Chapter 3: I'm Surprised You Came Back for Me
Princess Twilight Sparkle did not feel lucky as she took a trip through a magic portal to another dimension. She would rather have fought an army of bug monsters, or an evil empire of darkness than find the barren wasteland of not being caught by one of her best friends in two dimension.
The school was still there, of course, as was the concrete (ow!), but despite writing a message to Sunset, there were no one else's arms to fall into.
That was fine, Twilight knew the way to Sunset's apartment. Well, she'd thought she had, but a quick conversation with another recent graduate from Canterlot High let her know she was mistaken, and how to get there.
Twilight was pleasantly surprised to find that when she knocked on Sunset's door, she wasn't nervous. That didn't change in the minute it took to answer the door, or when Twilight latched onto Sunset in a tight hug.
"Um, hey Twilight, I wasn't expecting you today. Did I miss a message in the journal?" Nod. "Oh, um, sorry Twi. Here, let's go sit on the coach." Twilight loosened her grip, but kept an arm around Sunset's waist until they were seated. "Hey, I'm sorry I missed your message, but I promise I'm ok," said Sunset as she unwrapped Twilight's arm from herself. "I'm ok, is there anything you need right now?" she continued, keeping Twilight's hand in hers.
Twilight's head shook. "Not exactly. I managed to get in touch with Celestia yesterday."
Sunset adjusted her position to turn towards Twilight a little more. "Oh, uh, thanks for letting me know? Do you know when she'll be free, so I can meet you at the portal? I imagine you'll want to talk after hearing the story."
"No, Sunset, I got in touch with Celestia yesterday. I know about Star Swirl's spell. I learned about you."
Sunset let go of Twilight's hand and turned away from Twilight. "Oh." She turned back, serious expression on both of their faces, "well, if you know about me, do you have any, uh, lingering questions? I mean, Seaward Shores is a couple hours away from Canterlot, right? If you rushed over, there must be something important in that mind of yours. And besides, you kinda have a country to run."
"No, Sunset, no questions. Not right now, anyway. I just wanted to tell you as soon as possible: thank you so much for trusting me with your story, and I am so proud to call you my friend."
Sunset's face twisted in confusion. She tried to dismiss it with a wave of her hand and said, "What, Twi, It's... I mean, you might have found old stuff of mine in the castle, anyway, it's no big deal. And proud? I mean, you just heard a story of another way I failed, it's nothing to be proud of."
Twilight maintained her seriousness. "Sunset, it is a big deal. If it weren't, I'm sure you wouldn't have had Celestia tell me instead of saying it yourself. Don't sell yourself short, it was very brave. And don't sell your spellcasting short, either! You may not have become an alicorn, but you still became more yourself, and that's magical, too. Besides, it's not like we've learned everything about the mirror yet, you haven't necessarily failed to ascend a second time. It's just taking a while, and that's fine."
Sunset glanced at her floor before meeting Twilight's eyes again. "Wow, Twi, I guess I never thought of it that way. Do you really think I could be a- a princess one day?"
"I think so, and I choose to hope so." Twilight's face finally smiled again, encouraging. It quickly turned into a smirk, as she said "Besides, Sunset Sparkle doesn't seem like a bad fit for you." Her smirk disappeared and was replaced by shock, as she looked at Sunset.
"Um, wow Twi, I thought you knew me better than that," Sunset smirked and turned red, "I chose the name Shimmer and I'm sticking with it, but Twilight Shimmer doesn't sound too bad to me."
Both girls laughed for a moment, before Twilight lightly punched Sunset's arm "You jerk, I was worried for a second."
"I may not be a bully any more, but I still can have fun. I'm serious about the name though, I'm keeping Shimmer."
"We'll work on it, I guess."
"Twilight!" started Sunset, grabbing Twilight's hand in her own again, "We've got to get to Froggy Bottom Park!" She stood from the couch, and started to lead Twilight to her door.
"Wait, what's at Froggy Bottom Park?" asked Twilight, trying to get Sunset to slow down.
"Our first date!"
"Oh my gosh, Celestia was right! You're a dork!" laughed Twilight as the two ran off.
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That's cute.
10873651
I'm glad to hear you think so
I'm not crying, y'all are crying! That was BEAUTIFUL! Wonderful story.
