Once upon a time, Starlight Glimmer told Sunset Shimmer that, she, much like Sunset, was an orphan. Fast forward to Starlight somewhat reconciling with her dad and Twilight keeping her dear friend Sunset, in the loop…
Well…
“Not well” is one way to sum up how Sunset reacts.
References to the third chapter of Sunset Shimmer is MAD about Everything, ahoy!
Thanks to Tired Old Man, Nova Quill/Firimil, and
Steel Resolvefor their edits and suggestions and jhayarr23 for the adorangry Sunset Shimmer Vector.
Chapters (1)
“I’ve got a dad that would literally kiss and hug me to death while telling me everything’s going to be okay, decided that was NOT okay, ran away from home, pretended he never existed, and now I’m apologizing for lying about it to my orphaned friends, namely you and Sunset!”
*holds out a dessert stamped with a frowny face*
“Apology cake?”
I orphaned myself before I actually went mad and orphaned myself!
9043613
Is it odd I could totally see Spike responding to that with a shrug and "Yeah, okay"? And when asked to explain, states he's used to the ponies in his life forgetting to mention relatives they'd all but forgotten about until they suddenly became important again?
9043645
"Twilight just up and remembered she had a brother one day, Applejack I can understand because she was too young to remember hers, but Rainbow and Fluttershy never even mentioned theirs for years!"
Wow... Starlight's a psycho!
9043667
Sociopath. Easy mistake to make, really.
That was a lot more emotionally intense than I expected. Well done.
I love that vector. That alone was enough to make me read this.
Oh, Sunset. You let Starlight off way to easy. But I suppose that's par the course with Starlight.
If the dragon in an upcoming episode IS Spike's father, then that means Sunset's going to be all alone in the PMS...
and so by lieing and manipulating the emotions of others starlight glimmer gets away with yet another total bitch move
In which the 'latchkey kid' negligent parenting defense cited by the writers for Starlight's actions continues to be refuted as an excuse for them. Why is it every time they try and do so, they make the lack of punishment for them all the worse, as she has less justification by which to have done them as time has moved on? It seems they lose ground on the argument for why they've not every time they try.
YOU had a better explanation for it, and Even I would call THAT one entirely bullcrap not just on it's own merit, but from personal experience of that being exactly how the manipulative sociopaths I've encountered throughout my life have gotten away scott free out of being held responsible for their own acti---Oh now I see what you did here.
Well that was as touching as a round of heavy petting. This actually reminds me of when my little sister would tell everybody fake tragic backstories for herself because she didn't know that anyone who knew I was her brother would immediately run to me for the truth. I had to tell dozens of kids that not only was she not raised by wolves, but she also got the idea from a story I read to her about a couple of girls who had.
9043613
And for the next three mornings, Spike made everyone pancakes with all the fixings.
Starlight got gruel.
No ones going to point out the fact that Sunset bashing Starlight goes agains everything she stands for
Pretty good little story. Nice job
9043861
I'm confused by what you mean. 'Bashing' where I'm from legitimately means 'bashing someone's head in' meaning to grievously injure or even kill someone. Or it means to talk at length and poorly behind someone's back. Neither of which happened here.
If you're talking about the slap; Sunset has quite the temper and as far as she was concerned was being repeatedly and poorly lied to, to her face; while the guilty party continued to play the victim. I honestly don't blame her.
i think you should keep this out of canon of your universe story was good but it does kinda hurt alot of the back bone of it you built
9043944
I don't think it will affect it in any way since that is set before this happens.
9043949
Not with the timeline of the stories being what they are with the show.
9043944
This is technically after that (in progress) story, so it won't really.
Ohhh damn, I've only read the intro and know that shit is gonna go down.
...And Starlight thought betraying Sunset's trust was going to be bad enough.
De-stress
Then.
Man I love every story than comes out of this universe. This version of sunset is my favorite on the site and everyone is a mix of ridiculous yet endearing and believable and it just works. Not sure I'll ever reach a day where a new story with this sunset doesn't make me excited.
9043949
Idk I feel like this gives them more in common. They both have single parents who they ran away from after feeling betrayed by them, though for different reasons, and while have recently made amends they still ha e a long way to go before they are as close as they once were. Starlight dad is sunsets celestia from made about everything.
9043926
I probably meant ‘berate’ unless I’m mistaken by what that means, too
I just have issues with stories that completely assasinate Starlight’s character just so Sunset could look better and totally justified in calling her “retarded” or something along those lines.
The people who write those thinly veiled accusatory fics might as well have “I hate Starlight and Sunset is my waifu” tattooed on their chest
9044119
I actully like Starlight, at least my version of her. Though I feel the latest season has finally got her place amongst the cast figured out.
