Infiltration
“You’ve had a lot of bad ideas, Sunset, but this is probably one of the worst.”
Sunset just grinned at Cheerilee, but the schoolteacher looked thoroughly unimpressed. Cheerilee returned the same flat stare she’d been giving since Sunset suggested her brilliant idea.
“Stop being such a spoilsport, Cheery!” Minuette laughed.
“Somepony around here should set a good example!” Cheerilee shot back with a glare at the blue unicorn behind her.
“For who?” Moon Dancer cocked an eyebrow. “Cheerilee, your students are back in Ponyville. It’s just us tonight!”
“Whom,” Cheerilee corrected automatically.
“Really?”
“It’s still correct,” Cheerilee huffed.
“But of course, your royal teachership!” Moon Dancer gave a great bow to the earth pony. “Point still stands. It’s just us girls tonight.”
“You can’t possibly think this is a good idea, Moon Dancer.” Cheerilee shook her head, looking utterly indignant. “You, of all ponies, should be smarter than this. You’re a librarian, for pony’s sake!”
“See, that’s your first mistake.” Moon Dancer grinned and winked. “You’ve never been to a librarian after-hours party.”
“All the ponies in this hallway are crazy!” Cheerilee groaned.
“All the ponies in this hallway are going to get caught if you all don’t pipe down!” Sunset snapped, but the grin never left her muzzle. “It should be just ahead.”
“You do realize that nopony can hear us, right?” Minuette asked. “After all, they’re all still ‘party-party-party’ out there! We should know, especially after those amazing ciders we had.”
Those were good ciders, Sunset admitted. And, Minuette had a point. Since Coloratura had left the stage twenty minutes ago, the club’s unofficial after-party was now in full swing. Coloratura’s greatest hits pounded through the massive Manehattan nightclub known as Hoofbeats. The guest DJ—a pony by the name of Vinyl Scratch—spun everything from Coloratura’s latest pop sensation, ‘Tailrunner’ to her old duet with Sapphire Shores, ‘Second Miracle.’
The DJ had left the slower stuff out of this particular mix, and Sunset didn’t mind one bit. While she—like everypony else in Equestria—loved Coloratura’s latest single ‘The Magic Inside of You,’ at the moment, Sunset wasn’t in the mood for stirring ballads. She wanted to dance.
Which was why they were sneaking around backstage right now.
The sounds of ponies dancing and laughing echoed up and down the hallway, and the bass from guest DJ shook the floorboards beneath their hooves. Minuette walked in her usual perfect rhythm with the beat. Moon Dancer was sporting the widest grin Sunset had ever seen, while Cheerilee…
Well, Cheerilee was being especially Cheerilee.
“Come on, I know it’s here somewhere,” Sunset muttered as her horn flared and she checked the next door.
Another broom closet? Come on!
“You know,” Minuette chirped. “I think we’ll need to invite this DJ to our next shindig. She’s good.”
“I do have one question, Sunny,” Moon Dancer said, sidling up beside her.
“Hm?” Sunset tried another door.
Stanchion storage. Why does one of them have a lanyard saying “Stan” on it? Whatever.
She closed the door and wished there were signs down here.
“You know a lot of Canterlot nobility, right?”
“‘Know’ is a strong word,” Sunset grunted. “More like I knew of them and they knew of me. Emphasis on the past tense.”
Sunset peeked around another corner. Another empty hallway. The hanging lights above dancing with the bass beats of the speakers on the other side of the wall. There were a few flyers on the floor for some big charity concert called the Grade School Gala tomorrow night. Still nopony in sight.
I wish I could have taken us through the VIP lounge upstairs, but they’ve got crazy security up there. No, we need to do this quietly.
“Still, you have to have some connections you’re still in good with, right?”
“If you have a point, Moony—”
“Failing that, you are the protégée of a certain all-powerful alicorn…”
“Moony, spit it out!”
Moon Dancer hopped in front of Sunset and peered over her thick black glasses.
“Do the terms ‘backstage passes’ mean anything to you?”
Sunset rolled her eyes and shoved past her best friend. “I’m not going to beg the Princess of the Sun for backstage passes, not even to see Coloratura.”
“Moony,” Minuette admonished. “Sunset was nice enough to get us those box seats! And those were her bits!”
“Yeah, sure…” Moon Dancer said with a huff as they passed another storage room, this one filled with folding chairs. “But she’s got plenty of bits stashed away, what with getting room, board, transportation and a half dozen other things covered by the Royal Treasury!”
