//------------------------------//
// A Helping Hand Goes Farther Than You Can Dream 
// Story: Shaking Off Bad Memories 
// by EileenSaysHi 
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"Why should you notice me? After all, you're Sunset Shimmer, everybody loves you now..."

"I'll just finish up, in the dark."

"Why can't they see you haven't changed?"

"I wanted to teach you a lesson by erasing your friends' good memories of you..."

Sunset was reaching inside of Wallflower's mind, probing, fishing for something. But she was quickly realizing she was out of her depth.

"I've been trying to get your attention for, like, half the song."

She was beginning to realize how rare it was for her to use her power for a nonstrategic purpose. Whether it was Gloriosa Daisy, Juniper Montage, Twilight, a crying child on the yacht or Wallflower herself the year prior, Sunset had known what she was trying to find. In a flash, she could identify the thread of relevant memory and follow it to its source. But this was different.

Sunset was flying blind. Where before she'd sought to find the moment someone had found a specific item, identify a cause of pain or trace a known sequence of events, here she was trying to use memory to understand the totality of another person. And she was lost amid mountains of indecipherable remembrances, and the only threads she was able to pull on were leading her straight to where she didn't want to be.

"But what if I erased all their memories of high school?"

No, Sunset thought. Not there. What am I really trying to find?

She realized that she was instinctively searching for what she recognized. More specifically, the moments of Wallflower's life that were most directly imprinted on her own life. Which was inevitably going to lead to...

"They'll think of you the way you think of me. Which is not at all!"

Sunset nearly broke the connection, nearly pulled away. It was too hard, too much, I don't know where to even start...

She thought back to the snowflake she'd caught the past winter, while executing Rainbow Dash's poorly conceived plan to get out of taking a test. Tracing its life history, its journey through the water cycle. She hadn't even known she could do something like that at the time. And she certainly hadn't been looking to find anything specific. People obviously aren't snowflakes, despite the rather impassioned and incoherent argument to the contrary she'd once had directed at her on social media. But could the simplicity of that experience help her find a path here?

She pushed the threads that were normally essential to her process away, trying to find a new way to understand the information in front of her. Soon she was finding patterns, keys to what the mental imagery within a given memory might contain. There were clues—emotions, people, locations, objects—harder to implicitly decode than a thread, more generic, but still noticeable. She entered into a memory with a happy marker and heard her own voice.

"I've got a yearbook delivery for Best Gardener!"

So now she'd started to figure out the marker that indicated her own presence in a memory. Now it was time to find one without her. She found one that fell at a later point in the timeline. Inside, she saw Wallflower and Roseluck outside Canterlot High on what appeared to be the first day of senior year.



"Wallflower!," Roseluck called. "You do remember me, right?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah, definitely," Wallflower replied uncomfortably. "Are you... coming back to Gardening Club this year?"

"That's your first question? Wallflower, I've been worried about you! We barely talked all summer! Muffins and I tried to invite you over like five times at least!"

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry. I guess I just, um..."

"Anyway, what's your last class of the day?"

"Um... physics? Regular physics?"

"Awesome." Roseluck patted her on the shoulder. "After class I'll meet you there, we've got something really fun in mind and we all thought you should get to join us. See you later!"

And as she left, Wallflower started to beam, her lips reshaping into a genuine smile.



Sunset exited the memory. A happy one, to be sure, one that had portended the end of Wallflower's summer of isolation and the growth of her strongest friendships. But she wasn't sure exactly what insight into the girl she could glean from it. She moved to a new memory.



Wallflower, Roseluck, Raspberry and Muffins were at their campsite outside the Starswirled Music Festival. Wallflower was pulling her luggage out of the car.

"I wanted to show you all something, if you have a moment," she asked. The three approached. Wallflower unzipped her case and pulled out the top two items, a new red top and a floral-patterned skirt.

"What do you think?" she asked. "I wanted to follow your advice a bit. I've been wearing that one sweater for a while, and... I thought something a bit brighter like this might be a good... change of pace."

"Wallflower," Raspberry replied, "it looks fantastic!" Muffins nodded firmly in agreement. The grey girl pulled out a sunflower hairclip, similar in style to those on Wallflower's skirt, and handed it to her.

