Sunset hurriedly weaved through the crowds of students as she made her way to the front entrance. She was thankful that most of the students had either left or were in their club rooms, leaving the hallways mostly barren.
Still, she would’ve appreciated it if no one was around, then she wouldn’t have to deal with every other student giving her a look of regret or embarrassment. It might’ve been better than when they were glaring at her, but now it was really starting to get on her nerves-
She yelped as she turned a corner and crashed into someone, the two of them falling to the ground in a daze. She cursed herself for being so careless and rubbed her forehead.
“Sunset?”
Sunset's eyes fluttered open as she heard Flash’s voice, turning her head to look at him. “Hey Horsefucker.”
Flash gave her an unamused look. “Almost as funny as when Anon-A-Miss and the rest of the school called me that.” He stood up and offered her a hand, lifting her up when she accepted. “Worst part is, I didn’t get that far with either of you.”
“I bet you would’ve liked that, wouldn’t you?”
“Well…” Flash shifted awkwardly before clearing his throat. “So, where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“I’m just hanging out with Derpy; I decided I need some people I can actually depend on.” Sunset crossed her arms. “Since she knew I was innocent the whole time.”
Flash frowned at Sunset's not so subtle jab at him. “Look, I’m sorry that I was on the fence about it, but I’m still reeling from our relationship.” He placed his hands in his pockets. “You didn’t endear yourself for the year we were dating.”
Sunsets face softened and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, and I’m sorry about how I treated you. But you knew me better than that, I thought we worked things out after the Sirens.”
“And I thought I knew you when we first started dating, you had the innocence facade back then. The way Anon-A-Miss operated didn’t fit your usual behavior, but I wasn’t sure who else would do something like this…” Flash sighed. “Sunset, I really am sorry I didn’t make up my mind in time. I should’ve been there for you during Anon-A-Miss.”
Sunset's previous anger faded and she uncrossed her arms. “Well, I’m sorry for being the worst girlfriend ever and leading you on for nearly two years… and, I suppose you deserve some leeway for at least not immediately thinking I was guilty, you would’ve been justified in thinking your evil ex was back to her old ways.”
“You weren’t evil.” Flash shook his head. “You weren’t great, but I never saw you as evil. Hell, you’re not even the worst ex I have.”
Sunset looked surprised at that. “You’ve had exes who’ve turned into demons before?”
“More like they were always demons.” Flash laughed. “At least you turned into an angel, I have some crazy exes.”
“You have terrible luck with women don’t you?” Sunset smiled in amusement.
“The worst ever.” Flash gave Sunset a small smirk. “Speaking of which, you and Twilight still talking?”
Sunset's smile faded. “Yeah, we talk every day.”
“Uh, how's she doing? Does she ever talk about me? Do you know when she’s coming to vis-”
“Flash.” Flash stopped talking and looked at Sunset. She stood there quietly for a few seconds before taking a deep breath. “I didn’t want to say anything because I felt I had no right being your ex, but you and Twilight… it’s never going to work out.”
Flash tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Well, really think about it, Flash.” Sunset looked to the side, feeling bad she was about to dash Flashes dreams. “You're barely seventeen, she’s twenty. She’s a sovereign leader of a nation who is very busy and gains more and more responsibilities every month.”
Flash glared at Sunset lightly. “So? I’d support her anyway.”
“You have a counterpart back home who has a steady job as a royal guard, is older than you, and lives on his own.”
“Twilight knew me first, she may not even like my counterpart.” Flash said stubbornly.
“Maybe, but what can you offer her exactly?” Sunset challenged. “You have a part time job, still live with your parents, and at best your dream of being a musician will net you millions of dollars. Twilight is a princess who lives in a crystal castle and can use the wealth of an entire nation however she pleases whenever she desires. Think of how luxuriously kings and queens lived, and times it by ten.” Sunset held up all ten fingers. “There are roughly fifty million people of various different races living in Equestria, we have magic, we have low corruption, and we’re going through an early Industrial Age. All that adds up to an insane amount of money, all of which Twilight has access to.”
