Sunset Shimmer's Predicament

by Gaydream Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer's Predicament

“C’mon, Twilight! It’ll be hilarious!” Rainbow Dash remarked, hitting Twilight Sparkle lightly on the shoulder.

“But Rainbow, don’t you think it’d be abusing our powers just for a silly prank?” Twilight asked, glancing back at her tent that she shared with Sunset Shimmer, the Sapphire Tent.

“I mean, we got them for a reason right? There’s no magical she-demon around to defeat, and we still have them. What’s the harm?” Rainbow pointed out, grinning at Twilight. “Besides, she still deserves payback for that prank she pulled on us with Pinkie a few weeks ago." Twilight grumbled, giving in.

“Fine, but don’t blame me when Sunset seeks revenge, causing an endless loop of pranks.” She said, making her way over to the tent, peeking inside. Sunset lay on her bed out cold, with her book for communication with Princess Twilight snuggled securely in her arms. That’s a little.. Weird. But whatever. Who am I to judge Sunset for what she does?

Twilight sighed, lifting up her hands and focusing her energy onto Sunsets bed. The weight was exhausting, but the look on Rainbow's face told her that if she gave up now, she would never let it go. So she grunted, and lifted both the mattress and Sunset, dragging it out of the tent, heading towards the lake.

“Alright! Just a bit further.." Rainbow cheered, following behind, barely keeping a cap on her excitement for seeing Twilight carry out the prank, "This is gonna be so good!"

Twilight brought the mattress over to the lake, and the mattress plummeted into the lake, Sunset with it. How she didn’t wake up from the impact was an enigma. Twilight let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“I can’t believe you actually did it!” Rainbow beamed, running to the edge of the lake. She doubled over in laughter. “I can’t wait to see her face when she wakes up!”

Twilight grinned. It actually was kinda funny. Then she groaned, finding herself filled with exhaustion, probably from the extensive magic use.

“Alright Rainbow, I think I’d better head to bed. Are you sure we should just.. Leave her there?” Twilight asked, looking warily at the lake.

“Meh! She’ll be fine. I mean, it’s just a lake! The worst thing that could happen is the mattress tipping over and she falls into the water!” Rainbow assured, putting her hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah you're probably right.” Twilight admitted, then retreated to her tent and flopped onto her bed, succumbing to exhaustion.

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Sunset opened her eyes, and flinched as the sun shined brightly in them, immediately closing them again. She groaned, sitting up. She felt her weight shift, as her mattress rocked.

“What the heck?” She croaked, and blinked open her eyes to find herself met with water. Lots of water. A scream lodged in her throat, and she took a second to get her bearings. A sinking feeling pitted in her stomach. There could be some magical situation at hand! She looked around, to find she was in the lake at Camp Everfree. She groaned. “Alright Sunset. You just gotta figure out a way to get yourself out of this situation. Just be like Gloriosa! ‘I got this!’”

She noticed her book in her hands, and perked up. This would be her saving grace! She frantically opened the book, turning to the most recent empty page. She took her pen she had stuck in the book, and began to write.

"THIS IS URGENT!!! PLEASE ANSWER!!! I REQUIRE ASSISTANCE OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE!!"

Sunset bounced her leg, anxiously waiting for a quick answer. She looked around, seeing if there was anyone nearby she could call out to. But nobody was around, everybody must’ve still been asleep. She looked to the sky, noting it’s orange light. The sun was barely beginning to rise. Sunset sighed.

Suddenly, she felt her book vibrate, and opened it to see the answer. But rather than seeing the princess' response, she was met with inked scribbles, which dragged on until the end of the page where it was cut off. She raised her eyebrow in confusion. Snapping her out of her train of thought, she felt a surge of magic as a portal opened over the lake, and out came Princess Celestia and Twilight, an army of Equestrian guards behind them.

Sunset’s eyes bulged, and she panicked, dropping her book. “What the- Why did you bring an army!?” Sunset exclaimed, gawking at their entrance. “And how on Cele- err.. How the heck did you guys even get here! Isn’t the portal all the way back at CHS? And what's with this weird ink in the book?” She rambled on, perplexed at their sudden appearance.

“Well, when I saw your message I panicked, and sent an urgent message to Princess Celestia, so I couldn’t get a message back to you. When I told her what was going on, she gathered a small army-”

“You consider that small?” Sunset cut her off, staring at the army with wide eyes.

