Sunset Shattered

by fmriver

Awkward Reminders - Omake Interlude

The boutique was having a slow morning, which was just as well as Rarity was still feeling somewhat beat from the prior evening. She took the time to restock the various displays with new inventory, as they had been a popular locale for the Fall Formal, thanks to her not inconsiderable influence in the fashion at Canterlot High.

Soon enough she had nothing much to do but wait for customers to come by however, and with the lack of tasks her mind began to wander. Rarity didn't know what possessed her to volunteer with checking on Sunset Shimmer. Finding out that she had been the architect for the implosion of her closest friendships going into high school was a slap to the face, even with everything else.

Thankfully she kept her sketch pad nearby for just such occasions, when she needed to distract herself from maudlin thoughts. She went about it, trying to let out some of her nervous energy into her designs. She refused to look at the clock or let her plans for the afternoon encroach on her job. She let her pencil dance on the pages, only pausing for the sporadic tinkling of customers coming through the door and attending them.

As she finished shading the sketch of the pair of dresses she had worked on through the morning, and took a moment to look at what she had drawn, Rarity had to suppress an unladylike curse. Staring back at her was a pair of complementing prom dresses. She could imagine the colors she would use for each. The only problem was that they were an improvement of a pair of dresses she had made before. Specifically, they were made for to be worn during her freshman Spring Fling.

---

After losing her friendships early freshman year, she had focused mostly on making connections with the rest of the fashion and creative focused at the school. Particularly, Sunset Shimmer had gotten close and helped her through that difficult time. She had been part of the student newspaper, and at the time had acted aghast that the strong group that she had interviewed had all stopped hanging out.

She had acted as a sounding board for Rarity, and even helped her push herself into going beyond doodling and modifying her own clothes, and taking the leap towards making them, offering herself as a model and photographer, promoting her to the rest of the student body. At the time, if someone had asked Rarity who her best friend was, she may have been inclined to mention Sunset Shimmer. Her freshman year looked to be turning up... and then came the Spring Fling.

As a way of thanking Sunset Shimmer for her support, Rarity had gone ahead and made her a dress. It was white and gold, almost tunic like, and more simple than the one on the sketch before her. Her sewing skills were not as advanced at the time and so it ended up much simpler than she had wanted, but Sunset had seemed to love it. Rarity had even gone ahead and made her own dress design compliment Sunset's. The problems began when they both decided to run for Spring Princess however...

---

Rarity knew that now she needed to focus on seeing how Sunset was holding up, and see for herself how much damage the elements had wrought on her. If she truly had been changed as much as they all feared. Part of her even missed the girl she had thought Sunset was, so long ago. However, even with the magic of Harmony, Rarity needed some form of closure for what happened between them before she could truly embrace Sunset as a true friend.

Author's Note:

This my get removed from the story, but I decided to post the last iteration of Rarity's interlude, before simply continuing on and focusing on Sunset. I feel like if I don't post something however, I wasn't going to ever post anything.

This may get changed radically in the near future, or even removed and moved to 'Shards of Sunset' later, but at least now that it's out there it will let me stop hyper focusing on a character I love but apparently can't write well in an introspection piece. I got good feedback that it wouldn't impact the story either way, but I couldn't force myself to not include the backstory for the conflict that I envision for Rarity in the story.

In the movie, Rarity's comment about the Spring Fling is one of very few tidbits we have about what happened during Sunset's exile up to this point. We know generalities otherwise, but she mentions a specific event.

Rarity and Flash Sentry pasts with Sunset are fleshed out in my mind as prerequisites for some pivotal plot points later in the story. They are all part of the 'in crowd' so it makes sense in a sense.

Comments

[Dr Mysterious Shade]

Interesting idea surrounding the Spring Fling. I always find a writer's compensation of events barely touched upon in show to be good reading because it varies so much from writer to writer.

[fmriver]

9160066
Thanks for the comment! That was actually the problem with this... I kept going down the rabbit hole too much, and it could easily have overtaken this story I want to tell here.

[Noctis Prism]

Huh, talk about getting rough in perspective. Still always questioned what exactly the elements did to her. In all honesty, Celestia and Sunset contributed to the problems the latter had.

[Csquared08]

Well that's a neat tidbit of information.

[Twinkle_Shine]

Hope to see more

[talefortheages]

Oh dear, I just saw when the last update was. This is a really captivating story, and I dearly hope you continue it in the future. I'd really enjoy reading more. You have a wonderful talent of writing descriptions in such a way that I feel like I can almost physically see or feel some of the things you've written, especially in the first chapter.

The way you wrote Sunset's rise and fall scene gave me sympathy pains, which a story has never done to me before. Absolutely marvelous!

[Csquared08]

10187638
They're both in the "Correct" section. Check the parentheticals for why.