“I-I can still add my money to her finances. There’s no guarantee she would even use the money to benefit herself.”
“You can’t use the money you accumulate here to buy anything over there. Trust me, I’ve tried the opposite approach… and even if Twilight used less than a percent of the money available to her, that’s still nearly a billion dollars.”
“Well… she could still use somebody who could always be there for her.” Flashes' resolve clearly had been shaken, but he continued arguing regardless.
“Fine. But I’ve got one more question for you: will you leave everything you’ve ever known to live with Twilight?” Sunset looked at Flash expectantly. “Cause, she’ll never leave Equestria, no matter how much she loves you. So, you’ll have to leave your family and your home to live with her. You and I both know long distance relationships don’t work, and can you even handle being in a relationship with someone with far more money, fame, power, and influence than you? You won’t even be immortal! You’ll die and she’ll continue living.”
Flash stared at Sunset quietly, not sure how to respond. He looked down, staring at the ground as if it would give him the answer.
Sunset saw this and sighed. ‘Great job, no wonder he wasn’t sure you were Anon-A-Miss…’ sunset thought bitterly. “Look, I’m not saying this to discourage you. I hope you can prove me wrong and that it’ll work out between the two of you. But you have to look at the reality of the situation and really decide whether it’s something you want to continue pursuing. I don’t want you hung up on Twilight in ten years when you could’ve been dating some nice girl and gotten married. Just... just think about it, ok?” Sunset scratched the back of her head. “Anyway, I’ve got to run, Derpys probably waiting with her siblings. See ya Flash.”
“Yeah… see ya.” Flash stood still for a few seconds before flattening against the locker and looking up at the ceiling.
“I hope you thaw out by the time I reach Sunset.” Bon-Bon said as she looked at a chocolate milkshake in a plastic cup. She had left it in the teachers lounge refrigerator with their permission, and had retrieved it after school. She hadn’t expected it to be a chocolate ice cube by now, but she was sure it would thaw enough in an hour.
She hoped that Sunset hadn’t gone home yet, otherwise she’d be repeating this process until the teachers got annoyed with her or she finally managed to catch Sunset.
Bon-Bon wasn’t sure how well a milkshake would keep after repeatedly being frozen solid. She wasn’t even sure if Sunset would accept her gift.
She stopped when she saw Derpy and Sunset at the entrance sharing a hug, Sunset clearly being uncomfortable with it but trying her best to humor Derpy. Bon-Bon couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous as Derpy broke away, but knew it was her fault.
Bon-Bon sped up to catch up with them as the two girls walked out the entrance. “Sunset!” Bon-Bon cried out as she reached the front steps, the two girls turning towards her.
Bon-Bon shrunk inwardly at the glare from Sunset and the look of disapproval from Derpy. “H-hey Derpy.”
“Bon-Bon.” She said coldly, which felt like a slap in the face to Bon-Bon.
“I’m not going to Sugarcube Corner with you and Lyra.” Sunset declared. “I already have plans with Derpy.
“I wasn’t going… I come bearing gifts.” She held out the milkshake.
Sunset lifted an eyebrow and took it from her grasp. “A… frozen milkshake?”
“It was your order from Sugarcube Corner.” Bon-Bon explained. “You left it when you ran out the store, I felt bad since you had spent money on it and didn’t get to eat much of it. So I packed it up and held onto it till I saw you again.”
Sunset's glare disappeared and she looked to Bon-Bon. “Really?” She studied the milkshake as if she was determining how true that statement was. “Uh, Thanks… people might confuse this for you indulging in your feeder fetish though.”
Bon-Bon seized up and her eyes widened. “As I have explained to everyone I know, including my parents, I DO NOT have a feeder fetish!” Bon-Bon said with a mixture of anger and annoyance, making the two other girls back away in surprise. “I just like giving my friends and family sweets and food because I like seeing them happy! I don’t derive any other kind of satisfaction!”