“Hey!” Sunset protested. “You know how much my stipend is! It’s not a lot! And you also know where I don’t get my bits from.”
“I wasn’t going to bring that up!” Moon Dancer frowned. “Come on, Sunny. Give me a little credit.”
Sunset tried a pair of locked double doors, glanced at a sign that read ‘Electrical,’ rolled her eyes and continued forward once more.
“Fine, sorry,” Sunset muttered as she opened the door to another room filled with arcane devices Sunset didn’t recognize. Maybe something for the sound system? Ugh, I should have paid better attention during the Equine Enchantments Expo last month.
“Just so we’re clear,” Moon Dancer added. “I am totally not envious of the bits you do get.”
Three bass thumps passed through the hallway, accompanied only by Sunset’s silent raised eyebrow.
“Fine, I’m a little envious.”
Sunset laughed, but she still couldn’t help but feel a little pang of guilt. Between her small salary as a teacher’s assistant at Gifted Unicorns and her stipend, she wasn’t actually hurting for bits.
But, it’s not like I asked for it! Half the stores in Canterlot won’t even take my bits. They all want to do a favor for the Princess’s Prized Pupil.
A familiar little voice from the depths of her mind spoke up.
Because they know you’re destined for greater things. Good merchants are smart enough to try to earn favor with their betters.
I don’t need anything from you tonight! Or ever! Sunset shot back in privacy of her own head. She opened the door to a dusty cleaning cupboard, barely big enough for two ponies.
Her angry little pony chuckled, but before it could respond, Minuette shushed everypony. They all froze in their tracks, Minuette holding a particularly uncomfortable-looking pose. A few moments passed in total silence.
“Minuet—”
Minuette pirouetted, and placed her hoof against Sunset’s muzzle. With her other hoof, she pointed at her twitching ears.
Sunset craned her own ears, listening intently. “Voices!” she hissed. “Hide!”
Without any other option, she yanked open the door to a cleaning closet and shoved her friends inside with a flare of telekinesis. Ignoring their protests, she flung herself in and landed squarely on Moon Dancer’s back.
“Ow! Maybe you should cut back on Joe’s donuts, Sunny!” Moon Dancer cried.
“Shush!” Sunset snapped as she carefully closed the door just as she heard two ponies come around the corner, arguing loudly.
“I don’t care what it takes, Miss Beats!” growled a male voice that would have been right at home with the so-called ‘elite’ of Las Pegasus. “I expect results! You’re lucky I happened to be here tonight to correct this mistake! I will not let that showboating wannabe and her senile manager ruin things for me and my client!”
“I am so sorry, I do not know how this happened!” the female voice trembled with fear. “We are all professionals here, and we—”
Their hoofsteps stopped right outside the door, and the stallion growled. “If your staff are as professional as you claim, they’ll get the job done! This place will be clear of anything to do with that… that… Coloratura by the time my client arrives, or I’ll make sure all of Equestria knows what a shoddy operation you run.”
With that, the stallion stomped off, followed by what might have been the rapid flapping of wings.
“Wait! We can work something out! I promise! I’m sure we can work something out!”
The stallion’s growled threats and heavy hoofsteps receded into the distance.
Until Cheerilee coughed.
“For the record, Minuette’s flank is pretty much on my face.”
Moon Dancer cackled. “I’ve always thought Minuette had a fairly nice flank, personally.”
“Why, thank you!” Minuette chirped. “It’s hard work—”
“As nice as it might be… can we perhaps, I don’t know… get out of here so it can stop being on my face?”
Sunset paused to make sure she didn’t hear anything else before she slowly opened the door. Of course, this motion was just enough to unbalance Moon Dancer. A few seconds of toppling ponies later, Sunset groaned from beneath the three other mares. She managed to extricate herself and helped Cheerilee to her hooves. Minuette bounced back up and immediately began bobbing her head to the beat of the DJ.
Moon Dancer managed fine on her own with a great deal of snickering.
“What was that all about?” Sunset wondered, scratching her head as she looked in the direction of the retreating voices.
Moon Dancer shrugged. “Don’t ask me. Sounded like some part of Coloratura’s show is just going longer than that stallion likes. Ooh! Maybe it’s Sapphire Shore’s manager! I’ve heard some stories about him. He can be a real beast. Once trashed a place because they hadn’t sorted the cherries right.”
“Cherries,” Sunset deadpanned.
