A life spent seeking power, in which she viewed others as only tools or obstacles, left Sunset Shimmer a smoking wreck in the bottom of a crater.
Now she has to figure out where to go from there.
This is a "filling in the gaps" story. It takes the Equestria Girls movies as canon then tells a story without the the discontinuities caused by the gaps between movies or, sometimes, between scenes.
This picks up where Equestria Girls left off and will follow Sunset's life at least as far as the ending of Rainbow Rocks. The early focus will be on how she went sobbing and alone at the end of Equestria Girls to reasonably well adjusted at the beginning of Rainbow Rocks. After that it will follow the plot of Rainbow Rocks to the point where she was no longer a pariah.
Dude, trust me, I know the first chapter struggle. Mine usually goes into the first three chapters but after that it seems to flow alot easier.
Love the story so far by the way! For some reason I like the stories where Sunset is hurt after the fall formal. It adds the extra drama needed to start off the story and get the flow going.
I like the story so far, and the direction you're taking Sunset too!
Don't worry about contradicting canon; we all do it every day given how many contradictory hints and implications of worldbuilding there are. Just tell a good story; I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
Just got your message. Downloading chapter in Html format. EXCITED
8534500
Well, like I said, the first chapter doesn't go into that aspect in too much depth.
It'll be explored more in later chapters.
Regardless, I hope you like it.
uh was sunset eating pizza with meat onit or did i miss under stand things there cus she is a vegetarian
oh and im betting sunset is homeless isnt she
8542300
nah
she was eating a cheese pizza cause she be vegan afor she collapsed
8542842
ok i miss read the scene then
8542881
itz cool, i have moments when i read to fast and take somthing like "it was a frightfull night in ponyvill" to "it was fighting for nights in ponyvill"
8542300
She was looking for cheese, and eventually found it, but first she kept on finding things she wasn't willing to eat. My sister has had similar experiences. Usually she has trouble finding pepperoni, but the one time she was looking for cheese . . . Murphy is always at work.
this is sooooo good can't wait for the next chapter
I really like how Sunset can keep up a constant stream of metaphysical lecture as she is nearly passing out. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Second read was still awesome! Really want to know what happens next though. I'm also glad you're feeling better, I've had a few dozen concussions myself. Recovery is not fun. I tried to write during one...let's just say no editor in the world could decipher what i wrote. It was overall, not a smart idea. I hope you continue this story soon!
I'm definitely looking forward to the next chapter.
Ooh this is pretty good
I'm intrigued
Hope it gets continued soon!
8862428
Thanks.
Things have been bad, but that should be over now (I hope), so I'm hoping to have new chapters for all of my stories soon.
8863439
Oh, so sorry to hear that! I hope everything's going well for you soon if not now
All the best!
You had some trouble with a lack of commas, especially for some introductory phrases, but this was fun. I look forward to whenever you're able to get our of the rut and get to writing again. Good luck
I didn't expect to see an update so soon. Neat!
Awesome to see this updated. I really enjoy this version of Sunset and Rainbows banter.
very nice to see this fic back
Glad to see another chapter!
I've been headcanoning for a while that the Mane Six's human equivalents are high-school-aged because ponies are considered to reach adulthood faster than humans - but I never stopped to consider Sunset's perspective on that. Wow; you're right.
(Also, I assume Twilight never stopped to consider that either till after the first movie, and then she probably didn't have time to talk about it during the second?)
I guess that explains where Luna was while being off-camera throughout the rest of Season One?
"Nah, you said you were a unicorn, not a pegasus." (Probably not the best thing to say, but I can imagine Rainbow saying it.)
9564894
I know the comics are not canon to the show but they are still more official to pony lore than a lot of things also most Sunset fics do use the comic The Fall of Sunset Shimmer to base some of her past on. Just for refrence by the comics the mane 6 are pushing 30. They got their cutie marks 20 years ago. They travel back in time 20 years to right after it happens. Like I said not canon but semi official.
9565679 I personally don't consider the comics canon, but I'm curious: at what point in the show timeline was this set? It's been eight seasons since things began; I could see them in their early twenties at the beginning and (by the "longer timeline" where each season's a year) pushing thirty now. But they definitely don't act like they were pushing thirty at the beginning of the show.
