EWallflower of Canterlot

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Drama
• Slice of Life

For little Wallflower Blush, life here in Canterlot had always been a quiet, if lonely one. Then came Sunset Shimmer from the Sun Princess’ ivory palace, and suddenly it wasn’t so lonely after all in this little flower shop of hers.

• Sunset Shimmer
• Wallflower Blush

Sledge115 · 11k words  ·  117  8 · 1.6k views

Description

For little Wallflower Blush, life had always been quiet here in Canterlot, and everything was where it should be. Her family's flower shop was running just fine, school was just enough of a manageable hassle, and though she found it a lonely life, it was a life she was fine with.

Then one day, who else should she find loitering about in the flower shop, with a whole baggage of issues to sort out, if not the Princess' own personal student? And when she starts talking to her, and no other, perhaps it won't be so lonely after all.

Initial Thoughts

There are a few notes of context I should bear in mind. 

First, according to the story’s description, this is a standalone piece set in the SPECTRUM-verse. I’m unfamiliar with the SPECTRUM story, so I took the liberty of examining the TV Tropes page. As it turns out, it’s a kind of “re-imagining,” I suppose, of The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum, a now-cancelled fic. Unfamiliar further though I am with The Conversion Bureau, I must admit that what I do know of it, isn’t exactly appealing. However, if this is a standalone piece, then I expect two things: first, that prior knowledge of either the original or rebooted -verse is unnecessary; and second, that what references or tropes taken from that -verse do not hinder the reader’s ability to comprehend the story.

The second context is the fact that this was written for Scampy’s SunFlower Shipping Contest.  This means the story would have had to adhere to a few of that contest’s parameters: namely, a word count between 1,000 and 15,000. It’s also clearly a romance fic, and delving into familiar territory, that of the ship between Sunset and Wallflower.

Now, I must admit that reading the story’s description, as well as examining the second context, has led me to draw many parallels between this story and another one of Sledge’s called “Little Shop Down Canterlot Road.” I even did a review for that story, too. The language of the descriptions are actually fairly similar, though I must point out that the perspective has changed. Instead of Sunset Shimmer’s perspective, which we saw in LSDCR, here we appear, at least hopefully, to view the story from Wallflower’s POV. And yet, I cannot help but find that the titles and the use of the “flower shop” as the centerpiece setting feels both appropriate and “on the nose.” I’m left wondering if this story is truly separate from that one—for though they are about two months apart in terms of publication, the degree to which they resonate with each other is striking.

Anyway, that’s enough prologue-ing for now. It’s time to dive in. Familiar as I am with some of Sledge’s work, I hope that this piece manages to hold up. 

Summary

There once was a little filly who worked at a flower shop in Canterlot. And there once was another little filly who came in one day. They meet. They talk. They become closer. And inevitably, something pulls them apart. This is one such story. 

Plot

I did a bit of exploring after reading this story, and have concluded that this one is meant to be a prequel to “Little Shop Down Canterlot Road.” For my own sake, I’ve gone and skimmed that story to see how it lines up, though that doesn’t bear much on what I have to say about “Wallflower of Canterlot.”

It should be obvious that “Wallflower of Canterlot” is a love story. Though, it really is about the “chase” than the actual “love” part. That renders, quite nicely, the stakes: Wallflower’s heart is on the line. Though, as provided by the story’s first line…

It was on a sunny weekday afternoon that young Wallflower Blush saw the fiery-maned filly for the first time.

… this isn’t a matter where Wallflower immediately knows that her heart is on the line.

In this manner, the romance’s “chase” is slow-burning. It’s more-or-less an exploration of time passing, marked off each time by all the times that Sunset enters—or does not enter—Wallflower’s little shop. Each time reveals a bit more to Wallflower’s character, as well as pushing her towards infatuation—an infatuation which even she admits is perhaps closer to a schoolyard crush than actual, tangible love. 

Still, Sledge does a great job of making this slow progression feel real. Wallflower, at first, holds little more than a passing interest for Sunset Shimmer. She doesn’t even know who she is, not until her father actually spells it out for her. Even so, she’s just a bit curious about her—and only just.

In time, Sunset’s visits become more frequent, but that doesn’t immediately mean Wallflower is in love with her. Contrary to that, Sledge writes that Wallflower starts off a bit ambivalent towards Sunset: 

That left only Wallflower to deal with Sunset, and she did not find it pleasant at all at first, to have someone hovering around the shop at length, a constant weight upon her mind.

But eventually that ambivalence becomes a combination of sympathy and admiration. She recognizes Sunset’s talent and manages to reassure her, for the most part, of that. Is that fueling Sunset’s ego, and does that mean that Sunset doesn’t think of Wallflower as a friend, but as a resource from which she can boost her self-image? Yes—but that, it seems, is kind of the point. While this affects her characterization, it also affects the dramatic irony of the plot, for we, as the viewer, can see quite clearly that perhaps what Wallflower is falling for isn’t all that good—or more realistically, isn’t what either of them need.