“Yep!” Moon Dancer replied. “Cherries.”
“Musicians are weird,” Sunset finally said after a few moments of consideration. “Anyway, let’s get going. I’m sure it’s right around here somewhere.”
“You have no idea where you’re going, do you?” Cheerilee asked as she followed Sunset around yet another corner. “I swear, Sunset… I don’t know why I let you talk me into these things.”
“Because they’re fun?” Minuette laughed.
“Because your life would be incredibly boring without us?” Moon Dancer suggested.
“Because beneath that schoolteacher mask, there’s a party animal waiting to break out?” Sunset smirked at her.
Cheerilee scowled again. It was almost her full-blown Teacher’s Scowl. But thankfully, she reined it in a bit.
Doesn’t matter. In a few minutes, we’ll be bumping hooves with the greatest young pop star in Equestria. Cheerilee will thank me then.
And just as they crossed a T-intersection, Sunset spied it. Like Celestia herself had set this place up to reveal their goal just as Cheerilee gave her last protest.
“Here we go!” Sunset cried and did a little dance, which was completely and totally not stumbling.
“Can I remind everypony that this is a really bad idea now?” Cheerilee asked.
Okay, second-to-last protest.
“No!” Moon Dancer and Minuette said together.
There was a large sign on the door at the end of the hallway emblazoned with the words ‘Performers Only.’ They were impressive letters too. Bright red, with a giant exclamation point at the end. They were very intimidating… or would be if she wasn’t Sunset Shimmer.
“Um, Sunset?” Cheerilee whispered.
Sunset didn’t answer. She was too busy grinning.
“You do see what it says under ‘Performers Only,’ right?” Cheerilee pointed and Sunset followed the hoof to the second line she hadn’t noticed.
In my defense, those are really small letters. Still ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ seems a bit excessive. Probably to scare away the tourists. Lucky for us, we’re not just tourists.
“Come on, girls!” Sunset giggled and practically skipped forward.
Minuette and Moon Dancer were right behind her, while Cheerilee followed as if dragged by an invisible yoke. Sunset smiled.
She’ll be laughing and dancing like the rest of us once we manage to get in there.
The hallway itself ended at a large intersection. A sign reading ‘Shipping and Receiving’ pointed down one side to a pair of large double doors, while the opposite hall had a sign reading ‘Backstage.’ Just to the right of the ‘Performers Only’ door were a large stack of road crates set in front of a series of cabinets. Somepony had left the crates stacked somewhat haphazardly, as if left there in a hurry.
Maybe they were running late and haven’t had time to put them away?
Sunset frowned when she spotted a pile of brooms leaning against one of the crates. Why in Equestria would a place like this need so many brooms? Maybe it had something to do with whatever song the DJ was currently mixing in the theater, because it almost sounded like it was about sweeping.
Okay, Sunset, you’ve definitely had one too many hard ciders tonight. Nopony would ever remix anything to do with sweeping.
Sunset shook her head, refocusing on the task at hoof.
“Now remember.” Sunset turned to face her co-conspirators. “The key to sneaking into anywhere is to look and act like you belong there. Don’t try to hide. Don’t act all sneaky-like. And don’t you dare start humming the theme to ‘From Stalliongrad with Love.’”
She glared at Minuette, who replied with her trademark brilliant grin.
“If somepony comes up to us, you’re supposed to be there. That’s the key.”
“And you know this how?” Cheerilee cocked an eyebrow at her.
Sunset tilted her head at the teacher. “Uh… books? You know… how most ponies learn things?”
Cheerilee’s eyebrow rose a bit further.
Gah! She’s gotten really good at that look since she left to teach in Ponyville!
“Okay, okay,” Sunset admitted, holding up her hooves in surrender. “I might have snuck into an Equestrian Secret Service meeting with the Princess a couple weeks ago.”
“How long?” Cheerilee demanded.
“How long what?”
“Until you were caught.”
“Why would you assume I was caught?”
Cheerilee didn’t respond. Her eyebrow rose an eighth of an inch.
I should talk to the Princess about weaponizing Cheerilee’s stare. Could be useful in diplomatic negotiations. Tartarus, the new griffon ambassador might stop getting his tailfeathers in a bunch every other week with Cheerilee as a diplomatic attaché.
Finally, Sunset dropped her gaze. “Two minutes.”
Cheerilee just groaned. “We’re doomed.”
