Correspondence
Dear Princess Celestia,
It's been two months since the whole Ursa disaster, and as I'm sure you've read in the newspapers, Ponyville is finally almost back to normal. The damage the Ursa did has been mostly fixed, but there are a few things that just won't be the same anymore. The fire station had to be completely rebuilt, and some of the buildings (including my tree) have incongruously new parts on them, but life moves on. I'm finally out of convalescence, thank elysium, because I couldn't stand it anymore. First it was a week in the null magic room, then they wanted me to stay in there for ten days, then two weeks. You can imagine how well I took that. Nurse Redheart yammered at me about damage to mana vessicles in my horn for about ten minutes straight when I first complained, but then I pointed out that the statistics on recovery times she quoted at me were from a paper I had written. She turned a very interesting shade of puce and threatened to have me restrained.
In the end they only let me out when my mana started evening out again and started...well, breaking the suppression room. The suppressor they put on my horn four days after the attack overloaded in a half hour, and when they came into swap it the mana sinks in the room were filled to capacity in the time it took them to put another one on. And before you ask, no, I didn't do it on purpose...not totally anyway.
Anyway, after the whole room nearly blew out they agreed to release me on my own recognizance, which was a big relief. Redheart and a few of the other doctors insisted on bleating at me about recovery times and everything, completely disregarding the fact that my normal mana levels would fry just about any other unicorn like hay bacon (related note, hay bacon from Sweet Apple Acres: tear-inducingly good. First time I had it I swear my mouth had an orgasm.). I mentioned that, pointed out that my mana levels were almost back to normal already without any ill effects, and listed many other reasons why I would be fine without one of them hanging around to wipe my plot all the time, but they refused to listen to reason so they went and got the others involved.
Pinkie made me a bunch of get well soon cupcakes (carrot cake, my favorite, and they were right and proper, meaning they did indeed have nuts in them. Walnuts, to be precise.) Rainbow dug through the wreckage of my apartment and somehow managed to salvage eighty three point seven percent of my books. Rarity went through the library and inventoried the damaged books for me, which was a huge load off my whithers, I was not looking forward to that. Applejack, being chivalrous to a fault, offered to let me and Spike stay at Sweet Apple Acres while my tree was being regrown. That was pretty ridiculous, the re-growing I mean, not the offer, that was nice and I took her up on it after she insisted for the twelfth time. I could've re-grown the tree in about an hour, even fresh out of the hospital I can manage that much, but Mayor Mare left explicit instructions with the guards that I wasn't allowed.
While I was staying at Sweet Apple Acres (which is when I discovered the hay bacon, seriously, you should order that for the castle. It won't make mornings any less miserable, but you'll be able to have something to sop up the cement you call coffee and protect your innards) I managed two days of bed rest, which is pretty admirable as far as I'm concerned, but unfortunately the others didn't listen to reason any more than Redheart did, and after my third attempt to go to my re-grown tree to get something worthwhile done they sicced Fluttershy on me.
That was just low.
So I ended up spending a week getting Flutternurtured, which was kinda like that time I got the flu when I was eight, but instead of a stern look from your hoofmaidens whenever I got out of bed I got the world's biggest guilt trip instead. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if we could bottle whatever it is about Fluttershy that makes anypony and anything around her just want to give her a big hug and never make her sad ever, we'd never lose another soldier. She means well, but I think she's unaware of how bad she makes you feel when she turns those big sad eyes of hers on you.
I will say this though, as annoying as I found being confined to bed away from the town, it was probably good for Spike. He's...well, he's not back to normal yet. The top of his largest spike was snapped off when he was attacked and though I've been looking into ways to fix it I haven't found anything yet. More than that though he's been very clingy, which I can understand, but it still hurts to see him that way. I don't think he's willingly left my side at all since the attack and he's taken to spending most of his time on my back or leaning on my barrel. Plus, all he really wants to do is cuddle, not that I'm much different. I hope he'll be alright, but I think it might be a good idea for you to talk with him. There aren't any dragon psychologists after all, and honesty dictates I admit there's no way I'd be able to conduct therapy lessons with him even if I did have the qualifications, I'm way to emotionally involved. I've been spending as much time with him as I can but as each day passes and he seemingly isn't recovering the more worried I get.
