Fanfic / First Hoof Account

They're doomed.

Sunset Shimmer wants to become an alicorn more than anything - it's the entire reason why she's Princess Celestia's student. But she's run out of ways to research it and Princess Celestia has blocked her at every turn.

Fortunately for her, there's a new Princess on the block - Cadance. One who's already ascended. One who knows personally and intimately how she did it.

To get her to talk, Sunset will do anything. Even if it means pretending to like - really like - the Pink Pony Of Passion.

When Sunset Shimmer, brilliant student of Princess Celestia, was introduced to Princess Cadance, she was initially furious. Despite her skill and her years under Celestia's tutelage, she has been refused alicornhood time and time again, yet some pegasus from the middle of nowhere and with no relation to Celestia suddenly becomes an alicorn princess overnight? Unacceptable. That is, until Celestia lets slip that Cadance turned herself into an alicorn. Realizing that alicornhood can be achieved without Celestia's approval, Sunset resolves to get the secret from Cadance, and to do so she hatches a cunning plan;

She will make the princess fall in love with her.

First Hoof Account is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic written by TCC56. It follows the tragic teenage romance between Sunset Shimmer and Cadance, back when Sunset had yet to leave for the human world, though after her relationship with Celestia started to deteriorate.

The first chapter was uploaded on August 29th 2021, and has since maintained a semi-regular schedule of updating monthly, with occasional breaks.