9566254
Like I said the comics are not canon. The show runners have came out and said as much so we agree there. That's why I mentioned it in my first message. However I would take comic lore as semi official. Basically anything from there as a step above fan created lore but nothing more. I will say that especially in the case of this story comic lore holds a bit of extra sway being its a Sunset story and most authors have adopted the comic The Fall of Sunset Shimmer as the fan fic story canon of her past given we have no other remotely official source thus the other comics in that universe have a bit more tie in. As for when that time travel comic would be set in the show that's really hard to tell. Spike is still a "baby dragon" but since we don't know a dragons life cycle that doesn't tell us much.
[This came out all wrong, and as a result it's been edited a bunch.]
9564894
9565679
My interpretation of ages is based primarily on pony culture and "Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate" (otherwise known as Occam's Razor.)
If you needed to say that the main ponies are than their counterparts (or if that just made for better stories), then of course you'd go with that. In this case, however, everything fits together fine. Having an age difference complicates things.
(I know Silver_Linings didn't say that. I'm talking about my reasoning, which includes what I think about arguments against it.)
Before I talk about that in depth, I wanted to mention this:
Lauren Faust, the creator of Friendship is Magic, was asked about the main casts ages twice. She thinks of ponies as reaching physical maturity at a younger age than humans (the main ponies all have adult bodies), but not going faster when it comes to growing up mentally. She didn't think of the characters in terms of actual age, but instead in terms of maturity level.
She thought of the characters as having a 12 to 17/18 maturity level.
Given that the ponies are mentally maturing at the same speed as humans, we could extrapolate that and say she said they're high school aged, but that would be fundamentally dishonest because she specifically said that she's doesn't think of them in terms of age.
Ok, time for long winded ranty analysis.
Usually people don't talk about why they have an age difference. They just have it. When people (not always the authors) do say why, they tend to say that it was needed because the ponies must be older.
The most common argument is that the ponies can't be the same age as high school students because if they were they'd be in high school. Which means that they just invented Ponyville High School. They invented Pony High for the sole purpose of having the main characters not go to it.
The logic of the argument is sound, by the way. If you accept that the main characters would go to Pony High if they were high school aged, then the fact that they don't go to pony high is proof that they're not. The problem is the premise. Why assume that Pony High exists when there's no reason for it?
The biggest reason I've seen apart from that is that the main characters look like adult ponies, which is true, and therefore can't be teenagers, which I find disturbing. If teenage ponies don't look like the main cast, then where are all the teenage ponies? Are they stored underground? (Pony High being located in a hole in the ground would explain why we never see it.)
Talking about reasons less common than those to isn't really a good use of time, though it probably is worth pointing out one I haven't seen said but think is pretty common. People thought the ponies were older than high school students before Equestria Girls existed, and they're sticking with that.
Part of the reason it's worth pointing it out is that Equestria Girls is the only reason that "The Ponies are high school age" is simpler than "The ponies aren't high school age." There's nothing in the show that actively contradicts the idea the main six are twenty-something.
A lot of people gravitated toward a twenty something age (well before anyone had even imagined Sunset Shimmer) because the characters very much feel like people who haven't been adults for all that long and that's a good description of traditional college students and recent college graduates.
The thing that jumps out to me, though, is that the age of "people who haven't been adults for all that long" is subject to change. What it means depends on who you are, where you are, and when you are.
Equestria definitely has modern technology (see everything surrounding Vinyl Scratch/DJ-PON3) but it tends to harken back to an earlier time. Well . . . several earlier times. Specifically, a time when instead of the, say, 18 to 26 range of today, recent adults would be more along the lines of 12 to 20.
That, you know, sucks, but it's got a firm basis in how people approach the world. Mostly two things. One was that in a culture where trade skills are more important than manufacturing, starting apprenticeship early can be very important. The other is that, once puberty starts, people can see, "Oh, this kid is changing into a not-kid."
With ponies, all evidence says that they don't have a prolonged adolescence. (Or we're back to teenagers being stored underground where they wont be seen.) A relatively fast switch from looking like the CMC to looking like the Element Bearers would give ponies significantly more reason to consider that age the border between child and humans ever had for doing the same thing.
I stopped the pre-edit version of this post right about there because I should have been unconscious already. It's now even later, so I'm not going to be adding any new content.
