Chapter Seven
The Morning After
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There were many things in her life that Sunset regretted. In fact, it was fair to say that Sunset regretted the majority of her life. Almost everything she’d done before the Fall Formal had been a mistake to some degree.
She had hoped that she’d have fewer regrets afterwards, and she did. But fewer did not mean none. Fewer didn’t even mean few, really. Sometimes, Sunset’s life still felt like it was a long string of one regret after another.
Waking up naked with Fluttershy was definitely one of those times.
Why had she let all that stuff happen? When Fluttershy was curious about kissing, that was one thing. But sex? They were in a weird place in their… friendship? Relationship? Whatever they were together, it was complicated enough without adding sex into things.
Sunset was curled around Fluttershy, who seemed to still be asleep. As carefully as she could, she pulled her arm from its place around Fluttershy’s stomach, and put some distance between the two of them.
She rose from bed as gently as she could. If she woke up Fluttershy, they’d have to talk about what happened, and Sunset had no idea what she was supposed to do or say when that time came.
It was too risky to get dressed in the bedroom, so Sunset gathered some clothes without putting them on. She also grabbed her phone and the journal so she wouldn’t need to come back.
With one last look at Fluttershy to confirm she was still sleeping soundly, Sunset left the bedroom. She tossed the phone and journal onto the couch and got dressed quickly, eager to separate herself from the chill air.
Once she was dressed, Sunset took the journal to the computer desk and opened it to the first empty page. She took out a pen, placed it against the paper, and realized she had no idea what to ask.
There was no way that Twilight would feel comfortable with Sunset having sex with Fluttershy, even if the two Fluttershys were completely separate individuals. If Sunset was ever going to tell Twilight about that, it would be in a controlled setting after figuring out what was going on. And the Equestrian Fluttershy? Sunset didn’t even want to think about what that would be like for her to hear.
As it turned out, she didn’t have very long to think about anything, as writing started appearing in the journal. ‘Sunset?’
Sunset recognized Fluttershy’s writing and realized she’d accidentally drawn a line on the page where her pen touched it. She should have been more careful; any amount of writing made the connection work.
‘Good morning, Fluttershy. I hope I didn’t wake you.’
‘No, I was just getting some breakfast for the animals around the cottage while Twilight sleeps in a bit. Did you need to talk to her?’
Sunset wasn’t actually sure who would be better to talk to between the two marefriends, but it hardly mattered since there was no way she was willing to wake Twilight up. ‘No, that’s okay. I was just hoping to get some advice about something.’
‘Oh. Is it something I could help with?’
‘I think so.’ Honestly, who would know Fluttershy better than another Fluttershy? But on the other hand, coming clean about that still had far too much chance for awkward backlash. It would be much better to stick to the fake identity. ‘Remember my friend Morning Breeze?’
‘Yeah. Did you talk to her about how you feel?’
‘Something like that. We sort of ’ Sunset frowned at the words. They hadn’t ‘sort of’ done anything, but that was another thing she couldn’t bring herself to tell Fluttershy. ‘ kissed. A lot. Then she spent the night, and now she’s asleep in my bed.’
Well, it was technically accurate.
‘Oh. Well, I guess we know how she feels now.’
‘I guess, but now I’m worried things might be moving a little fast.’
‘Sunset, be honest. Did anything more than kissing and sleeping in the same bed happen?’
Sunset stared at the page for longer than she knew was wise. She didn’t want Fluttershy to know she was hesitating, but she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t really expected the question; Twilight never would’ve asked, and she was pretty sure the human Fluttershy wouldn’t either.
But she wasn’t talking to either of them, and this Fluttershy still needed an answer. ‘No. Nothing more than that happened. Although the kissing did get pretty heavy.’
That couldn’t even get by on technical accuracy, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth. Not about this. Not to Fluttershy.
‘Then I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Just talk to her about how she feels once she’s awake.’
Sunset sighed. It was more complicated than that. Like Fluttershy said, there wouldn’t have been anything to worry about if Sunset had stopped things there. But she hadn’t, and now she’d have to deal with that.
But what she wrote instead was, ‘Yeah. You’re right.’
‘Maybe you could make breakfast? It might not be a fun conversation, but if you make breakfast for the two of you then you’ll be off to a good start.’
Sunset was too busy working on plan B for that. ‘That’s a great idea. Thanks, Fluttershy.’
