This story is a sequel to Sunset Shimmer is not an Alicorn
During the events of Between Dusk and Dawn Twilight delegated some monster-busting to the EUP. The EUP, not equipped for the job, delegated further. Now, Sunset Shimmer has been drafted into Equestria's forces to deal with the prophesied return of a dread monster. She's going to need to bring everything she's got to fight off the latest threat to Equestria, and the keys may lie in the ponies she hurt before she left.
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Well, good to know the Sun is supposed to be hers, even if she is going to fight that fact until she realises she isn't getting old.
As for this? Hope that spell archive is worth it. Also, good gravy, did Shining take all the budget and soldiers with him when he became Prince Consort of the Crystal Empire?!?
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I don't recall the show ever being clear on what the Royal Guard actually is, but I see it as specifically the Princesses/Canterlot's forces, not Equestria as a whole. IIRC in the Crystal War timeline most of the ponies present are wearing less ceremonial uniforms. So it's a separate thing. I don't recall it ever showing up in the main timeline after Dash's exam, so I invented the budget crisis as an explanation.
*is drafted*
*is horse*
Sounds legit. >_>
First solution to come to mind: one shot, one kill. Probably reasonable for an alicorn-level caster specializing in fire, and Shimmy overqualifies for reasons the prequel elaborates on.
Second solution: What I've referred to before as "Operation Termina" for reasons that anyone familiar with the Legend of Zelda series will understand. Just drop the biggest rock you can find on it, which isn't directly hitting it with a spell so its anti-magic properties are irrelevant. Probably a last resort, but it will definitely work. (Remember, these are literally in the order I came up with them, so there might be aberrations like this)
Third solution: call in a full-grown dragon to punch it to death. Again, purely physical force by the time it hits, so its stated properties mean it loses.
Fourth solution: warn the human world military, then drop it within sortie range of an airbase. This particular human world may not have a Hulk, but it certainly has Avengers.
Ok, this and the prequel were pretty hilarious. Wonder how long until Sunset realized the truth.
So what you’re saying is, Sunset could literally take over Equestria with minimal effort. Good thing she’s past temptation at this point.
You're in the army now, Sunset!
This is going to be fun to watch, from a sufficient distance, I bet.
"Hey Starlight, could you take these ten bits, time-jump back 500 years, and stick them in a long-term high-interest investment for me? Momma's gonna need a budget."
Take the device, Sunset. It's your destiny. You know this to be true.
Also, burn the Ice Skate. Burn it! Or better yet, give it an ice rink. Maybe it needs a second skate? Could be lonely.
9842534
It'll melt long before it burns. And again, there are lots of things that Starswirl overlooked because they weren't spells. When in doubt, C4.
I mean, is she really a Master Chief if she's never walked out of a crashed aircraft?
In any case, you're all in for a treat with this one.
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As long as she does it while Twilight and company are distracted by the Swanniversary.
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Yep. Minimal effort.
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Fifth option: Hack the ice skate. You probably need a halting problem/incompleteness theorem-like thing for spells for this to be feasible.
Oh, this is going to be FUN.
Glad this is back.
I think Stellar and Sunset's interaction ought to be more awkward. Sunset ruined Stellar for a time, and Stellar nearly killed Sunset, a fate Sunset was only spared due to dumb luck.
Aside from that, I want to see more of this.
Well, that's one way to abuse being a touch telepath.
oh Sunny... 
And how in the hell did Sunset managed to pull a Starlight on this Ghost Pepper?!? I'm going to guess she just force fed him his namesake until he couldn't take it anymore and didn't like rip off his cutie mark but damn!
Still, why does it seem like Sunset is not only making her own tree, Golem? Golem tree? of Harmony But a new subset of bearers at the same time?
OMG. Did you just lable Sunset as the Masterchief?
I think she's building her own gundum.
Loving all the high-end magic shop talk between Sunset and Stellar here. Twilight in the show never gets to properly nerd out because all of her friends phase out after the third sentence.
(Also, nice touch with Sunset's wingless alicorn metabolism and hayburgers!)
I already knew that every computing system has an extremely exploitable weakness in the form of humans who are allowed to access it, and I didn't even remember the thing 9853155 pointed out about the specific method. (Social engineering attacks make you look way more badass than what most people think of as "hacking")
Ruined his olfactory nerve perhaps?
Impossible. Only an Umada can control the dragon. Or a fashionista.
Never mentioned this during the prereading, but I do love your ponification of the Erdős number. Brilliant touch.
It's quite fun to see the speculation. Especially since no one's even come close to guessing what Sunset did to Ghost Pepper. Looking forward to Day 2.
9853575
So John-117's official rank is "Master Chief Petty Officer" but that's a navy thing and while I could easily come up with a reason why the Magus Corps uses naval ranks despite being HQ'ed on a mountain in the center of the continent, it wouldn't help the ratio of story to headcanon dump, and I'm already feeling a little sensitive on that.
Fortunately there's the rank "Chief Master Sergeant" which I could borrow, even if it is an Air Force rank.
Also you may see a few more subtle not at all subtle video game references, because gamer Sunset is canon.
I lost it at "Starswirl number!"
Sounds like Sunset is basically going to swipe ideas from Spidermare: Far from Home and swarm this Skate with an army of fast-moving drones that will claw it to pieces.
Well now, Discords mistake is quite interesting now isn't it. I know that Twi and Sunset are very much alike in many ways, but I don't think it would be quite that close.