But that’s love, or schoolyard love, anyway. You can’t help but feel what you feel, good or bad. You just learn to live with it.

And live with it, Wallflower does, as later she learns that, as Sunset’s visits become less and less frequent, Sunset actually has a boyfriend. She’s moved on with her life as much as she could, even as it’s made abundantly clear that Sunset still feels enormously constrained (aided in no part by the new presence of one pink princess, of course). 

Admittedly, there is more to this story than what I am able to summarize here. And honestly for the specific plot details, I can only suggest that one read the story on their own. My main point, however, is that what stakes Sledge provides, and then develops, end up feeling fulfilled by the very end. The story feels incredibly rendered, in both the romance and friendship departments. It’s neither too fast nor too slow—it’s at a good pace for a story of its kind, and its quality of simple, transfixing storytelling, is just amazing. 

I should note the short story’s only chapter and its title: “The Girl from the Ivory Palace.” I believe that alone is indicative of at least one of the themes: not necessarily the tried-and-true danger of putting people on pedestals, but the simple fact that, every now and then, we meet someone for whom a mere throne just doesn’t seem enough. Whether or not that was intended is both relevant and irrespective—but I like to think that if a story allows some degree of freedom of interpretation, it’s a good story.

Finally, one final point I want to make is that the story does a phenomenal job of not making it necessary to read anything from the SPECTRUM-verse. I believe I caught a few hints here and there, but a non-critical reader could easily read this story and not sense that there might be a gap in its structure or inner logic that would be filled by knowledge of that universe. So, the story manages its lore or connection a lore-heavy, bigger story quite nicely. 

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with the plot. I wish I could say more specifically, but to do that would spoil a lot of the little things here and there that built up to create an amazing experience. 

Score – 10 / 10 

Characterization

Wallflower is our protagonist, of course. But she’s a younger Wallflower—definitely younger than the Wallflower we see in the EqG special. The shy, yet bitter, yet depressed, yet self-destructive Wallflower from there hasn’t shown her face—and it’s doubtful if she will, since this pony version is a bit different anyway. 

For one, Wallflower here arguably is a bit healthier. She lives and works with her parents in Canterlot, and while there are excerpts scattered throughout suggesting she doesn’t have all that many friends, there are also excerpts suggesting that she doesn’t suffer too much from that. Not that this is any less tragic, and not that this does not paint her growing attachment to Sunset Shimmer any less bittersweet, but at the very least, by the story’s end, Wallflower does change from someone desperate to need and be needed by someone, and into someone who’s relatively able to stand on her own, for her own sake. 

For the sake of argument, I’ve coated this in a spoiler tag, but you can see how the following quote paints that picture quite vividly.

Perhaps Sunset had taken a train too, so long ago. Where she may have gone, Wallflower could not tell, for the world was vast and never did word come back of her. Maybe it had, in truth, never been any more than a schoolgirl crush, where all along she was a mere flower on the wall, hers no greater a purpose than to soak in the woes and joys of a girl that shone so bright.

Yet as she closed her eyes for the long trip home, all Wallflower could wish for was that Sunset Shimmer might have found her peace somewhere out there, far and away from all the pressures, the burdens of the ivory palace.

What strikes me the most about this particular characterization is the fact that it’s a follow-through from something we are shown at the very beginning, in regards to how this Wallflower may be quite different from her EqG counterpart. Wallflower may still be shy, but she’s also kind enough to notice Sunset and ask her how she is. It’s a subtle change, but it makes Wallflower an endearing figure to follow. One not only senses the distress in her heart, but also the deep care and compassion of which she is capable, and which, it seems or does not seem, wins over Sunset in some way or another.

But, I can’t speak of Wallflower’s character without also speaking of Sunset. In some ways, the two develop as foils to one another. Wallflower’s reticence faces its opposite in Sunset’s confidence; Wallflower’s demureness is matched by Sunset’s ambition. Wallflower and Sunset also differ in a class sense—Wallflower, at best, might be said to be of the middle-class, but Sunset is most definitely of the high-class, of royalty.

Sunset’s vanity shines in full, at first shadowing Wallflower’s humility—humility which is so terribly close to humiliation, that one cannot help but think at times of telling her to stop putting herself down. But later on, Sledge allows the shadow under that vanity to appear. In cracks, in little spaces that come when Sunset is at her most vulnerable, we see that all that arrogance and confidence are little more than masks to hide her sense of inadequacy, and her confusion as to what Princess Celestia wants from her. 