I do feel that Sunset has a much more solid grasp of right and wrong than Starlight does, and the canon also seems to support this. This is also a bit more personal to Sunset then the odd collection of mostly strangers who have it out for her for some reason. She's also quick to anger, so there's that.
Ponies have major family issues
9044119
No, she certainly berated Starlight. But, again, Starlight earned it in this case; she lied about an issue that meant a lot to Sunset. And then continued to act as if it wasn't - or shouldn't be a big deal until she realized that she could lose a friend over it. Then decided to play the victim and make excuses.
You're a little incorrect about Justice hating Starlight. In fact, he likes her significantly more than I do, as evidenced by him continuously writing her into his stories. Canon shot his headcanon dead, and he felt the need to address it in a manner that would be the most plausible within the story and her character. In this case; Starlight lied. Which she does. Often. Especially at the beginning. Which is when the first story was set.
I'm confused by what you mean by 'calling her retarded' not once was that word used by anyone but you.
9044136
Maybe I’m just annoyed by the cliche of Sunset being written as hypocritically unsympathetic to Starlight’s plights cause the writer feels “she isn’t doing it right” that’s been around since the end of season 5
Whatever happened to “if you dislike a character don’t write them.” Or “Ponies are People, not punching bags.”
9043861
You're mistaken, sir. This is not about bashing, this is a conflict. Back when Starlight was introduced to the crazy world of Sunset is MAD she believed she had no parents. Hasbro in their infinite wisdom saw fit to create one for her. This creates a conflict in the bond shared between three souls, an important one. Finding out that canon had made a liar out of her, Sunset was naturally upset with Starlight. This required a resolution of sorts.
9044146
Yes, ponies are people, and when people wrong other people, conflict happens. Sometimes, writers write about said conflict. We call these things stories.
9043834
In fairness, she really is crazy enough to have convinced herself with utter sincerity that she had no parents. She's been brainwashing others for years, of course she started with herself. But here, she found out she'd seriously wronged a friend and tried to make amends. That's about as good as you can hope for.
9044257
no she figured out that she seriously wronged a friend and couldn't handle the guilt or come up with a decent apology so she guilted sunset into forgiving her. pretty sure any psychologist ever would back em up on that view.
RIP Starlight.
9043926
In fairness, she'd left her newspaper behind, and sometimes a 'how dare you' slap needs to be done via hoof.
Right wing? Her left wing is already occupied by Starlight at the moment
9044266
I would say you were right if we couldn't literally see inside her head and know her motives. At the point where Sunset delivers her 'stay out of my life" speech Starlight is only trying to explain herself in a way that her friend can hopefully understand.
Maybe canon Starlight would try to pull off the manipulation you talk about, here, she's just a broken pony trying to patch herself together, and sometimes important things slip through those cracks.
These are some messed up mares. Good combo of sweet, funny and sad.
9043717
Kinda par for the course on the Sunset end of this equation, too. I'm not sure what one needs to do to earn a permanent black mark from Sunset, but apparently "send me and my friends to an empty white void to die of dehydration over time" or "erase all my friend's memories of me effectively whipping out all my good deeds since I've changed because I didn't befriend YOU personally" isn't enough.
Sunset also kinda gets that a parent can accidentally do a lot of damage, even inadvertently, in my setting.
Not that I'm begrudging anyone who thinks Starlight got off easy here... Plausible excuses and a rather odd thinking process aside, what she did was still pretty egregious when examined in a vacuum. Sunset's not wrong that Starlight should seek real therapy, and I'm likely at least going to explore this concept, in other stories, of certain characters having flaws that, while they don't necessarily make them evil (depending on the character), it does mean they're always going to need a bit of help with this "friendship" concept.
Girl, you have issues.
Wait, the demon, the dictator, or me?
YES!
Just looking at this story, a couple points to bring up.
Yeah. Starlight is a reforming sociopath. However, while that does give her a knack for glib excuses, it doesn't give her the ability to trick Sunset Sense. As a result, when she does give her spiel to Sunset, Sunset *actually knows it's the truth.*
And that, coupled with her knowledge that Starlight is *almost* as broken as she is, and the fact that she probably wasn't looking forward to losing a friend any more than Starlight was, is what have her the ability to forgive. The fact that she *is* the better pony.
As for Starlight betraying her... self-esteem is a powerful thing. She'd spent years building her identity out of her loneliness. She hadn't seen her Dad since running away - for all she knew, he *had* died. thing
And there actually is a very real thing that *Sunset* can't understand, at least not until she gets that empathic flash.
If there's something worse than not having a parent, it's having one who smothers you, who traps you, who actually hurts and abuses you, and who calls it love. That type of smothering *is* emotionally abusive, a strange combination of emotionally incestuous and infantilizing all at the same time.
Starlight just literally doesn't have the words to describe it. Whowould?
Her father was abusing her by loving her too much. How insane is that?
