Sunset asked Wallflower on a date, and Wallflower is in a panic. What could the coolest girl at Canterlot High want with her? What do they have in common?
But it may not even matter, because Sunset is late and Wallflower suspects a trap.
Sweet and sour slice of life romance. T-rated for occasional profanity, jokes about spanking and mind control fetish, and mention of some films you definitely don’t want to Google. There isn't an archive warning for depression and negative self-talk, but there's lots of that. No self harm tho.
Wallflower's dress is based on this. Thanks to My Little Pastafarian for letting me use the design and for editing my description of it. Check out #ponymakeover on DA for more wonderful pony dress designs.
And thanks as always to Scoots for letting me constantly bug them with questions about how to word correctly.
Entry in Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest. Winner of Lord Camembert's Commendation for Excellence in Gay Giggles (Gayggles).
This was a perfect mix of sweet, weirdly interesting, angsty and funny. Great job!
"You merely adopted the mumble. I was born in it, molded by it."
"I'm a magical unicorn from another universe, remember? Believe me, if I'd known someone actually understood your crazy electric blinky-boxes, I'd have snapped you up in a heartbeat."
"... Thanks?"
"Yeah, not sure how you should take that one either."
"Remember how I brainwashed our entire class to serve as my conquering teenage army? Not the original plan, for the record."
"Was that the Fall Formal? I didn't actually go."
"Ah. Yeah, it was."
Exquisite stuff from start to finish, especially Sunset's admission at the end. The two are more similar than Wallflower could ever believe. Thanks for this, and best of luck in the judging.
Fluttershy invented mumble rap
For technical terms such as these, I'm sure the grammar gods will forgive you for using Arabic numerals.
Very true.
This is nice. A perfect mix of Wallflower angst and fuzzy slice-of-life humor. It reads like a coming-of-age story. I'm not sure if the references to porn stashes, strange kinks, graphic design, and AO3 toe the line of being out-of-character for Wallflower. But then again there's not much canon info about Wallflower so it's all fair game I guess.
I really liked this. Best of luck in the judging.
P.S. Who is Hailey?
Wow, this was something else. Would not be surprised if this placed highly.
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This was a really sweet story. You really showed the range of emotions that Wallflower was feeling so well! And I liked how you showed that Sunset was just as nervous and vulnerable as Wally felt. The sweet little comments and the closeness you showed between they was just wonderful. I loved it.
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It's an interesting fic to be sure, but at times I kinda had to stretch my suspension of disbelief. Like Wallflower was a fair bit more confident than I remembered her being. It's just... fairly strange for me as a reader.
10761141
I disagree with your interpretation of her character, but that's okay.
10760525
Aw thanks!
10760479
Thank you!
10760422
The Guinea Pig films I've seen are pretty good. A lot of them are, surprisingly, all on Youtube except for Flower of Flesh and Blood.
Serbian Film? I'm not hard enough.
Human Centipede? My reaction was the same as Sunset's.
10760412
Thaaannk you!
10760388
The Arabic numeral thing bugs me I might go back and fix that? But it also feels weird writing it out in that context. IDK. I don't remember going back and forth over this when I was writing but I sure am now.
I'm trying to express my theories on personal interpretations of characters, but my brain isn't working this morning, so I'm just going to say I thought these things through, they felt right to me, and if you don't agree that's completely fine. Also, Wallflower's one of those characters like Mac, Frazzle, Maud, and Fluttershy whom I over-identify with them to the point that I tend hijack them for my own purposes.
Hailey is my dog who died on Tuesday. I wanted to memorialize her, and since this was a fairly clean and decently written story by my standards, it felt like a good thing to do. I also put the dedication at the end so I didn't seem like I was trawling for sympathy votes.
Anyway thank you so much for the detailed feedback!
10760349
Thank you so much!
10760317
I'm feeling dumb not being able to do anything but say thank you to most of the comments. But THANK YOU!
10761874
By mlp standards.
Wow, is this the difference between boys texting and girls texting or are they just weird?
Wow, it’s always the quiet ones.
One discarded half-idea I had for a story was Sunset desperately trying to confirm the object of her affections (Trixie, but Wallflower totally works too) was NOT in the gym when Sunset turned into a demon. Because she's operating under a hard moral rule that if you have ever mind-controlled someone, then they are just off the table as a potential sexual partner for the rest of time. You've just given up that privilege.
