A scientifically brilliant but antisocial former student of Canterlot High seeks out Adagio Dazzle, now alone and down on life. He promises to restore her powers in return for help with a massive scientific breakthrough.
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I chuckled...
...and then I chuckled again.
Also, props to you for remembering that dark magic isn't inherently corruptive in and of itself, and that not only does Princess Celestia use it in the show, but she also teaches it to Twilight who then turns around and uses it herself. That's a bit of lore that gets overlooked too often in fics that deal with that particular subject.
11198695
Except the Sirens weren't punished for CHS.
They lost their stones, but that was a entirely preventive measure to prevent them from causing trouble, and they still landed on their feet afterwards. They even regained their signing voices in this universe.
Their break up, and Adagio's subsequent misery in this story, is the result of their own decisions, no one else's.
Sunset was ostrised from the school body for months. The only way that doesn't qualify as a punishment, is because it was a situation of her own making, just like the Siren's situation was.
And even then, Sunset was still tormented by Wallflower during the memory stone incident. The worst thing that happened to the Sirens is they had food thrown at them for a few seconds.
Plus if Shadow Play is cannon in this world (and judging by the reference of a Shadow Monster that "destroyed Starswirl" it is) then the Pillars stand a high likelihood of existing in this time period. They could easily lead a prosecution, given their first hand involvement with the Sirens.
The fact the Sirens were feeding off a pony village, and caused property damage and violence to break out, has some pretty dark implications.
We similarly see students having to be held back from fighting during "Under our Spell" to say nothing of what Trixie did while under their influence. A fall from that height has the potential to really mess someone up.
Also none of Radian's personal feelings for them, changes the fact that the Sirens with their stones have proven so far to be parasitic and dangerous, and will most likely continue to be so.
Radian doesn't risk much by forgiving Sunset, because she could have screwed him over long before now, and chose not to.
The ponies are risking everything by helping the sirens, and by viture of the stone's own natures, it's almost a guarantee someone will get hurt.
I'd say they were being uncharacteristically reckless and irresponsible, except for the fact that "Keep Calm And Flutter On" exists.
11198896 The Sirens were punished for their actions in the events of Rainbow Rocks, namely via the loss of their gemstones. That it was a preventative measure doesn't mean it doesn't also serve as a punitive one, as Adagio herself related in Sunset's Backstage Pass when she remarks about how their latest song is "about being stuck in this miserable human world with no magic, and no hope of returning to Equestria":
That a particular form of punishment can serve dual modes of justice is a well-established principle (in fact, punishments are typically supposed to serve three: deterrence, just deserts, and rehabilitation), so the fact that it serves as one does not mean that it isn't also serving as the other. As such, we've conclusively established that the Sirens have paid appropriately for what they've done, specifically for all of the events in which we conclusively see them victimize others (notwithstanding the diner at the beginning of Rainbow Rocks, as noted before).
Sunset, however, has faced no such punishment for her actions prior to the events of the original Equestria Girls film. We do have conclusive evidence that she committed such acts, since the premise of this story is partially founded upon that one of her victims has yet to receive justice for what she did. However, Sunset's defeat at the hands of Twilight and co. cannot be held to be with regard to that, since it was entirely predicated upon other impermissible acts taken in Equestria; if she hadn't stolen the Element of Magic (as part of a plot to overthrow Equestria), then Twilight would not have taken action against her. That establishes that the events of the movie are not, unto themselves, an enactment of justice for misconduct that Sunset committed prior to that in the human world.
Similarly, the idea that Sunset was shunned by her peers cannot be held to be justice either. As you yourself postulated, simply being cautious around someone else with a criminal background is simple prudence; by your own logic, the other students being scared/skeptical of her is not in-and-of itself any sort of official sanctioning of her actions. The same way that remorse alone does not obviate the need for punishment, other people changing their behavior toward someone - especially when that person has yet to pay a price for their crimes, the way Sunset hasn't - is not justice being enacted.
