Sunset Shimmer stood in the middle of the hallway of Canterlot High School, eyes slightly narrowed and arms crossed, glaring at her latest opponent. Oh, it may have looked cute and innocent on the surface, but it was definitely anything but.
Behind her, she heard Applejack clear her throat. “Uh, Sunset?” she asked hesitantly. “There a reason you're glaring at this particular poster?”
“‘Grab a date for the Spring Fling’,” Sunset read it aloud. “Doesn’t it just…” She rolled her wrist as she searched for the right word, “rankle you?” she finished.
“You’ve already got a date, though, right?” Applejack said, adjusting her hat. “Wallflower’ll go with you, no question. Grabbing her’s the easy part.” She paused. “It’s finding her that’s the hard part,” she added under her breath, glancing around.
“Not that part,” Sunset said with a hint of exasperation. “The ‘Spring Fling’ part.”
“Well, perhaps it's not the most original title for a school dance,” Rarity conceded, crossing her arms, “but it does fit.”
“Yeah, but weird things happen on events with season names,” Sunset explained. “Remember the Fall Formal? The Annual Summer Camp Trip to Camp Everfree? The Fall Friendship Games? Naming it this, it’s just making it an incident waiting to happen. Right?” Sunset turned to the right, where Wallflower Blush was standing. No one had seen or heard her approach, but Sunset seemed to have a sixth sense for when her girlfriend had appeared.
Wallflower shrugged. “I guess,” she said uncertainly, looping her thumbs around her backpack straps. “Most of these things go off without a hitch. And the punch they have is usually really good.”
“I didn’t realize you’d been to one of these recently,” Rarity said before she could stop herself.
Wallflower looked at her. “I’ve been to every one the school’s hosted,” she said coolly.
Rarity winced, realizing she’d accidentally offended Wallflower. Again. This was worse than that raging she-demon thing they kept doing to Sunset. She cleared her throat. “Well, maybe this one will be uneventful, too,” she said, trying to rerail things.
“Knowing us? Not a chance!” Pinkie Pie cried as she sprinted behind them on her way to class, holding an enormous four-tier cake above her head.
Sunset pointed hesitantly after her before dropping her finger and deciding that maybe she was better off not knowing.
Wallflower Blush walked through the halls, subconsciously ducking around people and skirting the couples in the middle of the road. What she’d told Rarity had been true. She’d been to every single dance and party the school had put on. She was usually alone, standing in front of the bleachers, hands behind her back; but hey, she was there.
She settled in the back of her history class and pulled out her notebook. Today was a Thursday, and a work day preparing for the test tomorrow, which meant students were supposed to be finishing their homework. Of course, most kids were talking, chatting, doing math homework instead, or just sleeping. She flipped to a blank page and started doodling. A little box, divided into a couple quadrants; she smiled. She could plan out another little garden.
People talked around her, but she tuned it out. This part looked oddly like a heart. She grinned and slowly began shading in a letter. S.
Around her, the conversation shifted again, and Trixie’s voice came carrying through the air. “Date? To the dance? Oh, no, no, no. The well-beloved and highly-desired Trixie will be taking herself to the Spring Fling. There is nobody else quite like Trixie.”
Wallflower cracked a smile as she finished the shading on the lower part of the S. Wasn’t that the truth.
“And it isn’t like nobody’s asked Trixie to the dance,” Trixie said pompously.
Wallflower started on the W, giving it grayscale horizontal stripes like the sweater she’d worn today. People probably had asked Trixie, honestly. But no one Trixie would want to be seen with. Trixie was definitely the opposite of invisible. Very loud. Very boisterous. Very concerned with appearances.
“But Trixie couldn’t just go with someone random.”
Wallflower expelled air out her nose. Called it.
“Trixie desires true companionship. Who could truly know Trixie? Impossible, for such a short time as this. Trixie seeks a deeper connection, one that the idiots here at school could never comprehend.”
Wallflower thought for a moment. Her pencil hesitated over the paper. How deep was her connection with Sunset Shimmer?
“It’s very much a meeting of two hearts. And a heart as generous and loving as the Great and Powerful Trixie’s requires someone with one as fantastic and caring as she’s.” She paused. “As hers,” she amended.
Wallflower listened. She wasn't sure she liked what she was hearing. She and Sunset were very different. Almost… too different. She was so outgoing and friendly, so popular, and Wallflower… liked plants.
She stared at the S and W she’d shaded, and a cold pit settled in her stomach. If their relationship was shallow, they’d have no more luck than a seed on rocky soil: a decent start, but no deep root, and in the end, nothing but a dead plant.
When the final bell rang, Wallflower ducked out of class using the back door, unnoticed as usual. Sunset Shimmer had her last class on the other side of the school, but she and the rest of her friends would meet up outside the school by the statue. She’d never understood what they liked so much about that statue. She’d never been one for horses, even as a younger girl. That one experiment in second grade where they’d grown beans by putting them in plastic bags taped to a window with wet napkins inside had been her favorite day, and ever since then, she’d been a fan of growing things.