“Oh ye of little faith!” Sunset proclaimed. “Now, first thing, hide your hoofbands. Security will be on us in a second if they see theater-seating hoofbands.”
As instructed, the purple hoofbands disappeared into saddlebags and coat pockets.
“Second thing,” Sunset proclaimed. “Once we’re inside—“
The door handle rattled.
Sunset squeaked in surprise. Without much choice, she again grabbed her three friends in a field of teal magic. She threw herself and everypony else behind the stack of road crates. Minuette let out a little yelp as she banged into one of the cabinets. Brooms stacked on the cabinets—they’d hidden in the gloom—suddenly dropped all around them. Moon Dancer, Celestia bless her, caught them all with her levitation. As the door opened, Sunset gestured for Moon Dancer to keep the brooms up and behind the crates. The crates conveniently made an L-shape, blocking them from both the main hallway and the door. However, if somepony came through Shipping and Receiving, the jig was up.
She just hoped that they wouldn’t see the light of Moon Dancer’s levitation. But it was either that or risk the brooms being heard when they were dropped.
“Seriously?” Cheerilee hissed. “We’re hiding again?”
Sunset shushed her.
“I don’t want to hear excuses!” the gravelly voice of a stallion boomed through the hallway, rattling Sunset’s brain. “You know how crazy this place can get!”
Sunset inched forward to peer over one of the crates. A green unicorn, maybe a year or two older than Sunset, backed out of the doorway. He had a security earpiece in one ear, linked to a small radio on his security jacket. The sunglasses looked two sizes too big for him, and nearly fell off his muzzle as he spoke to the pony on the other side of the door. Sunset didn’t dare try and catch a glimpse of the other pony.
“I’m sorry, sir!” the stallion squeaked. “I didn’t know Iron Lock was out sick tonight. I’ll secure this area right away!”
“That’s why you check in when you come on duty!” the unseen speaker snapped. “I swear! If I didn’t hound you all, Coloratura would be swarmed by more fans than Daring Do is by ninjas!”
“Nopony gets past this door, sir! I swear!”
“They’d better not, Crabgreen, or it’s your flank! Do a full sweep of the adjacent hallways first, and then lock the blasted doors that lead to the theater! I won’t have a repeat of Hoofington, not on my watch! Spotlight has been through enough this tour. I won’t have any more interruptions!”
“What’s wrong, Gateway?” The female voice was soft and earnest, with just a hint of concern. “Please don’t tell me we’ve had another issue with security.”
“No, Miss Pommel,” The older stallion—probably Gateway—said respectfully, without losing his gruff edge. “Just correcting an oversight caused by a callout tonight.”
The mare sighed. “There is always something when we come home to Manehattan, huh? And on top of everything else during this tour. Well, I’ll leave it in your capable hooves, Gateway. Just remember last night’s rehearsal. Spotlight’s still rattled from it.”
“It’s at the forefront of my mind, Miss Pommel. It will not occur again.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“Ma’am.”
There was the sound of hooves on tile as the mare walked away. Sunset glanced over at the others. Cheerilee was glowering at her. Minuette looked like she was about to burst into giggles. Moon Dancer looked like she was fighting back a sneeze.
Sunset glanced up at the brooms still floating beside them, then back to Moon Dancer’s scrunched-up muzzle.
“What are you still doing here?” Gateway barked at the poor guard, causing both him and Sunset to jump. “Move it!”
“Yes, sir!” the guard squeaked and scurried out of sight.
“I swear, these ponies get younger every year,” Gateway grumbled.
Next moment, there was a crash and two yelps. Sunset’s eyes went wide and she tried to get a slightly better look at the hallway without actually being seen. It didn’t do much good. Gateway let out a growl that sounded more manticore than pony. Sunset took a few steps back as Minuette squeaked in surprise.
“Celestia save you, Crabgreen!” he barked. “Can you not run over the stagehoofs? If you can’t even see where you’re going, how in Tartarus are you going to do your job?”
“I’m… I’m sorry!” a timid mare said. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble… I was just finishing getting the storage carts ready and—”
“Don’t worry about it, miss,” Gateway grumbled. “Come on through. Crabgreen here is just having a bad night. A bad night that will only get worse if he doesn’t get his flank in gear!”
Hoofsteps scampered down the hallway.
“I’m… I’m really sorry,” said the mare who stepped into view. “I didn’t want to get anypony in trouble, Mister Gateway.”