Tropes

• Ambiguously Related: In the sense that they know she's related to one of them, just not who. Sunset is the result of a one-night stand between some mare and either Flim or Flam, but the brothers swap around who's who so often that it's impossible to tell which one is her father.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Sunset and Cadance are never stated to have met in canon (though both are (probably) close to the same age and were under Celestia's care, so it makes sense that they would know each other). Here, they had a romantic relationship years before the show happens.
• The Apprentice: Sunset to Celestia of course, though their relationship is strained. Sunset later starts tutoring Moondancer in anticipation of making her her apprentice once she becomes a princess. Sunset also trains Cadance in magic, though their relationship is more equal than a typical mentor/student relationship.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Blueblood is able to pose a threat to Sunset because he knows how to play politics while she doesn't. Sunset eventually realizes this and removes him as a threat by manipulating him into a situation where he loses all his public standing and influence, showing that she can be just as cunning as him when she needs to.
• Becoming the Mask: Sunset initially decides to seduce Cadance just to learn her secrets. It doesn't take long for her to actually start to enjoy Cadance's company for real, to the point that even just seeing Cadance lightens her mood.
• The Bet: For Cadance's magic lessons, Sunset plays a game of magical tag with her, and Cadance insists on including a wager. If Sunset wins, Cadance will dress as a maid and cook a meal from her hometown for her. If Cadance wins, Sunset will tell her the name of the mare she wants to ask out.
• Both Sides Have a Point: On one hand, Sunset is a vindictive, selfish pony who very clearly cannot be trusted with the powers of an alicorn and has a very cynical attitude towards anyone around her. On the other, Celestia is well-meaning but very flawed pony who's refusal to give clear answers, tendency towards springing tests on Sunset without warning, and at times blatant favoritism towards Cadance doesn't exactly make her a paragon of virtue. Neither is fully in the right at any point, and both have good reason to act the way they do.
• Chekhov's Classroom: During one of Cadance's lessons, Sunset explains that a unicorn's telekinetic grip doesn't transfer sensations like heat, meaning that they can lift even burning coals without hurting themselves. This comes up again during her duel with Blueblood, when she heats up his foil as part of her scheme. Since Blueblood is carrying it in his magic, he doesn't realize what she's done.
• Chekhov's Gun: During her fencing lessons, Sunset accidentally positions herself so that one of Gliding Moth's jabs hits between the seams of her vest, resulting in a nasty bruise. During the actual duel, Sunset makes the same mistake, except this time she's sabotaged Blueblood's foil by melting its blunted rubber nib, resulting in a much nastier injury than a mere bruise.
• Christmas Episode: Chapter 23, "Gift," is set on the morning after Hearths Warming Eve, centered around Sunset and Cadance having late breakfast and gift exchange with Celestia. Cadance gets a Hearths Warming doll from Celestia and a set of enchanted earrings from Sunset, and Sunset gets a dress for the gala from Celestia and a set of high-quality art supplies from Cadance (slightly ruined in her eyes when she realizes that Celestia helped her pick it out). This being the fic that it is, drama occurs when Cadance gives Celestia a crescent moon necklace. Sunset had always assumed that Celestia never wanted a gift, and sees it as "losing" to Cadance, teleporting away in a panic to get a gift for her teacher. She ends up giving her the first painting she did, an abstract mix of her own and Celestia's cutie marks, which Celestia is touched by.
• Continuity Nod: When Cadance and Sunset are going out on their first date, Celestia tries to give them the amulet she herself uses in issue 65 of the comics to disguise herself, suggesting that they could use it to have some privacy. Cadance turns it down because she doesn't want to hide, and Sunset turns it down because all of Canterlot knowing about their relationship is why she asked her out in the first place.
• Crappy Homemade Gift: At some point, Celestia gave Sunset a scarf that was clearly made by an amateur using regular materials. Sunset considers this a shoddy gift since Celestia can easily afford the best craftsmen and materials available, not realizing that it's so flawed because Celestia made it herself.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Sunset is one of the most powerful unicorns in history, powerful enough as a child to catch the eye of Princess Celestia herself and has spent her entire life since then improving her magical knowledge and skill. She's also utterly rubbish at anything not involving magic. Blueblood, a Royal Brat with rather average magical power, is able to pose a genuine threat to her simply because he knows how to play politics while she doesn't.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: Sunset's scheme to get rid of Blueblood as a rival resulting in two innocent ponies, one of which even tried to help Sunset, getting their lives ruined, causes Cadance to realize that her and Sunset might not work, and she leaves saying she needs some time to think. It certainly does not help that Sunset is rather callous about the two ponies that got caught up in her machinations. They make up later, but it does not promise well for their relationship.
• Disowned Parent: Sunset makes it clear that she does not consider Flim and Flam her parents anymore.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • A fair bit of it as a result of Sunset being an Unreliable Narrator, but a particularily rough one happens in the Christmas Episode. Cadance gives Celestia a necklace with a crescent moon pendant, having noticed that Canterlot involves a lot of solar imagery but nothing of the moon, despite Celestia controlling the moon and sun in equal measure. The reminder of her sister brings Celestia to tears, but since Sunset doesn't know about Luna, the situation just enforces her feelings of being The Unfavorite. After all, she's been practically raised by Celestia for years and has never been shown any more emotion than a smile and a hug, whereas Cadance has been in Canterlot of less than a year but apparently moves Celestia to tears with a single small gift.
  • Cadance at one point tells Sunset that she's her only friend in Canterlot, since everyone else wants something from her. Unbeknownst to Cadance, the only reason Sunset wanted to become friends with her in the first place is because she wanted something from her.
• Empathic Environment: In-Universe, Sunset realizes that Cadance is in a bad mood because her painting is depicting a stormy coast rather than the serene enviroments she usually paints.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Flim is genuinely shocked and saddened when Sunset admits that she ratted them out to Celestia.
• False Crucible: To test if Cadance's magic training is progressing fast enough, Celestia sets up a faked assassination attempt with dull crossbow bolts. Cadance takes it with relieved laughter, while Sunset is furious at how pointless it was.