"You... you want me to have this?"

Muffins urged her to put it on, and she obliged. She was met with applause from the both of them and a warm smile from Roseluck. She got a little bit misty-eyed.

"Wow... thanks so much. I just know tonight is gonna be great. It's too bad we only get to do it once..."



Now things were becoming clearer. Much like the snowflake, Sunset realized she was following Wallflower's journey as she blossomed from the broken, self-loathing wretch of the post-Memory Stone period into a happier, healthier person with a set of friends as true to her as the Rainbooms were to Sunset. But there was one memory, looking ahead, that caught Sunset's eye. One that she could tell also featured Roseluck and Muffins, but was a bit more emotionally mixed. She peered in.



It was the night of the Fall Formal, senior year. Wallflower was sitting on the front steps in front of the school, crying. Muffins and Roseluck were sitting beside her.

"...but that's what happened," Wallflower told them. "I-I've never told anyone about it, before. But you deserve to know..."

Muffins pulled her into a hug, startling Wallflower.

"How can you be so c-c-casual about this?" she wailed. "I was so cruel, so thoughtless, I hurt everyone around me—I've taken memories from you before! Both of you! And not all of them came back!"

"Because we're your friends, Wallflower," Roseluck replied, scooting closer to her. "Of course we know what you did was wrong. It's definitely a bit of a shock. But you were brave to tell us. It was obviously really hard for you."

"B-but—"

"If you could do it again, would you?"

"What? No!!"

"Then it's settled. And... we don't have to go in there if you don't want. I know facing all of them must be hard. I don't want you to feel forced into anything uncomfortable."

Wallflower sniffled. "You have no idea... but you shouldn't skip it because of me. It's your last Fall Formal, I don't want to ruin it for you."

"Knowing we left you out here would be worse. Besides, this dance never seems to go well. Remember last year when there was that gas leak and they cleared us all out? Or when someone pumped grease into the vents freshman year? There must be a curse on that stupid crown."

Wallflower laughed a bit. "Yeah..."

Roseluck extended a hand and Wallflower took it. "Come on, I know where we can go that'll be way better." And together the three of them walked down the steps toward the parking lot.



The magic of friendship had been hard at work on Wallflower Blush. Sunset was amazed that, in the span of just two months of actively being their friend, Wallflower had found enough trust to tell Roseluck and Muffins her darkest secret. And yet she'd proven to be such a meaningful relationship for both of them that they'd not only accepted her, but comforted her in her hour of need.

But, as she was thinking, she noticed something new. There was now a thread, a different kind than what she was used to, linking the memories together. But there were other threads branching out from all of them, all over the place. She realized with a start that she was starting to see all of Wallflower, that the source code of her mind was no longer an unreadable mess but something clear, recognizable. She drew back, observing the totality of the girl's mindscape. And what she saw amazed her.

It was a garden. Vast in scale, not as well-tended as the ones Wallflower managed in real life, but clearly a garden nonetheless. And inside were trees of memories. Many were very large; memories of family, education, basic experiential learning. Some trees were withered and decayed; bitter memories, remembrances of her dark deeds. But near the center was a new tree. The roots weren't deep, but they were growing fast. And so were the branches. And the life contained inside was beginning to outshine everything around it.

Wallflower's tree of friendship.

And Sunset found a thread extending from the tree, and when she followed it, she realized it was taking her all the way to the center, to the memory at the very heart of it. A part of her already knew what would be inside, but she opened it anyway.

"Everyone matters, Wallflower. No matter how insignificant or invisible they feel."



"Uh, Sunset?"

Sunset was back in reality, and had wrapped Wallflower in a tight hug as she continued to process the experience of being in her mind. After a moment, she drew back, smiling at the confused girl.

"So..." Wallflower asked. "What did you see, exactly?"

"It's hard to explain. But it's like you said. I saw you. I felt you. In a way I couldn't really achieve through talking. I saw memories of your past year, of you, Roseluck, Muffins and Raspberry. Of you... finding your way forward. They were simple memories, simple moments of warmth, of levity, of heartbreak, of comfort—but after the way I've been letting myself think of you for so long, it really did mean something for me to see you like that." She watched as Wallflower started to smile.