Sunset stared at the mare. She seemed oddly familiar. She had a light blue coat, and a slightly mussed silver mane. She wore two saddlebags, and a staff lanyard around her neck. She was staring at the ground, as if Gateway had been yelling at her and not the unfortunate Crabgreen.
“Don’t worry about him,” Gateway said in a kinder voice. “Come on through and check in with Spotlight. I heard she was looking for some help with teardown.”
“Of course, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Finally, the mare slipped past and the hallway door slammed closed. A broom that Moon Dancer had missed fell right on the bespectacled unicorn’s head. She let out a curse that instantly turned into a nigh-explosive sneeze. The brooms exploded outward, throwing up dust, clattering on the cabinets and the crates, knocking over a few buckets and generally causing enough noise to wake the dead for a few hundred miles in every direction.
As soon as the sound died away, Cheerilee muttered, “We’re doomed.”
As the dust cleared, Sunset made sure the first thing Cheerilee saw was Sunset’s grin and her glowing horn.
“Sunset…”
Sunset only pointed a hoof up at the teal dome wrapped around the area… which had managed to keep all the brooms contained.
“Nice!” Moon Dancer grinned. “A shield spell with… a bubble of silence?”
“Good old bubble of silence.” Sunset felt a little swell of pride, but quickly swallowed it. “Useful when trying to study next to a room filled with students practicing firecracker spells. Also useful for avoiding detection by overzealous security guards.”
“That was some quick thinking, Sunny.” Minuette’s smile was even bigger than Moon Dancer’s. “Hasty hoofwork! Fast… fah-hah…!”
Minuette sneezed. It was far quieter than Moon Dancer’s.
“Bless you,” Cheerilee muttered, before glaring at Sunset. “That was luck. Nothing more.”
“I beg to differ!” Sunset protested. “That was me being brilliant!”
“It sounds like security is a bit jittery, if you didn’t notice,” the teacher pleaded. “We should get out of here now.”
“We’ve come this far!”
“And for some reason, we haven’t been caught yet!”
Moon Dancer and Minuette both suddenly burst into laughter. Sunset snickered as well, while Cheerilee just huffed at the younger mares.
“What is so funny?” Cheerilee demanded.
“You, silly!” Minuette dusted herself off with another sneeze. “You’re trying to do this whole ‘bah humbug, I’m a serious professor’ thing, but you aren’t fooling anypony!”
“What in Equestria are you talking about?” Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Cheery, you didn’t have to come with us.” Minuette’s horn lit up and she quickly collected the ninja brooms and placed them carefully against the wall. “You’ve been complaining this whole time about what a bad idea this is, how we’re gonna get caught, and be so sorry, but you’re still here!”
“I-I just…” Cheerilee’s eyes flitted back and forth, her ears flat and her body tense. “I just didn’t want… um… didn’t want you all to get in trouble!”
Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “And where was this cautious Cheerilee during your going-away party?”
The teacher’s ears were glued to her head. “I… um…”
“Silly Cheery.” Minuette’s laugh was warm. It seemed to light up the dusty intersection. “You’re acting all responsible because you have to be the responsible one now! You’re the only teacher in that little schoolhouse in Ponyville and it’s a small town! It’s okay!”
“It… is?” Cheerilee cocked her head at her friend. “Sorry, Minuette, but I think you lost me.”
“I think what’s she’s saying,” Sunset interjected, “is you’re not there now. You can relax. You aren’t babysitting us, Cheerilee. You’re hanging out with your friends.”
“Doing something that’s borderline illegal.”
“Oh, please!” Moon Dancer cried. “It’s a misdemeanor at worst.”
“Not helping, Moony,” Sunset growled.
“Help? Sorry, have we met?”
Sunset shot her a glare, but Moon Dancer’s face was the very picture of innocence. As usual.
“Look, Cheerilee.” Sunset let out a long sigh. “If you want to head back, fine. We don’t mind. And if you really want us all to head back… we will.”
“We will?” Moon Dancer asked.
Sunset ignored her this time, but she didn’t miss the droop of Minuette’s ears.
Cheerilee didn’t either. She’d been a teacher far too long to miss a signal like that from one of her closest friends.
“You’d really head back for me?”
“Only if you insist,” Sunset replied. “Though I’d really love to get to talk to Coloratura tonight. If all else fails, I can always pull out the Student of the Princess card.”
“I thought you didn’t like using that.” Cheerilee narrowed her eyes. “You complain about it all the time.”
