CH 85 Unexpected Words
Sunset's schedule for the day was ruined, and she had nopony to blame but herself. The trap that held Sunset was of the most insidious types. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not muster even a single mote of desire to escape it. Of all the consequences of allowing Fluttershy to see her equine form, Sunset should not have been surprised by her wide-eyed offer, nor how it led to the current situation.
Moaning in pleasure would be wholly inappropriate, so Sunset bit her lip as Fluttershy's fingers worked the floral shampoo into her mane. It was divine, it was sinful. Even the best spa treatment had never felt so good. Especially the light touches to her ears or the brush against her horn.
She knew why it felt so good, but that did nothing to stop the blush on her cheeks. It was all due to the simple heightening of her senses thanks to Night's gift and had absolutely nothing to do with the fact Sunset could at least appreciate how attractive of a human Fluttershy was, or that's what she told herself.
Sunset let her eyes close and just relished the attention. No wonder her animals happily submit to this.
Fluttershy finished with Sunset's mane and moved on to her body. Warm water pummeled her muscles in a wonderful way as the shower head came into play. A power shower was a wonder of the human world she would never wish to give up, but what drew a croon from her throat was just the simple fact everything was under another's control made it sensual rather than mundane.
Time passed in a haze of sensation as every inch of Sunset's equine body was cleaned, brushed and groomed to perfection. The relaxing scents and the constant soothing touches aided sleep in its tempting allure. I'll just rest for a few minutes. She thought as a small and hopefully not cute yawn escaped her.
"Umm, Sunset?" The gentle voice called, probably not for the first time.
"Hmm?" Was all the eloquence Sunset could muster through the haze of contentment that enveloped her.
"Your book's glowing. Maybe you should answer it, you know, if you want to?"
Sunset slowly opened her eyes and stretched. Rising to her hooves, she arched her back like a cat. The little squeak of joy Fluttershy made would have been inaudible to human ears.
"I made you a yummy breakfast if you want it."
Sunset looked to her friend, to those intense teal eyes, so full of fragile hope that any answer short of yes may as well be a war crime. "Yes, please, Fluttershy. Thanks."
Fluttershy popped the lid on the airtight box, and immediately Sunset's senses came alive. Half the smells spoke of things that would have tasted horrible as a human, but to her equine nose, it offered anything but disappointment. She could feel herself salivating as the wonderful combinations of scents promised her stomach a treat on par with what the rest of her body got yesterday.
The shy girl placed the offering on the floor in front of Sunset. It may have come in a pet bowl, but what was in it more than made up for the unintended insult. Freshly prepared assorted greens, fruits, flower petals and nuts garnished with crunchy grain clusters as garnish. She was a dozen mouthfuls in before she knew it. "With better presentation, you could serve this in the palace," Sunset murmured between mouthfuls.
"It's not that good."
"Yes, it is, even the princess would…." Sunset paused, the princess, Celestia her mentor, Celestia the ruler of the sun, the alicorn. She felt her mood starting to fall as she found some of the happier memories from back then. That look of pride Celestia used to have whenever Sunset mastered a new spell, that time when Sunset was horribly sick, so sick that her foalish mind had thought she was going to die, and Celestia had cancelled everything, all her royal duties, just to care for her. The time they shared good food and chatted about magic and hypothetical situations and how they each would solve them.
"Umm, the princess would what?"
Sunset shook the memory away. "This tastes amazing, Fluttershy. You don't even have the same taste buds, and this right here is better than most of the things I ate in the palace". Sunset's smile was bittersweet. "Princess Celestia would love this and might foalnap you to be her chef if she ever gets a chance to have some."
"Oh, no…"
"You don't need to worry about that. I'll make sure she never finds any."
"Umm, thank you? Umm, you might want to see what Princess Twilight is writing about."
Sunset savoured a few more mouthfuls of the gourmet breakfast before she pushed a little magic to her horn a pulled the communication diary to her. Multi-casting. The thought was as much a cry of joy as anything else, so with a smile, she kept munching as the book flipped open and floated in the air before her. Inside, another complex spell diagram and then another greeted her.
"What's that?" Fluttershy asked.
"This?"
Fluttershy nodded.
"This is my lesson. Or homework."
Fluttershy saw the complex arrangements of spell runes and, by her expectation, took none of it in at all. "Is it some sort of puzzle?"
"Nah, it's just a spell."
"A spell?"
"Yeah, unicorn here." Sunset pointed a hoof at her horn. "Magic's kinda our thing."
