And in this chapter we see yet more evidence that Sunset is extremely good at looking at rules or laws of different phenomena, and nitpicking on them until she finds a way to break them.
Just casually inventing from scratch a new way to cast magic from excess spilloff of a different spell to fool a security system allowing only that one spell.
Which puts her earlier complaints about Celestia's 'constantly shifting standards' into an interesting light.
Sunset has taught herself, as a result of her (lack) of upbringing to concern herself with the precise wording and effect of various phenomena, assignments, lessons, and rules given to her, rather than any of the intent.
So if Celestia says "you need to do X", Sunset will go research what the criteria for success at X are.
And then she attacks the issue from an unexpected angle because no one thought any reasonable pony would consider that method. Including Celestia.
So let's say for example, if there is a rule from 600 years ago about how you can graduate school by fighting the professors in a duel, then duelling is a completely valid form of graduation and its hardly her problem no other pony has bothered to read or updated the rules in centuries, and blaming her for the burnt down building is entirely unfair and just moving the goalposts on her after-the-fact.
After all, no reasonable choices or plans can be made with incomplete information, so if people wanted that everyone graduate school non-violently - and duelling is still in the books - this information should be told in advance.
Moreso when Celestia was there when the rule was put on the books, so as a Goddess she should remember it perfectly fine.
And Celestia's par for the course is failing to communicate important information, to a pony who desperately craves validation, believes everything is a test, looks at rules as guidelines to see the extra-hidden tests for clever people, and that Celestia is just layers of masks hiding a hypercompetent adult who thinks in this same manner but exceeding Sunset in every facet... And who for some reason never congratulates her for burning down the school building or challenging the professors into a duel, despite these clearly being the clever superior options to pass the hidden tests.
So let's say for example, if there is a rule from 600 years ago about how you can graduate school by fighting the professors in a duel, then duelling is a completely valid form of graduation and its hardly her problem no other pony has bothered to read or updated the rules in centuries, and blaming her for the burnt down building is entirely unfair and just moving the goalposts on her after-the-fact.
After all, no reasonable choices or plans can be made with incomplete information, so if people wanted that everyone graduate school non-violently - and duelling is still in the books - this information should be told in advance
Perhaps my example could have been better, but in that situation the case specifically was that she challenged the faculty for early graduation and the faculty thought she was challenging them to combat, which baffled Sunset because no such rule (combat challenge) existed and Celestia would never have allowed such a rule to exist.
So Sunset thought she was saying "Give me the graduation tests right now and I'll pass your challenges" and what the faculty heard was "I'mma kick everyone of you in the face" which Sunset finds entirely unreasonable interpretation specifically because the rules don't allow for her to pass by kicking them in the face.
Implication being, she might have if they did.
That is some real cognitive dissonance right there. One can understand how Sunset became what she is today. She has been both praised as the best and believes that she is not enough to meet some imaginary standard of Celestia...which puts her into a self-hate spiral that she then projects onto others...like she has been trying so hard with little to show for it, while others are doing absolutely nothing in comparison. Yea, that ain´t a formula for a well-functioning pony.
...I so, so desperately wish I fid not feel capable of relating to this post.
Alas, hello. I'm very much not a well functioning person, and can confirm it sucks. Though with much less lashing out (because it is much harder to get away with that, and instead I'm dripping with empathy to others, so.. more self-hate instead v: )
Though, her delusion about Celestia are not something I can relate to. And damn, wonder what it will take for those to unravel.
Voice could twist time into a pretzel to make sure Sunset arrives at Day Court on time despite leaving Twilight multiple hours after said court has ended.
After all, this meeting will almost definitely be important for Sunset's ascension, preventing it from being cut short is just Voice doing her duty!
...I so, so desperately wish I fid not feel capable of relating to this post.
Alas, hello. I'm very much not a well functioning person, and can confirm it sucks. Though with much less lashing out (because it is much harder to get away with that, and instead I'm dripping with empathy to others, so.. more self-hate instead v: )
Though, her delusion about Celestia are not something I can relate to. And damn, wonder what it will take for those to unravel.
I relate strongly enough to this to mention it explicitly rather than relying on Heart reactions.
Also, Twilight is an interesting opportunity for Sunset to fulfill the friendship criteria for Alicorn-hood. She's likely to grow up into Sunset's equal, or possibly her superior, in magical ability, so she can't just dismiss her as incompetent and lazy like she does everyone else, and she shares Sunset's detachment from normal ponies, except manifested through anxiety rather than Sunset's superiority-complex approach. The mixture of traits to respect and differences to provoke thought are likely to be useful.