Finally, simply because someone is "inherently dangerous" is not a salient factor when taking applications of justice into account. Anyone is potentially dangerous, as the latest chapter confirms by noting that anyone can potentially use dark magic to become powerful enough to challenge an alicorn even as it warps their thought processes. As such, the idea that "they must be discriminated against because they have the potential to do bad things" is not justifiable unto itself, let alone as a basis for saying that there's reasonable suspicion to limit their freedoms.
To put it another way, the Sirens paid for what they did, but are still being treated like potential criminals, whereas Sunset never paid for what she did, and has been given a pass by everyone. If that's not a miscarriage of justice, I don't know what is.
First, thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed the story so far!
11198515
I'll be the first to admit that I can think of fun little scenes for many of the characters. I admit to having weaknesses to some (I struggle to be consistant with Pinkie, for example, so I use her sparingly), and I'm middling with Dash but quite enjoy the flamboyance of Rarity. Putting them two together? I get why the writers struggled to find some common ground that isn't a primarily external factor.
11198484
Yep. The summit felt like the right spot to have them at least appear in the background. This story already features a good number of characters, and some only have a couple of moments, so I didn't want to spread it even thinner.
11198943
Sunset being shunned by her classmates was a logical outcome of her actions. That is simply prudent.
Destroying the weapons which the Sirens used to sow chaos is also a logical outcome of their actions. That is simply prudent.
It can't be both ways. Either punishment is enduring the logical consequences of your actions (in which case both have been punished).
Or punishment is additional suffering meant to balance the scales according to a victim's pain.
In that case, there are good in cannon arguments that none of them have suffered enough.
I'm sure the school still holds a grudge against the Dazzlings, even if the Rainbooms don't.
11199340 You're comparing two different things. Other students shunning Sunset Shimmer for what she did previously can't be equated to an authority figure handing down an enduring punishment on someone who's actively engaged in wrongdoing at the time said authority figure acts. To that end, Sunset's being kept at arms' length by the rest of CHS isn't, strictly speaking, a punishment at all; it's simply everyone else exercising their right not to associate with her; Sunset herself has had none of her autonomy or freedoms abrogated, nor otherwise been made to pay a price insofar as the rest of the student body is concerned...hence Radian's lingering acrimony toward her.
By contrast, the Sirens had an enduring loss inflicted upon them in the form of their gems being destroyed (and continuing their exile in the human world), unlike Sunset, who lost nothing. So they actually had a punishment levied on them in that regard, since they were stripped of tangible abilities that they had previously. As noted, the fact that this is a preventative measure doesn't change that it's also punitive. Hence, what they've gone through can't be compared to what happened to Sunset (which was, effectively, nothing). That both situations could be called "prudent" doesn't mean that they're the same thing, just like you wouldn't say that a pegasus and an airplane are the same thing because both can fly.
A negative consequence is not the same as a punishment. If no one wants to hang out with Sunset, they're not punishing her any more than she was punishing Wallflower Blush by never noticing her. There's no actual curtailment happening to Sunset, since she's entirely free to do everything she was before she stole Twilight's crown. Not so for the Sirens; hence, they were punished where Sunset wasn't.
11199164
I do get why certain characters weren't utilized all that often.
Although I'd argue that (aside from a few background roles) Rainbow Dash was poorly written and poorly characterized.
She had the potential to be so much more if the writers had come up with something more interesting for her to work with.
Fluttershy and Rarity however, were a missed opportunity for a brilliant gal pal relationship. Especially with such sweet writing between them.
"Green Isn't Your Color", "Filly Vanilli", and "Best Night Ever" showed just how a friendship between the two of them could happen, while also testing and growing both of them in meaningful ways.
Instead Rarity barely got any growth moments aside from learning to tolerate Applejack, and Fluttershy spent far to much of her screentime nannying Discord.
11199347
How are the Rainbooms a authority figure? They have no real authority in this world, and the Dazzlings ceased to be citizens of Equestria some time ago.