• False Friend: Sunset decides to befriend Cadance (later amending the plan to seduce her) in order to get her to spill the beans on how to become an alicorn. As is common for the fake relationship genre, she soon finds herself enjoying Cadance's friendship for real.
• Fisher Kingdom: As Princess of Love, Cadance is affected by the emotional state of Canterlot's citizens. She's happier than ever on Hearts and Hooves' day, but has the equivelant of a hangover for a week after.
• Flowers of Romance:
  • Cadance insists that flowers are must-have for any pony who wants to ask her out, and Sunset takes the advice to heart, commissioning a bouquet from Wallflower Blush. Sunset initially asks for roses, but Wallflower thinks those are too basic and instead composes a bouquet based on the language of flowers; Acacia blossoms to show that Sunset has been pining, forsynthia to symbolize anticipation, arborvitae because she doesn't want this to ruin their friendship, and azalea which symbolizes fragile passion and temperance because Wallflower thinks Sunset is a coward for not wanting yellow irises symbolizing passion. Cadance for her part understands the meaning of the bouquet immediately and responds by giving Sunset blue nasturtiums, which symbolize victory and shows that she accepts Sunset asking her out.
  • Inverted when Sunset also takes the time to ask for a bouquet for Blueblood to show how much she hates him. Wallflower composes one with geraniums (stupidity), foxglove (insincerity), yellow carnations (disappointment and rejection), orange lilies (hatred), and meadowsweet (uselessness), all arranged in the shape of a penis.
• Foregone Conclusion: The fic is marked as a tragedy and Sunset leaving Equestria is coming up on the horizon, so no matter what, Sunset and Cadance's relationship is not going to last.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Turns out that Sunset had actually met Wallflower Blush (or at least her Equestrian counterpart) before, having bought a bouquet of flowers from her to ask Cadance out. Of course, with Wallflower being a magically Forgettable Character, it's no wonder Sunset doesn't recognize her by the time of Forgotten Friendship.
• Freudian Excuse: It's not stated outright, but it's not hard to see that Sunset being raised by a Trickster Mentor who's always pulling Secret Test of Character, and before that a pair of conmen who used her as part of their schemes when she was still a child, might have influenced her extremely cynical and suspicious attitude and tendency to assume everyone around her are out to manipulate and use her.
• Gone Horribly Right: As part of her plan to deal with Blueblood, Sunset sets up a fencing contest and sabotages his equipment's safety feature so that it will look like he actually tried to hurt her. This works a little too well and lands her in the hospital for days as a result of a fencing foil stabbing into her chest.
• Hidden Depths: Cadance enjoys painting, and manages to drag Sunset into trying it out too. Surprisingly, Sunset gets into it, getting a lot of catharsis by painting wild, abstract pictures.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter title is meant to be preceeded by "First," creating a phrase or expression. (First) Cut Is The Deepest, (First) Words, (First) Blood, etc.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Cadance is immortal, Sunset wants to be but isn't. Celestia at one point remarks that it's better for Cadance to not grow emotionally attached to normal ponies, but she doesn't do anything to stop her relationship with Sunset because she wants her to enjoy her youth while she can.
  Sunset: What, I'm just something to entertain her until I die and she moves on to the real princess stuff?
• Parental Favoritism: Not strictly speaking parental, but Celestia does have an unfortunate tendency to show favoritism towards Cadance. A lot of scenes show that she treats Cadance more as a member of her family, while Sunset is forever resigned to being just her student, something she clearly chafes under. Keep in mind, however, that Sunset is an unreliable narrator and her and Celestia's relationship has deteriorated over the years, so part of it is implied to be that the rift between them prevents them from being as close as Celestia and Cadance.
• Parental Substitute: Sunset clearly sees Celestia as more of a parent than her own fathers, though their relationship is severely damaged as a result of several different factors. Since the fic is entirely from Sunset's perspective, it's hard to say if the feeling is mutual, but Celestia clearly does care a lot about Sunset, and is saddened by the state of their relationship.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Sunset's parents are Flim and Flam, two brothers who switch identities so often that neither knows who's the real father, so they parent her together.
• Poor Communication Kills: If there was a price for poor communication, Sunset and Celestia would take it. With Celestia being a Trickster Mentor who prefers subtle implications and gentle pushes rather than openly explaining things (not to mention a millennium of being The Aloner), and Sunset being a deeply distrustful and cynical pony with no patience for lessons that aren't explained clearly, it's hard to point to a single instance of them actually communicating their feelings clearly.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Blueblood gives a scathing one to Sunset in chapter 10, pointing out that for all her magical power, she is utterly inept at manipulation or playing politics. Being able to kill someone with magic means nothing if that person has power and influence that she doesn't, and can ruin her life with a simple letter.
  • Sunset gives her own to Celestia, calling out her belief that Alicorns need to emotionally shut themselves off to deal with immortaliy as being stupid, especially in regards to Cadance. How is the Princess of Love supposed to stop herself from loving anyone? It's certainly laced with a fair bit of Sunset's own selfish desires and ignorance of the burdens of alicornhood, but she does raise some good points about Celestia's fallibility.
• Shaped Like Itself: The Ruby Dinette in Canterlot Castle is named after Lady Ruby Dinette, a minor noble famous for feeding the poor in Manehattan.
• Shout-Out: Cadance's home village of Florentina is from The Rose of Florentina by Sledge115.
• Transplant: Two of the minor side-characters in the fic are originally from fics by different authors; Wallflower Blush's pony counterpart is from Wallflower of Canterlot by Sledge115, and Gliding Moth, Sunset's fencing teacher, is from Blueblood: Hero of Eqeustria by Raleigh.
• Unreliable Narrator: The fic is written from the point of view of Sunset Shimmer, who is an extremely self-absorbed, cynical, and distrusting pony. While the reader can usually deduce the truth from context clues, Sunset herself always assumes the absolute worst-faith interpretation of anything anypony does, especially Celestia. Several moments of Dramatic Irony stem from Celestia clearly trying to make a connection, only for Sunset to interpret it as a test, ploy, or attempt at stiffling her.
• Villain Protagonist: Villain might be a bit far since she hasn't done anything outright malicious yet, but Sunset is a selfish and powerhungry Manipulative Bitch with very little care for how her schemes affect other ponies than herself and (eventually) Cadance, and the entire story is told from her perspective.

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