Well I was going to issue some pretty, flowery statement about how this all went so very well and how I appreciate our reviewers so very very much...but them FimFiction decided it hated me and deleted everything I just wrote. I'm too lazy to re-write all of that again, so let me just give ya the short version, hmm?

Today we're reviewing the winner of Random Romance's September contest: The Shimmering Regret of Shining Armor, by yours truly. Yeah, I know, I'm hogging the spotlight.

First up, from Death the Kid, who's opinion matters more to me than he probably realizes:

The Shimmering Regret of The Shallow Ex-Girlfriend of Shining Armor; that is a true title for this piece. A certain PaulAsaran wrote this beautiful little story about a certain self-loathing Sunset Shimmer, pathetically begging for a certain Shining Armor to take her back, throwing herself on him and doing and saying various things that serve naught but to only further demean herself. It's great. A perfect sob story that has the reader feeling sorry for this sad mare, regardless of how much they like to think they hate her. And, like this review, it says quite a bit with few words. This very special, completely hollow character both fits to the canon version of it that she will presumably become, and serves to turn a bland and unoriginal introduction into a lovely short story that I would pay money for. Not much money, mind you; it is supposed to be written as a hobby of sorts. My friend, I think I've enjoyed this story more than any of the others you've written.

My thanks, Kid!

Next up, the illustrious and ever helpful Punzil504:

"The Shimmering Regret of Shining Armor" is a tale of two Canterlot ponies, one whose star is only on the rise, and another who has lost almost everything and is clinging to her one last chance. Sunset Shimmer goes to Shining Armor one last time before going through the portal, hoping that he can give her a reason not to go.

As a romance story, it obviously would be misleading to say that this could be an episode. It could, however, have easily made it into the semi-canon comic series by IDW. It would make a nice follow up to “The Fall of Sunset Shimmer” comic, as Sunset has already been removed from her position as Celestia’s apprentice at the beginning of this tale.

Pros:

1. (Spoiler) I liked that this was a romance story that did not have a happy ending. The romantic tension was obviously there. Shining Armor still had some lingering feelings for Sunset Shimmer in spite of their break-up, despite changes to her character, but the implication is there that he and Cadance are already together, and it would have been very uncharacteristic of him to be anything but faithful to the Princess.

2. Sunset’s age shines through in this story. She’s obviously a few years younger, and has just suffered a huge failure for someone around the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the movie. It gives her character, and allows the reader to sympathize with her, while still not necessarily liking her very much. She is still a younger version of the manipulative Queen Bee of Canterlot High, after all.

3. Shining and Sunset’s relationship was successfully sandwiched neatly in the time frame prior to his relationship with princess Cadance, making it unnecessary to resort to drastic measures like divorce, death, adultery, or the Alternate Universe tag.

Cons:

1. Shining Armor has a bit of a reputation for being ineffective in spite of his rank, and this story does not help him in that respect. This is one more early glimpse of the future Captain of the Royal Guard failing in spite of doing what he thought was best at the time.

2. One of the good things about the ending was also detrimental in a way. The ending was inevitable, and despite Sunset’s best attempts to entice him, I had no doubt that Shining was going to do what he did. Anything else would have been out of character.

3. Some of Sunset’s dialogue felt a bit cliché. In some cases it reinforced the fact that she’s a teenager, but the way she kept dropping vague hints about the portal were confusing, as if she couldn’t make up her mind about whether she really wanted to go, whether she wanted Shining to follow her, or stop her from going. Perhaps that was intentional.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, and I would definitely recommend it.

Funny thing is, all your cons sound more like pros. A high-quality review, as usual!

New review orders are coming out soon!