This story is a sequel to Recollections: A Sunflower Story
With Twilight and the Elements performing the tasks of peacemakers and ambassadors, a part of her felt a sense of emptiness inside, like a key part of her died between those thousands of years.
Despite the fact that her home was as busy as ever, she still felt useless, she could be doing more, she should be doing more. But what?
There was some truth in what she said to Rockhoof. She had her home, she had her job, and was still felt needed.
So why did she feel so empty inside? So unfulfilled? So alone?
On Cattail and Twilight's recommendation, Meadowbrook decides to take some time off in the human realm to gather herself, and to find her inner peace in a world that's moved on without her. Along the way, she will find she is not the only one facing the prosepcts of an ever-changing world the longer she stays with Sunset and Wallflower.
If there was one comfort they have, it's that they have each other.
Could be seen as a sequel to Recollections: A Sunflower Story, though it can be read as its own seprate story.
Rated Teen for violence mentions of abuse, self-harm, kissing, talks and feelings of existential dread, a tiny bit of French, and hand-holding. Read at your own discretion.
Written for the My Little Pony: Renaissance Contest and The Pillars Shipping Contest.
Special thanks to Golden Tassel for editing and pre-reading.
Thanks for the submission! We look forward to reading this piece and wish you best of luck in judging!
10922384
No problem! Can’t wait for the big day!
I must say, I'm a bit conflicted about this story.
While I certainly didn't expect Recollections to continue in this way, I do like what it's going for, and it manages to make it work... in some ways. While the story seemed to be written with that intention, Meadowbrook's confession in the last chapter felt unnatural, and that's I think because while I could see a romantic attachment coming from Wallflower, I didn't feel the same coming from Sunset, and less from Meadowbrook herself, so when she kissed them out of the blue, I didn't expect a positive response.
There's also the thing with Sunset's "issue", which I think was a bit of a mistake expanding it around the second half of the story, because it made it feel like a sudden problem thrown to be resolved. I'll admit, it's the other half of Forgotten Friendship that Recollections couldn't cover, but the way it was handled, plus having Meadowbrook thrown in the middle and Wallflower's own issues, makes it feel like two stories meshed together, with Wally's side being the better explored.
I get that due to the contest you had to cut a lot of stuff, which would probably solve a lot of these issues, but doing these kinds of sacrifices doesn't help in neither the short on long run of the story.
The story isn't bad, I'll repeat that I like what it's trying to do and even the conclusion it arrives to, but I don't feel like it managed to achieve it.
I'll try read the expanded version when it comes out.
Also, a few small nitpicks.
I feel like Celestia would've wanted to meet Wallflower since she's Sunset's marefriend, and in fact I don't know why Wally isn't with her when she confronts Tia after all the talk about facing things together.
The inclusion of the Rainbooms during the camping trip felt unnecessary. I know that Sunset needed someone to talk to during the event, but that role was filled only by Twilight (and arguably could've also been skipped since Sunset has her revelation with Meadowbrook later) so having all of the Rainbooms there only took words away from the already limited wordcount.
10925652
Thank you for leaving some constructive feedback.
I certainly had a lot of conflict about some of the decisions I made when writing this, particularly with including the Rainbooms in the story (a decision I made due to concerns on whether or not I had covered how Meadowbrook was being received by them). I certainly wanted there to be more buildup between the three that could then be paid off at the end, and there were some ideas I had wanted to explore with Meadowbrook, Sunset, and Wallflower and how they would blend together as well.
At the end of the day the work was something I truly wished I could've expanded more on if it weren't for the word limit (or if I was able to use my words wisely), and is the reason why I hope I can come back to this and do an expanded rewrite on it once the dust settles down.
10925787
It's a problem that comes with contests; they give you ideas, but even with generous word-limits some ideas don't get enough room to breathe and chances are sadly lost. I hope you can release a "complete" version, because having read Recollections, I know you can make this work.
Regardless, good luck in the contests.
This was a really packed story and I really dug the small tender moments between the characters! You had a great handle on Meadowbrook's character and I love how her personality bounces off of Wallflower and Sunset. I can really see that working, and also props to you for being the only story to venture into EQG! I think sadly though that the extended universe of this story kind of made it difficult to parse out. There was again a ton to unpack here but it did feel like a lot of context was missing, even as compact as some of the scenes are. Which is difficult to criticize because I can absolutely understand the need to extend the story of your original fic while trying to conform with the contest parameters, I just think that sadly it was a bit too hard to pull off both. There are a ton of great moments in this however and I'm sure that fans of this series will enjoy this piece. Thank you for participating!
10958948
Thank you so much for the in-depth review. I consider it an achivement itself that I was able to condense so much into 15,000 words. Sadly you are right, so much context is missing from the cuts I had to make, and so much could've been expanded on. The original goals I had were to make the fic as reader-friendly as possible, not just for people who read Recollections. The idea was to make it an independently standing fic that could be seen as a sequel to Recollections. In the end it was a hit and a miss in some points, but the feedback you and others have shared give me motivation to try to come out with a full version of this fic.
I thank you again for taking the time, money, an effort into holding the Pillars Shipping Contest, and I thank you again for your input.