It's the height of summer in Canterlot, and everything is peaceful for Celestia, sole ruler of Equestria and regent of the sun and moon. Her newest and youngest of pupils is mastering every task set before her, moving through every subject with confidence and skill.
Every subject except for one, that is.
Little Sunset Shimmer can't swim. And Princess Celestia aims to fix that... no matter how difficult it ends up being.
In line with the continuity of A Tale of Two Suns, Book 1: The Two Suns, but it's not particularly necessary to read that first.
Cover art done by my very good friend PrettySoldierPetite
Proofread by beacjere, QuillsAndSofas, and Setokaiva
Pre-read by: PoisonClaw
Popular Box 06/07/18 Wow, thanks guys. And five extra group additions. Seriously, 0____0
Feature Box 06/08/18!
Has a Tv Tropes Page.
Playlist of an in-progress reading by the author.
Hehehehehehahahah! Oh, Sunny. And here I was wondering if she was going to evaporate the water or something, what with the heat bit being mentioned.
Also, yeah, the pool ring manufacturer needs some serious investigation.
Little Sunny, I was expecting something far more drastic than a simple freezing spell.
This is such a cute story!
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I think there are those that are happy it WASN'T something worse. XD
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Thank you very much.
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Definitely going to follow, can't wait to see where it leads! XD
I thought she was going to do something like a forcefueld or bubble spell and jump in and have it fail for some reason. Glad it was something else.
I will say though, grown ups should never leave a kid alone by a pool like Celestia did. Glad all that happened was burst pipes.
Oh dear.
This should be interesting. Definitely following this one.
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Thank you very much. Can't say you'll be tracking this one for long, since it'll be done very quickly, but I appreciate it all the same. XD
Cute! I love how your characterization of Celestia comes through so well.
Ah yes, the tried and true method of pretending to be in danger so the student will jump in to rescue the master.
You do such an excellent job of writing Celestia, and Sunset too. Great work!
Celestia is beast mom but she needs to tone down the trolling a bit.
Aw, little Sunset's come so far.
Congrats on your first finished story on Fimfiction!
It was extremely enjoyable!
How you wrote Sunset in this chapter was great! The way she over thought her swimming problem is something I can see a real child do. So well done!
This was such a charming (and funny!) conclusion, to a delightful story.
I'm quite happy I read it!
Good work on this story nice seeing Celestia teaching little Sunset other then magic and seeing them spend some quality time together. Also your timing publishing this in summer
Nice little treat for us. Can wait for the next chapter of the main story.
Ha, nice! Poor Kibitz. I can just imagine the looks on the nobles' faces when they see Celestia holding court in the pool.
So damn cute, I probably have diabetes now.
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Oh dear. You better get that treated right away. XD
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Well, a few of them might appreciate the move, what with the weather. Sharing the pool with s small child on the other hand... XD
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Trust me when I say the timing was not intentional. XD I was bouncing between this and A Tale of Two Suns, and periods where I wasn't doing anything, and time just got away from me, so by the time I got it proofread and pre-read and all that and really got down to fixing those last bits I wanted to fix, lo and behold, it was June.
Celestia. Accidentally traumatizing fillies since Discord knows when.
This was certainly cute. It helped bring a smile to my face especially after how rough this week was on me. Thanks for writing this.
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You're very welcome, Prom Queen. I'm glad my story made you feel better, and I hope this week is a better one for you.
Cute, but not a parent.
And from his prison in the Castle Gardens, Discord watches the chaos unfold and silently chuckles.
Not bad at all. A bit formulaic, but no less amusing for it.
Awwwww, she's showing her attitude problems that one day will doom a High School, how cute.
I was intrigued.
Then I was laughing.
Then I was like "awwwww"
Then I laughed again.
Then I was calmed.
Then I laughed again.
Then I was intrigued.
And then I was sad.
But then I was intrigued.
And then I laughed again.
And keep laughing 'till the end.
Then I remembered things and I got sad.
But remembered other thin and I was happy.
I loved te story.
Cute story!!! Love mom Celestia wether it be with Sunset or Twilight.
You can has review!
Aw nice start really cute of Celestia teaching sunset how to swim
Enjoyed? No...
) funny. Well... at the beginning. Then... when Sunset come to her breakdown... it was so convincing, that it really mad me very, very sad... so much i even cried reading this
... and that mean a lot coming from me. I usually not tend to getting so emotional... (but to be honest... when it comes to Sunset it make it like 100 times easier. Especially such young, adorable Sun-Sun like we have here(with some streaks of her older self what make it even more brilliant), in such cases its even 1000 times easier - also considering her quite sad and traumatizing story).
No, no, no, no!
Definietely not!
That would be unimaginably enormous understatement!
I LOVE that story
And just 87 likes? That's a disgrace!
The way You wrote Sunset, and Celestia... and Sunset is so adorable here. She as prodigy child (and this surprise in Celestia's word, when she finished mathbook in one day... priceless... one of many pricelsee moments!) - what make the fact, she couldn't swim many, many more (and surely more than just 20% more
And then... the way Celestia finally dealt with it,.. when Sunset come to her rescue... just the Sunset i love so much! That was brilliant, simply brilliant... and this how it the end she started to love swimming... amazing conclusion (though i had sad feeling that Celestia's next plan - for Sunset to come to the swimming pool with friends... doesn't succeed so much... at least considering what was in the movies. I don't read "A Tale of Two Suns" yet... but I'm DEFINITELY going to read it in the future(if it's at least half as amazing as this how could I not read that?)... maybe even translate into Polish(my language)... well for sure I would like to do it with that story... but rather not now... Now I have a lot of work at the university Not to mention many other fics I already have agreement to translate and one big project currently in progress - new version of Past Sins (I mean... version updated to be compatible with season 2... yeah in Polish we just have the very first version translated, this version which probably is long ago forgotten by English readers)).