9566375
I never meant to argue for any age at all. They could be 6 months old and its just the way ponies work in what ever world they exist in. I don't know their age. Nobody knows their age. That's what I was trying to say. There is no canon age that has ever been given other than Fluttershy is one year older than Pinkie Pie. The closest to canon anything we get is the non canon but Hasbro approved comics. That's all I ever said. The most official source we have is that they are 20 + cutie mark age years old. Does this mean they are 30 years or even 30 months no. Its again non canon but it is the only time Hasbro has approved for publication anything that gave them an age thus is the most official even if in no way binding not even to the show. That's all I meant to convey at all. That the closest Hasbro has ever came to giving their age is near 30 years old and if you wanted to go with or in anyway cared what the most official source was that was it.
[My turn to edit for changes to the message I'm responding to. Some tone changes as well.]
As far as Faust's maturity rating that to would likely fall under the non canon but semi official heading at least to me. I will say I agree with her assessment of their maturity for when she was working on the show. I greatly doubt there are many people who would argue they haven't matured since she left the show all those years (real time) ago. Given the comic is far more recent it would still likely to me be a more accurate judge of their age as they exist now and not six (real time) years ago though of course that is purely opinion. Also since we don't know how ponies age anyway the actual numerical number for their age could be the same which ever source you choose to follow. AKA maturity 12 to 18 human could take a pony 20+ years. It could also only be 20 days(exaggeration). Who knows we have no objective evidence so no real help on age there.
9566418 Well, it pretty much has to be more than twenty days because we've seen more than twenty days onscreen, and the Crusaders still haven't grown as old as the Mane Six were when the show began!
But aside from that, you're right that we don't have any explicit statements. On the one hand, we have the comic you pointed out; on the other hand, we have Faust's statement 9566375 pointed out, and the Equestria Girls equivalence... and given how mediocre some of the comic plots are and how clearly they contradict onscreen canon, I think the tack 9566375 took in this story is at least as strong.
But regardless, I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
9566418
It's no more necessary than your post was. It exists to share two things.
One is my reasoning. Part of what went into my reasoning was listening to the arguments people were making.
The other was telling people about what the creator had said about the character's ages (which is the one part of the post I didn't completely overhaul.) Just as I was unaware that the comic in question specified that the characters traveled 20 years, I'm sure that there are plenty of people who don't know what Lauren Faust said about the characters ages.
In my extremely limited defense, I didn't say that you did. In my slightly less limited defense, I edited my post to point out both that you didn't and that I wasn't claiming you had before you responded to it. Pretty sure the version without that disclaimer was live for about ten minutes.
Normally I wouldn't edit something in stages, but I figured it was important to get the part where I said that I knew you hadn't done that out quickly, instead of waiting the hourish it took me to edit the rest of the post.
That depends on how you define closeness to canon. For me the closest thing to canon we can get is what's suggested by the show and movies (and only those things) themselves. For you it's the comics. For other people it's Word of God.
That's last bit is why I shared what Lauren Faust said. For some people that's the closet to canon one can get. (Probably the most notable such person Jim Miller, the supervising director, who's position is that if she said it, then it's canon to him.) From 2010 to this year, the only thing that directly addressed the question of their ages was what the person who created the characters (and the rest of the show) said about it way back when she was still acting as the executive producer.
Entirely apart from all of that, since you brought up the relationship Sunset Shimmer fic has with the comics in your original post, there's something worth remembering. A lot of that is a function of how little information there is.
There's almost nothing in Equestria Girls canon that touches Sunset in Equestria before the first movie. In the first movie itself Princess Celestia says three (or via unnecessary periods, five) sentences on the topic. All of them vague. In Forgotten Friendship, Sunset says one. Also very vague. If you go through all of canon, you're not going to find much more that, and what you will find is, helpfully, even more vague.
The Fall of Sunset Shimmer is about Sunset in Equestria before the first movie. I just explained exactly why canon doesn't contradict it in any story-important way.* That also happens to be why people are so ready to latch onto it. Sunset flouncing through the mirror is one of the most important moments of Sunset's life --everything she did after that (good and bad alike) was only possible because of it, ditto for everything that happened to her-- and canon gives noting but some of the vaguest non-descriptions in the history of things that aren't descriptive.
There's a gaping void in the canon, and the comic fills it without being contradicted in any way that invalidates how it fills it. Because of that, those eight pages become more important than the 40 pages that follow them. (The forty pages are contradicted by canon even less, as I recall, but they don't fill a void.)
In fact, the only thing stopping those pages from being (almost) the whole footprint the comics left on Equestria Girls fafic, is the fact that the Equestria Girls Holiday Special pisses people off.
