EA–

• MLP: FiM
• Sad
• Slice of Life

A young Sunset Shimmer receives a grade she can't afford.

• Sunset Shimmer

Miller Minus · 1k words  ·  107  2 · 1.8k views

School’s tough. What makes it tougher is expectations and rather toxic mindsets that come with them. Today’s story hit something close to home for me, something I don’t normally come across in literature, so let’s have a look at it, shall we?

Plot and Setting

A- is 1027 words long and is entirely about how a young Sunset Shimmer receives a less than perfect mark. Sounds simple enough, and it is! What makes this story just a little bit more unique is that this incident happens to Sunset before she becomes Celestia’s student, before she enters the School for Gifted Unicorns – this is (an interpretation of) the origin of her misdeeds in the name of power and prestige.

The story is not about the stress of taking a test and Sunset not knowing the answer, but the quiet aftermath of taking it and thinking that she knew the answer, only to find out that she didn’t. To find that not only did she not know the correct answer, but it being in what she thought was her best subject? That could be crippling to a child with a budding ego and a lot at stake.

Do I like that Sunset decided to break the rules and cheat for her next test? Not particularly, but I do understand the possible reasoning behind why that was included, namely that Miller Minus might have felt the need to include some nod to Sunset’s choices later in life (which includes, but is not limited to, breaking into some forbidden archives she was banned from).

Section rating: 8/10

Character Exploration

Oooh, where do I begin? I adore the characterization in this story, especially since I’ve experienced what Sunset has many times myself. For some people, getting a lower mark than what they expect is a loud affair, but for others, such as Sunset, it’s quiet and self-contained. We don’t need to explain to others what’s wrong because it’s very simple: we weren’t good enough. We tried our best and our best wasn’t enough, even though we’re the best at what we do (relatively speaking). For some people, this is something they can accept because they at least did their best, but for others, well, their egos just get smacked in the face.

When you work hard and get perfect marks, people call you gifted and that feeds your ego more and more, but when you don’t? There’s no one who’s as harsh of a critic as yourself. Miller Minus captured this wonderfully in A-, notably when Mrs. Felthoof comments that Sunset is “the only filly who could look at an A-minus like it’s a prison sentence” and when Sunset remarks that the cut-off mark for Celestia’s school is A, not an A-minus. Those two lines gave me chills and made me empathize with Sunset because I’ve been in those positions before (albeit in reverse for the latter).

There’s also the not-so-subtle implication that Sunset’s family is poor and her parents likely were not that successful in their own education, which is why they’re still happy and satisfied with Sunset’s A-minus. That is, until they find out that Celestia’s school doesn’t accept A-minus students and it’s heavily implied that the family is banking on Sunset getting in so that she can get a good education, which can lead to getting a good job and being able to support herself and her family. There’s so much riding on Sunset’s talents and intelligence, too much for her to fail ay any point, and getting a mark just under what she needs is as big of a failure as getting a 0.

For their sake, or maybe her own, Sunset doesn’t confide in her parents about how she feels about it either. She doesn’t want to disappoint them again, nor does she want to keep facing her own failure and her disappointment in herself. What does she do with her feelings? She resolves to do better by being better than everyone, including her teacher, even if that means she has to resort to less than legal tactics.

Section rating: 10/10

Grammar, Formatting, and Consistency

Fairly well done on all sub-sections! As noted by one of the comments on the story itself, there is a slight difference in the narration at the start of the story before it shifts to Sunset’s perspective. Initially, we read the thoughts of an arbitrary child observing Sunset before we switch to her thoughts. A little odd and it’s a bit of an abrupt transition, but it is ignorable once the story gets going.

I do find it a little interesting that Miller Minus chose to name the story and its sole chapter “A-“, but refer to them as “A-minus” within the story. I suspect that this was done because just seeing “A-“ in-text might raise a few eyebrows and “A-“ gets the point across better than “A-minus” as a title. Otherwise, well done!

Grammar: 10/10
Formatting: 9.5/10 (for the change in perspective)
Consistency: 9.5/10
Section rating: 9.7/10

My Little Nitpicks

(Formerly) best subject
Poor girl. I’ve felt this far too often with math. Supposed to be good at it, and yet somehow, she’s not.

Prison sentence
In some senses, it could be! Imprisoned in our own criticisms, more like.

You were the top of your class...
…but the key word is “were”

Cut-off rate
The bane of every university/college applicant’s existence!

The watchtower
That guardpony will keep watching for her for the rest of her life

Final Thoughts

A short, but impactful story that will resonate with people who struggled with being labelled as the “smart” one and certain expectations being made of them, as well as being an interesting take on the origins of Sunset Shimmer’s mischievous (and slightly criminal) streak. I certainly would recommend as part of my Illuminated Reviews list!

Final rating: (27.7/3)/10 = 9.23/10

7290716
Thanks so much for the review. So glad you enjoyed 💙