“I-I didn’t-”
“You know what’s not sexy?” She held a finger up to Sunset. “Lyra having health problems because she’s overweight! You know how awful I’d feel if that was the case?” Bon-Bon shook angrily.
“Ok, ok. Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I just didn’t want students to get the wrong idea." Sunset held her hands up. “Look, it was really nice of you to return the milkshake I bought, thank you.”
“No, I’m sorry, it’s just-” Bon-Bon blushed and her anger dropped, clearing her throat awkwardly. “I can’t do shit anymore without someone bringing it up. My parents had a fit when they saw the post, so did Lyra's. I was scared they would’ve made us break up. It’s still kind of a sore spot for me.”
“Regardless, I should’ve known better.” Sunset turned to Derpy. “Hey Derpy, I think this is gonna be a while, you shouldn’t keep your siblings waiting. I’ll meet you at the car.”
Derpy smiled and walked off. The two girls were left alone, silently staring at each other. “You know, there was a time I was actually gonna blackmail you like that.”
“You were going to threaten to spread rumors that I had a feeder fetish?” Bon-Bon frowned when Sunset nodded. “Why didn’t you?”
“I had standards, believe it or not.” Sunset said with a small smile. “Not a lot, but there were lines I refused to cross.”
“Yeah, like what? I’m curious.”
“Well: I never went after the middle schoolers, I never brought family members into the mix, I refused to spread rumors about or reveal someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, I never made fun of someone’s dead relative or friend, I never sabotaged academic competitions (for more arrogant reasons admittedly), or reveal secrets or make rumors that could genuinely be damaging to someone's future."
"Huh…" Bon-Bon stood there for a moment, having not expected such a comprehensive list. "So, if you found out about me and Lyra before we went public, you wouldn't have-"
"More like I didn't."
"You didn't? What does that mean?"
"Freshman year." Sunset placed her hands on her hips. "November 1st."
Bon-Bon's mouth fell open and her eyes lit up. "That was when…"
"I followed the two of you after school, thought I might get some pics I could use for something I was working on at the time… sorry about that by the way"
Bon-Bon blushed brightly and cleared her throat. "Uh, h-how long were you-"
"I was following you two right up till Lyra kissed you." Sunset explained, shifting awkwardly. "Now, either you two were keeping it a secret or that was the first interaction like that. Either way, I felt sick with what I was doing, you two felt comfortable enough to let your guard down and here I was spying on you, so I left. It didn't feel right, you know?"
"A-actually that was our first kiss. We weren't dating by that point, I didn't even think Lyra liked me back." Bon-Bon huffed awkwardly. "Well, thank you for that. You weren't as awful a person as you could've been… though when I look back on that memory from now on, I won't be able to get out of my head that you were in the background watching like a perv."
The two girls shared a small laugh. "Probably wouldn't have even worked as blackmail anyway, you two went public not too long after."
Bon-Bon nodded and thought over what to say next. "Oh, and, sorry for what happened friday. I shouldn't have been so pushy."
"Yeah, I think I would've loosened up after a while. Bringing up forgiveness kind of ruined the night for me." Sunset cleared her throat. "But you know, I'm not… against hanging out with you. I actually wanted to try being friends before Anon."
Bon-Bon looked surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah. Admittedly it was because I thought I'd have the easiest time with you two, thought the fake Formal gave me an edge, but I did like the two of you."
"Why weren't you trying to befriend Derpy first? She would've been the easiest, she's friends with everybody. She already liked you before the Sirens."
Sunset cringed and gave a tired sigh. "I felt… too guilty to try being her friend. I'm only doing it now because AJ encouraged me, and Derpys having me do a favor for her in the future."
"I see." Bon-Bon nodded in understanding. "I suppose now might be too early to broach the subject?"
"Let's wait until after the Spring Fling, then we'll talk. I still have my other friends I need to get through, I don't want to try making friends while I'm emotionally volatile."
The conversation petered out and the two girls stared at each other, not sure how to continue. "Well I'll see you later."
