• Member Since 26th Sep, 2011
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FanOfMostEverything


Forget not that I am a derp.

T

In the wake of Camp Everfree and the latest in a long line of raging she-demons, Sunset’s dreams lead her down a familiar path of memories. She’s never been one to pass up an opportunity; it’s high time to ask a question that’s been bothering her since the Friendship Games.

That’s the plan, anyway. One of the many problems with seeking wisdom from demons is that you get far more than what you wanted to know.

Winner of Bicyclette's SciSet Contest and Reactception's Sunset x Midnight contest, graciously beta-read by MarvelandPonder. Rated Teen for suggestive content well north of what the Dazzlings got away with.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 27 )

Oh I love this, it's very cute and I am all for it.

Ahem . .

One wrong answer and we’d expel from ‘friendship school

and

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Shimmer

Sure about that?

Otherwise a good story.

How did Twilight get there? Probably the Geode activating on its own?

Well, these dreams are good at revealing everything! Both sides of a person can talk and stuff! :heart:
----

Luna looked upon her slumbering charges.

I thought it was via some magical dreamspace sight, but no, she's the Vice Principal looking with mundane eyes.

RB_

I love it when these girls literally confront their demons. Dunno why, it just makes me very happy. Especially when they do it together, so you had me grinning ear to ear. Good work!

I need a part 2 to this story!!!!

the latest in a long line of raging she-demons

And only Midnight was actually worth the build up in the end. The less said about the others, the better.

Eventually, she reached the bottom, the brutally industrial walls sometimes giving way to the cobblestones of Castle Canterlot's catacombs. Silently, Sunset moved through the maze of passages, impelled by unquestionable dream logic to where she needed to be.

Can I just say, you absolutely nailed this feeling in this story? Even in the more lucid portions of the dream, it still feels like Sunset's dreaming, not just standing in a convenient mental construct like a mind palace. Interestingly, I actually feel that this dreamlike state complements Sunset's talk with Sunspot; where some would use the scene of a dream to make something seem less real, here it actually feels like Sunset drills down to reach the really real, the place where physics and logic melt away in the light of truth. Her dream is more real than the waking world, not less. And what is real?

That got a shrug. “Equestria certainly would. Like you said, you’re the worst parts of me.”

Darkest,” the demon snarled through gritted teeth.

“Either way, that includes rushing into things without thinking about them because my temper got the better of me. That worked out in the end with running away to another world. Trying to run a country on spite was doomed to failure. Princess Twilight did us a favor by smacking us down at the Fall Formal." Sunset caught herself and groaned. "And now you’ve got me lumping us together.”

“Oh, come on." The demon flung herself off the bed and started pacing the length of her cell. "After everything you went through on this little trip? Young women realizing their full, incredible potential before getting rainbow-smacked for daring to step out of line? Of course you were feeling nostalgic. Especially when you were filling in for the princess." She sneered. "At least until someone better suited for the role stepped up and replaced you. Again.”

The demon kept talking even as Sunset collected herself. “I haven’t just been using plural pronouns to get under your skin, Sunny. You may be on the side of the angels these days, but deep down you know what you really are." She jerked both thumbs at herself. "And you’re looking at it.

Sunset is the line between wonder and horror, between cozy hearth and raging inferno. She is fire incarnate, capable of creation and destruction, good and ill, weal and woe. And she knows it, knows that, beneath the angel she's trying to shape herself into, she can just as easily be a demon. She doesn't live in a world of cardboard, but she does live amongst cardboard people, people who she knows she'll burn if she lets herself go. And part of her wants to let herself let go, show the world what she's made of, ask them if Princess Sunset Shimmer really sounds so silly, though the rest of her shuts it down, knowing what it would cost. But even if she knows she can't let herself go, it still rankles; the selfish part of her shuts up, but only for a time. After all, ambition and desire for recognition are natural to humans and ponies, and even mindfully-humble Sunset has to admit that she's done much worthy of recognition. But she still shuts it down, because that desire means arrogance means Sunspot means her friends, the people who taught her that she was worthy of love, get hurt. But then the desire asks if that chain is really true, and the cycle all begins again, yielding the almost tired way Sunset dealt with Sunspot early on in the story. She's been dealing with her tempter's offer of a crown for more than forty days, and I get the sense that, at this point, it's become almost predictable or routine for her. Her fire has been burning itself for so long that it's running out of fuel, reducing itself to a more comfortable temperature. However, as Sunspot shows, "more comfortable" doesn't mean "completely safe," and even a candle flame can still burn flesh.

