The tone in Abacus Cinch’s voice felt…wrong, somehow, like honey over moldy fruit to try and conceal the taste of rot. “With your…association with the juvenile delinquent from Canterlot High…what was her name again? Misty…Dawn?” When Twilight did not correct her or protest, she continued, “She has been causing quite the uproar in the student body of late, with her…behavior.”

Her name is "Gofuck Yourself" :)

No! I finished it!

Sigh

(Thank god for the weekly updates)

Indigo is being a Godsend right now. Without her Twi would have fallen apart. Hope to see some of the other 'bolts being real people at some point.

I really hope Princess Twi let's Sunset tell Twi something. I fear its going to be too little to late, but hope springs eternal right?

“I think you should. Your parents are pretty pissed off at the school, but I think Cinch is mad at us too—I’ve gotten detention four times in the last two weeks when I didn't have that many in two and a half years. Plus Coach is talking about my place on the team, and how I need to think about if I wanna keep it.” The other girl shrugged. “I’d wager they are looking for reasons to get us in trouble.”

Well, Indigo, if your place on the team at CPA is under threat, you pretty much got a guaranteed spot on CHS's. If Indigo is a top athlete at CPA, and if she and Twilight transfer to CHS, Canterlot would take CPA's top academic and top athlete in one fell swoop.

The tone in Abacus Cinch’s voice felt wrong, somehow, like honey over moldy fruit to try and conceal the taste of rot. “With your…association with the juvenile delinquent from Canterlot High…what was her name again? Misty…Dawn?” When Twilight did not correct her or protest, she continued, “She has been causing quite the uproar in the student body of late, with her…behavior.”

Nice G5 reference

Pfft... Cinch is going on about how Twilight's association with Sunset could negatively impact her reputation... y'know, Cinch, some people aren't obsessed with their reputation like you are. Quite frankly, yours and your school's could stand to be knocked down a few pegs.

Now that Twilight's eyes have been opened to the possibility that something that can't be explained by science, she's seeing everything now that's out of place. And I've got a feeling that we're going to be running into Princess Twilight and Sunset's meeting right when Sparky is going to be wanting answers from her paramour.

Don't quite remember if the Bracelet was something given by Shadow Master to the Cinch or not, but I would bet that it's something that is trying to mess with Sparky's mind since food and drink are off the table. Problem is, Fae Magic in most instances needs the victim to be unaware of shit happening and Sparky's completely on her guard now. Even without Sunset's magic in the equation, Sparky's going to be fighting off the effects better than before.

Also, I love how in many ways, Indigo is basically a better Wallflower at this point. Blunt, crass, and speaks her mind, but never makes it at the expense of Sparky or thinks less of her for doing it. And the question of Wallflower not blabbing Sunset's Name is definitely an interesting one. Either there's just enough of Sunny's magic around to prevent her doing so... or another magical force might be biding its time to come up with what to do against the gang. Currently, I'm betting the later.

sunsets circus and her humans

195 chapters jesus funky christ this is gonna be a long read
and i am so ready

Twilight Sparkle has questions. Sunset Shimmer better have answers or else things are going to get overtired stress ugly fast.

Aún que mi idioma natal es el español I love this story and it helps me improve my English. I want it to be next week there will be confrontation or insecurity between them.

She was going to get some answers, one way or another, she decided, but not for Principal Abacus Cinch and Crystal Prep. These answers were for Twilight Sparkle, to make sense of the circus her life had become.

sounds like twilight might be figuring things out before sunset has had the chance to tell her

Given that she's seen Sunset at her most vulnerable, Twilight's not gonna jump to accusations right away. If Sunset's keeping something from her, it's gotta be a big deal.

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I hear her name is "Succa Koch"

Fucking, Twilight lead Cinch on a leash like a starving dog after scraps.

Cinch knows shits up, but she herself seems to have found two really important clues that hold solid information. Those clues are "fuck" and "all".

Bitch got btfo'd by a high-school girl. Christ, at this point a particularly disgruntled toddler with an iron rattler seems like they'd be a match for Cinch with how trounced she just was.

Now we just wait for Twily to find out how pertinent her faire shirt is.

