Princess Sandwich; Princess of Misery

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hello and welcome!! this is my blog to better organize and focus the content of my AU, My Little Pony; Sandwich is Miserable! (alternatively, you could call it MLP; Sandwich Deserves Better, but i find that Sandwich is Miserable better fits the MLP;FIM naming convention, which is the generation this AU is set in.)

my name is Jo! i run this blog alongside my main, @butchjo, and my primary art blog, @butchjorse! i am a 17-year-old bigender bisexual transmasc digital artist that primarily draws in MS Paint and IBIS Paint X! i use he/him pronouns, and i'm based in Washington State, USA!

this au started as sort of a joke, inspired by an old oc i had when i was 5 or 6 years old! unfortunately i don't have any art left of OG Sandwich, but i remember that her name was Princess Goldielock, and she was Celestia's daughter! i was reminded of her randomly while looking at an old notebook from the time period. since then, i've become obsessed with her story and it warms my heart that others like her so much too!

please feel free to send asks! especially directed towards any of the characters in the cast. i will post your ask with a doodle of how they would respond, sort of like an askblog! this blog is part-askblog and part-art archive :D

Adult Sandwich!

like 90% of this au's writing was made up on the spot, though all of it is informed by each piece i write. for example, i always make sure to read over what ive written so far before making new plot progressions, so i don't accidentally create a contradiction(though im not perfect!)

i find that i write best when im not worrying about an outline, though thats just me! please write an outline if youre making big projects! do as i say, not as i do lololol!

the images in this post are some Exceedingly old concepts for Polaris and Eclipsier, they were originally part of another AU but i co-opted them into this one because i feel like they're better suited to this setting. i plan on redesigning them a little later on, but right now these designs are sufficient.

Polaris was a flamboyant and domineering leader, and oversaw his budding kingdom's border with an iron grip. He was not to be trifled with, and was extremely quick to anger when he felt that he was slighted. He knew how to command a room, and he made sure that he was always the center of attention. He was the type to desire conquest, and Equestria's largest period of growth was under his rule. Equestria's border has only changed very slightly since his death, and that was mostly to give the land he'd taken back to who it originally belonged to.

As a father, Polaris was both overbearing and neglectful. He cared not for Luna, believing her to look too similar to the wife he despised, and instead poured his energy into raising the progeny that he believed to be more worth his time. He held Celestia up to impossible standards, and instilled in her that she must always be placid and beautiful, smiling benevolently over all. He wanted Celestia to be the perfect leader, and in a way she achieved that, though Polaris didn't make her that way.

Polaris died by Celestia's hoof, but the details of that event have been lost to history.

Eclipsier was constantly plagued by despair and mental illness. She was immensely emotionally unstable, to the point where she was incapable of completing any of her duties as Queen. She was an alcoholic, constantly coping with drink even during public-facing events. While Polaris showed obvious favor towards Celestia, Eclipsier treated her daughters equally. That is, she felt equally guilty for them both. She felt guilty that she was such a bad parent, yet didn't make any strides to try and fix herself.

Eclipsier was the final aristocrat of the Night Kingdom, a country about the same size as Equestria was back then, which Equestria was at war against. In a bid to end the war and restore peace among ponykind, young Eclipsier and Polaris were married. Eventually, though, Polaris captured the Night Kingdom, and it was absorbed into Equestria, much to Eclipsier's existential dismay.

Twilight's post-ascension form isn't as vastly different as Luna!Sandwich's, though it still changed her significantly.

Twilight had the advantage of 1. being an adult, 2. already being a talented magician, and 3. not having all of Luna's magic imparted onto her. thus, Luna's magic wasn't as potent and didn't change her nearly as significantly as it changed Luna!Sandwich.

(also, this ask finally got me to make a sort-of ref for how i interpret Twilight in this au! i dont know why it took me so long, i guess it just kept slipping my mind.)

do you ever wonder why Luna has never ascended an alicorn in recent history?

Celestia's magic can be imparted onto another pony without the risk of transformation or noticeable side effects, but Luna's magic has a sort of "corrupting" power to it, which Celestia's magic doesn't possess.

it is a gentler process. it is more like the cool breeze of night, rather than the burning heat of the sun. however, just as Luna's magic is gentle and calm, it also consumes a pony like ivy, until the inheritor of it is unrecognizable, just as the shadows consume the landscape upon the moon's crest. Celestia's magic is more "truthful," as it is the manifestation of light, and doesn't transform the inheritor's appearance much.

this is why Celestia is the only one to have ascended other alicorns(and Polaris, her father who possessed the sun's magic prior to her, was also the only one authorized to create new alicorns during his day), Luna's magic would change the inheritor too much, and may cause distress.