"So what's it do?"
"I don't actually know. That's my first task, work out what the hay it does."
"That does not seem very safe. You keep telling us magic can be dangerous."
Sunset nodded as she finished off the last morsel of her meal. "It is, hence why I'm not going to try to cast it until I figured it all out and have N… Twilight check my work."
"That's good… umm, I think there's more."
Fluttery was right, but it was not a spell, just simple words.
Good luck with that one. You will need it.
Now I'm afraid I must take my leave, but my daughter has asked to speak to you. Do you have time to indulge my daughter's desire?
Sunset's aura claimed her favourite ballpoint pen as she started to write her reply.
"Is she another cute little pony too?" Fluttershy asked, voice full of quiet joy.
"I've not seen her myself, but Fluttershy, I think you would find any filly adorable."
I'm just relaxing, so I have the time. Fluttershy is here too.
So, another that my Little Star can try to charm. Just remember, despite how intelligent she seems, she still has only the smallest amount of life experience.
P.S. Don't get her to do your homework for you.
Sunset snorted with amusement. The purely equine sound provoked Fluttershy to pet her. "I'm going to fall asleep again if you do that for too long."
Fluttershy covered her mouth to hide the adorable little giggle that escaped her. "Does the little pony need her nap?"
At one time, such a comment would have proked a rage, would have been met with a biting report, a brutal put-down and perhaps even an optional fireball. Now Sunset just chuckled. "Keep it up, and I will do."
Hello, I'm Little Star, my Mummy Twilight said I could write to you.
Nice to talk to you, Little Star. I'm Sunset Shimmer.
This is not talking. Do you know a spell that could alter the book so we could use it to relay voice? Also, hello, Fluttershy Two.
"Can you say hello back for me? And why is she calling me Fluttershy two?"
"Why don't you ask her?" Sunset grabbed a second pen and offered it.
Fluttershy stared, and even though it was a normal pen, a moment after the ink touched the page, it changed colour. "Umm, is it meant to do that?"
"It's just the magic of the book making it clear who is writing." Sunset nodded her horn to the book in encouragement.
Hello, Little Star. I'm Fluttershy. May I ask why you call me Fluttershy Two?
Hello Fluttershy, There are three reasons.
- You are the second Fluttershy I have had contact with.
- You are not my Mummy Twilight's chosen like Fluttershy One is.
- There is a chance you are not real, but that's alright as long as you can think.
Please could you provide the answers to the following questions?
- Can you think?
- Do you feel real?
- What is it like being a human?
- Do you like being a human?
- Do you like animals like Fluttershy One does?
- Do you think my mummies are animals due to our morphology, or are we ponies people because we can talk and write?
- What do you think of magic? (I like magic)
- Have you talked to the original you?
- Can you talk to animals?
- Can you do the Stare?
- If the mirror was broken, do you think you would cease to exist?
Fluttershy recoiled as if stuck, as if the words writing themselves across the page carried a physical force. "Not real?" Notes of dread lent a slight waver to the almost whispered words.
Sunset rolled her eyes, careful that Fluttershy would not see, then sat up on her haunches to pull the human into an embrace. "You're real in every way that counts," Sunset said, a reassuring hoof running along the human's back. As she comforted Fluttershy, more and more questions started to fill their second page and then a third.
With a horn, it was foal's play to write in the book without even looking at it. Sunset skipped to the next page as Little Star's questions still had not stopped, having already reached question One-hundred and four.
Little Star, I know all the questions are just because you are excited, interested in the answers, and happy to write to us, but creatures that are not scholars tend to react badly when you imply they might not exist or are nothing more than a conjuration of a spell.
The constant little tingle on her horn with each word received stopped. The magic of the book fell silent.
I'm sorry, my apologies for any offence and or distress given or caused. I have added that to my list for social interactions.
"That is such a Twilight thing to say."
"What is?"
Sunset nodded towards the book.
"She has to have a list?"
"Well, if she's anything like Twilight, she had to have friendship lessons."
"What sort of person needs lessons in friendship?"
"Some ponies, it seems." Sunset shrugged. "I had manipulation, and being an evil she-demon down fine… even I needed some help on actually getting the friendship bit right."
"Umm, weren't both you and Twilight trained by your Celestia?"
"Yeah… The more I learn, the more I think immortality is not a recipe for understanding mortals."
Fluttershy picked up the pen and hesitated for a moment.
That's alright. I know you were not trying to be mean. Just some of those thoughts are a little scary.
Am I allowed to ask why it is scary?