“I don’t like using it for my benefit,” Sunset admitted with a shrug. “Once upon a time, I used it a lot. And a lot of ponies want to use me because of it. But I don’t mind using it for my friends. Occasionally.”
“I can’t tell if that’s weird, or a little sweet,” Moon Dancer stage-whispered to Minuette.
“Go with sweet,” Minuette said in the exact same tone.
“Stop helping me.” Sunset shot them a look.
“Sorry, Sunny!” they both chimed in perfect unison.
Cheerilee snickered.
“So…” Sunset tried to get the conversation back on track. “What do you want to do?”
The teacher hesitated, but it was only for a moment.
“I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so.’”
I guess she needed permission to have fun. Huh. Weird. I thought it’d take at least a minute of consideration before she caved.
“So noted,” Sunset’s grin reappeared on her muzzle. “Now, let’s get in there and find a way to hang out with Coloratura! After we’re in, see if you can find some backstage hoofbands… or maybe lanyards. That mare was wearing a lanyard. They must have some extras in there!”
She dropped her spell and trotted up to the crates. A quick glance down the three hallways revealed nopony around. Sunset’s grin widened and she nodded toward the “Performers Only” door.
“Moon Dancer, get the lock.”
Moon Dancer popped off a little salute as her horn began to glow in concert with the lock on the door.
“That’s a new one,” Minuette commented.
Moon Dancer smirked. “Sunset finally got sick of my chaos surges when she tried teaching me advanced telekinetic field manipulation the old fashioned way, so she got creative.”
“Hey, you passed the class, didn’t you?”
“Yep!”
“I’m just going to pretend this little conversation never happened, okay?” Cheerilee said with a shake of her head. “I swear, you two are nothing but trouble.”
“At least they’re the fun kind.” Minuette beamed. “Better than the other kind.”
The click of the lock seemed to echo down the hallway like the sound of a gong. All of them cringed, but when nopony came rushing forward to bust them, Sunset took it as a good sign.
“Okay, remember what I said. Act like you belong.”
She opened the door and stepped forward.
Right into a wall of black fabric.
Black fabric around the massive chest of a burly unicorn stallion almost as tall as Celestia herself, accented by a rather snappy red tie. There was a security earpiece in his ear and an utterly humorless expression on his face.
He peered down at Sunset through mirrored sunglasses as the three other mares tried to follow her, only to stop abruptly at the sight of the stallion who could only be Gateway.
“Plan B?” Moon Dancer whispered.
“Plan B,” Sunset hissed back, despite the fact she knew the security guard could hear her.
Not a muscle twitched on the stallion.
Sunset brought herself up to her full height… which gave her a lovely view of his necktie. “I would like to speak to Miss Coloratura,” she said with her best impression of her father. “Please let her know. Unless you want to explain to your manager why you decided that the personal protégée of Princess Celestia was barred from seeing her?”
Dead silence reigned in the hallway. Sunset felt the sweat trickle down her neck. Finally, the stallion named Gateway adjusted his sunglasses to spear her with icy blue eyes.
“I’d be shaking in my horseshoes…” he said in his gravelly voice. “If you hadn’t marched up to Red Rock and said almost the exact same thing three nights ago, ‘Miss Shimmer.’”
Sunset blinked. “Wha—?”
He ignored her and leaned down to the mic on his lapel.
“Yeah, another group marched right in. Tried to get through Backstage B.” He looked back up and a hard smile crept over his features. “This will be the last time the ‘famous Sunset Shimmer’ ever tries to crash one of Coloratura’s sets.”
In a stroke of brilliant wordplay, Sunset replied with another, “Wha—?”
"You know... believe it or not, I didn't see this coming." Minuette asked.
“Well, this is new,” Moon Dancer commented.
“I told you so.” Cheerilee sighed.
Finally, at long last! The first chapter of How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative is released!
I finished the first draft of this story for NaNoWriMo in November of 2016, believe it or not. So many projects came up and it kept being pushed back. Plus the editing. So much editing. This story literally doubled in size in the course of editing (most of my stories tend to get larger during edits, for some reason). Well, no longer will you be delayed! No longer will you have to wait! This is finally happening! The final major act of the Origins Arc! 
Easter Egg Hunt: Find the reference to TSSSF in this chapter and win +10,000 Pony Points! (Fair warning, this one is really obscure!)
If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
980 users online
1,508,917 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Ponies have an E3. I don't know why this entertains me as much as it does.