I really, really hope Celestia doesn't immediately take Twilight as a personal student though…
Hmm my prediction, Sunset does the right thing for the wrong reasons. Offers to make Twilight her personal student (or something to that effect) because she's afraid that Celestia will if she doesn't but to other eyes it will seem like such growth. Well that or Celestia pulls a stupid and suggests she might take Twilight as a student, who knows. lol
This is how you end up turning your potted plants comment into prophecy.
Although, its kind of interesting how many unicorns are extremely narrowly competent mono focused maniacs. Is it something about unicorns, or something about Canterlot culture?
This is how you end up turning your potted plants comment into prophecy.
Although, its kind of interesting how many unicorns are extremely narrowly competent mono focused maniacs. Is it something about unicorns, or something about Canterlot culture?
Sunset has taught herself, as a result of her (lack) of upbringing to concern herself with the precise wording and effect of various phenomena, assignments, lessons, and rules given to her, rather than any of the intent.
I relate to this a lot. And I believe Sunset may have focused on Exact Wording so hard as a defence mechanism. If you are poorly socialised and can't always discern the intent of what people are saying, focusing purely on their exact wording offers some measure of certainty. If a bright eyed young Sunset was constantly disillusioned by teachers who wanted to put an 'uppity gutter trash' in her place, and so shifted goal posts by insisting on technical fails when Sunset succeeded in the spirit of their 'tests'... I can imagine a clever young Sunset assuming this was a lesson on the importance of focusing on Exact Wording and Requirements, and proceeding to assume all tests are like that.
With the problem being that she is kinda the sort of freakishly talented to take that far in Weird directions and frustration of the pulling out own hair sort when people give vague seeming double standard things and don't clarify for whatever reason
Yaaaaaa I can totally see how things lead up to the point with some initial assumptions planted because of semi-hostile actors leading to a domino effect of problems piling up
Mild schedule slippage; next update probably out tomorrow or Monday depending on how long it takes me to recover from COVID vaccine side effects. I normally wouldn't say because I'm still well within the ">1k words/day" rate, but apparently some of you have started compulsively refreshing at 8:00 and 10:00, so. Please relax.
I normally wouldn't say because I'm still well within the ">1k words/day" rate, but apparently some of you have started compulsively refreshing at 8:00 and 10:00, so. Please relax.
Breakfast, after that initial hiccup, was a mostly silent affair. Celestia had returned to her seat to resume rapidly and methodically eating even though there should have been nothing save pride stopping her from sitting beside me.
...Well, okay, no. Her chair was bigger than ours for obvious reasons. But she could have invited me to sit closer.
The distance did make it a little easier to think properly again. I still wasn't entirely sure what to think of the allegedly-ongoing offer to accompany her to whatever events I wanted, but past experience told me that there surely must be limitations. It would be safer to figure out what I could do with my days from here on so that I would have means to distract myself once the first inevitable refusals started rearing their head.
Magic had dominated my life for years at this point, only for Voice to suddenly say that I'd fulfilled that particular requirement as far as alicorn ascension went. Voice had successfully distracted me with promises of vocalization-based magic and whatever spells comprised the Chain of Knowledge, but sporadically studying those magics would be different from spending my every waking hour on self-improvement.
Still, it was magic. The primary driving force of reality itself that kept our world stable and allowed Equestria's continued prosperity! My Special Talent! Just because most magics might not help me ascend didn't mean that I should stop studying them. Magical proficiency would remain useful for my entire life. However, I would have less time to study magic during the — probably short-lived — period time that Celestia would let me accompany her whenever I wanted. Prioritization was needed.
Delving further into the summoning and binding of Outsiders seemed reckless at this point. Destruction of my mind was one of the few ways to properly kill me, and Trespassers were infamous for doing exactly that. I would refresh and refine my knowledge of how I might banish Outsiders — or more accurately, hide our reality from them — just in case I ever encountered somepony else who'd summoned a Trespasser, but even that much would only occupy me for so long. Days at most, provided that my notes had survived the ritual. Celestia wouldn't have let them be stolen, at least; the Dirge of Dreams was obviously High Magic not to be allowed into the hooves of normal ponies.
Speaking of underprepared hooves...