"Yeah, see you Bon-Bon." Sunset waved as she began walking away. "Thanks for the milkshake, don't knock Lyra up, have a nice day."
Bon-Bon opened her mouth to respond but realized what Sunset had said. "Wait, what?" With that Sunset disappeared behind a corner and vanished from view. "... Maybe being friends with her is a bad idea if that's gonna be common."
Yeah personally I thought it was better that he get over the girl sooner than later and considering in everfree for awhile there he was making goo goo eyes at Sci twilight and only near the end did he start looking at sunset not that he ever seemed to make a move.
I mean.....who wouldn't. I'm not gonna pretend I'd be against it.
Damn Sunset pretty much took a freaking bazooka to Flash's expectations about dating Twilight. Granted I never considered the money thing since that never really struck me as important. Still it is a little crazy to think about how much money Twilight in theory has at her disposal as we already have Sunset in this story confirming the small amount of bits she had with her earned her close to $1 million and Twilight has tons more than that. So financial support from Flash is basically nonexistent and Sunset is right in that his counterpart is older, has a stable job and his own place, so really Flash has little to offer. At best he has a high school crush he hasn't gotten over and needs to except that, especially since Twilight would probably get in trouble if her actual age is revealed.
Only part I think is a little suspect is Twilight never leaving her position, sorry but I refuse to believe Twilight would be okay with being immortal while watching her friends and family, the things she values more than her own life, grow old and die, leaving her alone. Sorry but that just isn't something I can realistically see Twilight ever doing. Honestly, I feel Twilight would've told Celestia and Luna no to taking over as ruler as she never agreed to that, like seriously name one instance where Twilight at any point said she wanted to rule Equestria. Answer of course is never and I bet you anything she would've been more than happy living as Ponyville's librarian while going on adventures with her friends with maybe the exception being forming the school but that's it....also sorry going on a tangent.
Anyway I was a little surprised Sunset didn't lay into Bon-Bon and so her secret is she likes making people feel happy with sweets? I don't really see what she'd be embarrassed about that. Regardless I do kind of feel like you are giving Sunset a little too much credit as far as the stuff she'd be willing to pull. She had no problem turning five life long friends against each other with lies and manipulations, outing people for their sexual orientation, spreading possible rumors and even possibly using family members (save reference to dead ones) strikes me as something she would've considered given how power hungry she was. You kind of make Sunset prior seem almost toothless in terms of stuff she could do outside of insults, namecalling and light bullying. I don't know maybe I'm overthinking this.
Either way yay Sunset and Bon-Bon made up. Still have a landmine to disarm.
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Don’t think anybody would really (especially a teenage boy), but Sunsets being bitter.
Hm, idk. 100,000 is a lot, but I wouldn’t say it’s close to a million.
I think it’s like 10%? Idk, I’m not great at math
Don’t think Twilight really has a choice in the matter. I believe Alicorns are immortal, and now that Twilight is an Alicorn she is immortal too. I also don’t think there’s a way to reverse the process.
The implications of such a thing are never addressed in the show.
I mean, Shing Armors not an Alicorn, but Cadence is. That’s going to be tough.
Yeah I always found that kinda dumb. Twilight, even though intelligent, isn’t a statesmen who can run a large sovereign nation, at least not in the way a thousand year old demigoddess could.
And how suddenly Celestia tried to retire in the season 9 premier seemed weird. that would cause serious administrative issues, especially since her friends are all civilians with no political or administrative experience.
I also felt Luna wouldn’t want to retire so suddenly, she probably is just feeling accepted into the fold, Why is she retiring?
I think it would’ve worked better if Twilight wasn’t taking over as ruler, but more being integrated into the Equestrian government more and given more power and responsibility. Could have an episode detailing how stressed and lonely Celestia was for the thousand years Luna was gone, and so wants to divvy up the workload with people she knows she can trust and depend on.
I actually address some of this much alter on in the story.