Apologies for bloviating like that. Bottom line, I think you did an excellent job characterizing the duality at Sunset's heart, the struggle between the angel she wants to be and the devil she knows she can be if she lets herself go. Very well done.

I absolutely love stories that have Sunset talking with her demon half. I always felt this was a wealth of untapped story potential and of course gave her and Twilight something unique to share and bond over.

This was fun.


Luna the sleep peeper. heheheh.

Exquisite. I especially like how you handled the Timber issue.

Good luck in the contest!

11676301
Based on Twilight's "skin-to-skin contact" comment, the shared dream is a consequence of Sunset's incomplete mastery of her new empathic abilities. Remember, before acquiring her "geode" (still a stupid name for individual crystals reshaped into pendants), she was hearing and seeing the thoughts of anyone who bumped into her, mostly Gloriosa. Given the initial instinctive manifestation of the girls' new powers, plus the general inhibition of the frontal lobe during sleep, it's not at all surprising.

Sunset shook her head. “It’s weird to hear you sincerely talk about the power of unconditional love.”

Yeah, totally odd in itself. :applejackconfused:

“I’m not ruining Twilight’s happiness for my own self-gratification," said Sunset, hands on her hips. "She’s not a prize to be won.”

Agreed. :duck:

“I dismissed most of those the second I came up with them," Sunset insisted. "The rest were calmly, reasonably talking to him because Timber’s a person who deserves dignity and respect, not some obstacle to trample.”

Can't argue there. :applejackunsure:

“Now you're just repeating yourself. Look, she’s my friend. If those two have a fairy tale romance, I will go to their wedding in the ugliest bridesmaid dress Rarity can bear to sew, and I'll do it with a smile on my face." Sunset pointed at her expression to demonstrate. "If they break up next week, I’ll be there for Twilight with a carton of ice cream and a marathon of soft sci-fi movies that we can mock together. When she stops hurting and I won't just be going for the rebound, then we can see what happens.”

A true sign she's Sci Twi's best friend. :pinkiehappy:

“Same,” Sunset said with a smile. She turned to kiss Twilight, a dream she looked forward to making a reality.

Wow, I guess dreams do come true! No pun intended. :pinkiegasp:

Celestia sighed. "I suppose I should be thankful that they're not fighting a monster every week. We get more than enough of them as it is."

I'd leave that job to the professionals. :ajsmug:

“Yes," said Luna, deciding not to mention the sight of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle nestled next to each other, wrapped in two sets of dark and terrible wings. Not to Celestia, anyway. "More than enough.”

Talk about quite the ending! :twilightoops:

11676295
I would like to see your thoughts on the story beyond what I'd get if I fed it through Grammarly, but I appreciate the error report. And hey, if the worst thing you can say about this is that there were two now-corrected typos (one of which is more the characters getting ahead of themselves :raritywink:) then I'm going to call that a job well done.

11676301
It's interesting to think about how certain behaviors and duties may work on the other side of the mirror. Human Luna can't see into dreams, but she still takes comfort in knowing that those she cares about are sleeping soundly. And as 11676641 noted, the idea is that Sunset's magic can create a shared dreamscape when both she and the person she's touching are asleep. (Whether it can work when one of them is awake is a matter for another tale.)

11676312 11676585
I'm always a sucker for a good journey to the center of the mind, and my OTP provides a number of different approaches to the topic. Sunset has an incredible amount of untapped depth, and facing the main denizen of her abyssal trenches is a very fun way to explore it. Likewise Twilight and Midnight on more even footing, where Middy can't just steamroll her other half with intimidation.

(Also, Revel, see above for more on Luna.)

11676313
Yeah, that's a familiar sentiment. I have a nasty habit of using five thousand words on an idea that could span sixty. :twilightsheepish: No promises, but if inspiration strikes again for this particular concept, I'll happily follow through on it.