Sunset’s mistake, of course, is in thinking that the meticulousness of being a good student translates to being a pony worthy of princesshood. And Wallflower makes that same mistake. But that’s to be forgiven, because while the reader is aware meta-textually that there are other conditions, in-universe and in-the-text, these characters cannot be aware. There’s a degree of dramatic irony with putting Sunset’s inner conflict in conversation with Wallflower’s attraction and admiration for her. It allows for what was my favorite scene in the story:

“Wallflower?” she began. Wallflower’s ears perked up. 
“Yes?” replied Wallflower. Their eyes met. Sunset’s eyes were bloodshot, and that gave Wallflower a moment’s pause.

“Am I good enough?” asked Sunset. Her tail swished, hoof lightly tapping the ground. She sighed, just as Wallflower was about to answer. “Nevermind. It’s stupid.”

“No! No it isn’t,” said Wallflower hurriedly.

It was now or never. Yet this was so unlike Sunset. For once, the older girl didn’t seem older to Wallflower at all. She felt shrunk, vulnerable, her usual fire dimmed, and she’d spoken like one much younger, hurt and confused.

“What happened, Sunset?”

“More what I didn’t do,” said Sunset. “It’s like I try, okay? I do everything that she asks of me. I ace every lesson, every spell, every trial. That crown, I know I deserve it I– but it’s just never enough! I know it isn’t. What am I doing wrong? I just don’t get it.”

… 

“... I don’t think it’s stupid,” said Wallflower. Her knees felt weak, her voice trembled. “B–Because whatever you are, whatever they say you are, it doesn’t change anything. You’re you.”

Tell her. Tell her.

Wallflower took a deep breath.

“I don’t know anything about Cadance or Blueblood, or what they or anyone else thinks about you and your dreams. But I care,” she said. “You matter, Sunset. You’re the toughest, cleverest pony I know, you’re never afraid of speaking your mind and… and you’re good enough for me. You deserve the best, whatever it means to you.”

She mustered a smile. A tiny, feeble smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“You’re Sunset. That’s good enough.”

How tragic is it that the advice that Wallflower gives is the advice that her EqG counterpart should have been given? And how tragic is it that it’s only said because Wallflower cannot bring herself to say, I love you?

I suppose that, in the midst of all this rambling, I mean to say that, as the story’s characters are very much tied to the story’s relationship between those characters, the story has done an amazing job of letting the characters develop naturally with that relationship. They inhabit each and every scene, to borrow the wording of James Wood—they come alive and become about as real as one can expect. 

They aren’t the only characters, of course. We have Wallflower’s parents, though they don’t play too much of a vital role. But we also have characters like Princess Cadence, Blueblood, and Princess Celestia. They are little more than the necessary flat characters, but each fulfills a kind of purpose: Cadence is an obstacle to Sunset, Blueblood (and by proxy, the fact that he dates Sunset)is an obstacle to Wallflower, and Princess Celestia is, perhaps, an obstacle to both: Sunset cannot overcome her ambiguous guidance, and Wallflower cannot overcome how the ethos of Sunset being Princess Celestia’s student makes it seem like Sunset is virtually unreachable—a girl in the ivory tower, as it were. 

Yet, while Wallflower and Sunset are rendered almost without noticeable error or complaint, I don’t believe the same can completely be said of the other characters. In part, that’s because there’s a clear amount of re-interpretation going on, re-interpretation which appears to tie into Sledge’s other stories. 

Take Cadence, for example. While it’s not too hard to triangulate the age at which she ascended to be around the same time that Sunset was Celestia’s student, there are hints that the reasons why she ascended go beyond what’s seen in the show. In fact, they appear to be linked to Sledge’s “The Rose of Florentina,” which I have not read. It’s a loose connection, but noticeable enough for a reader to say, “That doesn’t seem like ‘canon.’” 

Blueblood also goes through some changes. He’s still a bit high-and-mighty, but not insufferable. He’s actually even friends with Cadence in this story. While the only Blueblood we’ve ever seen in the show is about as one-note of a male character as you can get, this story’s representation of him is still different enough to warrant attention. 

Finally, Princess Celestia’s character technically is the one who lacks the most characterization. In part, that’s because her role is rather minuscule compared to the other two I’ve mentioned. She only physically appears in the story near the end, after Sunset has run away. However, this tiny presence is amplified by the fact that the story does little to illuminate explicitly who she is. She appears very regal, very goddess-like, to young Wallflower—inherently that positions her as an unknowable player. That’s technically justified, but because so much of the story’s underlining tension relies on the unknowability of Celestia’s motives or reasons—either for choosing Sunset, or ascending Cadence, or not giving Sunset encouragement—it feels almost too on-the-nose.

Overall, with these three characters, there is indeed a sense that more can be known, but furthermore, that more can be known by reading other stories in this loosely connected canon. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it does encourage readers to explore, but it does also necessarily weaken the overall habitation for them. 