And all other funny parts... when Sunset ask Celestia if her tooth rotting away,m and her expactations before Celestia leads her to her bathroom
Or how Sunset want to impress Celestia and didn't know she shouldn't learn that spell yet... so hilarious and kinda heartwarming at the same time. (Not to mention Sunset suggesting lower the sun to make summer not so hot)
(and here again - just the Celestia I love).
But the most heartwarming was the fact that Celestia was "almost offended" at the idea of associating words like stupid or fluke with Sunset
Mentioning Fancy Pants - considering he is my favourite male character... ok there isn't many of them in MLP, but either way he is a great character! - was also i nice touch to it. Though i was a little Surprised by mentionig him as just a few years older than Sunset... but well, taking into consideration how long Sunset was in human world, and time dilatation it actually make sense... I also like the name idea of the name of his father.
Anyway... would You mean if I would use some name of Your characters or take inspiration in them in one of my stories? (Most probably some of so called Lyokoverse)
Well maybe just Celestia punishing guard for joking of her teeth and sweet eating is a little bit OOC... Celestia is rather very lenient, and not sulker at all...
Anyway... how old is Sunset here axactly?
And I must say last days were... quite frustrating for me... and i even have thoughts someway similar to Sunset's... but actually seeing her have them... and knowing how absurd they are... helped. Not to mention simply improving my mood a lot.
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I'm so glad you loved it. And I'm also very touched that it both moved you to literal tears, and that reading this story helped to brighten your mood. I really am. Trust me, I've had some horribly sad days too recently, so I'm glad my little story was able to help.
To answer your question, Sunset is about seven years old in this story, a handful of months away from eight, to be precise.
I'd certainly be honored if somebody translated my story in another language. I hadn't even thought of that before (I'm also surprised about the Past Sins thing. That stinks). However, I don't want you to put too much work on yourself. I remember when I was taking classes, and i know the value of not stressing yourself out too much, as that can make you get sick. Sometimes very sick. Keep yourself healthy first, okay? It's not worth it if you keel over.
I hope you'll enjoy A Tale of Two Suns when you get to it, and even as I still write it. Though considering its length, I would not envy you if you decided to translate it. @___@
Sure. I never thought I'd get asked that question either, but I don't see a problem, especially since I've borrowed names and character elements from stories I've loved, with permission from the author of course. I expect credit to be given, especially if it goes beyond names, and to be informed when you publish stories where you've done that.
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Well... something just one small thing could help a lot. One small thing could be the biggest thing of all...
That's actually not first time when such simple thing like a fanfic helped me go forward... little things, simple truths... sometimes they are the most important and the most helpfull. I experienced that a lot actually
And well that's what art is all about - bring something good in others.
Sure, as i said - I think about it as something for the future and I don't know yet how distant...
But either way such kind of work is in most cases rather more relaxing than stresfull for me.
(And about Past Sins... well that how it is, apparently even existence of new version wasn't wide known... so no one get that idea to translate it before)
And well... "A Tale of the Two Suns"... well for now it's "only" about 140k words, 60k less than Past Sins. So it's not that bad.
Besides... when I'm ablo to read stories in English... I would feel bad if I wouldn't try to translate at least some of the best ones.
And I'm not working alone, I'm part of polish translation group Królewskie Archiwa Canterlotu (literally Canterlot Royal Archives) - and I don't want to brag too much, but generally our works are rated quite good... mostly thanks to our great leader Midday Shine in my opinion I may have translated a lot for the group but... without her my work wouldn't be so good and long stories bring rather more interst to grpup than smaller ones. Although we rather work just on one big fanfiction-translation project at time, and currently that is Past Sins. Which may take some time.
Also considering what You done it that matter I think is rather clear that such borrowing is for me some way to praise the oryginal author.
Although... I can inform You of course, but I doubt You understant much from it, considering all my stories are written in Polish. Maybe I will translate it in English some day... but it will take long. The main story is already over 100k words and it's far from end... not to mention many other stories and other universes.
And about credit... sure thing actually, but for now it was rather just loose though. I don't know yet if or it what story I do this(and if it would be just name or something more...). And sometimes... I like to make such refference in more mysterius way...
like for example I do with Spell Nexus... but actually I didn't reveal his name yet! (he appeared in the last chapter)(who actually is current Archmage of Canterlot - position previously held by... Sunset's mother)
That's what you call a good feeling. :D
Hmm. Celestia pretending to be helpless to inspire confidence in her student...
Well, it'd certainly explain a lot of her behavior in the show.
In any case, adorable little story. You work in both Sunset's vices and virtues fantastically, to say nothing of Celestia's. Silly Sunbutts. Thank you for this.
Awesome!
This is adorable!
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Thank you!
I liked that episode of TMNT too.
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Excuse me?
This was an amazingly heart warming little story.
I'm so glad I found this, and thank you for writing it.