Fanfic / Sunsplit Saga

The Sunsplit Saga by Masterweaver is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic series.

It starts when Twilight asks Sunburst, as indicated by the description of the first story: "Hey, you used to be Celestia's student, right? Did you know Sunset Shimmer?". The chapter's title, is his immediate answer: "WHAT NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!". That bad lie leads to a whole wealth of information, and the rest of the saga.

The series currently consists of the following four stories:

• Sunsplit
• Sunspawned
• Sunshipped
• Sunscarred

All are complete.

As each successive story involves things described in the previous story, be extra careful of spoilers below. Spoilers Off for the information in the first story, as it provides tropes for the series as a whole.

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Tropes used in multiple entries or for the series as a whole

• Alliterative Name: Sunset Shimmer
• Alliterative Title: Sunsplit Saga.
• Childhood Friend Romance: The potential romance between Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst, who knew each other as children, as specified in the source material, and that the latter had a crush on the former, as indicated in the first story. The third story indicates that there is likely reciprocation, given how Starlight's "face went from merely arguably pink to definitely pink", when Sunset Shimmer asked her, "So, again, why aren't you tongue tangoing the tasty treat that is your childhood friend?"
• Crazy-Prepared: Twilight Sparkle, who has more than one backup quill, she has "an array of colorful feathers from her saddlebags", along with a "ballpoint pen", that she only brought out, because all her quills were gone, and won't burn up like her quills did.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The unexpected ability of Sunset gaining sapience from a spell that wasn't supposed to impart such leads to Sunset being more outgoing at the outset than Sunburst about what they really thought about a particular Upper-Class Twit in "Sunsplit", setting in motion Sunset's separate development as a character across the time period covered by the series.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Multiple forms:
  • Each story is a One-Word Title Portmantitle with alliteration components, and the first component being "Sun".
  • Each story, except for the fourth, has their first chapter's title be someone's yelled line:
    • Sunsplit: "WHAT NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
    • Sunspawned: "OH SWEET CELESTIA YOU'VE GOT TO FIX THIS!"
    • Sunshipped: "I-YOU-BU-WHA--WHO THE HAY ARE YOU?!?!"
    • Sunscarred: "Wait... what?"
  • Each story's chapter titles are technically the first line of their chapter.
• Named After First Installment: The series was named after the first entry in the series, "Sunsplit". It's about the connection between Sunburst and Sunset, the point of divergence of the fanfic from the original work.
• One-Word Title: The title for each of the Saga's stories, Sunsplit, Sunspawned, Sunshipped, and Sunscarred.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: Sunset Shimmer is Sunburst's.
• Portmantitle: The title for each of the Saga's stories, Sunsplit, Sunspawned, Sunshipped, and Sunscarred.

Sunsplit

• Bad Liar: Sunburst is one, multiple times.
  • At the beginning of the story:
    • His "WHAT NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!" response to Twilight's question of "Hey, you used to be Celestia's student, right? Did you know Sunset Shimmer?"
  • Combined with Mirthless Laughter, when he tries to disguise his reason to understand why Twilight asked a question, as mere curiosity:

    "Where did you even hear that name!?" Sunburst demanded, pointing a hoof at her... before suddenly realizing she was a princess and backing away. "I mean, not that I need to know, your highness, I just wondered out of purely academic, you know, curiosity, haha, us scholars are certainly a curious bunch you know—"

  • When refusing contact with Sunset Shimmer, obviously lying about not knowing her:
    one of Celestia's other students who I have definitely never met
  • Trying to stop Twilight from contacting Sunset, through deliberate fire spells, disguised as accidental spellcasting:
    She gasped as the quill in her magical grip burst into flames.
    "...choo!" Sunburst covered his nose. "Sorry. Sneezed. Must have accidentally cast a fire spell. Whoops! Good thing I didn't hit the journal."
    [...]
    Twilight: luckily enough, I always carry backup quills!"
    Sunburst's eyes widened as she pulled an array of colorful feathers from her saddlebags. "Oh! I guess that is—" His horn lit up suddenly, beams of light lancing out at the array. "Choo! Choo! Sorry, I—choo! Must have got—choo! A cold from—choo! The blizzard! Choo! Choo! Choo!"
    