But this story shows that could go a totally different way, huh?
10778116
I have to respect your interpretation of Sunset's integrity.
I have a story where Wallflower doesn’t get an Aliens reference, so this story is automatically disqualified for violating my headcanon.
Gotta admit I'm hella impressed you write musky smut and heartfelt teen romance like this awesomely at the same time!
10781758
Valid.
10793741
I contain multitudes.
Congrats on Lord Camembert’s judge award on the contest!
I don’t like how perfectly you just called me out. Wallflower is way too good as a character that I identify with, i feel stalked.
Except for the scary movies. I tend to scare myself a lot, I’m pretty sure I’d die if i saw a relatively scary movie.
10797736
Ha! We must be very similar, because I completely hijacked Wallflower for my own ends. And got away with it!
I like scary movies; they somehow help me with my Fluttershy-level anxiety issues.
10796860
Thank you!
I think the way Wallflower is portrayed in this is unique to a fair number of takes I've seen on the site, all the while totally working for a depiction of her and being super enjoyable. Liked it a lot, grats on the special judge placing.
10861156
Thanks! I wanna come back to this ship; there's something really charming about it.
oh my god, this was so good :D
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10978271
Thank you!!!!
There was a nice, short(ish) story I read and commented on yesterday, involving Twilight. The title eludes me, though. I find myself sitting here, think about what I said there, and how it also applies here. In a rather uncomfortable way, I can relate to Wallflower. Tearing herself apart. Talking herself down. Twisting distrust, never daring to enjoy anything good because it is, or will inevitably be, turning sour. And just like in that story with Twilight, I am... glad. Glad how things turn out for Wallflower. Because there's still... hope for her. She obviously has some issues - deeply rooted, serious issues. And I suspect, Sunset - having had a similar trajectory and generally being (emotionally) smart - at least suspects what she's getting herself into.
This isn't a battle you win once, in a glorious burst of flame. It's a tedious, gnawing affair, sapping you of strength and energy, that you'll have to deal with over and over and over again. But she might be able to 'win', in a way. There's still hope.
I like that.
And the two of them do make a cute couple. Would sail with the SS WallSet (or SunBlush? Does this even have a name?) any day.
Thank you.
11097644
SunFlower! 🌻❤️
Lucky for you, my friends and I held a contest for SunFlower fics last year, and this story was one of the winners. If you're interested in more SunFlower you should totally check out the other winners and the rest of the contest entries 🙏
I also cannot recommend highly enough the Sunflower Gardens series by I-A-M. Easily the best collective story on the site imo
11140929
Uhhh, recommendations. Why thank you! I've looked through them and indeed picked some for my 'read later'-shelf.
relatable
damn burn on Fluttershy and Twilight! and honestly, even Wallflower doing that shows so much more courage than i could have ever had at her age or possibly any age. i’m proud of her!
aww Wallflower would totally go out of her way to retain anecdotes that she can reach for to underscore her own low self-esteem and self-hatred. also relatable
so true
ehehe that is fun
o, those accidental hip-touching moments!
oh noooooo
quite the diversity in conversation topics!
Sunset rizz
extremely Wallflower yes
ah the troubles of autocorrect
oof, so close to fucking all this up!
haha love the payoff for the earlier setup
honestly that just sounds normal? it’s awesome that Sunset and her friends destroyed a trash monster! don’t try to be too cool, Wally!
ooh rightfully deserved burn on how bad the first movie was
knowing and loving a specific graphic designer’s work enough to call him a genius really is a sign of being a genius graphic designer compared to the average, non-graphic-designer person!
oof, now that would be a story!
oof, what a contrast with the pew pew with the friendship lasers
aww, them bonding over how they’re both a little evil is fun!
aww dang Sunset has a loooooong way to go before getting on Wallflower’s level!
aww, lovely!
and my very slow quest to finally actually read the other SunFlower Contest entries one day eventually continues! well-deserved with the Judge Prize on this one. felt the gay panic for sure. and so real that Wallflower’s self-sabotage wouldn’t just end with the blast of a friendship beam
11688134
Wow, I was really bleeding on the page for this Wallflower story. This is usually a successful technique, but sometimes I look back and am embarrassed how much of my inner life I showed!
11688631
aww i did have a feeling how oddly specific it was! but hey, that is what the character of Wallflower is best for