‘You’re welcome. Everything will be okay, let me know how it goes.’
‘Will do.’
As much as breakfast was a good suggestion, Sunset wouldn’t be able to follow through with it. She hadn’t been able to get the advice she needed from Fluttershy because she’d been unable to be honest with her. So she’d just have to talk to someone she could be, someone she could always tell anything to.
Sunset grabbed her phone and opened her contacts. She tapped the first name on her recent calls, then held the phone to her ear as it rang.
“Morning, Sunset,” Applejack said on the other end. “The heck you doin’ up?”
“That’s hard to explain. What are you up to?”
“Just headin’ out to go make a delivery.”
“Perfect. Can you swing by so I can come along for the ride?”
There was a moment’s pause, then Applejack sighed. “Yeah, I’m on my way. Ya did somethin’ dumb, didn’tcha?”
“Yes. Extremely.”
“Right. Be there in fifteen.”
“Thanks. See you then.”
For fifteen minutes, Sunset tried to keep busy while constantly glancing towards the bedroom door. She was worried about Fluttershy waking up and forcing the conversation before she was ready for it, even though she knew it would be easy enough to make an excuse. Applejack needed help. They’d talk when she came back later.
As excruciating as the wait was, she didn’t need to use the excuse in the end. Applejack pulled up in front of the house, and Sunset was heading out the door before she could even call to say she was there.
Sunset hurriedly made her way to Applejack’s truck, fresh powder crunching underfoot. Even if it was only a short walk from the house to the vehicle, it was a warm and welcome relief to climb into, and Sunset held her hands to the air vent. The radio was tuned to a classic rock station that both of them would find enjoyable.
Applejack shifted into drive and pulled away from the house. “Hope ya don’t mind it’s not a quick stop. Gonna be a couple of hours before we’re back here.”
“That’s fine.” Sunset pulled on her seatbelt and took note of the contents of the truck’s bed. She was happy to see there were multiple cases of different sizes, likely containing various products. It was a big shipment, and that was something the Apples needed more of.
“So what’s going on?” Applejack asked once they were on a main road.
“It’s hard to explain.” Without thinking of it, Sunset turned down the volume of the radio.
Applejack glanced at the volume dial. “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah… I probably shouldn’t even be talking about it, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Well, I ain’t telling anyone whatever it is. Might as well blurt it out ‘cause we’re gonna get into it one way or the other.”
Sunset took a deep breath. “Last night Fluttershy and I had sex.”
Applejack let out a low whistle. “Yeah, I can see how that’s pretty bad.”
“I didn’t mean to! It just sort of… happened.”
“Ya didn’t mean to?” Applejack shot her a disbelieving look. “What, she just sort of fell on top of you and y’all decided ‘well, since we’re here we might as well make a thing of it’?”
“Obviously it wasn’t a complete accident! We were just talking, and then we… kissed… then one thing kind of led to another.”
“Ya know, in all the times we’ve talked, we’ve never once just started kissing. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen from nowhere, so what’s the full story here?”
“We were just talking, then Fluttershy said she wanted to kiss me. It pretty much did come out of nowhere, I have no idea what brought that up.”
“Huh.” Applejack shrugged. “Never really figured she’d be the type to make the first move.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty surprising. She was the one who asked me to sleep in bed with her a week ago, too.”
“Hang on, y’all been sleeping together?”
“Only next to each other!” Sunset frowned and turned to look out the window. “Until last night, anyway…”
“Right, so. Fluttershy wanted to sleep next to you. Then she wanted to kiss you. Then she wanted to have sex. Sounds like she knows what she’s after, at least.”
“Well… Fluttershy did bring up kissing, but I was the one who suggested we move on to sex.”
“Then I suppose both y’all know what ya want here.”
That didn’t seem so simple to Sunset. “Maybe…”
Applejack gave her a sideways glance and waited for more, but gave up as Sunset kept her eyes fixed straight ahead. “Do, uh… do you think she didn’t want it or something?”
Sunset turned towards Applejack. “Jesus, what do you take me for? If Fluttershy didn’t want to have sex, we wouldn’t have. She was a little nervous, but it was her first time.”
“Yeah, plus she’s Fluttershy. Course she’s gonna be nervous ‘bout it. Hope you took things slow for her.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Want the play by play? Yes, I took things slow, and I’m sure she enjoyed herself.”