It’s not that Bon-Bon is giving people sweets and it makes her happy, everyone already knew that. Anon tried to make it seem like she was getting sexual gratification out of it, much less innocent and makes her look kind of like a pervert.
She still blackmailed, framed, sabotaged, and ruined people’s in school reputations. People wouldn’t fear her if she merely made petty insults. Don’t worry, Sunsets usual Fanon interpretation is still there. I just liked giving her standards. (Plus, she’s bi, it feels weird to put someone when you yourself are bisexual.)
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Her say no to Celestia that will be the day. And Celestia would probably trick her into it if she thought she had to. Celestia did it when she made her a princess.
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I didn't double check the amount in the previous chapter, I thought it was more.
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One word: Discord. If he can change a person's entire personality just by lightly touching them, getting rid of a couple of wings and immortality should be easy.
Technically one creator said she was but also left it up to interpretation, meaning Sunset can basically be anything anyone wants her to be. And even if she is, so? Pretty sure people with different sexual orientations would still pull that stuff if they are big enough jerks.
I don’t hate Flash either, and I agree that he's boring, yet harmless. My only issue with him was that he's just there and pose as Princess Twilight's crush in the first (and second) EqG movie. And aside him saving Twilight after getting framed for ruining the party decorations from the first movie, he really didn't add anything to the story (or series for that matter). It's a shame that the writers didn't do much else with him before they ended the series.
It's good that Sunset brought up those issues to him only because she's looking out for him (despite what happened between the two of him). He had a lot of thinking to do.
At least Sunset and Bon Bon sorta made-up after the incident at Sugarcube Corner. Didn't become friends, but a good start.
But I wonder what Lyra’s thoughts were when she learned that Sunset originally wanted to befriended them before Anon-a-Miss?
Great chapter! Keep up the good work!
I'm indifferent towards Flash though I do believe the relationship between him and Sunset could of been explored more. That said he definitely needed to hear those things from her about how a relationship between him and Twilight wouldn't work out.
Pretty sure you meant to put Bon Bon's name there.
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Let's be honest MLP has kind of a weakness when it comes to male characters and that's only worsened in Equestria Girls where the number of relevant male characters is extremely short. Hell I made my OC Coalstone specifically because I hated how few male characters there were and tried to make him as unique as possible.
Hell I'm still annoyed every villain in the Equestria Girls series was a girl. I mean really they couldn't make a male bad guy atleast once?
Bon-Bon a feeder fetish REALLY those three posted that up!
WTF, no wonder Button Mash broke up with sweetie Belle if she was part of that.
The fact it could broken up her relationship with Lyra jeeze...They really screwed up.
Oh the bit on flash.
Honestly nothing for me to say everyone already posted it.
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In MLP or Equestria Girls? There are male bad guys in the main series, which is Sombra and Discord (before he reformed).
The only one I can think of in Equestria Girls was Filthy Rich in Legend of Everfree, but he's more of a side antagonist than a villain.
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Exactly, was hoping for a Male Equestria Girls villain
There is a story where Flash does precisely that.
Even though Sunset can still get a diploma and go to college, sometimes I'm still a little bummed out that she'll never be Valedictorian. But again, keep up the good work. I'm loving every update.
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Perhaps, but we’ve never seen if it was truly possible for him to reverse the process. Maybe Alicorns are just too powerful.
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Is he at least an emotionally mature adult when he made that decision?
I also don't have a problem with Flash specifically. My problem with the "romance" in EG, if you can call any of the front-and-center ones that, is that they're executed with the subtlety and story telling finesse of a sledgehammer hurled into a glass shop. In the first film, Twilight, who up until this point has never shown any interest in anyone, suddenly gets all blushy and flustered about a boy from an entirely different species that she bumps into? Yea, no, I'm not buying it. And, it adds nothing to the story, so it feels superfluous.
As harsh as it was, I think that Sunset was more or less in the right to explain to Flash why it wouldn't work out.
That caught me off guard and had me laughing as a result.