He's also been having nightmares again, mainly about the Ursa now of course, but about the guardsponies too. He hasn't had any bad reaction to going back to the tree, but I'm pretty sure he's going to be sleeping in bed with me for a while yet. I can't exactly say as I mind though. I've, well, I haven't been sleeping that great either. I'm not as bad as I was during the custody fight with mom, but I keep waking up thinking I heard something. Having him right next to me and knowing I can check up on him at any point is...reassuring.
Moving onto something else, I managed to pester the Guard Captain and Mayor Mare into giving me a look at the records of the investigation into the attack itself. Good thing I did too, because there's no way in tartarus the unedited version is going to be sent off to the Inquisitors. Apparently there have been unsubstantiated reports of Ursas living close to town in the outskirts of the Everfree for years, but since they were mostly just local legends that parents used to scare foals into eating their alfalfa somepony in the Eldritch Defense Battalion decided they didn't need to investigate whether a bucking Ursa was living within walking distance of a bucking population center. In hindsight it makes perfect sense. The Blight at the center of the Everfree isn't the same kind of wild magic that spawns Ursas, but it's similar enough that it might attract them, though I shudder to think what would happen if an Ursa got infected by the Blight.
Anyway, the the official report is going to say something along the lines of 'a migrating Ursa just happened to get attracted to the town, because reasons'. Bits to bon bons it won't mention the fact that the Detachment Commander of the local contingent of the EDB is an inbred twit who couldn't find his plot with two hooves and a map. At least Iron Shod (the new Ponyville Guard Captain) isn't buying it. He's going to send a contradictory report onto the Inquisition, though it'll just get buried when Detachment Commander Penumbra gets wind of it and pays for it to be conveniently misplaced.
Speaking of Iron Shod, he might have a lead as to what provoked the Ursa to begin with. Some of his officers, not the smart ones, went on an impromptu scouting expedition to try and find the Ursa's nest. They managed to follow its trail back to the cliffs in the Everfree a few miles out of town. They found a cave with magical residue consistent with Ursa habitation, and they also found bodies. Five total, three adults (two mares, one stallion), and two local foals, Snips and Snails. What was left of them all was found strung out along the trail leading to the Ursa's den on the outskirts of the forest and the last body was almost within sight of Ponyville proper. As best anypony can put together they were trying to run from the Ursa and back into town when it got to them.
As for why they were out there to begin with, that's an interesting story all on its own. Remember that Trixie mare I mentioned in my last letter? The one bragging about defeating an Ursa? She was the last one the foals were seen talking to, and her diary was found in the wreckage of her wagon in the town square. Turns out, 'Trixie Lulamoon' isn't just a stage name, it's an alias. Her real name is Sunset Shimmer, and she's my cousin twice removed. She was born (illegitimately) into the cadet branch of house Noctis. I had to bend a few laws regarding family records, but I found out a few very interesting things about both my much esteemed family and little miss sparkly plot. Since mommy was stupid and forgot to use protection during Estrus season, derailing an arranged marriage with a banking family that would've brought House Noctis one step closer to having more net worth than bucking Manehattan, she got kicked out of the family and ended up drinking herself out of rented house and home before getting an eventually fatal venereal disease during the course of her side job as a mare of the night. The last thing she did on her deathbed was explain everything to Sunset Shimmer.
Well Sunset, who at that point already had a rap sheet longer than I am including but not limited to theivery, forgery, and unlicensed prostitution, was rather upset about the whole thing (not unreasonably, I have to admit) and stupidly went to house Noctis to try and get recompense. The records don't say exactly what happened between her and mom, but we both know how that meeting would've went. Incidentally, Sunset checked herself into Canterlot general not long after her chat with mom. Her medical records show three broken ribs, a mild concussion, and multiple lacerations along her barrel with embedded glass fragments consistent with a wine bottle. Funny how that works, huh?