After all that time, it hurts less for him to be dead than for her to be on the run from him. Just write it all out, make it so that NONE of it happened.
Then she can be mad at a cosmic, impersonal force for ruining her life instead of at someone she loves and hates all at the same time.
But putting that in words requires more awareness, acceptance, and healing than she's done het, having *just* confronted it again and tried to heal some of those rifts that she still can't understand now.
Sunset, on touching her, doesn't need it in words any more. She can feel it herself, and move from there.
I assume you mean "De-stress." Great story, by the way. I love the closing advice to Starlight. She really should see a therapist. It'd just be healthy.
9044661
9044070
Got these! Thanks!
Yeah, Starlight goofed and she's lucky that she lives with Twilight. Because the fact that Twi is on Sunset's power level, and therefore an effective deterent to the apocalypse incarnate, is most likely the only reason the princesses aren't fishing her out of the elemental plane of fire right now.
I honestly wonder how cathartic it might be to hit somebody with any real passion. Pity I can't do it, because I'm pretty sure that the bare minimum I'm capable of would be life-changing, if not fatal and I have this nigh-insurmountable weakness called 'pity for the weak'. That said, you made it much easier to sympathize with Starlight than canon has, because the latter has made a completely reprehensible monster of her. Your Starlight, while still of disgusting character, is at least understandable. She is virtually identical to my younger sister in behavior and the reason for her behavior. To that end, I agree with the following points:
1) Firelight is probably trying to make up for lost time with her due to his career, having taken Rarity's problem with Sweetie Belle into overdrive.
2) Sunset is being extremely hypocritical. That's good though. She is not an inherently good person, otherwise her being the avatar of "forgiveness" would have no merit. That is, if I'm understanding the concept of forgiveness correctly. Also, she's having an emotional pique and given her history with those, the fact that she ONLY slapped Starlight and yelled at her a bit shows impressive self-control.
3) Starlight is a sociopath. Trixie is a psychopath, for those seeking a visual reference of the difference between the two (which seems to be that one is an idiot). Like it or not, those kinds of people are real and in a world where you don't just lock them away until they die alone, you kind of have to explain an alternative means of handling them. Personally, I like Justice's idea and admit that I would not have handled her as well as him.
Really though, berating fanfiction authors for their portrayal of characters is even more insane that the concept of "canon". I mean come on. In the latter case, you're looking at the results of a debate over which fictional things and events are more or less "true" or "real" than the competition; and in the former, you're completely defeating the point of fanfiction. This is the same medium that created "My Immortal" and "50 Shades", FFS.
Now that I've compared her to my sister, come to think of it, I am genuinely worried for the well-being of both any pets she might have had and doubly so for Sunburst (it'd normally be higher, but at least I think she probably won't kill him). Speaking of coming to think of things, Sunburst reminds me a lot of this kid who was essentially my "kohai" when I first started going to a charter school and who I more or less "adopted" in order to protect from her absolutely savage attacks. The physical kind, by the way. But hey! This is pastel magic pony land! Real, lasting harm never happens to anyone for any reason, which is why it's totally okay that psychology is not a thing in the world where one individual's emotions could potentially destroy all life in it.
"If there's something worse than not having a parent, it's having one who smothers you, who traps you, who actually hurts and abuses you, and who calls it love."
It used to be called "spoiling", and it's a crime as old as time. But hey! Maybe Firelight is just raising his daughter as he was raised! Parental excuses have infinite reach! I kind of pity Starlight though. At least my mother held me to standards of character and performance while she was getting me intimate with death. I turned out great. I'm only a jerk where everybody's a jerk. Such as on the internet, or on the road.
"That type of smothering *is* emotionally abusive, a strange combination of emotionally incestuous and infantilizing all at the same time."
Wait. Are you suggesting that there is another type of smothering, other than the literal one?
"Starlight just literally doesn't have the words to describe it. Who would?"
You know we're reading a story about this, right? Also, 'literally anyone who has gone through an abusive experience and/or has the barest grasp on psychology, and is intelligent'. Such as, I don't know, Starlight for example. She had a lot, in fact.
"Her father was abusing her by loving her too much. How insane is that?"
It's um... not? 'Moderation is key' used to be a popular turn of phrase for a reason. Too much of anything is abuse. That is literally how abuse works as a concept.
Sunset is a fiery pone, and Starlight a broken one.
All in all, a pretty intense and quite good little story!
I was wondering if you were going to address this. I figured since at least half of your stories aren’t just head canon, but counter-canon, you would just leave this one alone as well. After all, it’s not like you cut off Sunset’s wings after Mirror Magic.
I’m honestly surprised Sunset didn’t rip the sun away from her mother to help show her displeasure. Loved it.
I saw what you did there, and I am not taking that lying down.
Epically done here!