What would like to see in Sundown? · 7:24pm Aug 31st, 2014
Hello Everyone, this is your author speaking to you through the power of an internet site. How are you all today? I suppose I should get to the point quickly...
I am currently in the process of writing chapter three of my story entitled Sundown. (Cause I wanted a clever and pretentious way of saying Sunset Shimmer was feeling down.) In this next chapter it is Sunday and Celestia and Sunset have decided to have a day in. Currently I have over two and a half thousand words into this chapter and its not even looking to be half way done yet.
The trouble is I feel this chapter might be a rather weak chapter in itself. As I currently have it Celestia and Sunset Shimmer are having a bonding moment over Sunset explaining ponies to Celestia. Its got a lot of my headcannon of how their world society and magic work, but I also have a flashback going into detail of a moment of Sunset's early childhood. I don't know if that would be interesting. So, my solution is to ask you nice people.
Would rather I do the flashback as planed showing a moment of cwute widdle Sunset, or do you want to do a more question and answer session with questions from Celestia to Sunset and from Sunset to Celestia?
I feel like both would be enjoyable for this low point in the story but I would love some input on the idea.
TL;DR
Option A: Flashback of early childhood for Sunset Shimmer
Option B: Q&A for Celestia and Sunset asking each other questions supplied by you with some others thrown in from me.
Pick 1, but you can supply a question even if you pick option A of course.
Q&A.
Option B. I'd rather have the dialogue and it'll give you a bit of a challenge as well. Make the scene interesting and informative without being boring or overly expository. :P
2417085 You have altogether too much faith in me.
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Bah, if it doesn't work, then we can point out why and you can improve you're writing. You'll probably still write better than most. Now I'm just trying to figure out why my favorites didn't update with the second chapter many weeks ago... Also, no report of the robbery, battery, and petty theft? That kind of sucks. Would at least be a few years in prison for Gilda. You also have a couple more crimes for trapping her on the roof purposely.
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So... neither of you want to pose a question? of course its from Sunset's or Celestia's perspectives.
And yes there will be more Consequences for Gilda. (See what I did there... Dropping the Chapter name and such. I AM SO CLEVER.)
2417140 Sorry, but nothing comes to mind.
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Eh, I really don't have any questions in my mind. Most stories do a better job of characterizing Sunset than the actual movie did and I don't know where you want this story to go. I still think my favorite Sunset Shimmer story is Long Road to Friendship. There are interesting questions though of whether Sunset thought she would become an alicorn like Twilight. Did she believe the elements of harmony were her destiny. The simple questions that Principle Celestia would have no idea to ask.
Bit of a rant but I never really liked Princess Celestia. I've always found her to be incompetent, overly manipulative, or willing to take stupid risks. 1. Never tells Twilight truth and just sends her off, 2. there are questions about how manipulative she was during Ticket Master, 3. the whole Philomena incident brings up many questions, 4. inability to tell that niece has suddenly become a big b**** rather than just nervous about a wedding (edit: also losing to said bug), 5. willingness to sacrifice the entire crystal empire, her niece, the elements of harmony (ponies rather than items), her nephew in law, and who knows what else Sombra would do to give a test to Twilight she is meant to fail, 6. thinking back, the lack of real punishment for the Want-it-need-it incident, and 7. the willing causing of mental and physical anguish to the elements of harmony by giving Twilight the Starswirl spell. Those are just the ones I can think of easily. I'm trying to figure out what Princess Celestia has accomplished without manipulation and lying that was positive and shown on screen.
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I am prone to think of it in just this way. People expect her of great acts, either evil or good. I think she is just an overworked authoritative figure. Its not willful manipulation or a hidden agenda, just that she didn't think things through. She's simply more mortal than most believe, she makes mistakes and probably isn't the brightest, but she tries her hardest to do the best for all her ponies. At least as far as explaining how she acts.
In the realest meta way though, the reason why she acts in the ways she does, is because the writers of the show use her as a plot piece rather than a character. She is the monarch that sends the hero and contrives a reason for the quest not a hell of a lot else.
Also! I don't mind rants! I'll rant with you and not belittle your opinion! I love an honest debate.
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Eh, I added the incompetent for not thinking things through because some of the things seem too straight forward (Sombra situation and the cost of failure). For some reason, Sunset Shimmer does have some good stories. Probably because we don't have much attached to her and how open everything is to what can happen to her afterward as well as developing an interesting past that explains why she does what she does.
Actually I just came up with a good question from Celestia. Whatever happened to making friends with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie like at the end of the movie?
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That's a good one, although I am gonna rephrase that most likely.
And Sunset gets so many good fics because she is both A. a bitch. and B. on the cusp of a redemption through growth as a person. A redemption that for now, isn't explored. We get to make it up and that is exciting. Also I completely agree that LRtF probably has the most interesting take on it. Right now. I am trying, but also not, to make a fic that can replace the top slot of Sunset fics. At least that is what I am going for to force me to improve its quality. I figure to aim a bit lofty and just hope for a good result.
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At least you're on page 2 of top rated all time for sunset specific fics (at least when I just checked).
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Believe it or not, but I kind of nerotically check that. I use it as a means to movitate me onward and not to shrink away from all of this attention.
2417425 And that is another reason why your Sunset Shimmer story deserves it's place among the top twenty Sunset Shimmer stories on this site rating wise. You are so humble about what you are aiming for and the result you end up getting.
Also, would it be possible to do a Q&A session with brief snippets of Sunset's memories shown in very brief flashbacks scattered about the chapter?
If not, then I will go with Option B as well.
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If the trend of not getting questions keeps going I may just end up doing that.
2417270 I agree completely with your take on Celestia, she's the government, her successes are assumed and her failures are focused on. One thing I noticed from the end of season 4 was, Celestia has visions of the future. That could actually explain a lot, maybe she makes bad decisions because in her experience, doing what the vision shows her always works out in the end.
I personally prefer Option A if early childhood still includes time with Celestia, or gives us background on Sunsets biological parents. I'm not going to lie, the main reason I like this story is because I absolutely LOVE what I'd call "mom-shipping" between Sunset Shimmer and Celestia, either one of them.
If you do pick Option B, I have tons of questions, pick and choose what you think works best:
Did Celestia promise princessship and/or alicornhood to Sunset someday? Was it implied (in Sunset's view)?
How much did Celestia tell Sunset about Nightmare Moon?
I'd also love to hear more background on Principal Celestia, and her version of Equestrian history. Has she ever ran into dudes named Sombra, Discord, Tirek, Starswirl? Has her sister ever gone crazy?
2418593 Don't forget Chrysalis. And now that I think about it, are you going to include the Twilight of Principal Celestia's world? And does Principal Celestia have a niece named Cadance too?
I would prefer a Q&A. And one of the questions would be (maybe with a little complicated answer), all this time that Sunset has been living in the human world, did she ever encounter her other self?
2418640 Well, we saw Shining Armor in Chapter 2, I would like to think that it serves as a little forshadowing that we will see Human Twilight
2418884 Oh yeah, that one has definitely got to be in there somehow.
Cute widdle Sunset!
I'm torn between both these concepts, but if I have to choose, my answer is ^
I can see a bit of both happening. Celestia obviously wants to help Sunset so while the Q&A you can do a bit of flashback for certain points.