“Okay, so that’s exactly what I was saying. Both y’all clearly want this.” Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Unless you don’t.”
Sunset didn’t answer.
“You can’t tell me it was your idea and then say ya didn’t want it.”
“I did. I mean, last night I definitely wanted the sex, but… Now I’m not sure. Maybe it was a mistake.”
Applejack turned onto a highway. “You’re not sure if you want things to keep going the way they’re going?”
“I guess. I don’t even know where it is that things are going, you know?”
“You are not that dense. Look, she was the one who started most everything, and she was happy when you continued it. She wants to date you, Sunset. Hell, knowing Fluttershy, she probably thinks that doin’ that kinda stuff means y’all are already dating.”
“But she said she just wanted to experiment. You know, try some new things now that she’s out about being gay.” Sunset shrugged. “I was pretty excited to try things with a girl the first time, and I wasn’t hiding that I’m bi. I can see why she’d be interested in that.”
“She said that? That she just wanted to ‘experiment’?”
Sunset thought back to the night before. “She said… that she felt comfortable with it because it was me. I think she said I made her feel safe. But when I asked why she wanted to, she did say it was because she’s never kissed anyone and she wanted to try.”
Applejack grimaced. “She’s never kissed anyone? And then just… went straight to sleeping with you?”
“Well, yeah. I don’t think she planned for things to get that far, but you know… We were caught up in the heat of the moment and she was curious. It happens.”
“I dunno about being in ‘the heat of the moment’, but I do know Fluttershy. And this? This don’t even sound like her. I mean sure, maybe you were interested in experimenting with girls. But you and Flash had already fooled around, so you had already started with that kinda thing. The first time you wanted to kiss or sleep with someone or whatever, and I mean really wanted it and would’ve done it if ya got the chance, are you really saying ya didn’t also want to date them?”
Sunset looked at Applejack and it gave her high school flashbacks. She facepalmed as she realized how obvious that answer was. “Fuck, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. How the hell did I let things get like this?”
Applejack sighed and Sunset could tell she was upset. “So you don’t want to date her then?”
It was easy enough to see what was on Applejack’s mind. If that was true and Fluttershy wound up getting hurt, it would be all Sunset’s fault.
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Well, let’s see.” Applejack held up a finger. “Ya went along with sleeping in the same bed for a week now, so I’m guessing you like that.”
Sunset sighed, a little embarrassed to admit it, and a little confused that after everything else, that was the embarrassing part. “Yeah, I do.”
A second finger went up. “And you two have been living together for, what? Like a month now? Any problems there, or are ya happy with that?”
“It hasn’t been a whole month, but yes, I’m happy with it. Really happy, actually.”
“So then what about kissing? Ya must’ve liked it last night if ya wanted things to go further. Think it’s something you’d want to keep doing?”
“I guess? Kissing isn’t really the type of thing I think about whether I want to do or not. It’s just sort of something that happens when it feels right, I guess.”
“Yeah, I know what kind of things you think about doing. Which brings us to number four.” Applejack’s fourth finger went up. “Do you wanna keep having sex with her?”
Yeah, because that was an easy to answer question that wasn’t awkward at all. But Applejack did have a point in asking it, so Sunset gave it some thought. She tried to push aside all the other strings that would attach themselves if she continued to have sex with Fluttershy, and only considered the action itself.
“I did enjoy it, and I think… I know I would enjoy it again. It’s not something I’m specifically after, but yes, it could be nice.”
Applejack returned both hands to the wheel. “Sounds to me like a relationship wouldn’t be so bad.”
Sunset looked out the window again. “Maybe you’re right.”
Applejack smirked. “It’s been known to happen from time to time.”
Sunset smiled as well. It was the first time she’d smiled since waking up and realizing the situation she’d gotten herself into. “Thanks, AJ.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Sunset found a small laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. “Geez, how much can change in a month? Fluttershy and I had completely separate lives, and now we’re living together, sleeping together, and I guess dating. Still gotta make sure we’re on the same page with that, but you know.”
Applejack nodded. “So, let’s see… that means the wedding will be what? Spring?”
“Oh come on, give us some credit. We can hold out until summer.”
“Aww, can I be a bridesmaid?”
“Psh, no. You gotta be my maid of honor, who else would put up with me?”
“Who said I was gonna be your bridesmaid? Two brides means double the options!”
“Bitch, who said you got a choice? Maid of honor or don’t bother showing up.”