After that she drops off the face of Equestria for a few years before getting busted in Trottingham as a part of a ring of thieves and fences specializing in high end magical and alchemical materials. Sunset, who was just a mid level fence at that point, sang like Philomena on Hearthswarming eve and ended up with a five year sentence instead of twenty. Fast forward three years and she was out on good behavior, then she promptly skipped out on her parole officer and disappears again and as far as official records go she's never seen again. That's where her diary comes in.
Well, 'diary' is a bit of a misnomer. What was recovered was a large tome filled with her accounting records interspersed with footnotes and side comments, with only a few real diary entries. Trying to make sense of it was a serious pain in the plot. Her bookkeeping is spot on, but everything else is rambling and slapdash at best. The first thing she did once she got out of prison was visit an underground clinic to get her coat, eye, and mane colors permanently changed, then she went to Manehattan and reinvented herself as Trixie Lulamoon. She used the mobility her new job offered to get in contact with some old pals and reform the thief ring. She laid low for about a year until a few ex-military friends of hers from prison finished their sentences so she could invite them in. With their help she was able to expand her operation into military grade equipment and black market artifacts. She mentions thefts, black market contracts, and general bad behavior in almost every city in the Realm. On an unrelated note, she also kept records of her carnal...exploits, in her diary along with the accounts of her 'business' ventures. The amount of detail she goes into can only be described as obscene.
Anyway, the reason she was in Ponyville was to meet with an associate to pick up a shipment of charged Capacitor Crystals for the old Linear Acceleration Cannons the Royal Fusiliers phased out five years ago. Apparently the old blunderbusses are popular enough among a few Griffon insurrectionist groups that Sunset was able to make a tidy profit smuggling them across the border. As you can probably guess, the adult ponies found in the Everfree outskirts were, in fact, smugglers with a record almost as long as Sunset's, and it was probably the charged crystals that got the Ursa's attention. Even when their containers are properly sealed (which, given the nature of their acquisition, I highly doubt they were) those things leak enough energy to attract all sorts of creatures. Hay, they probably seemed like a nice snack for the Ursa. The crystals themselves weren't found, but there was a rather large crater that suggests either heavy duty combat magic or that somepony destabilized the crystals enough for them to blow. Since the smugglers weren't exactly magical heavyweights I'm going with the second option. We don't know why the foals were out there, maybe they followed Sunset for some reason, I don't think we'll ever know.
As for what happened to Sunset herself that's a mystery too. Her cart was wrecked, but there was no blood, and nopony's seen hide or hair of her since the attack. My guess is she's hiding out somewhere out of the Realm by now. She's got the contacts and the skills to get into Griffonia without raising an alarm, and she'd know that there's no way in tartarus the griffons would extradite her even if she got caught by the Imperial Civic Guards while she was hiding out with her terrorist friends.
And that's all there is to say really. As odd as it feels to write this, things are almost completely back to normal now despite how horrific that night was. Though that reminds me, the service for the fallen was held last week. Mayor Mare insisted on hauling me up on stage to play hero for the townsponies, I tried to get out of it but she wouldn't listen. I knew it was going to be hard on Spike, but Rarity held him while I was up on stage and afterwards he hid between my forelegs like he used to do. He kept it together during the service but afterward I had to take him home so he could calm down. I read to him for a while and he fell asleep leaning on me, after which I took a nap myself. It was...pretty nice actually. Then Rainbow Dash woke us up later that afternoon and we all went out to eat at Horte's. Looking back on it I think they were all a bit shaken by the service like I was (Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie especially) and the...normalcy of finally having our weekly get together with all of us there and none of us in recovery or having to leave early to deal with some kind of fallout from the attack was therapeutic.
Well, I think this has gone on long enough and Spike looks pretty tired so I'm going to call it here. I'm including complete copies of Iron Shod's report, the unaltered EDB report and Sunset's diary for your perusal (though I've clearly marked the icky parts of the latter so you won't have to read them).
Your faithful (and tired) student,
Dusk Shine.
P.S. Since you're insisting on dragging me and the others to the Gala I want to look into having either Shiny or Cadence look after Spike while I'm there. I'm hoping he won't be quite so clingy by the time the Gala rolls around but just in case he isn't I think it's best to have a back up plan. Besides, without any of the others here in Ponyville there aren't any ponies I feel safe foalsitting him.
