The commotion was cut short by an earth shattering boom that left Rarity’s teeth rattling for a second. Princess Celestia looked over to her left. “Sunset! Are you alright?”
“I’m invincible Mom,” the royalty perturbed voice that Rarity wouldn’t forget if she lived to be a hundred said. “I can do an epic facehoof.”
Then, the...well, Rarity couldn’t say that she looked as regal as her mother, but she was still royalty, so… The royal amber alicorn walked into the view provided by the doorway and gave her a little smile. “Hey there Rarity. Excuse my mother for being well...her.”
Duuuuuude. Celly has a gift to screw things up, doesn't she? He'll even meet Luna! I wonder if future Sunset will send a "stop trying too hard!!" Back to her mother.
Because she didn’t care about you, Celestia wished she could tell her daughter without alienating her. That was the thing that really showed what Princess Twilight Sparkle thought about Sunset. Celestia had gone through the journal time and time again, and it was always Sunset writing to Twilight, Sunset telling Twilight what was going on, Sunset pouring her heart out to the bucking purple alicorn, getting next to nothing in response beyond the most basic of pleasantries.
but, wait isn't that how Twilight learned Friendship from Celestia. can't wait for Celestia to find out she hates herself.
8666251 Which one? Starswirl's spell was on a scroll, but Twilight still needed to cast it the old fashioned way. Also, it only lasted about 30 seconds, and created a Stable Time Loop. Starlight's spell was a scroll, but it wouldn't have been created for decades, would probably require a Twilight-level caster to even activate, and would most likely reek of unstable Time magic to the point where even Celestia at her dumbest wouldn't have mistaken it for anything but horrifyingly dangerous. ... Oh dear Harmony, I hope that was just Celestia at her dumbest.
8666287 I don't know. I mean, I guess this might be another version of the spell...though I don't know why it would activate that way. Seems kind of odd unless this is an aftereffect of Sunset fixing the mirror/time/void thing at the end of the last story.
When Cadance couldn’t think of the proper way to voice her concerns, Shining Armor spoke up. “You mean she may have been geassed in some way?”
Whoa we're adding code geass into this now?
I'm actually kinda hoping to see that planned out sex scenes with human sunset and cadence. And oh boy some more time travel shenanigans, maybe? I wonder if this is Celestia doing.
Nice chapter, can't wait to see what will happen next when Celestia and Sunset find out about Twilight. My best guess of that situation would be that Celestia would capture her and keep her in isolation and pass herself as the Celestia that Twilight has know most of her life and try to needle out information about her on what happened in the future and why she in all appearance 'abandoned' Sunset to the human world, and planning to trow her in the bleakies the dinkies dungeon she can think of, only to find out that it's not at all what she expected. Celestia would finds out that Twilight did what she though was what Celestia would have done seeing that the best for Sunset seeing the circumstances that forcing Sunset to go back to Equestria after what she had just done would only make things worst and that finding redemption in the human world for the time being would have better chance of reforming her of her own will where she wouldn't have to deal with all the hurt feelings between her and her former teacher and would better mend if she choses to go back to Equestria again of her own free will to confront Celestia again and their broken bonds. The reason that I can guess that Twilight didn't go at length with what was happening in Equestria was because Sunset didn't ask and that all her apparent platitudes of support speeches was because she wanted Sunset to figure things out on her own and not let her view her the ultimate source of wisdom to make the decisions for her and that is how Celestia had thought Twilight all their years and show that she must trust in her own judgment, with light support from her mentor. I think Celestia would snap out of her own guilt out of all this and that she will have to accept that Sunset experience in the human world was an necessary one in order to grow by being apart form each other.
At the moment, I think Sunset is more like her mother then she would likely admit, and will probably run herself ragged in trying want to take care of everyone until she explodes and that she understands that her subjects will also have to find their own solutions and take a step back.
8666406 The term geass predates Code Geass by centuries. By decades even in the context Shining was using it in. Geass has been a spell in Dungeons and Dragons (which O&O is based off of course) since at least 2nd edition and probably way back to 1st.
Sunset looked down at the clouds beneath her. “Actually...this is it,” she admitted. “I have no idea where to even start looking for Pinkie Pie. Hell, the only reason we got Rainbow Dash is because you ported us here, and we just stumbled across Fluttershy.”
Does that mean Pinkie won't get to hang out with the rest of the Foal 6 on the Princess Fair? Aaww.
Also: Celestia's help/answer to Shining Armor's problem is a trip to the future... Yup, everything can only go wrong from here!!
