Sunset Shimmer's Predicament

Demon Shimmer

Demon Shimmer #1 · Jan 13th, 2020 · · ·

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Fun to write, and fun to read. UwU

bailey_chap

bailey_chap #2 · Jan 13th, 2020 · 6 · ·

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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

Thule #3 · Jan 13th, 2020 · · ·

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10031768
Seconded

Dan

Dan #4 · Jan 13th, 2020 · · ·

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Nice little incomplete vignette.

khaelin04

khaelin04 #5 · Jan 13th, 2020 · 2 · ·

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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

chris the cynic #6 · Jan 13th, 2020 · · ·

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“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

Sollys #7 · Jan 14th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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Haha funny.

Mpony1

Mpony1 #8 · May 16th, 2021 · 2 · ·

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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

khaelin04 #9 · May 28th, 2021 · 3 · ·

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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