As Fluttershy kept conversing with Little Star, Sunset turned her attention to her homework. It only took a second to use a spell to copy the right pages from the diary to blank paper. The complex arcane diagrams looked far less grandiose when on A4 printer paper compared to the thick quality Canterlot stock.
Now, what does this bit do? The first series of runes linked into the second that fed back into the first. Sunset traced it with her hoof, and still, it made no sense. All this would do is waste energy… likely with some leakage as light and heat. She cast her eyes on the rest of the spell structure. It was poorly designed and would leave the resulting spell effect with frayed edges, perhaps even tendrils of lose magic if over-charged.
Just casting this is going to disrupt any active spells I have. Why did you send me this one? What am I meant to learn from this mess? She shook her head and chewed on her pen. It's not even good for a spell breaker…
Fluttershy gasped. It was not her normal gasp. No, this one was somehow softer yet infinitely more terrified. The human had a hand to her mouth, and her dilated eyes were staring at the page. The pen fell from her pale, shaking fingers.
What now.
And then Mummy ate his heart. Such acts are an important part of Griffon culture and signifies claiming the strength of the defeated. It helped expand my understanding of Griffon anatomy a little, but it was too messy to learn much.
"What the buck?"
It had taken two calming spells and a sleeping enchantment to get Fluttershy settled down and an hour to get the full story out of Little Star, who also helpfully provided blow-by-blow illustrations of the battle along the bottom corners of the dairy's pages. If you flicked through it fast enough, it played back the final few seconds of the duel.
The chamomile and honey tea did little to calm Sunset's nerves, but at least it was comforting to hold. Sunset cast her eyes to the reclined form of her sleeping friend. A simple memory spell would be all it would take to fix this.
From a utilitarian point of view, it was the right thing to do. It's exactly what an Equestrian doctor would prescribe for the trauma. From a human point of view, it was a violation of trust. It was a defilement of their minds.
Sunset flicked through the pages again and watched Twilight's rear hoof smash Redwing's chest and hurl him away. If this was coloured, some people would watch this. The thought was just a distraction, and Sunset knew it. The real issue was duels to the death were not something Twilight Sparkle, The Princess of Friendship, would ever take part in.
Fluttershy's phone rang. Sunset reached for it with her aura. The phone floated to her, its screen displaying Rarity's number.
"Hi, Rarity. I'm afraid Fluttershy's asleep."
"Oh, is she alright? She was meant to meet me at the spa."
Sunset chewed her lip for a moment. It had really turned into one of those days. "She's alright, just some shocking news from our out-of-town friends."
"Do tell, darling."
"Not the sort of things to share over the phone." Or ever.
"Ah, say no more. Wish them luck with whatever ruffian they are dealing with this time."
"Will do," Sunset said as she flicked through the diary again.
Another voice called in the background of the call. "I'll be right there," Rarity answered before saying. "I have to go. I'll call you later. Look after Fluttershy."
The line went dead before Sunset could answer. The call vanished from the screen, replaced by Fluttershy's phone's wallpaper. When did she take this? Sunset's image looked back at her from the phone screen. Until that very moment, cute would never have entered the lexicon she would pick from to describe herself. Yet somehow, Fluttershy had done it, transformed one of the hottest mares ever to trot around Canterlot and replaced her with a bundle of adorableness. "If Rainbow ever sees this, I will never live this down." The moment of levity faded as Sunset turned her attention back to the diary.
With a sigh, she flipped back and started taking notes. If she could ignore the fact these were real events or even just pretend they were ancient history, it made for interesting reading. Little Star's verbose writing style read like a CSGU essay, even as it rambled off to the political implications and historical trivia only tangentially related. Like Night had said, Little Star was incredibly intelligent but lacked the wisdom to draw the obvious conclusion and had no idea about information security. Alicorn-level secrets were written next to notes on how griffons had different preferred ice cream flavours.
The little bits of foalish innocence almost brought a smile to Sunset's muzzle, but she could not be distracted. There was work to be done. Somewhere in here would be a clue, a bit of information, something that would answer the question. Has the Nightmare corrupted you, Twilight?
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It is always a pain trying to wrestle a story into something workable
Regardless still, always a plus to see this updated
Little Star dropping existential bombs out of sheer curiosity, then just cold-clocking EqG Fluttershy with that Aztec-suckerpunch was pretty funny, not gonna lie
Little Star innocently asking questions that provoke existential dread! So cute!
Also, Sunset is starting to get worried. How much of this is Night? How much is Twilight? How much have they influenced each other?