She shouldve damn well been one after friendship games
cuuuuteee
That was lovely.
10873873
10874266
10874023
I'm glad y'all enjoyed
I can't put into words how much I adore this. Normally I can see the twist coming a mile away, and yet you had me fooled right up until the name. It's wonderful~
10882136
I'm really glad you enjoyed! And I'm glad I was able to surprise you!
Honestly I've been struggling to write this comment, I loved Audience of One and Testi d'Amore, and I'm a bit star struck
10882750
fgadsdfgdf I'm just some rando who can't even keep her word tho,,,
Thank you for having the energy and courage to write a trans story when it would be most visible and vulnerable! Especially one centered around my favorite horse~
10882961
I have no idea what you mean when you say
so I wouldn't worry about it
As far as writing a trans story, I mean, I don't have money and there was a way to help charity. Besides, this fandom gave me a way to explore femininity before I realized I was trans, adding more ways to explore that seems like a good thing.
Besides besides, there's just no cis explanation for Sunset knowing what an element of harmony is and Star Swirl's magic transformation spell starting with "one to another". Obviously you can either achieve immortality or magically perfect gender transition, those are the facts.
I found this an interesting explanation for a possible human "Sunset" plus I adored that Twilight found the story heartening and only cared for her friend more. Could use a little work as far as quotation marks in chapter 2 but enjoyable.
If MLP were a more adult-oriented cartoon and had several seasons with Sunset and Sunbutt in the 2000's, this would've made a great episode to advocate for trans rights. Sunset would've been a trans icon and all.
Unfortunately, it would've been too much too early as opposed to too little too late. Would've been better for a 2010's character tho
10978561
I'm glad you enjoyed and found my explanation interesting!
As for the quotation marks, it seemed a little excessive to have two thirds of the story just one long block quote, so I didn't include them, and left out all of the non-dialogue happening in the scene. It was a choice, even if it wasn't necessarily the right one. I swear I heard a quote once that "style is just the mistakes we leave in" but I can't find it anywhere to attribute it, so I guess it's mine now.
10983792
I wish Sunset could have been the trans icon I believe her to be, but I'm not terribly surprised it wasn't brought up in the show. One would hope that Forgotten Friendship was late enough to have an actual official coming out of some sort, but at least we got Scootaloo's aunts in the main show before the end.
Either way, I'm glad you enjoyed, and appreciate the comment!
10985631
Unfortunately, MLP is managed by a cowardly corporation rather than the courageous fans. But if I were in charge you bet I'd do this and a lot more.
There are so many plotlines fans made that the show didn't do because Hasbro is a bunch of scaredy-cats.
10985819
Considering some of the stuff on this website and the downvotes on most pride posts, I don't know that the fans would have necessarily done much better
I do appreciate the (possibly accidental?) implication that I could be a show writer, though!
10985824
Actually yes, you could. There'll probably be much better episodes than anything G5 is ever gonna do if we just take stuff from Fimfiction.
So it's not just you, it's everyone here.
This was really interesting, and a great way to handle Sunset's backstory. It'd be pretty neat to have more stories that explored her fire-flight skills and her dragon links.
The way Sunset presented this information to Twilight was odd, though. When Twilight misinterpreted what Sunset said as meaning there was a third pony before them (when Sunset just said the mirror was the second attempt at ascending a pony), Sunset chose not to correct her and told her to have Celestia explain with her deadname. This felt like an unnatural way for Sunset to handle it. Perhaps having Sunset tell the story would have worked better.
11247528
Thanks for the comment! I've thought of visiting this backstory a couple of times, but I don't sit down to write often, so nothing's come of it yet. Someday, maybe!
It's been a year and I can't say for certain why I made that choice, but after rereading the story I think my reasoning was that Sunset had assumed it wasn't a secret in Equestria, but if Twilight didn't know maybe Celestia had had a reason to hide it from Twilight. Considering she told Twi her deadname she was ok with the story being shared, so I don't think it's that Sunset wouldn't share it on her own, but that she shouldn't. I view it as Sunset overcompensating for going against Celestia's plan by making sure to double check with Celestia even before sharing her own story.
Like I said, though, it's been a hot minute and I don't remember, so feel free to interpret how you want!
11248521
That makes sense. Thanks for replying!