I wonder... During free-time this Celestia suddenly find Canon!Princess Twilight in her study. Twilight instantly say, that this timeline get corrupted and she come to repair this by setting it back on "correct" (Canon) road. All she need, is to meet deviation in this timeline, which is Sunset, so she could cast correcting spell. And then ask Celestia for leading her to Sunset, so she could do this. How Celestia would react?
Another great chapter with a kind of silly cliffhanger. Though between the fact that more than a week or time travel was considered more or less impossible without Harmony powering the spell and the fact that Celestia seems to have basically just slapped this spell on a piece of parchment on the fly, I am sceptical about actual time travel in this case. Maybe some kind of enhanced dream thing with a bit of Celestia's ability of precognition mixed in?
Because she didn’t care about you, Celestia wished she could tell her daughter without alienating her. That was the thing that really showed what Princess Twilight Sparkle thought about Sunset. Celestia had gone through the journal time and time again, and it was always Sunset writing to Twilight, Sunset telling Twilight what was going on, Sunset pouring her heart out to the bucking purple alicorn, getting next to nothing in response beyond the most basic of pleasantries.
I love that Celestia 'hates' this version of Twilight that is basically acting just like Celestia. I mean, let's be honest, Celestia doesn't do much when helping others. She rather let them figure out their own problems, and now she ironically hates that.
8666613 Well I'm assuming not well. In fact I venture to say that Celestia will tear cannon Twilight a new one. So much so that even if things do get fixed Twilight will never be able to look at Celestia or Sunset the same way again.
While i like the chapter in general the level of ignorance sunset displays is kind of hard to believe. How could she not know about the the elements of harmony and Luna when she canonically stole and used the element of magic and she know of EQG Luna which, considering her interest in Celestia, she would certainly follow up on and whom Twilight has no reason to hide. Not to mention even if she did not ask Twilight about Luna explicitly she would certainly have asked about Celestia herself at which point one would assume that twilight would mention the return of her sister... overall i found this to be a very big (and frankly immersion breaking) plot hole.
A young mare stepped out of into the hallway and looked up at Celestia in surprise. “Waaaaaat?”
“Pardon me, miss,” Celestia said as she waited for the wrinkled mare to remove herself from the hallway.
Waaaaat?
Cadance is even talking to a magazine about dating two ponies at once because I was stupid enough to think Equestria already had the convect of multiple partners!
Well, that's so hot?
You've got a couple dropped articles and extra pronouns between those two, too.
“Well, everything’s not the same,” Sunset said. “I mean, you don’t have a sister named Luna like the other Celestia.”
OOOOooh. That was good. I literally winced as I read it. That had to be a blow. Poor Sunbutt. *hugs!*
I want them to become friends and right letters and see eachother every other weekend, because-because...
*snickers* Is that what I'm doing? Righting you some letters? Also, you need a space.
“Uh...these cards are a bit...different.”
If they're what I think they are, the difference is they're fun. Point to the Colt of the Shiny Hiney!
Twice as fat as anypony had the right to be, Cookie Crumbles laid on the family’s sofa with some foot resting not too far away on the table next to it.
Oooh. Burn. You wrote of a pregnant pony as fat. If your wife/girlfriend/marefriend read this, I hope she was merciful. The story must go on, after all! Where should I send the burn cream?
Once you get that foot out of your mouth, turn it into food.
“Oh my heavens, you’re right! I am Princess Celestia!”
And I cracked up hard at this bit. Good job!
I did facehoof at the next part. Then Sunset did it better. Better job!
For the most part, this was a fascinating and fun chapter. Sunset's learned to worry slightly less and love the timeline changes, Celestia got to have some fun with her subjects, and Shining gets to meet his possibly alternate-universe future daughter. And who knows? The sadomasochistic therapy might be crazy enough to work.
There's really just one sticking point for me right now, but it's a major one: The one-sided nature of the correspondence between Sunset and Twilight in the previous timeline. This was the mare Sunset called her best friend, but as the other characters note time and again, there's really nothing to back that up. Yes, they're missing some context, but you appear to assume that the only messages in the book are the ones we explicitly see. If that's the case, then yes, Princess Twilight was a pretty crappy friend to Sunset. But this isn't the Twilight who drove a friend to retreat from society by prioritizing research into the end of the world. This is the Twilight who friended so hard that she grew an extra set of limbs. Expecting me to believe that that Twilight would let a friend who'd been isolated from Equestria for years twist in the wind is asking a great deal, to say nothing of the two of them just talking now and then. There's no evidence for it beyond Twilight's character, but there's no evidence against it either.