Your geasa won't work through a printed medium Twiggles, time to have a very uncomfortable conversation with someone you can't brush off.
Night is not corruoting her Sunset. She is dealing with alot if shit ans has ptsd
A lot of Interesting questions asked in this Chapter!
Whats funny is that Basically all these Questions are just ripped from the Comment Section of this Story !
Sunset being treated like Fluttershy's pet and loving every minute of it was fun to read. If next time she wakes up with a bell collar on I can see her being annoyed but accepting it as part of the payment for such treatment.
And innocent Little Star, spreading joy and terror as she goes.
Excellent chapter, I really like reading things that makes me think. Especially the part about to wipe or not, human Fluttershy's memories. I definitely don't think it should be done without her permission and I not even sure if it should be done with her permission. Maybe if Fluttershy really wanted to have them wiped, even there is always consequences for stuff like that. But it is very good topic to bring up. Because we are getting close to that point where we could alter memories and we will have to ask whether we should or not. I know that there are some people that would love certain traumatic memories removed if they could. And maybe it can be done without to many side effects. But memory altercation is a very touchy subject, but needs to be thought through quite well before any attempt is made. Or that's my thoughts anyways
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I very much agree.
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That is true, I do think she is corrupting Twilight a little bit. Not intentionally by any means, but just being in proximity with each other they influence each other's personalities. Twilight makes Nightmare more like her and vice versa.
The question is will things correct themselves for good or evil. It's Equestria so much more leaning towards the good. But there are lot of messed up stuff not just with Nightmare, but with Celestia and Luna too. I think Candace is least messed up one right now. I am very interested to see where the author goes with it.
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Lol
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I think we can look at what the STORY ITSELF tells us about using Mindmagic.
Lets look at the Pony who (as far as we know rn) uses mind magic the most : Celestia!
Now how is Celestia currently doing?
Well she‘s not really doing so hot rn hhmm?
All of her family and friends have turned their backs against her and she now has to resort to spy on them and use mindcontroled PRISONERS to keep track of of them.
Daybreaker is the only person that she can ACTUALLY Talk to about stuff.
Soo lets just say the Story itself isnt so hyped about using mindcontrol on people, it Isolates you from the people you are closest to and just makes your life miserable
(Celestia basically is miserable , she just doesnt want to admit that to herself…why is that a plotpoint in SO MANY FICS that somewhat have Celestia involved in the main cast of characters)
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I mean we can say: well its Equestria so of course everything will be alright, everything always goes right in Equestria.
Well but we also learn that stuff only goes so well because of A LOT OF MESSED UP STUFF that happens in the background… so I ask… HOW MANY CORPSES is it worth to maintain that illusion of that perfect magical Land where friendship can solve everything and nothing bad ever happens.
I'm not against lbgtq+ I was raised better. But it's kinda overdone in this story.
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A majority of the characters in this story Are females …just saying…
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I am aware dude, but overdoing something isn't excused by character selection.
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So is it just the NUMBER of Relationships?
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It's the sheer number of them, yes, now they're not overbearing but they feel unnecessary when all they're given is minor implications and/or are irrelevant.
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Now ARE they REALLY irrelevant?
I use night mode. I can barely see what Night says. Ironic no?
In all seriousness might I suggest using a different color associated with Night? The sorta-cyan her eyes are in the show might work well for both night and day modes.
Ideas on what the mystery ‘poorly made’ spell is: a version of what Candice used during her initiation (but it’s Night giving this and she might not know the details about that magic), so perhaps it might be something the Frustrating Five made to attempt damaging/subverting the mental constructs
Celestiathe mare on the crazy train put in Twilight and Luna’s brains, alternatively it could also be a scheme by Night to either start the ascension process or prepare Sunbutt the better for said ascension (as that is obviously still the plan).11613956
Apart from the ones relating to Twilight, Luna and Candice, yes, mostly.
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Oh yeah I had to switch OUT of Night mode to read that chapter… kinda sucked.
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Fix, is the colour better?
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As someone with light sensitivity and thus an avid user of night mode and a dark blue story background…the color is indeed readable. A lot more readable than some of Tarbtano’s color choices for the characters. Much as I enjoy The Bridge, I can’t read it for extended periods because I need the color settings so damn bright to read all the various dialogue. So you putting the effort to make things easier on all your readers is really nice to see, and very appreciated.
The numbered questions cannot be read by the sites text to speech. Unless it's a bug on my end it may need to be changed somehow