11676337
Feel free to use the comments section of this story to share your thoughts on this story rather than gripes with canon.

11677048
What do you want me to say?
If i am not mistaken i have liked and favourited basically all of your stories by now, because they are allways good for me.
I like your writing style, i like your sense of humor. You make the characters distinct.
You have interesting premises for all of your stories as well.
You write stories i can just enjoy, both on the technical writing level as well as on the content level.

I WAS thinking about quipping about them getting married later on but i figured that would have little to nothing of worth to do with the actual story itself.

Also about Luna being a bit creepy but eh, that is basically who she is anyway.

11676632
Treating Timber with respect was very important to me. I genuinely like him as a character when he isn't creeping on his campers, and I made sure to get a beta reader who felt similarly. (Seriously, Marvel does some of the best work with Timber on the entire site.)

11676373
It always frustrates me when dream sequences feel more like conscious fantasies. The surreality of dreams may be hard to capture in a narrative, but it's definitely possible. One need only look at Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics as proof. (And as those comics observe, each of the Endless defines their opposite. Without Dream, how could we know the shape of reality?)

As for Sunset, yes, she is defined by the tension between opposing forces throughout her arc. Even her cutie mark evokes the taijitu, or yin-yang. Chengar Qordath provided the idea for her special talent that I've since borrowed, namely the unification of those forces. Indeed, in my usual headcanon, that ability to reconcile the irreconcilable is what drew Celestia to Sunset despite her mark not matching the third one on the Tree of Harmony. Light and darkness, Sun and Moon, shame and rage... If this filly couldn't reunite the sisters, went Celestia's logic, who could?

The catch, of course, is that the scales have to balance when unloaded, and it took Sunset quite some time to find her inner equilibrium. You can see her calibrate herself for much of Equestria Girls, especially when circumstances like Wallflower's mnemonic rampage (my favorite 7th-level wizard spell) or the music festival time loop throw her off-kilter.

I always appreciate your bloviation. Hope you didn't mind mine in turn. :twilightsheepish: Suffice to say, Bacon Horse is a lot of fun to work with.

11677056
Wholeheartedly agreed, I don't think he's a bad dude, just maybe a bit eh choices ^^;

Got flashes of Wubcake's "Casual Midnight" series for a few seconds near the middle.

Sunset and Sunspot having a little angel to demon discussion was fun. Good on ya FoME.

This is what happens when you don't yet know how to control your mind-melding powers: never let two ids directly interact with one another. The results are going to be R-rated one way or the other -- given the alternative, thank goodness this meeting ended the way it did.

"Sunspot" is a very fitting name -- I like it. Full marks for that. Unless it comes from somewhere else that I'm not aware of, in which case full marks for that person.

"Sure." Sunset looked back. "I'll be armed with the most annoying song Pinkie Pie can think of." A legion of pink shadows formed around her, instruments vague but smiles clear as day.

The demon's gaze darted around them. The yovidaphonist made her break out into a cold sweat. “Y-you know," she said as she backed into a corner of her cell, "this undercuts you trying to cast yourself as 'the good one.'"

Sunset walked back in front of her, the phantoms dispersing with a faint giggle and the scent of cotton candy. "And here I thought you'd be proud," she said, one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe a little bit," the demon muttered, looking away. She straightened up and marched back to the other side of the barrier. "Can you really blame a girl for being a little nostalgic for the one time she got to stretch her legs? My point is that you may hate me, but you still recognize me as a part of you. The part you hate." She sneered. "Because if we took away the guilt and self-loathing from your new attempt at a personality, there wouldn’t be much left beyond ‘looks great in leather.’”

Sunset deserves some respect for managing to cow her own demon.

I love the dialogue between the two, with the demon trying for mind games, and Sunset trying to maintain her composure and resist the obsessiveness her own demon wants to instill into her.

Given the amounts of partially unresolved sexuo-romantic tension I can see two things happening in a longer exploration of this.

One, both Midnight and Sunspot get free, and subsequently disappear. The girls scramble to find them and somehow get them back, dealing with the fallout of their dark plan... Just for nothing to happen. They find them a week later, extremely disheveled and even more satisfied.