I snuck a glance at Celestia's entirely decorative golden regalia before returning my eyes to my glorified porridge disguised as a more dignified fruit dish. I had zero confidence in Celestia's ability to find whatever war version she'd apparently misplaced. Replacements would need to be crafted, and I wasn't sure that I actually trusted other ponies to do it right even if I believed any of them could — which, to be clear, I didn't.
Enchantment wasn't quite the same as embedding spells in solid objects, but there was enough overlap to ensure that superior enchanters were often skilled wizards as well. I'd dipped a hoof into the subject, enough to make some minor trinkets and repair practically anything I might realistically need to, but I hadn't bothered studying it further than that. I'd assumed that I could just buy somewhat more complex items from specialists. Enchantments made to last were a high-energy venture in terms of both magical power and sheer time, both of which were necessary for learning and practicing other spells.
Relying on the efforts of strangers was no longer enough. Plenty of ponies might be able to make something that might stop a couple arrows, concussive blasts, or even the accidental sonic attack that I'd unleashed earlier. While that might be enough for surprise attacks, it still felt wildly insufficient. I wanted something that could reliably protect Celestia no matter how much she let her combat abilities deteriorate — and possibly something to give Cadance enough time to run away, too. She certainly wouldn't be able to defend herself any time soon.
Enchantment was going to be something I would need to study far more, it was clear — especially since, now that I was thinking about it, Celestia had hinted at how making a gift for me would take a while. There might be an implied lesson there: that if others were doing to do nice things for me, then I should help them do it lest the product turn out worse than it could have been.
Or maybe Celestia really was just trying to make me a big, shiny gift so that I would be more willing to overlook inevitable unfair treatment. It really was too soon to tell.
Either way, I would need to study enchantment not just for the sake of personal improvement and tools for the future, but for the immediate good of all Equestria. Celestia could not be allowed to continue as unprotected as she had been. I might be able to convince Voice to help teach me, too. Hardships and vulnerability might make for a good story, but so did somepony working hard to make gifts for another, right? Ponies couldn't be the first entities She'd met who'd chosen to imbue items with magic; Voice had likely picked up some other methods of enchantment, too. Novel defenses would be important for thwarting attackers.
Plus, if I enchanted new attire myself, that would provide Celestia with an excuse to wear defensive items that wouldn't go against her reckless, short-sighted symbolism. It would be wearing gifts from her adopted daughter, not any sudden lack of confidence in Equestria's stability and safety.
I technically had the next decade to hone my skills before Celestia would lose Voice's assurance as a backup. Unlike so many other ponies, I had never been one to leave tasks until the last minute. The sooner I began and the more time I spent learning, the sooner I would finish and be able to move on to other ventures. I paused in my ravenous consumption, idly noting that my appetite had predictably increased with my magic, and look toward the head of the table.
"Prin—er, Celestia?" I hazarded.
I was unwilling to call her 'mother' even in front of guards who had already heard me do so. It felt infantile and embarrassing.
Celestia's turned her head toward me, but she didn't stop eating. Although that might be considered rude to other ponies, I didn't mind. Life in Canterlot Castle was always busy, and Celestia was the consistently the busiest of all — even if that was apparently deliberately self-inflicted and most certainly avoidable.
"Could we include lessons on enchantment sometime soon?" I requested. "Somepony needs to enchant you replacement regalia, and if you'll already be making something for me, I was hoping we could turn those sessions into lessons?"
Celestia swallowed down her food before plastering on a warm smile.
"Truthfully, I had already intended to turn at least the first few days into demonstrations," Celestia claimed. "Your presence will make matters significantly easier."
Celestia paused and lit her horn to resummon a world-blurring privacy bubble.
"I cannot promise they will be long lessons, however," she warned, rather effectively drowning my hopes. "We may supplement them with separate enchanting lessons–"
'May,' but will you ever have the time?
"–but this project will not be good for learning more than the theory," Celestia continued. "I am unwilling to state the reasons why until we possess a much greater degree of privacy than can be mustered with one spell, but I believe you will find my logic to be acceptable."
Budding bitterness faltered in favor of climbing curiosity. I'd been assuming it was a case of not wanting to make the project take longer by explaining everything she might need to do. That didn't explain the privacy bit.
"And while I do very much appreciate the thought," Celestia added, "you need not concern yourself with my safety. Alicorns are difficult enough to kill that it is often easier to stick with simple incapacitation and capture.
Between us, Cadance buried her face in her hooves.
"That is not reassuring, Auntie," Cadance groaned. "Now I'm worried, too. I feel like Equestria's era of peace is one evil sorceress away from being turned into a golden age of antiquity that ponies nostalgically talk about in the past tense."
