Cover art by SwordTune! A sequel story is now complete! If you liked this story, definitely check it out!
As graduation looms, Sunset's anxieties about life—both at Canterlot High and beyond—are mounting, and that anxiety begins to manifest in intense nightmares about the Memory Stone incident, one year prior. At a sleepover with Rarity and Twilight at the latter's house, Sunset jolts awake in the middle of the night, and Rarity overhears. Determined to help her friend, Rarity sits down with her immediately to talk through exactly what's going on—and the two discover some hidden truths about their friendship in the process.
Read on for Sunset/Rarity hurt-comfort and friendshipping (with a few references to SciSet later on). An epilogue chapter has now been added!
Re-edited on 15 April 2022.
Featured on 27 November 2021 and 6 February 2022! Posted on Equestria Daily 21 April 2022!
This is wonderful, for your first story! Friend, you've just earned yourself a follow!
11064686
Thanks so much! I haven't written a narrative story in years but the bug's been hitting me hard since getting into EqG recently. I know "[character] has bad dreams b/c trauma" isn't the most novel premise on this website, but it's something I was really itching to write and really felt like it helped with learning how to write these characters in close-knit settings.
Hope you enjoy what's to come!
(I have no idea how this comment ended up on a completely different chapter from the one it's a reply to. That'll teach me to comment from the main page instead of a specific chapter.)
I also like your stories.
You've touched on something that I don't think a lot of stories about the aftermath of the memory stone incident really touch on: the trauma that having their minds violated like that would have, and the consequences of it. Wallflower basically mind-raped everyone. That's not something that could be forgiven so easily.
Well done on your first posting.
11065117
It really bugged me how out-of-character most of the Rainbooms felt in Forgotten Friendship in order to make it a solo story for Sunset, and I really liked the idea of having the aftermath explored from one of their angles. Not only realizing you’d been duped, but never knowing for sure how much of what happened afterwards was your fault or what you could’ve done to change things…
For a story that's largely little more than a conversation - perhaps one with an added dramatic length to it - this is pretty solid. It's got a good understanding of its key players, Rarity and Sunset. More interestingly, it touches upon something I haven't seen in any fic that revolved around the after-effects of Forgotten Friendship: Sunset's "ambivalence" (to avoid a spoiler term) towards Wallflower and how the Rainbooms felt after such an erasing of their memories.
Nicely done!
Loved the story! Now it’s on my fav list!
Well, that was a very touching story. Not that many that deal with solo interaction between Sunset and Rarity. Still, if you say this scenario is part of a much bigger story, it'll be interesting to see Sunset put aside her issues with Wallflower in the aforementioned adventure. I can only wonder what other emotional baggage has been picked up following encounters with other Equestrian artifacts (seriously what was Starswirl thinking when he chucked all of that through the portal? Did he see the Rainbooms' world as just a place for refuse?).
11109386
“Look, I’m a busy stallion, do you really expect me to find a different dimension to chuck each of these? At least I didn’t bundle any easily weaponizable artifacts with a convenient how-to guide like Clover the ‘Clever’.”
11109405
This was beautiful. And very hard-hitting, if I’m being honest.
You’ve explored the concept of hate and forgiveness unlike any author I’ve ever seen before. You did an excellent job at it, too. Here’s an upvote!
11123937
Thank you so much! I continue to be amazed at the responses this story has gotten.
11109405
Yeah, it could've been much worse. It's a good thing the Bewitching Bell wasn't tossed into the Equestria Girls' world!
11129573
I got the impression that Grogar happened before starswirl and maybe even celestia and luna from Canon. The only way I see this not being true would be if it occurred after the pillars got sent to limbo but before nmm
11139678
Well, I meant by Gusty the Great.
11139687
It's implied that starswirl made the mirror so unless gusty found a natural portal like the one seen in spring breakdown its unlikely
Where did you find the cover art?
11144916
Rainbow Rocks screenshot.
I’m considering commissioning new art for this alongside the sequel, but I haven’t firmly decided yet.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this story is beautiful.
What I love about this story is how deep you’re exploring the concept. In the previous chapters, you talked about hate and forgiveness. In this chapter, you talked about fear and guilt. What happened to Sunset Shimmer during Forgotten Friendship was truly, utterly terrifying. Imagine yourself in her boots: your entire life evaporated to ash overnight. Your best friends, the very reason you are who you are, not remembering you. Not just that, but looking at and talking to you with hate, contempt and scorn. In the span of three days, your relationships gone, your life gone. I’m surprised Sunset hasn’t broken down in the actual special.