“Well, yeah! But that’s not important right now- Celestia got Discord to make us a portal to this dimension on the condition that he could watch over Equestria in the meantime which might I say was probably not the best idea but we didn’t have time to think about that and-” Twilight paused, seeing Sunset’s bewildered expression. “Oh yeah, Discord was this draconequus, also the Lord of Chaos, who took over Equestria for a while but he’s good now! That all happened before we even met. Anyways-” Sunset interrupted her.

“Yeah, I get it Twi. But.. err I guess I should’ve specified the situation. I don’t.. There isn’t any actual danger.” Sunset mumbled, anxiously looking at the Princesses standing- flying? before her.

The Princess of Friendship narrowed her eyes at Sunset, smiling in a worrying manner. "So, you're saying you sent a cryptic message, causing me to go into a full on panic, fearing something terrible may be happening and alert Princess Celestia, over a little WATER!?"

"I.." Sunset looked off to the side, "I can't swim," she said shakily, "I wasn't sure what else to do.."

Twilight groaned, opening her mouth to say something but halting as Celestia beat her to it.

“Twilight, settle down," She prodded, turning to the loyal ponie- er.. People? behind them, "Guards, you're dismissed.” The Princess faced Sunset again. "Now, Sunset Shimmer. What was that about not being able to swim? I know for a fact I taught you when you were young."

Sunset grinned nervously, shuddering at the memory. "Well, yeah, you did Princess but, I was a pony then," her grin faded. "Now, I'm not. So excuuuuuuse me Princess if I'm prone to SINKING THE SECOND I GET IN! You try swimming with these limbs!" she retorted, glaring at Princess Celestia and flailing her arms around.

All was silent for a few moments, as Celestia stared at Sunset expressionlessly. Sunset jolted, realizing she had just yelled at the Princesses. Well, she didn't care much about yelling at Twilight. But her own mentor? That was a whole other ordeal.

“Well, perhaps I could fix that?” Princess Celestia offered, her hands glowing. Sunset raised her eyebrows questioningly before coming to an understanding.

“You can do that?” Sunset asked, under the assumption that such magic could be used here so easily.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Princess Celestia replied playfully, her hands sparking and the magic enveloping Sunset, causing her to close her eyes against the light.

Poof!

When she opened her eyes, Sunset Shimmer was now short. Very, very short. And small. Wait- Am I under my blankets? She had to crawl out from underneath the covers, being careful not to knock anything (or herself) off the bed. When she escaped, she looked over herself to see she was back to her pony self. She gawked at herself.

In a way, it was comforting to be back as a pony, since that's what she was born and raised as. Still, she didn't necessarily want to stay this way, especially since she wasn't sure how her friends would react. Luckily she could make it out of her watery, fish-filled prison now. She crawled into the freezing cold lake water and quickly swam to the surface, looking back to where Princess Celestia and Twilight remained.

“So uh.. Now that I’m out of that.. Situation.. Can you turn me back?” Sunset looked questioningly at the Princesses, digging her han- hoof into the ground anxiously. I really don't want Fluttershy to see me like this, she’d never let me go…

“About that, well.. The spell lasts 24 hours.” Princess Celestia replied with a smirk. Sunset’s eyes bulged.

“Seriously!? You mean the others will have to see me like… this?” She fumed, glaring at the Princess.

"Is there a problem with being a pony, Sunset Shimmer?" Celestia's steely gaze made the small pony freeze. As a pony, Princess Celestia was super tall, yes, but as a human? She towered over Sunset. It didn't help that this human form was also.. Maybe flying. She couldn't tell at this point.

"N.. No of course not, Princess," Sunset squeaked out. “It’s just.. Well it isn’t exactly normal for me to just.. revert back to a pony, y’know.”

"Aw, c'mon Sunset, it'll be fine! The girls won't treat you any different, I'm sure!" Twilight said cheerfully.

A shudder ran through Sunset as once again her thoughts drifted to Fluttershy. Oh, how wrong you can be, Twiley…

“Well.. I guess I’ll figure it out. They're my friends after all.. What could go wrong! Haha..” She trailed off, glancing at the camp. “I suppose you two’d better get back to Equestria huh?” Sunset asked, looking back to the Princesses. Twilight jumped, looking at Princess Celestia with urgency.

“Yeah, we better get back before Discord does too much with Equestria while we are gone..” She offered, looking fearfully at the portal, wondering what chaos he might’ve caused.

“Very well. I hope we can see each other soon, Sunset Shimmer. And preferably without a 'dire situation' at hand. It’d be nice to just catch up.” Princess Celestia said, turning to the portal. Twilight looked at her warily.