Two, SciSet happens. They meet their demons in their s
dream again, and they're PISSED. They're the dark reflection or whichever, they are what they are not... And now that the girls get together they don't get to be together anymore.

I can't think on a way to do either of those justice, specially in the aftermath/consequences department, specially with the tonal dissonance, so I'm not going to try. You go and think on how they'd go :raritywink:

Even without those bad memories, that line of thought still made her feel like some sixth-century sellhorn wandering the countryside and offering cursebreaking and monster slaying services to the highest bidder.

Hmm... you know, I'm normally all for these sorts of linguistic de-anthropomorphizations (anthropo-demorphizations?), but that... I don't know, that seems kind of off to me. I mean, it's not like it couldn't be a term - yes, it limits it to just unicorns, but it could either be a term that pre-dates unification or just be a specific sort of mercenary, as seems to be implied. I guess it's partially that it feels like there would be a term for those sorts of ponies regardless of tribe and partially that, given how much unicorns use their magic day-to-day, 'sellhorn' could describe a unicorn who does almost literally anything for money. Not the worst bit of ponification I've seen by a long chalk, but not one I'm that keen on.

As she passed yet another bluntly worded sign, Sunset regretted the Nickerpedia dive that had taught her about long-term nuclear waste warnings.

That, on the other hand, is wonderful, I adore it and I wish to give it the closest thing a text comment can give to a standing ovation. Which, I guess, is just saying I wish to, but still...


Interesting story overall. While I have no idea how conscious a decision it is, I do like how the less lucid and rational things get, the more open Twilight and Sunset get about expressing romantic affection, as all the unfortunate details of reality, circumstance and conscious thought get stripped away. Plus, I like the symbolism of their higher processes making one kind of connection while their baser impulses are indulging in a... different sort.

Also, I wholeheartedly approve of this handling of the Timber situation. While I personally cannot* see past the skin-crawling vibes I got from the character**, I do respect your respect for him. And, well, this way - not lionizing him, not demonizing him and not really dwelling on him that much - I think is a good way to acknowledge and deal with the whole thing while letting us get to the stuff about the pairing we're all here for.

*Tempted to add "no matter how hard I try" but, if I'm being completely honest, I neither have nor intend to try remotely hard.

**And that's not even the shipper in me talking - I didn't even get super into this pairing until after that movie. He just... came across as kind of a skeeve to me. Don't pretend that's some objective truth or anything, just how I feel.

FanOfMostEverything, I've missed reading your stories so much!
That's my bad really, for my longer absence on the site, but anyway - what a story it was to reacquaint myself with your works!
Dialogue is wonderfully witty as always and I loved dream sequences almost as much. Sunspot is a great name and Sunset wondering about her demon self namelessness was a very intriguing starting point for the story. The ending was a brilliant mix of hilarious and touching, which I've always loved about your writings.
A great short story, thank you for that again! :twilightsmile:

Excellent as always, FOME! Loved the introspection between the Light and Dark Sides of the psyche. I know they have official Jungian names, but I'm too lazy to look them up atm :derpytongue2: Almost had me thinking that Luna could actually see their dreams for a minute, which I believe is a sign of being an awesome writer.

Yeah, that's a familiar sentiment. I have a nasty habit of using five thousand words on an idea that could span sixty.

I'm still seeing if any connections can be made within your preexisting stories, the ones not confirmed to be in the same continuity that is ;) Mostly because you have an uncanny way of weaving stories together in a manner that goes beyond oneshots, you could probably run an entire series if you wanted to. Any future plans? :scootangel:

I gotta say, you have a real knack for writing characters' inner evil sides encouraging them to be more open with their crush.

11705564
It's an odd niche, yes, but one I'm happy to occupy.

What I really love about this story is just the way it takes these little quirks of canon — DemonSet not having a name the way Midnight does, the goofy logical fallacies in Sunset’s original master plan, the shifts in her personality between Rainbow Rocks and Legend of Everfree — and brings them together in what proves to be a very thorough interrogation of Sunset as a character, and what it means to be a genuinely ex-villain. The setup is a delight, and Sunset and her dark counterpart have very believable adversarial relationship with hard-hitting dialogue. Given the contest, it did leave me wondering exactly to what degree Sci-Twi would fit into this beyond the opening and references in the dialogue — but when she does arrive on the scene with her own demonic self, it quickly makes up for lost time in establishing the parallels between them and in making them believable as an upstart pairing (to say nothing of their counterparts). Add in all the amusing worldbuilding touches and a fun coda with Luna and you have an excellent little story of a dream that’s more than just that. (Even if I was sorely tempted to dock points for the unironic “That happened.”)