Playing chess with a faerie is not something anyone would wish to do, but Twilight did a pretty good job.

I'm so ready for this confrontation between them and miss sparky don't play.

Twilight had to fight the urge to scoff at how over the top and ridiculous the accusation was. From what she had seen and experienced, Sunset and those around her couldn't care less about the school rivalry most of the time. If anything, it was Crystal Prep students who relied heavily on the Games and defeating CHS to perpetuate their sense of superiority. “While I admit to not always being the best at peer based interactions, Principal Cinch, I did take the liberty of asking some rather direct questions of a friend who was forced to transfer from Crystal Prep to CHS for familial reasons about the school and its differences from here. I believe, given the quantity of information immediately offered without reservation, that were there any occurrences that could be considered unusual, it would have been at the least mentioned during that. I feel that you are reading too much into a situation and that following that line of thinking will ultimately set my project back an unacceptable amount.”

That's right Twilight, show her who's boss

the phone hidden with boobs is so true. honestly have seen it like 10 times

i gotta say, principal cinch knows her stuff by saying a wrong name in an attempt to make twilight correct her. dunno if that was the idea but it worked

YOU GO SPARKY!! GET THAT BITCH

oh fuck you principal cinch, someone's clothing style isn't gonna do anything.

poor poor twilight and her circus-ified life

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To be fair, keep in mind that we are setting up for more than just this one story. There's also the second volume, for Rubicon, as well as several key sidestories that will come in to play.

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It was a rather full chapter.

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Hmmm. Maybe. Maybe not.

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Heh. That's a good one.

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*pats* in the meantime, feel free to browse the collection of Rubicon universe sidestories also on this account.

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Indigo has turned into a great character, and she's really helped Twilight's side of the arc come together.

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I wondered if anyone would catch the subtle nod to G5.

Yes, Cinch does not understand a world in which people do not value the same things they do. For all their....capricious nature, the Fae are fairly static beings. They have rules, they have traditions, they have things that bind them to those patterns. And for a long time, the values of humans mimicked those things...but in a modern world, those things are becoming increasingly old fashioned and discarded... and for a being who is incapable of that kind of change....it is a problem.

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Yeah, she's starting to get wise to the fact that shit's weird. As for the bracelet, you bet correctly.

Indigo is definitely a fun character to write for, and she works so well as a person for Twilight to bounce conversation off of. One of those "happy accidents" honestly.

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*chuckles* Well, the artists who did my cover did do some work on some EqG/Greatest Showman AU art, so thats now living rent free in my head. :P

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Strap in, and make sure you bring enough snacks.

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Ah, I see you are wise in the behavior of teenagers, my friend.

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We'll get there. :P Next week's chapter is one I'm excited for people to read.

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Seems like that's a definite possibility.

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One can hope.

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Cinch does seem to be unraveling a bit, don't they?

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Twilight is very good at chess.

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*chuckles*

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*cackles*

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Twilight definitely came away the winner in that confrontation.

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First, welcome to the story! I do hope you’re enjoying—though by all the comments left, I’m assuming so, haha!

To be fair, you are meant to think the Carrie prank was over the top…because it is. The adults do acknowledge this in later chapters, and its meant to make you notice. Its a “wait a minute…something isnt right here…”

That being said, given some of the things I witnessed in high school 20 years ago with 1/10th the tech available now to teens, dumping a bucket of gross stuff on someone is…honestly pretty tame. Teenagers, left unchecked, can be absolute monsters to each other.

And yes, Sunset is blaming herself a lot during that first arc, because shes not in a good place. A normal, healthy, mentally stable person does not turn into a demon. Shes got healing to do, lessons to learn, and growth to accomplish.

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Dash is…not as shallow and stupid as some people write her. In yhis case, Loyalty to her friends is strong, but in the end Loyalty to herself and her beliefs, morals, and ethics is even stronger. Shes not afraid to hold herself accountable once she recognizes that.

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So VP Luna is actually a few years older than Cady/Shining. They are the same age here—late twenties. Luna is in her early 30s, however, she skipped out right after high school and spent a few years “finding herself” before picking herself up by the bootstraps and committing to a 5 year masters program. She was a year ahead of Cady/Shining, but because of a paperwork snafu, she ended up as Cady’s roommate because it was the free slot. So yeah. Theres a slight age difference, but not enough to matter. And himan Celestia, if I remember correct, is about 6 years older than her sister. (I have their bdays written down somewhere, including years.)