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And so the price of stupid is high. Let us have a moment of silence... for the deaths of Snips and Snails. *beat* Well, moving on.
This is a lot darker then what was shown in show. Though I do like many of the background points this chapter regarding Dusk's background.
Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
yay I like the shorter chapters with less time in between.
Wow, so you offed Snips and Snails? I wonder what the mood will be at the schoolhouse...
if it wasn't for the fact that this is meant to be a little kid's show I'd completely agree that snips and snails would have met the regrettable end in this event. It's kinda dark, but props for the realism you put into this fic.
I'm not sure if I will like this story or not, but the description seems good enough to draw my attention, and it looks interesting... so I'll give it a look.
How do you plan the chapter with the school paper with no snips and snails?
Nice wrap up chapter. I can't wait for the next chapter. BUT!!!!! is the other pony stories going to be in this fic or should we be looking for a new fic for those stories?
Yep, the gender roles are finally properly displayed! I can't wait for the next real chapter to see this Trifecta of Change in action!
1) Personality Change
2) Partial Gender Change(Twilight/Dusk)
3) Gender Role Change (w/ Monogamy->Polygamy Switch)
Though I was expecting more than just one letter when I saw this chapter title... like correspondence back and forth not just one (not so) little letter to Celestia.
3981063
Three of them in fact.
Obviously the three adult colts found with Snips and Snails are no loss given their weapon smuggling habits, but did they happen to be background ponies we would know? (I assume no, but reading George RR Martin's Works has left me to err on the side of caution on these matters, lest they come back to bite you later).
As for Snips and Snails, eh I always preferred Bulk and Skull, they may have been idiots but when push came to shove they had their hearts in the right place.
4049737 By the time the next chapter rolls around it'll have been almost half a year in-universe so things would be pretty much back to normal.
4049929 It'll probably end up being a Dusk Shine Gaiden chapter.
4049972 Other pony stories?
4050088 The only reason this chapter exists is because I wanted to clean up some loose ends in the last one. If I do more correspondence chapters (and odds are I will, though I can't say where or when as they'll probably be more loose-end clearing stuff) they'll be back and forth.
I would've stuck the letter onto the last chapter directly and saved myself some work (read: copying and pasting from a word document twice instead of once) but 1: I couldn't find a way to cleanly insert a two month time skip, 2: the last scene with Dusk and Spike was a great ending point and 3: that chapter was really long as it was and I didn't want to make it any longer lest people get reading fatigue.
4050131 They were nameless background ponies, yes. Also, bonus points for the power rangers reference (huge part of my childhood, having grown up in the early nineties).
4050236 I quote your note
Show what is the next chapter then. It doesn't make sense to me.
um ok... i know i said i wanted justice
but this twist has gone WAY too dark
Great short chapter. Nice to see you tie up a few loose ends. And nice bit of potential foreshadowing mentioning Dusks mom.
Also, if you don't mind, can we get a total bodycount from the Ursa attack? I...feel like I need to know.
Thus the two background foals who were created for the single purpose of looking like inbred hics die. Why? Because they went into a bear den. Let's face it people, I am more surprised they were allowed to live in the cartoon considering they weren't just in any bear den, but the den of a magical giant freaking bear.
The new spin on sunset shimmer is... disturbing to say the least. Not in that it is too dark or any such thing but that you have effectively written off two characters from the get go.
4050362 It'll be a regular chapter.
4050384 I always thought snips and snails got off easy, and let's be real. If you deliberately walk into the den of a giant predator with the intent of provoking it...well, you kinda deserve whatever you get. The only reason they lived in the show is because the show wasn't aimed at an older audience.
4050698 Four dozen. There were, however, more injuries than actual deaths. The Ursa went through an area without many residents and wasn't exactly stealthy, so most of the damage was property damage. Half the casualties were the firehouse ponies, the rest were just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were a lot of injuries due to the fires, but there weren't many deaths overall.
4050953 You sum up my feelings on Snips and Snails very concisely.
4051149 Heh, whoops. That's the kind of thing that happens when you do your own editing. Excuse me while I go fix that.
4051375 I'm not paranoid. WHICH OF MY ENEMIES TOLD YOU THIS?
4051574 Thankyou.
I do feel a bit sorry for the little buggers. But ah, that plot twist, woaaah.