But right now, the only thing growing was her internal discomfort. She walked over and stood next to Sunset Shimmer, catching the tail end of her conversation.
“-so I know I’m going to bomb that part, but I think I’ll do well enough on the essay to save it. I’ve got good ideas for all three potential topics.”
“Good luck,” Fluttershy said hopefully.
This conversation continued, varying on tests and schedules, until Sunset finally turned to her girlfriend. “You ok?” she asked, gently rubbing Wallflower’s shoulder. “You’re kindof quiet today, even for you.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Wallflower lied.
Sunset gave her a look.
Wallflower exhaled through her nose. Might as well have this conversation now. “Can I talk to you? In private?”
“Sure,” Sunset said, her voice going just a touch higher than normal. She led the way to the side wall of the school, back to the faculty lot. She leaned back against the wall. “What’s on your mind?”
“Why do you like me?” Wallflower asked.
Sunset chuckled. “You’re my girlfriend. It’s my job to like you.”
So it’s an obligation? Wallflower bit back the jealous words and shook her head. Maybe it wasn’t like that. “But why am I your girlfriend?”
“You’re not going to make me tell the story of how we got together, are you?” Sunset asked with a wry grin. “Because, honestly, I don’t really know how I’d tell it. We didn’t really have a strict timeline. We just… kept hanging out, and then we just knew.”
Wallflower nodded thoughtfully.
“Wallflower, what’s this about?” Sunset asked pointedly.
“I just…” Wallflower looked at her hands, as if they held the answers. “We’re so different,” she finally said. “Part of me thinks… us being together… doesn’t really make sense.”
Sunset gave her a sideways look. “Why not?”
“We’re just so… different,” Wallflower repeated.
Sunset shrugged. “Pinkie and Fluttershy are about as different as two people can be, and they’re best friends.”
“But they’re not girlfriends,” Wallflower clarified.
Sunset cracked a smile. Pinkie Pie was very physically affectionate with just about everyone but had little to no interest in anything sexual, whereas Fluttershy was very quiet, lived up to her name, and was very much straight. Even if Pinkie had made a move on her, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. “They’d be incompatible,” she said matter-of-factly.
But Wallflower was not privy to this background knowledge. All she knew was how the two acted, and she was seeing a very uncomfortable allusion to herself and Sunset. “Incompatible,” she repeated flatly. “You know, some people might say we’re incompatible.”
“Some people would be wrong,” Sunset said firmly. She took Wallflower by the hand. “Wallflower Blush, I promise, we are very compatible.”
Wallflower hesitated. She wasn’t quite convinced.
Sunset continued. “Trust me. I’m very happy being your girlfriend. You’ve got such potential.”
Wallflower tensed. She knew that phrase. “So I’m a… project to you?” she asked incredulously.
“Not… I didn’t mean it like that,” Sunset said, hesitating. Memories ran through her head of herself, her own mistakes, and how far she’d come. She could very easily have just been abandoned after being hit with that rainbow of light. But they'd seen things in her and now she couldn't imagine life without her friends.
“That’s what it’s sounding like,” Wallflower said suspiciously. “Do you do this to everyone who messes with your friends? They’re a little project for you to fix and then show off how good at friendship you are?”
Sunset paused, now even more confused. She had no idea where any of this was coming from. She glanced down, trying to remember if she’d done anything that Wallflower could interpret that way. After all, Sunset knew a thing or two about using people, and she was very certain she had avoided all of that with Wallflower. She really was a great girl, when she poked her head out of her shell. She was fascinating, and she only regretted not noticing her sooner. That really was the truth.
But Wallflower interpreted her silence in a different way. She scowled. “I should have known,” she seethed. It had been too good to be true because of course it had. It had been fake, all of it. Why would someone like Sunset Shimmer ever want to be with someone like her?
Only one answer came to mind: it was pity. Sunset didn’t care for her. Not really. Not as much as she wanted to earn points with her friends. She hadn’t changed. She was still the colossal meanie she’d been freshman year. Wallflower yanked her hand away and took a few steps back, slowly shaking her head.
“Wallflower, wait,” Sunset pleaded.
“No,” she said shortly. “I have to get home.” Wallflower turned and walked away.
Sunset watched after her, biting her lower lip.
But Wallflower Blush did not go home. As soon as she was out of sight, she ducked into the school’s garden. She took a steadying breath. Here, she could relax. It was familiar. She could always come back here.
She sank to her knees and idly pulled a couple weeds. This was also familiar. She could take care of this herself. By herself. How she did everything, before she met Sunset.
She looked down. “I don’t need her,” she said aloud.
Her plants seemed to agree, silently welcoming her back in their own way.
Oddly comforted, she continued her work, methodically removing weeds, just like she was removing Sunset from her life. She was just fine on her own. Had been, would be.