"And at the center of it all, I traced those memories back to one moment, last year, in that parking lot. When, if just for a moment, I did the right thing, and assured you that your world hadn't ended. That maybe there was something bright ahead for you."

Wallflower's face fell. "But don't you see?" she asked grimly. "That's the whole thing. Everything I've built this past year has been on top of this mountain of hurt I caused. You wouldn't have offered me that help if I hadn't attacked you and your friends in the first place. I wouldn't have been this blank slate for Roseluck and Muffins to take under their wing if I hadn't taken away nearly the whole school's ability to recognize me... I don't deserve it!"

"Wallflower," Sunset said sharply. "Do you think I don't know how it is to feel that way? Whether I like it or not, my life would not be what it is now if I hadn't ended up in that crater. I put myself there. Other people helped me up, even though I'd wronged them. That's how you rebuild. I know it can be rough to remember our darkest moments, but we can't change what happened. That part's over. But this weekend, Rarity reminded me of something I should have kept in mind all along. Sometimes we let our mistakes and our guilt get the better of us. But if we let them control us, they'll destroy us."

She calmed down and put her hand on Wallflower's shoulder. "I don't think what we've said to each other this afternoon will fix everything between us. It won't instantly make us best friends. But I think it was crucial that we did this. There were points today where I wanted to give in to my anger, to yell and blame and deflect and do everything that I've been doing in my head for so long. But instead I exposed to myself how wrong I was to let that darkness control me so much. Maybe for the first time ever, I don't feel like there's anything invisible about you, the real you. I'm sorry I avoided this for so long, that I kept myself so distant. Now, though, I feel... like I can forgive you, truly and honestly. The way so many others have forgiven me, and the way that maybe I should forgive myself."

At that last sentence, Wallflower started. "Sunset... I don't need you to forgive me, and I don't want you to think you have to forgive me. And I definitely don't need an apology for keeping your distance. But I won't pretend I'm not happy that you can look at me in a different way. And the truth is I've been scared of you this year. Scared to face you, scared of what it would mean if you'd rejected me, told me I'd never be more than who I was. Maybe I made you into a bit of a monster, too. But seeing you... bare your soul like that to me... it really does mean a lot. If forgiving me means that you can feel a little bit better about yourself... then I'll accept it. And, truth be told, I hope this isn't the end."

"Huh?" Sunset asked.

"Of us. Of being able to talk like this. I..." Wallflower swallowed. "I hope maybe we can keep being honest like this. I've always felt like I couldn't be a real friend to you, that there'd always be this huge gap between us, that I could never be myself around you; but after today, I feel really different. I feel... free."

Sunset thought for a moment. It's true she was feeling a lot better about how this had gone than she'd been afraid of, but had it really gone so well that Wallflower didn't want this to be the last time they met?

Could they really be friends one day?

Rarity's words echoed in her mind. "...working through that ill will I had about you changed my life—really, truly changed my life—for the better. Because I know for a fact that I would be in a much different, far less fulfilling and far less happy place in my life if I hadn’t made friends with Sunset Shimmer.”

"Yes," she replied after a few moments. "I-I think you're right. I'd be happy to get to know you more."

Wallflower beamed, and eventually Sunset reflected her smile.

Just then, Sunset felt a drop of water on her head, followed quickly by two more. She looked up. The clouds were now directly overhead. The change in weather had arrived ahead of schedule.

"Rain!" she shouted as the droplets began to bombard them.

"I think that's our cue to go home," Wallflower replied, laughing a bit incredulously.

"Agreed, I've got a ton of studying tonight anyway," Sunset replied, as they started to run back to the main path. "Do you need a ride?"

"I'm good," Wallflower responded. "See you at the yearbook party?"

"Definitely." They turned in different directions, Sunset towards the parking lot and Wallflower towards the main sidewalk, but they both looked back after a moment.

"Thanks for everything, Sunset."

Sunset smiled. "Anytime, Wallflower." She walked off toward her car, confident for the first time in a long time that she'd sleep well that night.