As for Ghost Pepper... didn't think his first name would be quite so, um, literal? When and if she figures out what she is at least Ghost can get that license and be free, right?
The cores are also interesting. The main six was two of each tribe to start, and if Twi and Sunset have a bit of their friends inside them, putting them together would give them Earth and Pegasus cores and make their unicorn a bit stronger, with more control from Rarity, right? The fourth would be their Alicorn magic as they grow into it.
Both Twi and Sunset should both have a fifth thought, right? Magic and Empathy, respectfully?
The Vegeta No, Vegeta Yes joke always kills me. Also totally didn’t see the necromancy part coming.
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Discord kind of is the Vegeta of this setting, isn't he?
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It’s either him or Sunset. I would say he makes a better Mr. Popo, ungodly powerful, in way more control than we would normally think, and scary beyond all reason.
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I hadn't considered that for Ghost Pepper either, but I feel like I should have. Also, the associated earth pony headcanon is amazing and the author should feel amazing.
The fifth core was actually the geode, not any of her actual cores. She'd only have had four if she'd left it at home. (Equestria isn't her home. Not anymore.)
9865699
her geode is her element, Empathy. Twi should have Magic, even with it on the tree/clubhouse it's still tied to her.
Sunset's might be a bit stronger, as her geode is merged into her via the mirror. However, all the elements should have theirs tied to them as this kind of core, at least if my understanding of Discord's "lessen" is right when Sombra did what he did to the tree is correct.
9865868
Except they clearly don't, or the entire scene stops working by way of Discord being able to tell the difference between the two of them. (Rule 1 of science: facts trump theorycraft. Twilight is repeatedly guilty of violating this rule)
Why? Discord claimed not to see the difference between them until this fifth core showed up, and it was, seemingly, actively hiding from him.
If the elements are hard for him to see, as a being of chaos, then they can both have this extra core and he just hasn't had reason to look at Twi's or Flutters' or any of the rests, that closely. I could well be wrong, but the girls pulling out the Rainbow with the tree broken and their elements shattered vs Sombra does kinda point to this, doesn't it?
9865868
I’m not going to provide a definitive answer on Twilight’s cores until I see the finale.
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Ok, only asking about this story. Honestly never thought she had more than one.
Go Go Pony Rangers! Is Sunset making a megazord?
I'm kind of amazed that worked, since it depended on him using a password he could remember. For this. Though there are always stupid people, and... actually... hm. After quickly looking over the likely sources for Bytecoin encryption to gauge what sane password methodology in this context might be, my actual original point (while I've certainly read books in which telepathy was a known attack vector, that doesn't apply here) looks more arguable. We don't really have enough information to know which stupid thing the guy did. But accepting that had Sunset needed to commit further and illegal acts to use that password it wouldn't have been off-camera, this guy definitely did do something far too stupid for anybody going to a hacker convention to show off his security.
9871346
He's based off of Mark Karpeles so he's probably doing several things wrong.
Oh, sequel. Nice.
That's so quintessentially Discord of him
9853575
Considering it's an actual rank in the military it's not really something you should just assume correlates to that reference... however in this instance, I think that's exactly what he's going for.
So, yes, Sunset is the Master Chief.
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9906488
So yeah, this is a "subtle" Halo reference. John-117's rank is actually Master Chief Petty Officer, but that's a navy thing and I didn't want to invent a reason the Magus Corps were navy. So "Chief Master Sergeant" was my alternative, it's an Air Force rank of roughly equivalent grade. Since Sunset is canonically a gamer, this story is going to have a few video game references.
I'm a bit confused by the core counts here. Wouldn't Twilight have five and Sunset six, one for each of the other friends in their group? Or is he saying that tribal cores are grouped, so that the Earth + Pegasus + Unicorn + Alicorn = 4 kinds of core?
And if that's the case, why are there more types for Sunset? I'd count Human + Unicorn + Alicorn = 3 types, max.
Also, was Discord referencing FoME's "Memento Morient?"
Anyhoo, tracking.
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So for core counts, Sunset's got earth pony and pegasus cores because she absorbed some of the leftover magic of her friends in the compact at the Friendship Games, and tribal cores do group if they're compatible. She's got an alicorn core that showed up when she ascended, her own unicorn core with some Rarity mixed in. The fifth core is her geode, which merged into her when she went through the portal. It's the only one she could potentially shed easily by leaving the geode on the other side of the portal. Princess Twilight would have a similar arrangement, but with Element of Magic Plus rather than a geode. I'm planning to put a partial explanation of how becoming an alicorn works (filtered through filly Sunset) in the Cadance chapter.
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I think I was thrown off by treating the Equestria Girls as belonging to pony tribes, rather than "human." Makes sense either way, though. Thanks for the explanation.
Great chapter, glad to see this is still being updated.
Glad this is back.
Sadly, with this being Discord, we will never know if she really cut him or if he just let her think she did.
Why do I get the feeling that Sunset is, legally, the only "unicorn" alive that can cast all the magic? It would explain why she was recruited. With out any of the Princess, or Star Swirl, around Sunset would be your best bet.
Well, I'm sure Starlight could do it, but it probably wouldn't be, strictly speaking, legal.
Somehow I don’t think she will accept Sunset’s logic.
Great to see this update.
Har har, although she doesn't strictly qualify as such.