...invoking a whole bestiary of frankly-terrifying extradimensional beings, many of them explicitly servants of the Morningstar
Just going off real-world analogues to these traditions, I'd assume the Morningstar is a reference to the devil. But Sunset wouldn't recognize that - what does it represent in your version of Equestria? Is it the Shadows? Or a distorted reference to Luna?
There was only one virgin sacrifice she was in any moral position to make, and that would have been an act she only could have done once -- so, no.
Now I'm imagining an AU!Sunset making that virgin sacrifice to force the portal open again, once she finally has her army assembled... ("Good thing I brought campaign tents," she thinks.)
The equivalent in her true form would have been to try to cast spells by waving her hooves around, which wasn't even how the (rare) Earth Pony mages operated -- they meditated, compounded potions and did ritual magic by walking patterns.
Well, walking in patterns is waving your hooves around - in contact with the ground, which is probably also a magic conductor?
and she indeed succeeded in making some effective herbal remedies, by dint of long effort producing compounds which duplicated the effects of medicines she could buy cheaply at any nearby pharmacy.
That... probably is what a lot of magical potions are designed to do? Of course, they're easier to make in Equestria.
the worst being ones in which yellow-eyed formless black horrors hatefully hissed offers of assistance for some dreadful unspoken price that she knew she could not and must not pay, not if she meant to remain the mistress of her very soul.
Somehow I'm guessing those aren't just nightmares and drug flashbacks...
It was only because of her great skill that she was able to achieve any effects at all, and she could clearly see, from her experiments, why Human scientists had been unable to verify the reality of magic.
Interesting idea. It would explain why once the ambient magical level around CHS increases over the first two movies, Twilight Sparkle is able to build a device that can track and even capture this energy. Presumably other scientists never tried this because they never noticed such strange energy readings to try and manipulate in the first place.
Since she had arrived in this world and established her new identity, Sunset had studied the ambient magic, and read the laughably-amateurish, wildly-speculative works that passed among the Humans for thaumaturgical lore. Most of it seemed nothing but vague fantasies born of pure superstition, and a distressing amount of that which was more specific dealt with invoking a whole bestiary of frankly-terrifying extradimensional beings, many of them explicitly servants of the Morningstar, and possessing extremely-malign natures.
If these entities were imaginary, then the lore regarding them was useless. If these were not imaginary, then the last thing that Sunset Shimmer wanted to do was attempt to summon them. These were the sort of creatures that, in Equestria, would have been banished to Tartarus. It was not generally a good idea to treat with such beings. No matter what they promised, since in any case most of them were reputed liars.
I can guess what some of these books probably were, with the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses being one of them. And at least a few were probably the sort of things that Weiser or Llewellyn sells, which are pure fluffbunny material. Though Sunset could always write some books about the secrets of Unicorn Magic and sell them through either of those companies; she'd probably make mint off of their fanbase...
But yeah, no Sunset making a deal with someone like Rowley Thorne or Julian Karswell here. Which is all to the good for her!
I also felt amusement at her dismay over discovering magic rituals that actually worked, but so poorly. I once knew some wannabe witches and would-be masters of mighty magic who would have chopped their good right arm off for even that much.
After various failures -- numerous annoying stenches, several hair-singeing flares (which convinced her of the importance of safety goggles) and one outright explosion (fortunately a very minor one)
Hmm, I wonder if this was that one book Crowley supposedly wrote when working with Jack Parsons that contained a whole list of "alchemical formulae" that, if done in precisely the manner described, would produce unstable explosives, toxic gases, mix acids and bases, etc. Crowley supposedly said later that he did it as an intelligence test.
She did succeed in making several herbal compounds which had strongly psychoactive effects, and which some of the sources claimed would augment her psychic powers and open her perceptions to other worlds. Sampling the fruits of her labors, she managed more than once to get incredibly inebriated, and on one memorably-frightening occasion suffered horrible hallucinations -- at least she hoped they were hallucinations -- of some of the nastier creatures of Human demonology.