If anything, what the Rainbooms did was acting to defend the school from the Siren's brainwashing, and to defend themselves from being attacked with magic. Formalized punishment had nothing to do with it.
That would be like saying stripping Sunset of her magic was a punishment, despite the fact it was stolen and she was threatening people with it. Just because someone is inconvenienced, doesn't mean they were deliberately punished.
11199391 Twilight, being a princess of Equestria, is an authority figure. Given that we never see any meaningful checks or limitations on the alicorns' political authority, this necessarily designates her as being a state actor (or, at least, Equestria's version thereof), particularly in the first film, where Celestia and Luna send her through the mirror. In the subsequent film, she implicitly asserts her authority to act on her own.
With regard to the Sirens, "defending themselves" is not a viable recourse on the Rainbooms' part. They had already escaped from Trixie's trap, and were on a hill a decent distance away from where the concert was happening (recall that Rainbow Dash even notes that they're too far away to be heard, before the human world's DJ Pon-3 shows up with her transforming car), and were no longer subject to their magic. While they might be able to make an excuse with regard to "defending others," that's immaterial to the issue of justice being enacted via a punishment being handed down since, once again, the two can be delivered simultaneously as part of the same course of actions. Destroying the Sirens' gems serves as just deserts as much as it does defense of others, since it permanently stripped them of their magic.
Sunset, by contrast, lost nothing that was legitimately hers. The powers she displayed at the end of the first film weren't something she had originally, nor could she say she deserved them (beyond her own sense of entitlement). Her state of mind notwithstanding, Sunset after the end of the first film was the same as she was at the beginning of said film, for all intents and purposes. Hence, not only has she not faced justice for what she did to the other students, you can actually make a case that she hasn't even faced justice for stealing the Element of Magic.
This really shouldn't be any surprise; many people pointed out the same thing being true for Starlight Glimmer with regard to her messing with time (plus, in her own words, enslaving a village), for which she was not only not punished, but was made Twilight's student. That's a far cry from losing her magic the way the Sirens did.
11199414
Technically Sunset was effectively kicked out of her position as Celestia's student. That qualifies as punishment, and it was largely dualed out in response to doing the same kinds of things she did in the movie.
Furthermore if destroying the stones was the Dazzlings punishment, then repairing them is functionally a suspension of that punishment.
So technically Sunset and the Dazzlings would be more or less on the same level, now that she's helping out the Dazzlings.
11199426 Notwithstanding anything the secondary media (e.g. the comics) had to say on the subject, Princess Celestia is quite clear that Sunset Shimmer abandoned her studies, rather than being expelled. From the movie transcript (emphasis mine):
Even if Princess Celestia had expelled Sunset, however, that would be a punishment for whatever misconduct prompted Celestia to do such a thing in the first place. It wouldn't have been a punishment for her actions at CHS since, at that time, she had yet to go to CHS and commit any misdeeds.
Regarding the repairing of the Sirens' stones in this story, the basis for doing that is the presumption (albeit a false one, supplied by Radian and Adagio) that without their stones the Sirens will die, effectively turning their punishment into a death sentence. To that extent, the ponies are willing to commute their sentence – though the implication is that they wouldn't have if they didn't think it was turning into something worse – but that doesn't change the fact that Sunset herself never served any sort of mandatory punishment for what she did, which is why Radian is still upset at her (even if his blaming her for being a contributory factor in his mother's death is iffy).
Hence, the two situations are not the same; the Sirens still had a punishment levied against them, whereas Sunset never had to deal with any sort of enforced penalty for her actions (save for Principal Celestia telling her to repair the school).
11199434
Of course depending on how serious she was about that, it might just be adequate punishment in of itself.
I honestly don't remember if that was from the comics or not, but manual labor is pretty grueling if you are not used to it.
And Sunset isn't very physically fit, if what we see from her exercising with Twilight is any indicator.