Celestia transitioned to a wry smile.
"Do give me some credit, my dear niece. Many an 'evil sorceress' has been dealt with over the last several centuries, and the bulk of them even became boons to Equestria after they reformed. You did not hear about them simply because they were not worthy of notice. Sunset is correct, I am out of practice in single combat — but there are plenty of ponies in Equestria who are not, and I rest secure in the knowledge that they are capable of resolving most threats on their own."
"Just to be sure, are we talking about the same ponies who panic when the market runs out of apples?" I questioned.
Celestia's wry smile wavered.
"I did say 'most.'"
"Only if we start counting stuff like ants as a threat," I scoffed.
Celestia promptly pretended that I hadn't said anything.
"Furthermore," Celestia continued, "Harmony itself tends to take offense when an alicorn is killed. Any villain who dares will find the resulting rebuke to be more than they could possibly handle. Though I do not possess proof, I remain convinced that such a misstep by Discord is perhaps the sole reason that we were able to defeat him. He never killed anypony directly, but he seldom considered the long-term consequences of the creatures he unleashed upon the world and his 'territory' was effectively the entire planet."
"Do they know that killing alicorns is a bad idea?" I pointedly asked. "I've specifically tried to research Harmony before and only turned up some obvious propaganda glorifying support systems."
I didn't expect the question to be enough to make Celestia stop eating altogether to stare at me in shocked silence.
"I haven't heard of it, either," Cadance volunteered. "You swear by it the same way that ponies swear by you, and I've noticed some ponies around the Castle copying that, but nopony else knows. I even asked the castle archivists and they just shrugged at me."
Celestia closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Despite the impending time pressure of Day Court, she indulged in several long seconds of silence before opening them once more, obviously exhausted.
"Goodness," Celestia sighed. "I can already tell that I'm going to have to imitate those grumpy old mares complaining about 'family values,' except it may be all of Equestria who needs to be taught what has evidently been forgotten. You truly could not find anything?"
"Only a few things about the 'unstoppable magic of friendship' coached in vague enough terms that the authors were clearly either parroting what they'd heard," I said, "or just attributing to 'Harmony' what should be attributed to the magical potency of love and affection, as effectively demonstrated by Equestria's ability to reliably repel windigos."
I could not remember the last time I remembered Celestia groaning, but she did so now. The sound was so unfamiliar that both Cadance and I could only stare.
"I am forced to wonder how many ponies thought I was being hyperbolic after all," Celestia complained. "I will certainly need to discuss this further with both of you within the next week. For now, I'm afraid I must be going. I wish you both a wonderful day, and hope to see you soon."
Celestia slid out of her seat and moved not to the empty opposite side of the table, but toward Cadance and I. For a moment, I thought that she fully intended to simply pass us both without further interaction. Having her pause just long enough to give me a quick wing-hug was an unexpected, and somewhat bewildering, bonus.
The still-active privacy spell distorted Celestia's form into a kaleidoscope of colors in the final moments before she passed through to the other side, leaving Cadance and I alone with our meals.
There were all of five seconds of silence before I turned back to Cadance and broke it.
"We're still getting her better protections, right?"
"Oh, absolutely," Cadance instantly agreed. "I can't believe she's fighting us on this. Villains are definitely ponies aware of the long-term consequences of their actions, who would know about an obscure piece of what is essentiallymythology for how long it's been. Do you think Voice would be willing to keep her safe while we work on that? It's not as though we can just put out an ad, so we'll need to be discreet."
Great minds think alike, it seemed, even when one of those minds seldom bothered to apply herself.
"Voice has already decided Celestia is too entertaining to die in the next decade," I relayed, "but don't tell Celestia that. I'm afraid she'll work herself to death if she realizes she can get away with it."
Cadance paused, clearly torn between mentioning Celestia's newfound undying status and whatever retort was on the tip of her tongue. The retort won.
"This coming from you?"
"I maintain a very regular sleep cycle with enough breaks to maintain maximum effectiveness," I instantly bit back. "I don't need more than that. Magic is my Special Talent. It's fun."
...Sometimes. Truthfully, many of the fields I'd pursued for a while had been more for the sake of impressing Celestia than because they were what I most wanted to study at that time.
"I take your point," Cadance admitted. "I think one of Voice's comments makes much more sense now, actually. Thank you for making sure I'm safe? I'll admit I didn't expect you to go that far."