    He gasped, letting out a few pants of breath as the last of the feathers disintegrated. "Oh dear. All of your quills, gone? I'm so sorry, princess. I'll personally pay for replacements—"
• Color-Coded Speech: A journal with multiple writers indicates writer with this, based on their coat colors. #A 66 EBE, a.k.a Amethyst, is Twilight, #E 6 B 91 F is Sunset, and #E97135 is Sunburst.
• I Call It "Vera": Sunset reveals rather casually that Sunburst named his beard "Spicy".
• Leg Focus: Sunset comments on Starlight's legs:
  Sunset: Speaking of which, how are Starlight's legs, Sunburst? Are they still as sleek as they were when we were kids?
• Made of Indestructium: Possibly the journal that is the central focus of the story, since Twilight "enchanted it to be virtually indestructable".
• Mind over Matter: How Twilight mainly moves things about, like "[levitating the journal] away from [Sunburst's] hoof, writing frantically on the page."
• Mundane Utility: Twilight uses her unicorn telekinesis to hold and move things, like holding a "quill in her magical grip" to write with.
• Painting the Medium: The sections of text from the magical linked journal, have their sections marked with a black bar on the left, are indented further in, and the speakers' words are colored for their coat color. Purple for Twilight, Yellow for Sunset, Orange for Sunburst.
• Wham Line: Courtesy of Sunset Shimmer, when Twilight asks her via magic journal whether she knew him:
  Sunset: Did I know him? Twilight Sparkle, I used to be him!

Sunspawned

• Achievements in Ignorance: The spell that Sunburst used to create Sunset, the Independent Construct Kinesis Equation, was in magical textbooks, but was thought to be purely theoretical, which Sunburst didn't know. Celestia's hair, which Sunburst had unwittingly used in the spell, helped, but it turns out that the reason no one before him succeeded is because they got the math wrong. Sunburst used the math Meadowbrook used for enchanted items, while everyone else (except possibly a hedgewitch who may have created the Mirror Pool) used the "amniomorphic constant".
• Continuity Nod: in the third chapter, Sunset and Sunburst's first and only kiss is shown.
  • It's implied that a hedgewitch seven hundred or so years ago managed to create the Mirror Pool via the Independent Construct Kinesis Equation.
• King Incognito: After it's been revealed that Princess Celestia was somehow a random mare at a bathhouse, she explains:
  "I put on a disguise so I can socialize without being a 'princess,'" Celestia explained deadpan.
  "What? But—you have a wealth of knowledge and power and, and wealth!"
  "I'm also surrounded by self-absorbed idiots and nopony respects me for myself."
• Mythology Gag: In the third chapter, The mirror pool from the Too Many Pinkie Pies episode from the original show, is referenced.
• Origins Episode: This story reveals how Sunset was created, specifically.
• Prequel: It's the second story in the series, and its events are before the previous story, and expands on how Sunset and Sunburst are related, the fact of their relation having been revealed in the previous story, but not the precise events.

Sunshipped

• Cool Gate: Implied, due to the source material, that Sunset Shimmer visits the human world just by walking into a horse statue, and ends up exiting through a magic mirror.
• In-Series Nickname: Sunset Shimmer addresses Starlight Glimmer as "Glimglim", as shown in the story's description.
• Magic Mirror: The mirror that connects the human and pony worlds. Explicitly called a "magic mirror".
• Questioning Title?: "I-YOU-BU-WHA--WHO THE HAY ARE YOU?!?!"
• Shipper on Deck: Sunset Shimmer visits Equestria to ask Starlight Glimmer a question:
  "I've got a serious important question for you. Why aren't you snogging Sunburst yet?"

Sunscarred

• Gratuitous Spanish: One of the parts of her personality represents her passion for life. She is found hanging out at the club and only speaks in Spanish.
• Literal Split Personality: An experiment put together by Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer, resulted in Sunset Shimmer, a highly magical person, splitting in seven constructs that represent seven parts of her personality, most of which proceed to scatter across the city.
• Questioning Title?: "Wait... what?"

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