That being said, I can totally buy that Sunset wouldn't know where to find Pinkie. It's not like the Equestrian analogues' biographies would come up, so the only way she might have heard about the rock farm is if the Pinkies really did switch places on occasion.
Okay, I've said my piece for this chapter. Looking forward to more.
8669539 To be fair, compared to Princess Celestia, everyone is young.
But while we're on the subject of typos:
Sixty years ago, the patriarch of house Lion had gotten things so tied up, she effectively became her own grandmother...
The situation must have been really mixed up if it produced a female patriarch.
8671061 I would agree with you...but isn't the stuff Twilight does with Starlight kind of the same? Granted, Twilight is a bit more involved, but she still backs off somewhat, just like Celestia.
8672007 Not at first. Remember, Twilight had to learn to back off with Starlight. Her initial impulse was to micromanage every aspect of the friendship curriculum literally from A to Z. And even if Twilight saw Sunset more as a friend than a student, I'd at least expect her to check in on occasion, epsecially after reuniting with Moondancer and seeing the damage that neglecting a friend can do.
8672921 I still disagree. I mean, it was obvious that Twilight was going to trust her human version of her friends to help Sunset compared to her. Eh, I honestly think this story does a good job showing how dumb Celestia is, as she's now hating the very method she uses since this story shows Twilight used her method of 'Back off and let the other solve their own problem'.
8658512 Well, my line of reasoning is a bit more meta-narrative. From a writing standpoint, it doesn't make sense to involve the Bearers if they won't affect the plot in a noticeable way, and the most obvious way for them to affect the plot is to be the Bearers in the first place. It's not really a solid conclusion so much as an educated guess. I think that part's likely to stay the same because thus far it's the most logical path given the information we have.
“Hey there Rarity. Excuse my mother for being well...her.” Princess Celestia gave an indignant sniff. “Well, I never!” “Mom, quit trolling everyone,” Sunset told her, which got a confused look from the bigger princess.
That scene was very amusing. So five of the fillies mane six will go to the carnival with Sunset. Wonder if the Pink One will make an appearance. And the ending of the chapter... Alternate reality or simply a glimpse of the future?
You are as close to all-powerful as a pony can be. There is quite literallynothingthat you can not do.”
And Discord is going to make it his personal challenge to break her. And considering how good he is with mind fuckery, he may just succeed.
After double-checking her card’s effects again, Cadance looked back to Shining Armor. “Plus, it transfers your section of the map to my control, giving me all your structures,” she said before putting two and two together. “Oh! If I have control of all your structures, does that mean I win?
Either Shining is really bad, or you're really good.
“You wrote a Solar Battlesfan fiction.”
That sounds rather accurate to their meeting in Return of the Jedi.
.....?????
Yep she is.
8666070
Minty from All-American Girl? Flurry Heart spoiled to the point that she didn't know what "true" love was maybe?
Great, just what we needed! More time travel! The fuck did Celestia put on the scroll?!
...what?
Yay, more time shenanigans!
Great sleep is for the weak anyway. I loved this episode of Adventure Time
Duuuuuude. Celly has a gift to screw things up, doesn't she? He'll even meet Luna! I wonder if future Sunset will send a "stop trying too hard!!" Back to her mother.
Well, good to know she still happens, weird that dragon doesn't know who the stallion is though.
Houston we have QUITE the problem.
8666107
Wasn't the original time travel spell just a scroll? Maybe that's what it is.
but, wait isn't that how Twilight learned Friendship from Celestia. can't wait for Celestia to find out she hates herself.
8666251
Which one?
Starswirl's spell was on a scroll, but Twilight still needed to cast it the old fashioned way. Also, it only lasted about 30 seconds, and created a Stable Time Loop.
Starlight's spell was a scroll, but it wouldn't have been created for decades, would probably require a Twilight-level caster to even activate, and would most likely reek of unstable Time magic to the point where even Celestia at her dumbest wouldn't have mistaken it for anything but horrifyingly dangerous.
...
Oh dear Harmony, I hope that was just Celestia at her dumbest.
8666287
I don't know. I mean, I guess this might be another version of the spell...though I don't know why it would activate that way. Seems kind of odd unless this is an aftereffect of Sunset fixing the mirror/time/void thing at the end of the last story.
At this point I honestly expect Celestia to buck Alicorn Twilight's teeth in if she meets her.
Whoa we're adding code geass into this now?