Seems Sunset discovered the same thing as the guy who brewed up the Liao drug in 'The Hounds of Tindalos' -- when you can see into other worlds, the beings there can also see you.
I like how you handled Sunset's explorations of human magic and sorcery. It probably did a lot to convince her that she was among ignorant savages.
Just going off real-world analogues to these traditions, I'd assume the Morningstar is a reference to the devil. But Sunset wouldn't recognize that - what does it represent in your version of Equestria? Is it the Shadows? Or a distorted reference to Luna?
Now I'm imagining an AU!Sunset making that virgin sacrifice to force the portal open again, once she finally has her army assembled... ("Good thing I brought campaign tents," she thinks.)
Well, walking in patterns is waving your hooves around - in contact with the ground, which is probably also a magic conductor?
That... probably is what a lot of magical potions are designed to do? Of course, they're easier to make in Equestria.
Somehow I'm guessing those aren't just nightmares and drug flashbacks...
Interesting idea. It would explain why once the ambient magical level around CHS increases over the first two movies, Twilight Sparkle is able to build a device that can track and even capture this energy. Presumably other scientists never tried this because they never noticed such strange energy readings to try and manipulate in the first place.
Since she had arrived in this world and established her new identity, Sunset had studied the ambient magic, and read the laughably-amateurish, wildly-speculative works that passed among the Humans for thaumaturgical lore. Most of it seemed nothing but vague fantasies born of pure superstition, and a distressing amount of that which was more specific dealt with invoking a whole bestiary of frankly-terrifying extradimensional beings, many of them explicitly servants of the Morningstar, and possessing extremely-malign natures.
If these entities were imaginary, then the lore regarding them was useless. If these were not imaginary, then the last thing that Sunset Shimmer wanted to do was attempt to summon them. These were the sort of creatures that, in Equestria, would have been banished to Tartarus. It was not generally a good idea to treat with such beings. No matter what they promised, since in any case most of them were reputed liars.
I can guess what some of these books probably were, with the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses being one of them. And at least a few were probably the sort of things that Weiser or Llewellyn sells, which are pure fluffbunny material. Though Sunset could always write some books about the secrets of Unicorn Magic and sell them through either of those companies; she'd probably make mint off of their fanbase...
But yeah, no Sunset making a deal with someone like Rowley Thorne or Julian Karswell here. Which is all to the good for her!
I also felt amusement at her dismay over discovering magic rituals that actually worked, but so poorly. I once knew some wannabe witches and would-be masters of mighty magic who would have chopped their good right arm off for even that much.
After various failures -- numerous annoying stenches, several hair-singeing flares (which convinced her of the importance of safety goggles) and one outright explosion (fortunately a very minor one)
Hmm, I wonder if this was that one book Crowley supposedly wrote when working with Jack Parsons that contained a whole list of "alchemical formulae" that, if done in precisely the manner described, would produce unstable explosives, toxic gases, mix acids and bases, etc. Crowley supposedly said later that he did it as an intelligence test.
She did succeed in making several herbal compounds which had strongly psychoactive effects, and which some of the sources claimed would augment her psychic powers and open her perceptions to other worlds. Sampling the fruits of her labors, she managed more than once to get incredibly inebriated, and on one memorably-frightening occasion suffered horrible hallucinations -- at least she hoped they were hallucinations -- of some of the nastier creatures of Human demonology.
Seems Sunset discovered the same thing as the guy who brewed up the Liao drug in 'The Hounds of Tindalos' -- when you can see into other worlds, the beings there can also see you.
I like how you handled Sunset's explorations of human magic and sorcery. It probably did a lot to convince her that she was among ignorant savages.
Quite an interesting take on a unicorn's exploration of human magic on Earth. Interesting read indeed.
I really, really like this idea that Sunset accidentally gain the interest from an actual demon, which eventually take over her in the movie