It seems more likely they see someone who could be Vice Principal Luna looking like a teenager and going "How do you do fellow kids" and being suspicious they were wary
9798258
Maybe Sunset will be to stunned by the revelation to be the smartass she has been. Or maybe she'll try it and Daybreaker's total disinterest in other ponies will be see her tossed around
I LOVE the portrayal of Sunset here.
And the madness continues.
9798668
glad to see I'm not the only one who feels that way, but I don't think it's in Daybreaker's personality to do something quietly or tranquilly. She'd be mocking her relentlessly
9798868
... Yes that is exactly what I said. It said 'weary' in the text, I proposed a correction.
9799013
oh. I thought you were justifying the original version
9798766
And that's fair, but remember, we're getting a very small taste of the terror that was. Sunset is getting a little too comfortable, letting Celestia mother her just a bit too much, and consequently, proceeding to walk all over Celestia while she bends over backwards. It honestly might take an objective viewpoint like Starlight to point out just how badly Sunset is treating Celestia, which will of course be rich coming from her. "Listen, I know I'm not one to claim a healthy relationship with a parent ... but maybe you're being just a little harsh?"
When I saw Sunset enter I was waiting for the coffee making her happy scene. Even though I did not get that scene, I am not disappointed.
I love the idea of Starlight acting as a psychic beacon for the suffering of other universes. No wonder all those eldritch horrors want to woo her. (Granted, that might be Starlight's own desires at work, but plenty of Lovecraftian horrors live in the Dimension of Dreams.)
As for Susnet... Well, at least Luna has context for the flaming terror of Canterlot.
Lest we think Celestia had no influence on Sunset's upbringing.
... Yeah, this is going end in actual Daybreaker actually trying to torch Canterlot. Or at least her daughter. Let's hope Luna's mouth and the collected psyches of the city takes the most damage over the course of this mission.
Damn. This one had me laughing all the way through. In the episode I kind of sided with Luna. In this one Celestia is the one I sympathize with. Boy she's getting it from Luna and Sunset. Starlight seems to be the lone sane man in this one and that's saying something, but she recognizes that some ponies are playing with fire. Daybreaker might just manifest herself. I was curious how you'd handle this. I was not disappointed.
9798668
Can't help but agree. There's nothing likeable about Sunset Shimmer like this. This isn't... playful abuse between friends and family, this is legitimate abuse and even getting others in on it. Sunset's just being a huge jackass to everyone - she wasn't even this bad in the human world, she was more level-headed and methodical...
This is just a sheer asshole attacking someone who loves her.
I mean, what's the point? If Celestia stands up for herself Sunset will get into serious arguments or fights with her and run away again. All she can do is be a doormat to keep her daughter. That's disgusting, honestly.
9802027
Aurora, try to remember we're not exactly catching Sunny at her best self. She's never been a morning person, she's been dealing with stress over this visit forever, and while she's trying to wake up and become something resembling human her mom has to go momming it up and being wrong all over the place. Yes, you are correct, what Sunny is doing is abusive, but this was the horrible relationship they had going that eventually lead to Ragelight running away to make herself a demon army.
Order was definitely correct that Sunny needed to be here to try to make things right between herself and Celestia. Also, Luna is having issues we could solve at the same time if it's convenient.
That second one is probably Sunset's fault.
9802683
I'm aware she's not at her best, but the tone of the writing almost seems to suggest it's supposed to be this way, rather than this is abnormal and needs to be fixed. A very 'she deserved that' vibe from 2/3 participants when Celestia was trying to be kind. What's the use in trying to be nice to someone who makes sport of you for it and gets others to agree and join in?
9803184
Well, while the harshness is not deserved, let's examine whether Celestia did, in fact, deserve that.
She's aware that Sunset is not a 'morning pony'. So she puts out a cheery spread of bright colors and happy faces on pancakes. And only two chairs. And no coffee to be found. Not even strong tea.
She knows her sister goes to bed around this time. But she doesn't set out something light for Luna to snack on before she retires. There is likewise no tea for her little sister who might actually enjoy a little pickmeup and the subsequent soothing effects of a warm drink just before bed.
This entire spread says "Good morning! Look at the sun! The fabulous sun! Enjoy it! See all these bright colors? The sun helps you see them!"
So yeah... Celestia is putting a lot of effort into being considerate of two ponies that she should know won't enjoy any of it.
Now, I am not going to excuse Sunset's behavior. She is being her worst self here. But I will say I understand Luna.
Luna is doing her damnedest to be considerate of ponies who sleep while she does her best work. She puts out lavender, she soothes and comforts lost souls while she herself feels wretched. She is putting in some serious work that goes entirely unnoticed because, if she does it right, ponies will just sleep through it without a care. She knows this, she's accepted it, but at the same time she has a sister (the one being who should understand her best) who seems to have no idea that she is wronging Luna, and Luna is sure not going to bring it up with memories of her coup attempt still fresh in both their minds.
So... yeah, Celestia does deserve some of this backlash. Hell, even having something said is relieving some of Luna's stress, so Sunny's outlook is already helping one party. Which I guess means we have to rely on Starlight to help Celestia. Oh dear.
A great chapter, I loved how they all interacted at the breakfast table.
I love how Sunset and Luna bonded in this chapter XD
9798247
9799013
At this point, I suspect all of Canterlot is sick and tired of dealing with Princess Pyromaniac. So, in a sense, weary does indeed fit.....