“Aren't you going to tell her that the spell doesn't actually wear off unless we undid it in Equestria?” Twilight asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“We’ll let her figure that out on her own, shall we?” Princess Celestia winked at Twilight before stepping through the portal, Twilight following suit.

Author's Note:

And there you have it! This was the result of bouncing off ideas with my friend, who goes by the name "GamerSunset" on here when I thought of the idea of Sci-Twi stranding Sunset in the lake of Camp Everfree. Thanks to that friend for helping me write and edit this story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Comments

[Demon Shimmer]

Fun to write, and fun to read. UwU

[bailey_chap]

Sequel Please, this should be great to see continued (perhaps a full-blown story, starting with the continuation of this, followed by a series of pranks?)

[Thule]

10031768
Seconded

[Dan]

Nice little incomplete vignette.

[khaelin04]

It would be neat if her friends saw pony sunset. Also, once Rainbow and Twilight found out they could have unknowingly drowned their friend, I could see a lot of potential in that.

Few others mentioned a sequel, or series for it... figured I'd give my two cents.

[chris the cynic]

“Aren't you going to tell her that the spell doesn't actually wear off unless we undid it in Equestria?” Twilight asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“We’ll let her figure that out on her own, shall we?” Princess Celestia winked at Twilight before stepping through the portal, Twilight following suit.

Oh, wow, that's dark. Body horror dark.

It take a certain skill to start from a position of "We're talking about death by drowning"* and then go darker, but you pulled it off. Well done.

---

* It starts with fear. You're in the water, you're (if you're Sunset) probably heavier than it, and for all you might claw at the surface or kick, you don't know how to say above. Regardless of whether or not you float, your boyancy is pushing you to be face down in the water, and exhaling makes you drop, so when you inhale you're even lower. If you manage to tread water in spite of not being taught how, which you probably won't (most people don't), then the fact you haven't been taught means you'll be doing it inefficiently. You'll wear yourself out in a hurry, and during that process you get to have a growing sense of inevitability feeding your fear.

If everything went wonderfully, you'll last until your energy runs out. That's sort of like rolling a natural twenty a couple times in a row. Regardless of how you get there, there'll come a point when you can't keep your head above water long enough to breathe well. That's when instinctive drowning response kicks in. You're trapped inside your own body with no control as it does its own (not at all useful) thing. You can't call out for help, you can't move your legs, you certainly can't tread water, and you definitely can't swim. Instead of doing anything useful, your arms push down, you gasp in air as your head breaks the surface, and you repeat. You're essentially flapping to stay afloat. It works about as well as flapping to stay aflight.

People without training, by the way, generally don't recognize this as drowning. Plenty of people drown with help right next to them, because those who could have saved them didn't realize they were drowning. Part of this is that in spite of all the terror you're feeling, you look calm. Humans have been drowning for over a hundred thousand years, people have only recognized what drowning looks like for fifty of those years. Instinctive drowning response took that long to recognize because it doesn't look like anything that would make an untrained individual think "drowning".

As noted, flapping your arms is not a viable strategy for staying afloat. So, plus side, you'll only be stuck in instinctive drowning response for a short time. Sixty seconds at most. (Possibly far less.) Then you're under water. That's assuming you were lucky enough to even reach the stage of instinctive drowning response while above the surface.

At that point, of course, you try to hold your breath. Given that you probably panicked on your way to reaching this point, you don't exactly have a lot of breath to hold. It's not actually the lack of oxygen (hypoxia) that's going to make you stop, though. It's the over abundance of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia). You inhale water. Well, you try to. Instead of flooding your lungs with water, what actually happens is that, in response to water trying to flood your lungs, you have a laryngospasm. Your lungs are now sealed. And dry. That's nice.

If you haven't passed out yet, this is the part where you do. The hypoxia finally gets to you, the world goes black, and you suffer no more. Then, of course, you die.

Sunset woke up afraid of that.

On a related note, it has been way too long since I've been swimming.

[Sollys]

Haha funny.

[Mpony1]

Why didn't Sunset question, that if they had access to their magic, they could of easily levitated her to land or carried her since they were flying. There was no reason to turn her into a pony just so she could swim across.

This story deserves a sequel. I would love to see the look on sunset's face after 24 hours had pass and she was still a pony.

[khaelin04]

I'm curious about human Twilight and Rainbow Dash finding out they could have drowned their friend. Pretty sure they'd be in hell of a guilt trip finding out Sunset can't swim. (Even though I think the show she can... not sure.) Fluttershy cuddling pony Sunset does sound adorable as well.

[Vaguely Demented]

To be fair to Sunset, death by drowning would kind of suck.