But you, dear author, nailed all those emotions perfectly. Kudos to you!
Awaiting the sequel with excitement.
Something that really does get glossed over far to readily in the series is how Forgotten Friendship would have affected Sunset, especially considering her past (and Anon-a-Miss if we consider that as part of the continuity). Thank you for giving that trauma some appropriate light.
11145144
11145150
I've always found Sunset's plight in Forgotten Friendship to be very much existential horror, to the point where a lot of it is physically uncomfortable for me to watch (especially Sunset's initial rejection at the beach, with Shoichet's acting really selling the heartbreak when Sunset's begging Twilight to remember her), and I always felt the repercussions deserved a stronger exploration than what we got at the end. (Especially these days, when we recently had two major movies -- The Matrix Resurrections and Spider-Man: No Way Home -- that I thought did a really good job visualizing what it really means to have your identity stripped from you via memory; that's partially what inspired me to revisit the topic and go further.) And for me it was really important to capture the rest of the Rainbooms' horror (through Rarity) upon realizing how they'd unwittingly hurt their friend, beyond Sci-Twi's simple "We're so sorry." But at the same time, the 100 million fics about A-A-M have made "Sunset is mad at her friends" such a tired story angle, and in my opinion that'd be seriously inappropriate here since the Rainbooms were effectively brainwashed and Sunset would recognize that. So since Sunset ends the special trying be a friend to Wallflower, she basically has no one to express her frustrations and pain to without risking making them feel guilty. And bottling that kind of hurt inside is not going to end well.
I'm so glad to see this fic resonating with people the way it has been.
(When writing this new chapter, I actually used music from a relevant scene in the latter of the two movies I mentioned above as inspiration.)
I have a feeling that Rarity has her eye on someone else anyway.
I do have to wonder if a certain speed demon is going to ask her veterinarian crush to the prom.
When you said you were taking a break to work on another story, I was expecting it to be a story that wasn't FiM/EQG related. Still, I'm not complaining. This should be a good one. Looking forward to it!
I enjoyed this. People don't always realize how much something hurt or hurt someone else until it's over and you are left with your thoughts.
This fic has been reviewed! So excited to be worthy of recognition!
11176400
Heh, I was just coming over here to post that I'd reviewed this! But I still need to give you the upvote, so here it is. :)
Sunset, this girl nearly ruined your life.
It is perfectly normal for you to feel this way!
I like how Rarity empathizes with Sunset instead of forcing her into forgiving Wallflower.
This was a fantastic story!
11237854
Thanks so much! I hope you’ll check out the sequel if you’re interested!
Excellent stuff. I’ve never seen this particular approach to the Memory Stone incident before, but the girls’ reaction to it feels perfectly true to them. On to the follow-up stories!
Very nice exploration of some themes neglected by canon and fanfic alike. Is everyone worthy of forgiveness? Are we obligated to forgive those who apologize? Is forgiveness insufficient, must we extend the wing of friendship? It's easy to say "yes" to all of the above, as EqG (and FiM to a lesser extent) does. It's much harder to live that out. EqG is self-aware enough to lampshade the issue -- "Yeah, we're pretty forgiving" -- but the foes-turned-friends always feel surreal and warranting the attention of a well-qualified therapist or two.
My main critique is that Twilight is just sorta "there". Except for a bit in the epilogue, there's not much to the Sciset B-plot. That could be solved by either giving Twilight a more active role (she's asleep for most of the story), or by cutting the character altogether. Honestly, Rarity and Sunset have so much romantic chemistry here -- especially in the epilogue -- that the Sciset seems... temporary
On the other hoof, it's all worth it for disaster lesbian Twilight.
11295966
Thanks for the comment! The issue with Twilight boils down to the fact that this story (chapters 1-3, at least) was originally written as a scene in a larger story that never came to fruition (which was for the best). Hence why I tried to give her a bit more presence in Chapter 4.
If I'd been smart enough to write this as a singular story from the beginning, it would probably have just been the two of them and maybe I would've gone full Rariset with it but who knows really.
11296070
Rariset is the most underappreciated EqG ship.