I'm actually kinda hoping to see that planned out sex scenes with human sunset and cadence.
And oh boy some more time travel shenanigans, maybe? I wonder if this is Celestia doing.
Nice chapter, can't wait to see what will happen next when Celestia and Sunset find out about Twilight. My best guess of that situation would be that Celestia would capture her and keep her in isolation and pass herself as the Celestia that Twilight has know most of her life and try to needle out information about her on what happened in the future and why she in all appearance 'abandoned' Sunset to the human world, and planning to trow her in the bleakies the dinkies dungeon she can think of, only to find out that it's not at all what she expected. Celestia would finds out that Twilight did what she though was what Celestia would have done seeing that the best for Sunset seeing the circumstances that forcing Sunset to go back to Equestria after what she had just done would only make things worst and that finding redemption in the human world for the time being would have better chance of reforming her of her own will where she wouldn't have to deal with all the hurt feelings between her and her former teacher and would better mend if she choses to go back to Equestria again of her own free will to confront Celestia again and their broken bonds. The reason that I can guess that Twilight didn't go at length with what was happening in Equestria was because Sunset didn't ask and that all her apparent platitudes of support speeches was because she wanted Sunset to figure things out on her own and not let her view her the ultimate source of wisdom to make the decisions for her and that is how Celestia had thought Twilight all their years and show that she must trust in her own judgment, with light support from her mentor. I think Celestia would snap out of her own guilt out of all this and that she will have to accept that Sunset experience in the human world was an necessary one in order to grow by being apart form each other.
At the moment, I think Sunset is more like her mother then she would likely admit, and will probably run herself ragged in trying want to take care of everyone until she explodes and that she understands that her subjects will also have to find their own solutions and take a step back.
So, time/dimension/universe travel scroll for ansers? Rather direct and somewhat dangerous road.
8666406
The term geass predates Code Geass by centuries. By decades even in the context Shining was using it in. Geass has been a spell in Dungeons and Dragons (which O&O is based off of course) since at least 2nd edition and probably way back to 1st.
I'm starting to understand how much Shining LOVES corndogs.
8666516
Millenia.
It's an OLD word.
Dafuq did Celestia do to Shiny?
Does that mean Pinkie won't get to hang out with the rest of the Foal 6 on the Princess Fair? Aaww.
Also: Celestia's help/answer to Shining Armor's problem is a trip to the future... Yup, everything can only go wrong from here!!
I wonder...
During free-time this Celestia suddenly find Canon!Princess Twilight in her study. Twilight instantly say, that this timeline get corrupted and she come to repair this by setting it back on "correct" (Canon) road. All she need, is to meet deviation in this timeline, which is Sunset, so she could cast correcting spell. And then ask Celestia for leading her to Sunset, so she could do this.
How Celestia would react?
I had to stop reading for about a half minute from laughter at the “why did no one tell me” bit.
Why do I get the feeling that Pinkie is just going to show up out of nowhere and say something to break the fourth wall?
8666657 I agree, that was fantastic. This is how Celestia the prankster should be played, rather than some other examples I've seen.
8666702
I’m also a fan of the story where Celestia convinces Luna that her mane is the reason all the villains have been showing up after her return.
Is it really time shenanagins? It might be mental or a dream. Naa, I’m betting its starswirl’s spell.
8666516
Ohhhhhhh cool
The more you know.
Another great chapter with a kind of silly cliffhanger. Though between the fact that more than a week or time travel was considered more or less impossible without Harmony powering the spell and the fact that Celestia seems to have basically just slapped this spell on a piece of parchment on the fly, I am sceptical about actual time travel in this case. Maybe some kind of enhanced dream thing with a bit of Celestia's ability of precognition mixed in?
8658761
I am so taking credit for that one.
I love that Celestia 'hates' this version of Twilight that is basically acting just like Celestia. I mean, let's be honest, Celestia doesn't do much when helping others. She rather let them figure out their own problems, and now she ironically hates that.
8666613 Well I'm assuming not well. In fact I venture to say that Celestia will tear cannon Twilight a new one. So much so that even if things do get fixed Twilight will never be able to look at Celestia or Sunset the same way again.
What the what?
Nerd cadance is best cadance
While i like the chapter in general the level of ignorance sunset displays is kind of hard to believe. How could she not know about the the elements of harmony and Luna when she canonically stole and used the element of magic and she know of EQG Luna which, considering her interest in Celestia, she would certainly follow up on and whom Twilight has no reason to hide. Not to mention even if she did not ask Twilight about Luna explicitly she would certainly have asked about Celestia herself at which point one would assume that twilight would mention the return of her sister... overall i found this to be a very big (and frankly immersion breaking) plot hole.