Luna!Sandwich has abilities more in line with an alicorn her age, rather than the blazing and immense power that was unceremoniously shoved into Sandwich. Luna's magic adapts to where Sandwich is at, compensating in other areas(such as her un-cuttable mane) to keep Sandwich comfortable and stable physically. though, it obviously still takes up an immense amount of Sandwich's energy to maintain the power of an entire adult alicorn, and without the inherent energizing properties of Celestia's magic, Luna!Sandwich is exhausted 90% of the time. she desires nothing but sleep. likewise, Celestia!Sandwich always want to be moving, always wants to be doing something, though this is more in line with how Sandwich was prior to her ascension, so she doesn't really notice that Celestia's magic effects her in that way.

the in-between stage of Luna!Sandwich's ascension is often referred to as the "cocoon" stage, where Sandwich is unconscious and totally encased in shadow, save for the twinkling of her soul. this state lasts about two weeks as the transformation develops, until she cracks out of it like an egg, reborn as the form Luna's magic has turned her into.

this version would be just as miserable, in new and strange ways. at least she has Celestia though, right?

there's some things Luna keeps(practical training over book study) and some she's learned aren't effective(forcing a young foal to train for hours upon hours without breaks)

Sterling, while perhaps well-meaning, was not an effective teacher, and her violent perfectionism was a great detriment to the young Luna. Luna is mostly self taught when it comes to magic, due to Sterling not being an effective magic teacher(and not a very talented magician in the first place).

Luna strives to be more compassionate than the ponies who raised her, hoping to save Sandwich from the bitterness and resentment that Luna grew to harbor due to her upbringing. She doesn't want to perpetuate the cycle and turn Sandwich into another Nightmare Moon.

She is by no means permissive, and could be described as strict, but in some ways she feels that she has to be due to Sandwich's role in society. She does employ some tough-love methods of parenting, but not at the same extent as Sterling or Luna's biological mother, Eclipsier.

hi!! yes, Nightmare Moon's arc is the same as in the show's canon! Though i may make some changes to it over time, i've yet to decide.

thank you so much for the compliment!!! i'm putting a lot of effort into making the au and it warms my heart to see people love it so much! while i'm here, sorry for the slow updates as of late ;^^ i've been super busy with other projects and living my life in general so while mlp;sim is still on my mind, i dont have as much time to work on it at the moment.

Princess Sterling and Princess Gold Lily, two former Princesses back during Equestria's founding!

These two functionally raised Celestia and Luna when they weren't on the front line. You can see how they influenced the young princesses just by their appearances alone, no? LOL

Sterling was an extremely stern pony, and was often impatient with Luna. She was a perfectionist, and this extended to her mentoring of the young Luna. However, she could also be very kind, in that sort of tough-love sort of way. While not a particularly talented magician or a particularly swift flyer, she made up for it with her sheer physical strength, and was often rumored to have been an Earth Pony prior to ascension. Whether or not that is true is uncertain. She treated Luna as she would her own daughter, and her one-sided love for her King, Polaris, certainly didn't help matters. Unfortunately, she was killed during the last year of Equestria's Founding War, and largely disappeared into history. Luna remembers, though.

I'm wondering if I can make fanart of her interacting with an oc(s) of mine, please?

of course!!!! i LOVE fanart of any kind and id love to see it when youre done!!!

prior to Sandwich going on her journey, Twilight had already begun to get herself back on track. Luna forced her to go back to Ponyville, and she got one hell of a scolding from her friends. Once she was out of that stressful environment where she was surrounded by pictures and paintings of her dead mentor, she was able to realize that her behavior towards Sandwich was completely bonkers.

Time passes as time will, Sandwich runs away from Canterlot, disillusioned by the concept of destiny and wanting to return to being a normal filly, equal amongst her peers, and Twilight proves herself to Luna that she's ready to become an alicorn. Luna ascends her. She fights Tirek, she gets her castle, etc etc, until we're at the point in the timeline where we'd be at about season 5.

Now obviously Twilight's stint as an unstable, jealous magic "teacher" delayed her friendship studies quite a bit, so Twilight becomes an alicorn a few years later than she did in the show. Sandwich was about 14 when Twilight ascended, and Sandwich wasn't there to see her ascension.

During the arc where Twilight rescues Sandwich from Starlight Glimmer, Twilight and her friends had been locked away in a separate building from where Sandwich was kept, and couldn't have done anything to save Sandwich's cutie mark, unfortunately. If you've seen The Cutie Map, Starlight would've taken Sandwich's cutie mark just before that scene where Fluttershy spies on Starlight through her window and discovers that Starlight is a fraud.

Also, does Sandwich have a Nightmare Moon/Daybreaker form; if she does, what’s her name? I’ve tried to think of names for something like that, but the only one I’ve been able to come up with Burnt Bread which, while thematically fitting, is…kind of lame for a villain lol-

Discord won't be freed and reformed until Sandwich is an adult, since it just isnt safe to try and reform such a powerful being during the war. discord is around though! as a magic ghost. it's only his physical body thats in stasis, not his spirit. he watches sandwich grow up, eating popcorn all the way.

can you believe it!!! the amazing and talented @poke-ren, a great friend of mine and one of my greatest supporters, offered to make sandwich a theme! isn't it wonderful!?