And yes, I’ve seen it done with Chrysalis, but Ive also seen a handful of stories that make Cadence and Luna friends as is hinted at in Friendship Games. I took it and ran with it.

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Oh, no, point for point, the first EqG movie is a script from any number of 80s and 90s movies targeting teens. The event, the popular teen hostile to the protagonist because competition, the rallying of the students around the protag, the ex-partner of the popular character falling for protag, much to the worry of the side characters and anger of the popular villain…its all there. Its such a cliche script that South Park did an entire episode that took the piss out of it (I wanna say it was the skiing episode).

But…while that is true, I have the ability to look at those characters and see what they can be. In Flash’s case, he was a genuine, nice and friendly person who wanted to help and do the right thing….which seems to be confirmed when you do see him talk with Sunset in Everfree. So like a lot of things, I ran with it. Its not the character’s fault that there was this initial forced romantic subplot that the writers clearly didnt want to have to include, given how half assed it was in the first place (sunset gave no shits) and how quickly they did everything in their power to drop it (to the point of Sunset saying basically ‘give it up dude. Shes a horse princess in another dimension. Shes not really got time to date you.’)

Flash becomes a bit of a secondary character here, and I poke a little fun at him having the worst luck with women. But yeah…I just dont think Flash himself is a bad character and deserves massive hate. The romantic subplot was an unnecessary, unmitigated disaster. I completely agree there. (So was the one with Timber in LoE, but for other reasons that are of questionable legality and mega creepy). I guess I just separate the characters from bad plot elements. Or something. I dunno. This one got away from me.

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Yeah. We wanted something analogous to pony Scoots not being able to fly on her own. Something that doesnt completely make her regular living a mess, but would hinder her lifestyle in regards to a specific set of skills. Asthma worked really well for this.

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So in Rubicon, its not random. Theres some unexplained worldbuilding reasons why the portal does what it does. Why Sunset seems to be the only one that shaves off so much time, why shes had to go through puberty twice.

I will mention that Rubicon ponies do have a slightly longer lifespan than humans on average (125 on average to the like 80 that is common for humans today)—however its less about the number of years and more about age brackets. Rubicon ponies have about the same length of time to reach “maturity” (around 20 years), but…they have a much longer prime and longer “middle age”. They dont end up classifying as “elderly” until the last ten to twenty years of life typically, though a few have enough magic or good genes to beat that curve. (Granny Smith, Star Swirl, a few others). Some of it is magic, some of it is just some key differences in species biology. (Humans are pretty much an evolutionary game of Jenga at this point. We’re a disaster.)

The human world in Rubicon is fairly comparable to the location and timeframe: USA, 2013 (I used the actual year the first movie came out to set the starter date for broad stroke popculture reasons).

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Yeah. Theres a but of a gap in Equestria medical knowledge when it comes to certain aspects of modern medicine. Psychology is the big one, but they also have gaps in certain types of pharmaceuticals, because Equestria lacks the factorial production lines and industrial complex responsible for a lot of major mass production. (In this story, what mass production is available is often “state run” and specific to infrastructure. Pipes, construction materials, things for sanitation, mass transit, etc.)

So they have a bit of a “love it better” mentality, and for those who dont fit in, a sort of passive “well, thats just their way, let them to it” for anything that doesnt register as a social/physical threat. Sunset’s temper was a threat, because it could lead to violence (and often did), and they had the culturally scarring history of the Windigo to reinforce “violence/anger/extreme aggression/loss of control over aggressive impulses = DANGER” concept.

But yeah. Mental health care in Equestria is…pretty non existent outside of your family helping you through “tough times.”

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To be fair…it takes about 20 chapters (if you include interludes) to get to the start of the romance. That doesnt mean that they’re proposing marriage by christmas. The relationship itself grows at a much more normal pace, with moments where it stalls, moments where it jumps ahead, and plenty of cute fluffiness of two people caring about each other and showing it.

;P

Also, welcome to the story, if I did t say that before! :)