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Not really, Discord's magic allows him to warp reality without seemingly any limit. Plus remember in the first episode he appeared in he took away the Mane 6's horns and wings without issue, so doing the same to Alicorns should be easy.
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Yes. The story took place a few years after he'd graduated.
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To be fair they only had an hour and were doing a bunch of other things.
Plus, highschool settings don't usually have great romance.
I like to think she was riding a bit of a high after becoming princess. Surely her emotions were a bit out of wack after such a change.
She also may have been dealing with teenage hormones since her body was altered down to the molecule, and how many boys has she really interacted with before EQG?
The only boys she interacted with beforehand was Spike who's basically her brother/son, and Big Mac who doesn't seem like Twilight's type and is her friends brother (you don't go after a friend's sibling without their permission, that's almost as bad as going after a friend's ex)
It does feel rather tacked on, like they were checking off a box for highschool setting tropes. Him being Sunsets ex really doesn't add anything though, it was barely an obstacle.
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People seem to have Sunset be snarky in fics, but I'm not good at writing snark so I've made her like a much more subdued version of Zero 2
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But he's not all powerful, after all he was unable to use his magic in the Changeling hive because of a magic chair, so he has limits.
He did take away horns and wings individually, but he didn't take away an Alicorns wings or horn, maybe that's something else he can't do.
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The only reason he didn't do it to the chair is because it seals all magic, that's a limit but an extremely rare and limited one. As to why he hasn't done it, he's an all powerful god and a trickster, if he used the full extend of his powers no one would be able to beat him, and he's just lazy and arrogant. If Alicorns were really as powerful as they claim to be then Celestia and Luna wouldn't have needed the elements of harmony to beat him.
If Discord can casually rewrite things like gravity, weather, biology and the laws of conservation of mass with a casual snap of his fingers, turning Twilight back into a Unicorn would be easy and nothing we've ever seen with his magic suggests otherwise.
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And to be fair, there are plenty of anime OVAs with an hour runtime that do it way better, have it matter to the plot, and make it interesting. But that takes a lot of skill, and ensuring its integrated into the plot organically. In all of my years of partaking in media of all kinds, token romances and red nooses have always been one of the things I've found the most annoying and disruptive, because if romance is not done right, it mars the story and shows the hand of the author.
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But EQG is a western animation product and the franchise isn’t known for its romance.
How many of those OVAs were purely romance driven? I imagine not all of them.
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Which is my point exactly. When a romance is shoehorned into a story where it doesn't belong, or doesn't add anything to the narrative, particularly one with such a short runtime, its disruptive and breaks immersion. Like any form of plot element, just throwing in something without consideration for how it fits into the overall story is going to create dissonance. It'd be like throwing a marital arts fight into the middle of a dedicated romance when the fight had nothing to do with the story, added nothing, and felt like it was just thrown in.
The CMC might as well kill themselves... wait didn't I and one other person already write that? I'm not happy with it anyway.
Great chapter as always I have to say I love thirsty sunset.
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Wait, you’re the one that wrote Scootaloo undressing herself in the snow in an attempt to freeze herself to death.
I always thought that scene was... kinda weird, Scoots is like 13. And boy, what a kinda slow and painful way to die.
Welcome to the fic though, I thought your story on Spike after the gala was good.
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Th... thirsty sunset? How is she thirsty in this chapter? I’m curious. That wasn’t the intended characterization.
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no keep it
and i mean just sunset being playful with peoples love life :P
To be fair sunset did have standards as a bully remember she made it clear she had no intention of harming spike and made it clear she wasn't a monster nice foreshadowing actually that her demon form actually did twist her mind because she started trying to murder people after she transformed.
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Yeah maybe but it is her first crush on someone. Considering she used not have friends what do you think the odds are that she have a romantic relationship with someone. And Considering when she not with her friends she studying or doing something for the princesses she really doesn't have much time leftover for such things. And personally I always thought that creating a romance with a guy that you aren't going probably seeing again was a dumb move by the company.