But I reflect that that is closer to a nitpick than a huge criticism. For what it’s worth, these characters function about as well as they could given the space allotted, and besides, the focus of the story should and is primarily on Wallflower and Sunset. The others are there to “round out” the drama, as it were, as is the case in any character-driven story—flat and round characters interact and operate through collision, interaction, and/or opposition. This story manages to wield its parts with a great degree of nuance and accuracy, so this observation can be taken as minor, at best.

Score – 9 / 10

Syntax

Some notes on style may be warranted. I believe this story carries a certain “tone,” that of a traditional storyteller—something you might hear in, say, a fairy tale, or to quote one of my favorite literary critics, Charles Baxter: “… what happens in this section tonally has a touch of fable, horror movie, and children’s story… I hear a voice almost unknown to the Modernist novel… It says, ‘Now listen, children.’” There’s a degree of syntactical manipulation thanks to that tone, a near-imperceptible ability to transform the text from mere words into a simple, yet powerful, force. 

The story, for instance, is able to translate the seemingly idyllic manner with which time passes in those kinds of ancient, less constrained stories. Seasons pass easily along with days despite being different sizes. Years move without the reader realizing even if it’s explicitly said. One becomes rather rooted in the authenticity of the story—this sense that what it is telling us once was true, or even is—that questions about the accessibility of the narrative largely fade away. 

My favorite line has to be this one:

Grown-ups always had a way with words, hiding how they felt beneath mountains and mountains of decorum and sweet-talk.

Sledge knows, probably, that I love me some “waxing philosophical” stuff. Even though it’s technically on-the-nose, something about the simple truth of observation that comes from the mouth—or mind—of a child is compelling to me. Which is perhaps why stories that have children figures providing commentary on the weirdness of adult behavior tend to also garner reviews that speak to the “authenticity of their voice.” 

Of syntactical errors, none of the grammatical variety could I find, but I did note a couple of odd paragraph spacing decisions which may be the fault of formatting. For example:

Not very long, as it turned out.
For as the days of Autumn went by ...

As you can see, there is a lack of a space between these two paragraphs. I suspect that’s just what happens when you copy-and-paste text into FIMFic’s text editor. But that’s the only real criticism I have about this story’s syntax—otherwise, the important thing is, it’s readable, and it’s also done with a care for the tone and truthfulness of its prose. 

Score – 9.5 / 10

Final Score - ( 10 + 9 + 9.5 ) / 3 = 9.5 / 10

Final Thoughts

I feel that I may have let Sledge down with this review, as I had to toe the line between overly specific and speaking only in the vaguest terms, in order to account for potentially spoiling aspects of the story. I suppose, however, that that speaks to the difficulty of transcribing experience to words, or to explaining it to others. I am reminded of what I said in a previous review, about Borges’ short story, “The Ethnographer,” and how that story spoke to the oddity of experience and the danger of thinking language can fully translate it. 

Most of my writing here also toes the line between argument and rambling, which, I suppose, is the effect of having to be simultaneously exact and ambiguous. I apologize, therefore, if it feels that I kept my meanings constrained. 

If there is anything to takeaway from this review, it should be that I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I found it, actually, to be a far more compelling love story than its successor, “A Little Shop Down Canterlot Road.” Perhaps that is because this story is far longer, or perhaps it’s because this story is fairly self-contained so as to not require knowing the EqG special to which the successor loosely reacts. 

The story is good, and strong, and honest and true, and by the end, I was left feeling a warm fuzziness about it—even as it ended on a sad note. I suppose that is because the sad ending wasn’t the “point.” The journey was, though that’s cliché to say—but is not a cliché truth still the truth? 

<For archive purposes: 9.5/10>

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I feel that I may have let Sledge down with this review

Trust me, you haven't this was a wonderful thing to wake up to! I'm very happy you've enjoyed it, most of all! Again, thank you so much for reviewing this, heh, lovely breakdown and analysis, and I'm glad this Wallflower (Shopflower? Poneflower?) resonated

However, this tiny presence is amplified by the fact that the story does little to illuminate explicitly who she is. She appears very regal, very goddess-like, to young Wallflower—inherently that positions her as an unknowable player.

There is one thing that shows another side of Celestia, but you're absolutely right in that it's a bit too little to illuminate Celestia, mainly because it's quite, quite subtle and in the story itself there's very little hint other than the sun-related terminology. I'm telling you here and now because it's a fun little detail that I should've communicated better;

When she had a moment to spare, usually in the evenings, she read a few stories ranging from classic fairytales, to the newest bestselling picture-book from her favourite author Sunny Skies. She loved how the water-colours in those books brought their stories to vibrant life, be it the furthest reaches of the oceans blue or exotic gardens full of flowers she only just could name.

Double lives are fun to imagine

All in all, thanks for the review, and again, glad you liked it very much