Even without those bad memories, that line of thought still made her feel like some sixth-century sellhorn wandering the countryside and offering cursebreaking and monster slaying services to the highest bidder.

hehe “sellhorn”, love it

Er, women. Sunset’s vocabulary always took a turn for the Equestrian after high-magic events.

women are merely human mares, Sunset!

At one point, she was a two-toned sun divorced of any other body, filling the passageway with the light of her soul.

that mustve been weird

No matter her form, Sunset knew this was not a staircase of honor. No great deed was commemorated below. Nothing valued was there. What was there was dangerous and repulsive, a danger to the body and the soul. It could kill.

love the reference

That got a snort. “Sure. Because if there’s one thing that’s defined our life, it’s unflinching loyalty to Celestia.”

gottem

“I also remember her explaining all the flaws in my confinement runes and exactly what the Tartarans would do to me." Sunset dismissed the memories and crossed her arms. "Most of which I ended up doing to myself.”

oof, love this! such a great summary of Sunset and Celestia’s whole deal

One of the demon's eyelids twitched. Sunset hoped she didn't still do that in real life. “You expect me to have an entire domestic policy written up?”

skill issue

"Sure." Sunset looked back. "I'll be armed with the most annoying song Pinkie Pie can think of." A legion of pink shadows formed around her, instruments vague but smiles clear as day.

ahaha love that this is the threat

“Meanwhile, you thought Daydream needed her own name.”

really makes you think (which i guess was what made you think up this whole part of the story)

The demon cleared her throat. “Right. Meanwhile, Midnight is everything Twilight isn’t. Merciless, cruel, ambitious, self-assured, comfortable in her own body." She shuddered, a sloppy grin on her face as her arms wrapped around herself. "She could just wrap me in those wings and—”

hoowee

“I dismissed most of those the second I came up with them," Sunset insisted. "The rest were calmly, reasonably talking to him because Timber’s a person who deserves dignity and respect, not some obstacle to trample.”

aww that is such a nice way to treat Timber! Sunset is the Element of Empathy indeed

“Sunny," said the demon, "if it were me, she’d be wearing a lot less.”

gottem

Midnight spared her an uncomprehending glance before turning back to the jailers. “I, for one, will continue to think of you as Sunset. And her as Twilight." She glared at her other self. "Uncommitted. Liminal. Inevitably leading to darker things.”

love this. that is exactly what “twilight” means!

Twilight pointed at her, a triumphant grin on her face. “Sunspot Shimmer. Still hot and bright and powerful, dark only in comparison to the greater brilliance surrounding her.”

and yes that is good! (even tho it goes against my headcanon of Twilight Sparkle being very bad at coming up with names)

“So," Sunset summarized. "That happened.”

“That is continuing to happen." Twilight winced and raised her voice. "Quite enthusiastically."

ahahaha love this to bits

Celestia looked away, the old memories no doubt leaving a bad taste in her mouth as much as Luna's. "Still," she said in time, "I thought you'd grown out of watching people sleep like that."

and yeah, just love the idea that all along Vice Principal Luna has the powers of her pony counterpart and is working behind the scenes of the canon this whole time! goes a long way to explaining just how "normal" the workings of the school are despite all the magical shenanigans going on


as always, love how you make sense of all of these quirks of the canon with your worldbuilding skills and witty dialogue, along with the wonderful exploration of SciSet at its core. i couldn’t have asked for a better entry to the SciSet contest, and am very proud to have it as the clear winner. thank you for writing!

I was gonna think it'd be funnier if the Twilight in her dream wasn't real-- But I completely changed my mind the moment Midnight pounced on Sunspot it's worth it that theyre real actually. Somebody come sprits them with water and pry them off each other with crow bars. 10/10 super cute!!

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