I like how you worked more of the background into Dusk's letter. I also like how you made it make sense as to why the Ursa Minor was in Everfree and no one knew about it. One last thing: thank you for improving the unicorn breed by giving Snips and Snails honorary Darwin Awards.
4051582 yeah theres that, but trixie being sunset? being dusk's SISTER?!
put anymore twists and the fic may break
4054518 Not sister, cousin twice removed.
4054102 Always happy to hand those out.
4054587 oh right
but please, despite of being "realistic" don't let it go so bad you'd add a dark tag
4054596 I already considered adding one, but I didn't think one chapter of things getting real warranted it. I don't think this will get that dark, but it might need the tag depending on how I decide to make things go *cough*GALA*cough*.
It's important to note that this will not at any point become a grimdark fic. I will not turn this into another Cupcakes. *shudder*
4054994
good god please dont
4055000 I don't like excessively gory/dark stories like that. I don't shy away from blood and guts for the purpose of making a compelling story, but this story will never reach Cupcakes level of gore.
Game of Thrones illustrates my opinion of the grim/dark genre pretty well. In my opinion (and this is just my opinion mind you) George Martin tried way too hard to give his story a gritty/dark feel and ended up going so far over the top I find it unenjoyable. The whole genre is like that for me. Completely saturating your story with blood, death, and gore cheapens the impact and comes off as hamhanded. So no, this will not become pony Game of Thrones.
...Also, seriously, Ned Stark...he could have prevented so many problems if he his default emotional setting wasn't emo wristcutty and he hadn't put honor before rational thought.
So yeah, hate me for my opinion or not, but there you go.
4055113 alright
please exercise the comedy tag
dusk shine and comedy is what reeled me in the first place
4055113 i think you have a good balance. Gj on the story, now update the damn thing :D
4054589 I never liked Snips and Snails...but two ripped apart children (even fictional) is not really a cause for celebration.
Not upset at all that you did that with them (its probably what would have happened) but peoples response to it in the comments is pretty sickening.
Anyway, wow I didnt see that coming with Trixie/Sunset. It's a pretty cool idea actually. Couple questions I have. What led you to merge Trixie and Sunset, and does the change you made to Sunsets back story mean she will be appearing more than her one other appearance (I'm curious since you made her part of Dusk's family). The other question is just whats up with Dusk's mom, is she some kind of heartless villain? A long lost sister to Sombra?
She just seems to always be doing something terrible to someone when we hear about her (Custody battles over Spike, not liking Dusk, beating up Sunset after Sunset got screwed by the family).
I wasnt expecting this much from a short update chapter, but you really outdid yourself I think. This was another really good chapter.
4057259 Oh...well, um, confession time. I haven't seen the movie, so when I named Trixie Sunset Shimmer I literally just pulled the name out of thin air. I only just now looked up the name on google and found out that a character with that name already exists.
So...yeah. I don't have any intention of doing a chapter based off the movie, but I'll probably go through the chapter and change the name to something else just to avoid confusion.
4057364 Thats a pretty funny coincidence.
4059988 I did read a synopsis of the movie, so maybe re-writing Trixie as Sunset Shimmer was some kind of subconscious thing, but yeah...
5402918 Thank you!
5466849 I deleted your comment because you're an obvious troll. Try harder next time.
... So let me get this straight. You orchestrated this fic in such a clever way that
because of how cleverly it was done, 
because I like those characters/movies (Heh, sue me), or 
because of how much it makes sense, so I'm going to make the only response appropriate for such a chapter: 
A: You would never have to focus on Sunset or Trixie due to the fact that they serve as the foil for Twilight.
B: Made it so you would never have to bring up Equestria Girls.
C: Got rid of Snips and Snails.
D. In the most cutthroat, obvious, and remorseless way possible.
E. All in two chapters...
I don't know whether to
4057364 ... That's impressive. To think you could ACTUALLY choose a random name and it turns out to be a popular character from the movie.
Well, I will actually TRY to not make such a simple mistake, and stick with my OC Aria Blaze.