While I do loathe Forgotten Friendship a lot, this scene does make me feel calm somewhat.
I don't blame you Sunset, what she did almost jeopardized the friendship you made with the friends that felt like family to you. And, it makes sense you'd not fully forgive her. I myself, have never liked Wallflower as she reminds me so much of a transformers villain, who did exactly what she did, but worse!
Why would she be upset about that, she was just trying to help.
Now that's something only a true friend would say.
Nice G5 reference there.
Oh Rarity.
Same here.
None of us do.
Mhm.
Another happy ending.
between her and Starlight, i guess ex-villain unicorns have a tendency to snore terribly
aww you tell her, Rarity!
i guess the Equestria Girls share our sentiment that the series ended kind of abruptly!
oof yeah, that's definitely one of the ways it could have gone. i doubt that the girls are all regularly hanging out with Juniper Montage, either
oof, yeah. Sunset has a lot more to process about what happened to her than a hug and a friendship montage could solve neatly
that raises an interesting question! all the EqG villains got that way by Equestrian magic letting them indulge in their own worst tendencies, but the damage they caused felt more incidental to their goals, while Wallflower deliberately targeted Sunset as a goal in it of itself. Sunset's reactions are naturally going to be different
aww yeah, that is a good explanation for how sudden the Rainbooms' cold shoulders felt! (though i was never confused by it. i mean, to them Sunset the school bully that tormented them for years is just gaslighting them for no reason?)
oh don't worry Sunset, it will!
dang they sure do love crystals in that world of theirs
Sunset warned you about the heat, Rarity!
hehe makes me think of "Look Before You Sleep"
how did she say a hashtag???
damn it was so obvious that even Timber had to see it
oof yeah, that is a lot of unprocessed trauma! as makes sense for everything that had happened to Sunset. i can definitely see why she would bottle things up, even from her friends, all the way up to now.
is this uh, is this a platonic friend thing?
i didn't hear a rejection...
a great exploration of the consequences that a surface reading of the canon would completely gloss over! definitely made me appreciate more what Sunset must have gone through after Forgotten Friendship. and of course i loved the SciSetRity vibes, intentional or not
A nice, interesting little dialogue between two characters who are put together shockingly infrequently. For a first story, this is really impressive!
Most of the first chapter feels like your classic SadSunny horse remorse goodness. But here:
Here’s where you really piqued my interest. There are loads of (very good!) stories about Wallflower and Sunset reconciling, and even more where Wallflower still harbours resentment towards Sunset. But I think this is one of the first I’ve seen that has Sunset be the one harbouring resentment towards Wallflower, and you make it work, tying it neatly into Sunset’s characteristic hot-headedness.
You’ve got a real knack for conversational flow, particularly with how you write Rarity. Just as well – a story that’s this dialogue-heavy can easily come across as monotonous or wearisome, but the way you slip little pauses and tangents into their speech so naturally, well, it feels like an actual conversation. Rarity’s little interjection as Sunset smirks is a perfect example of this. For such a minor detail, it just felt so right.
And did you… did you tie Rarity’s and Sunset’s friendship together using Sunset’s change in outfit between the films? That’s actually a stroke of genius.
Okay, that was a great little callback, you got a genuine laugh out of me there!
Overall, well, your description put it perfectly. A lovely bit of hurt/comfort and friendshipping, which has an impressive flow to it. The little bit of cheesiness at the end feels earned (and wouldn’t feel out-of-place in one of the films, honestly), while the upcoming confrontation you allude to has me seriously interested in the sequel. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it!
Ah, the amusement park story comes in mind
Oof, this fic is going to be great. Love the premise already
Love that sentence, you always manage to insert those little details and wordings that give the characters memorisable and distinctive personalities, making your fics so enjoyable to read.
Hm, but…
Ah, I see what you were going with that. While from the outside it was illogical (to me), the "reality check" plays out well, as to point out how this was Rarity herself thinking that.
The epilogue is definitely worth as an "addition", so to speak, of the night talk. The "feeding" up the emotions and not letting herself feel anything…
I had kind of a problem with Wallflower, or more specifically how she was so easily forgiven at the end of the special, and this fic points out what kind of… trauma, I would say, was inflicted on Sunset.
A worthy fic to read through
11144931
https://youtu.be/EnAe3LdDFs0