I frowned. By the sounds of it, Cadance hadn't needed to bargain for potential resurrection after all. What had Cadance been doing when Voice went to visit her, that She went from expecting a bargain to be struck to simply deciding Cadance was worth keeping around?
I shook my head. Irrelevant.
"Don't misunderstand," I said coldly. "Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I want you dead, and Celestia would be crushed if you did die. Excluding you when the two of us were safe simply felt wrong."
Cadance didn't stop smiling even after I was deliberately mean to her, which was annoying. At least she was willing to subsequently change the subject.
"So, I hadn't really thought about it before, but you're talking like defensive enchantments aren't supposed to be a big deal? Why doesn't everypony have them?"
This was more familiar ground. I dropped the scowl and adopted a lecturing tone.
"Back when Equestria wasn't so peaceful, noble families actually used to have their own dedicated enchantresses," I explained. "The big issue is that, with very few exceptions, enchanted items aren't alive, and they bleed magic over time. Practically any spell you embed in them is not going to be as efficient as it would be if cast by a unicorn, to the point where it's usually more cost-effective to just cast some spells daily at dawn rather than relying on enchantment. Once protective enchantments became something that might be used once every few months rather than on a weekly basis, it quickly lost favor."
"So—it would be better if we just got her back in shape instead?" Cadance hazarded.
"It would be," I acknowledged. "But can you see her taking the time, or even being willing to do something that might jeopardize that precious symbolism of hers? The Princess of Equestria training for combat would certainly be worthy of note."
Cadance frowned, but shook her head.
"Exactly. So that leaves me needing to learn enough enchantment to make a gift of protective jewelry so that she lacks an excuse to not wear it," I concluded. "You're an alicorn and I'm the most powerful unicorn alive. Between us, I'm sure that we can make something that only needs recharging once every few decades."
Cadance perked up and smiled oddly.
"You know, I was thinking about how you're now 'undying.' Doesn't that mean if Voice ever has to bring you back, you'll become un-dead?"
I stared at Cadance with deep disappointment, but no real surprise. Her grin soon faltered and she crossed her forelegs, pouting.
"Well, I thought it was funny," she grumbled.
"I think you'll find that jokes are much harder when ponies don't feel obligated to laugh due to your unearned title."
Cadance flinched and transitioned from a theatrical pout to full-fledged sulking.
"Have you ever considered not going for the throat?" Cadance complained.
"Get to the point where you can actually cast a shield spell and it won't matter if I do."
"Truthfully, I had already intended to turn at least the first few days into lessons," Celestia claimed. "Your presence will make matters significantly easier."
Celestia paused and lit her horn to resummon a world-blurring privacy bubble.
"As will cuddling," she said with a completely straight face.
Cadance choked and slammed her mug of apple cider down hard enough to rattle the table. Fortunately, the dishes had long since been reinforced to survive possible alicorn mishaps.
Which was to say, this set was reinforced. Cadance broke or warped a good number of dishes and silverware in her first days at the castle.
"Auntie, please don't turn physical displays of affection into a joke," Cadance pleaded once she'd recovered.
She's got some pretty impressive empathic senses. Cadence just needed more exposure and a larger sample size of emotions out of Sunset than 'irritation', 'blinding rage', 'dull hate', 'anger', 'derision', 'frustration', 'disgust', 'apathy' -
look she needed an emotion color that wasn't just another shade of red, dull greys, or dark hued.
@Alivaril I can't help but have this image of this fic ending with a pantheon of alicorns under Celestia, but unlike Greece, it's held together by friendship and pony, and Celestia's main crime is trying to work too much rather than Being Literally Zeus
I wonder if they will figure out how to redirect the magic it the enchantment or have it constantly empower itself? So instead of needing to be recharged it either stays charged until used or potentially gains strength over time (either by absorbing magical attacks or absorbing a small but constant amount of the surrounding magic.)
@Alivaril I can't help but have this image of this fic ending with a pantheon of alicorns under Celestia, but unlike Greece, it's held together by friendship and pony, and Celestia's main crime is trying to work too much rather than Being Literally Zeus
"Okay, Zebras I understand. Giraffes, sure. Dragons, absolutely. But what is this supposed to be, some sort of hairless monkey?"
"Look, there's only so many times you can turn into a quadruped before it gets stale, okay?"
You say that as a joke, but there are a lot of attacks in MLP based on pure emotion. Of course many ponies would not consider them 'attacks', but if they existed in our world I expect that military strategists would be discussing counter measures.