Interesting. Seems Rara doesn't have Svengallop working for her. Indeed, there's a lot going on here that I can see passing over my head. I'm sure later chapters will clarify that.
That's odd. I thought the timeline where Twilight became MC Sparklepants was three universes over from this one.
Huh. A false Sunset. Mere disguise, changeling, alternate universe instance? I supposd I'll have to wait and see. Looking forward to finding out.
Finally.
I must say, this is living up to expectations so far and I can't wait to see more. I can only imagine what Celestia's reaction will be when she learns that her pupil got arrested for trespassing...
I'll throw in time travel shenanigans as a possibility for the implied fake Sunset, although I admit it's a bit more of a stretch than her just being an impostor. Also of note was the unnamed mare with the light blue coat and the silver mane that Sunset thought seemed familiar; I don't recognize the description off the top of my head so for now she's going straight into my brain's 'suspicious character' folder.
Loved the final scene of Sunset running into Gateway, by the way. Comedy gold.
8336408
If only you would know the work that has gone into this. Novel gets major extra credit for his patience with the editing process.
HAHAHA I did not see that coming, what a brilliant ending to the chapter
I find it curious that she doesn't seem to recall what happened "three nights ago," or at least seems reasonably certain that what did happen is not what others seem to think happened.
This is going to be interesting.
Of course a bright orange-yellow unicorn would be good at sneaking around. Sunset doesn't need a spy suit or an eyepatch, heck she's brought her entire gang with her too. I wonder how this little expedition compares to the time she and Moon Dancer tried to find the eternal cake. Too bad this Sunset isn't head of the DSP, or else that would really be a party. And Cheerilee must still be new to Ponyville if this seems crazy to her (then again most of the Mane Six are probably in different roles than in canon so maybe Ponyville isn't quite so insane).
So, either somepony else already tried the "I'm an important person" line and ruined it for Sunset, or time travel or memory problems. I'm leaning towards the more mundane explanation at the moment, though always hard to tell with these stories how many clues there are. Minuette should probably bring up how many relevant conversations they just happen to overhear, as if due to a good GM. Though you'd think Sunset's look would be more distinctive (isn't she adorable?) or guardponies might just not care either. And a previous story did go into the mechanics of transformation/illusion magic quite a bit, so who knows.
It appears our very suspicious mystery-mare is better at sneaking in than Sunset and her crew.
8336373
A great many things...
Then again... who knows what happened in Golden Oaks after closing time?
My editors asked if this was intentional. I was somewhat hurt by this.
Thirteen, actually.
8336408
Heh. I loved that moment too.
8336726
You had a ton of good stuff in here. Most of my responses would be little smirks or trollestia comments, but I will point out one in particular...
Somepony's paying attention!
Light blue and silver hair? This wouldn't be the Humble and Unimportant Trixie, butterfly victim, perhaps?
Great to see this return, I've enjoyed your work set in other pony timelines, but I've been missing this series.
Once again, this is an excellent job on the start of your newest story. The exchanges and characterizations were quite well done of course, as was the set up for the main story. And, yeah, I LOVE Cheerilee trying (not succeeding, but still trying) to act as the group's conscience. And, well, considering this is still years before Nightmare Moon returns AND most of the Mane Six are in different areas at this point, it makes sense that Ponyville would be quite a bit - saner - at this point than we know it.
At any rate, I will very definitely be looking forward to more of this. However, because I know real world concerns have to come first AND inspiration can be hard to come by, I am also quite willing to be patient.
Your Daybreaker story would've been enough to get me to check out your stuff, you know. You didn't have to suck up to my supporting character tastes or anything. But CocoRara content is still CocoRara content...
I've got a few thousand words of reading to catch up on, my friend. Thanks a lot.
8337687
If you look all way back to my first story in Wavelengths, The Application of Unified Harmony Magics, Coco and Rara are both mentioned as friends of Sunset and the gang!
I've been planning this FOREVER!
8337739
You've been waiting a long time for this, haven't you?
I'm already smiling.
Yeh. They are all themed. The last one had to do with a large and very specific number of hay bales. We were all feeling that party in the morning.
As if I could let a sentence with "wink" in it not have alewdcomment.
"Stanchion" According to google:
Oh my
*Contented Sigh*
I've missed this voice. Haven't been reading anything pony/Sunset Shimmer recently, so I haven't gotten to read this wonderful little creature in a while.
When the Minuette in my imagination preformed this pirouette, she did so with 2 more spins than were strictly necessary to turn to face Sunny.