* Canon does contradict it, but only around the edges.
People could probably infer this, but I wrote post before Silver Lining's edit. I've just been in a sort of zombified half-asleep state for the past . . . um . . . really long time.
9566716
Which would be why I said 20 days (exaggeration) Meaning I know its not 20 days it cant be 20 days I just said 20 days to indicate that we really don't even have a window. For what ever reason you do seem to like ignore the words I use in my message and argue against points I was not even making. Like ignoring how many times I said I know the comics are not canon in my first message and yet you open with how you don't consider them canon. I do understand Faust's words being valid too though as I said its even possible for them to be true at the same time given she refers to maturity and the comic to physical age. Again just one of those things we'll likely never have hard data on.
9566756
You too ignored every thing I said about opinion and a lot of things I actually said. You repeat stuff I said back at me that I already mention are flaws in what I was saying that I knew were flaws and then act like its some new evidence that I am wrong. Am I wrong yes. Everybody is wrong until someone in charge of canon comes out and says something directly. I knew that then I know that now. I even said that before you did in my original messages when I kept pointing out how it was non canon and at best only a step above fanon. Just like I said that many use the Sunset comic as canon for their story because there is nothing else much out there back in one of my original message. Yet you just say the same thing back to me like I never even said that. Or the fact some may take word of god as more accurate I said that too by saying taking the comics as more accurate is purely opinion.
As for the one new point in your message. Yes I edited mine but to be fair you edited your original message first after mine had been live for for that 10 min so the fact I edited mine is only because you edited yours.
I have added the one thing to this conversation I set out to do. The only thing I ever hard claimed as fact and not opinion. That a non canon Hasbro approved source did give an age higher than teens. Faust's statement is also just as valid on their maturity and you added that in. I believe there is nothing more to be gained in this conversation given 90+% is just parroting my own words back at me. Thank you for your time.
9567301
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm also not claiming you said, or didn't say, anything.
I figured that I'd say what my reasoning was. Because of the way I think, that involves looking at common counter arguments in depth. That doesn't mean I was arguing that my of looking at things is the correct way or that other ways are wrong. I wasn't, and I said as much.
Since I happen to know what Lauren Faust said about the question, I threw that in too. When grabbing the link for "Word of God" I happened to see the tidbit about Jim Miller, I thought it was kind of neat, and I included it as well.
I figured that I might as well address why The Fall of Sunset Shimmer gets the acceptance it does, so I did.
That's it. No part of that involves involves arguing against you. Neither does it make claims (true or false) about what you said.
Neat, another chapter.
I like this story and I am glad to see more. Thanks for sharing it
This is pretty good. You've earned a like!
I like the banter between Sunset and Dash. Hope this updates.
Kill me now.
Gosh darn it why is that good one are always that go either un-updated, hiatus, or cancelled 😭 Please continue this🙏
10707463
Probably different reasons for different authors. For me, it's severe depression. I can promise you that this story isn't abandoned, but that doesn't mean much if I can't write. Right now? I can't write. There's a lot of things I can't do right now, in fact.
Thanks for letting me know you think this story is a good one. That helps a lot.
10713098
It's okay just want to say that. As i have said to the other authors i have the pleasure of replying to my ramblings, if you have a personal problem on your life focus on it first we fans can wait, just know that we are here if you need help or support or just someone to blow your steam off to😊 after all some of us can relate to what you could be going through 😔
I really like this. It’s beautiful, amazing and very well-written (your confidence in yourself is far too low, by the way). Shame it hasn’t been updated in three years.
”You’re one to talk. You haven’t updated your story in over 10 months!”
“Oh, shut up, conscience.”
Ahem. Back to the point. Although, I would argue that the story is kinda-sorta bordering on [Comedy]. There are lots of lines that made laugh out loud. Case in point:
I also really enjoyed your characterization of Sunset Shimmer. Being blasted by Friendship LasersTM may have helped realize she was evil, but it’s not enough to change your character completely. She’s still closed off, aloof, sarcastic and very much a deadpan snarker. You nailed it all.
I don’t know if you’ll update this story years after, but just know that I love it.
11120470
Thank you.
As for whether it'll update, I want to keep writing it. Depression just sucks. Very, very much.
11120815
I understand. Do what makes you comfortable, alright? You have my full support.
11120815
Depression does suck. You do you. Update (or not) whenever you feel up to it. Doesn't matter if it's tomorrow or never.