Took you long enough to make something to add to my download list!
Now I can finally watch the story for updates!
Waaaaat?
Well, that's so hot?
You've got a couple dropped articles and extra pronouns between those two, too.
OOOOooh. That was good. I literally winced as I read it. That had to be a blow. Poor Sunbutt. *hugs!*
*snickers* Is that what I'm doing? Righting you some letters? Also, you need a space.
If they're what I think they are, the difference is they're fun. Point to the Colt of the Shiny Hiney!
Oooh. Burn. You wrote of a pregnant pony as fat. If your wife/girlfriend/marefriend read this, I hope she was merciful. The story must go on, after all! Where should I send the burn cream?
Once you get that foot out of your mouth, turn it into food.
And I cracked up hard at this bit. Good job!
I did facehoof at the next part. Then Sunset did it better. Better job!
I floop the pig!!!!
Yay
For the most part, this was a fascinating and fun chapter. Sunset's learned to worry slightly less and love the timeline changes, Celestia got to have some fun with her subjects, and Shining gets to meet his possibly alternate-universe future daughter. And who knows? The sadomasochistic therapy might be crazy enough to work.
There's really just one sticking point for me right now, but it's a major one: The one-sided nature of the correspondence between Sunset and Twilight in the previous timeline. This was the mare Sunset called her best friend, but as the other characters note time and again, there's really nothing to back that up. Yes, they're missing some context, but you appear to assume that the only messages in the book are the ones we explicitly see. If that's the case, then yes, Princess Twilight was a pretty crappy friend to Sunset. But this isn't the Twilight who drove a friend to retreat from society by prioritizing research into the end of the world. This is the Twilight who friended so hard that she grew an extra set of limbs. Expecting me to believe that that Twilight would let a friend who'd been isolated from Equestria for years twist in the wind is asking a great deal, to say nothing of the two of them just talking now and then. There's no evidence for it beyond Twilight's character, but there's no evidence against it either.
That being said, I can totally buy that Sunset wouldn't know where to find Pinkie. It's not like the Equestrian analogues' biographies would come up, so the only way she might have heard about the rock farm is if the Pinkies really did switch places on occasion.
Okay, I've said my piece for this chapter. Looking forward to more.
8669539
To be fair, compared to Princess Celestia, everyone is young.
But while we're on the subject of typos:
The situation must have been really mixed up if it produced a female patriarch.
8666572
Although the traditional spelling is geas in the singular, plural geasa with only one s in both forms.
8671061
I would agree with you...but isn't the stuff Twilight does with Starlight kind of the same? Granted, Twilight is a bit more involved, but she still backs off somewhat, just like Celestia.
8672007
Not at first. Remember, Twilight had to learn to back off with Starlight. Her initial impulse was to micromanage every aspect of the friendship curriculum literally from A to Z. And even if Twilight saw Sunset more as a friend than a student, I'd at least expect her to check in on occasion, epsecially after reuniting with Moondancer and seeing the damage that neglecting a friend can do.
8672921
I still disagree. I mean, it was obvious that Twilight was going to trust her human version of her friends to help Sunset compared to her. Eh, I honestly think this story does a good job showing how dumb Celestia is, as she's now hating the very method she uses since this story shows Twilight used her method of 'Back off and let the other solve their own problem'.
Eh, that's just my opinion though.
Holy shit! Cadence and Sunset are kinky as fuck!
8658512
Well, my line of reasoning is a bit more meta-narrative. From a writing standpoint, it doesn't make sense to involve the Bearers if they won't affect the plot in a noticeable way, and the most obvious way for them to affect the plot is to be the Bearers in the first place. It's not really a solid conclusion so much as an educated guess. I think that part's likely to stay the same because thus far it's the most logical path given the information we have.
OK Sunny wants to be in a very submissive way, and now that ending? What is going on!!!??
Poor shinning
8722013
It's a vision of a possible future.
That scene was very amusing.
So five of the fillies mane six will go to the carnival with Sunset. Wonder if the Pink One will make an appearance.
And the ending of the chapter... Alternate reality or simply a glimpse of the future?
Very good story, keep it up.
And Discord is going to make it his personal challenge to break her. And considering how good he is with mind fuckery, he may just succeed.
Either Shining is really bad, or you're really good.
That sounds rather accurate to their meeting in Return of the Jedi.