First name that occurred to me upon thinking about this character's full name was "Sick Beats". That poor pony. I, too, would go by "Miss Beats" if I were her.
Totally thought they were going to crack open that door and suddenly find themselves on stage.
Sweep Sweep Sweep Sweep
...leaning in to whisper in Cheerilee's ear, "is that there doesn't have to be a responsible one."
I really don't remember this Moon Dancer at all. It's been a while since I read any of your stuff, Novs.
All of this banter. I love Moon Dancer and Minuette constantly chiming in with random quips. "Help? Sorry, have we met?" and "We will?"
And as far as the guess for TSSSF, the cherries bit seemed too specific to be random, and the "Teacher's Scowl" seemed to remind me of something, tho that might just be the fact that there were a few "teacher" themed cards in TSSSF. So, y'know, off the top of my head, those are my guesses.Actually, now that I think about it, the librarian bit at the beginning, maybe? The Stanchion thing?Definitely guessing the Stanchion "Stan" thing.
Also it totally had a lanyard on it that Sunny could have used. Just sayin'. Keep your eyes open, Sunny. Prepping spells to cover for your allies screw ups is only half the caster's job.
And now that we have that out of the way:
*LE GASP*
Did someone CLONE Sunset Shimmer!?!
Or dimensional magical Shenanigans!?!
Or TIME SHENANIGANS!?!
IS SOMEONE MESSING WITH HER MIND!??!
Or did someone just steal a hair or something and transfigure themselves?
NO WAIT! CHANGELINGS! The cool ones. Not the tie-dye deer-beetle hybrids.
64,000 words? No wonder it took/is taking so long to finalize.
It's back! It was worth the wait... it barely even feels...
... tardy...
That felt needed. We aren't at the point in this timeline where Twi can be here to join library night parties, but she's still allotted her two bits. Sounds like Sunset has more than that, which is good, she can hire an investigator to figure out what just happened. I know a couple mares who've worked that line before... though I dunno what they're doing in this iteration so... sorry Sunny, you're on your own there.
I had to google what TSSSF was, and whether I'm better for the answer I got is questionable, buuut I certainly have nothing on the reference. Alas, I'm am without pony points. I can't find the booth to reimburse 'em anyway.
I'm really loving Cheerilee as the 'I dunno, Sunset, maybe this is a bad idea' type. The group needed one and she fits the bill perfectly. Minuette and Moon Dancer are both enablers in their own way... or maybe even instigators is more accurate. Looking forward to seeing this play out.
I see you referenced the best music craze of 2016.
It sounds like Coloratura was spared the evil manager in this timeline; poor Sapphire, though…
Wait, is Coco Coloratura's manager in this timeline? Or does she have another role, like costumer? I guess we'll see. If she's not the manager, then it's probably this pony by the name of Spotlight (who I hope has a grey coat and purple mane).
Meanwhile, somepony faked being Sunset at the last tour stop; the most likely suspect is currently the mare that Sunset sort-of recognized, who may or may not be Trixie, who may or may not have been one of Old Sunset's many victims. It seems like a very odd way to get revenge, so it's probably just coincidence that Sunset ever found out about this impostor. Probably.
I'm so happy to see the next part of this series; I was starting to get a little worried.
Hey there, Novel Idea! I haven't read this first chapter yet, but I was wondering--do you have a planned updated schedule, like you sometimes do? I'm curious to know how often this story will update, if you know. Waiting is hard!
8343280
For once, I do not! Chapter 2 is still in polish phase, but it'll be out as soon as it's done! Hopefully in a week or two.
8345064
Thanks so much for getting back to me on that!
I should have started with this story some time ago. It seems that the security guard recognizes Sunset but Sunset doesn't understand what he's talking about.
8436486
Actually more likely what is happening is that an IMPOSTER SUNSET tried a similar thing a few days ago. After all, Sunset seems confused as if saying "There's no way I did that!".
Remember: She just go through saying she HATED doing that for herself and she's never done anything like this. More likely someone else tried it and LIED. Maybe even did an illusion spell, wouldn't be the first time
8494421
Or Sunset's sleep deprived again. She gets really loopy on no sleep.
As someone who went through library school and is
technicallya librarian, I can confirm Moony's assertion here.8556964
This makes me happy in more ways than I can say.
...Didn't take you for the type, Moony...
...Um... Did I find it? I've never had the chance to play...