Applejack pretended to consider her options. “Hmm, alright. But only if I also get to be a godmother.”
“Yeah, alright. If I ever manage to squeeze a baby out of this thing, you’ve got first dibs. Don’t really think Fluttershy’s got the right equipment to get me knocked up, though.”
“Y’all can adopt.”
Sunset laughed. “Really though, do you honestly think I could ever raise a kid?”
Applejack shook her head. “Frankly, the idea alone is terrifying. But maybe Fluttershy could manage to pull it off even with you as the other parent.”
“I guess if anyone could, it’d be Fluttershy.”
They kept joking around as Applejack drove, and little by little, Sunset started to feel the return to normality that Applejack always somehow was able to provide. Even joking around about how quick things were moving with Fluttershy helped Sunset feel a little less weird about it. If they could joke about it, maybe that meant it was okay.
Somehow, maybe things could actually be okay for once. Maybe this time, Sunset really could manage to not screw everything up.
By the time they made it back to Sunset’s house, she was feeling pretty good about her situation. Of course, that only lasted until they were at her house, when the reality that it was finally time to address things came crashing upon her.
Applejack seemed to notice Sunset’s reluctance to leave the truck. “Since when are you nervous about talking to a girl ya like?”
Sunset glanced back at Applejack. “It’s happened from time to time.”
“Come on, it’s Fluttershy! Sure, maybe it’s hard to talk about this sort of thing, but there ain’t nobody easier to talk to than Fluttershy.”
“Yeah, but that’s just it. It is Fluttershy. When it’s someone at a party or something I figure the worst that can happen is we don’t work out, no big deal. But with Fluttershy, it is a big deal, because she’s one of the best friends I’ll ever have. I don’t want to risk losing her, you know?”
“You’re worrying ‘bout nothing, like usual.” Applejack placed a hand on her shoulder. “She was the one who started things, remember? This is what she wants, I’m sure of it. And you know, you are pretty good at talking to people. Even if ya don’t know what to say now, I know that once the two of you start talking, you’ll figure out the words. Everything’s gonna be just fine, trust me.”
Sunset took a deep breath and smiled. Leave it to Applejack to somehow make everything feel like it could work out. “Thanks, AJ. I’ll let you know how things go.”
“Yeah, be sure to tell me the good news.”
Sunset said her goodbyes and finally left the truck. At least the cold meant she didn’t take her time getting inside.
She had expected to find Fluttershy in the living room, but it was empty. Sunset’s first thought was that she might have gone out with Rainbow or something, but there was light coming from under the bedroom door.
Realizing that she didn’t actually know if Fluttershy was the type to stay in bed late into the morning reminded Sunset of how rushed things were, but she pushed that thought away as she opened the bedroom door.
She smiled as the door opened, and saw that despite the light, Fluttershy was lying in bed. Her back was to the door, and she was still enough to be asleep. She must have gotten up at some point since she had dressed into pajamas, and she was curled into a ball around a pillow while holding Sunfish Swimmer.
“Shy?” Sunset prompted quietly in case she really was asleep.
At first Fluttershy didn’t respond. Then she took a sharp breath and rose slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on the bed rather than looking at Sunset. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but no sound came out.
Worried that she might not be feeling well, Sunset gently took a seat on the edge of the bed. “Good morning, Shy.”
Fluttershy’s mouth opened and closed again. She exhaled sharply and tears rolled silently down her face. Her voice was weak when she finally choked out a few words. “I’m… I’m sorry…”
All other thoughts left her head as Sunset instantly reached her arms around Fluttershy and spoke soothingly. “Hey, it’s okay. What’s wrong?”
Fluttershy looked into Sunset’s face for a moment, then turned away as her crying grew in intensity. Even if they had only made eye contact for a moment, Sunset had seen how red Fluttershy’s eyes were. She had been crying for a long time.
Sunset pulled her closer, bringing Fluttershy’s head to her chest. “Shh, I’m here, everything’s going to be alright. Did you have another nightmare?”
At first Fluttershy just cried quietly, not reacting to Sunset’s presence at all. But then slowly, she reached her arms around Sunset as well. If she had been hesitant to hold Sunset, she certainly seemed to change her mind once she did; with her arms finally around her, Fluttershy held tightly.
Since every attempt to get Fluttershy to tell her why she was crying only resulted in apologies or more tears, Sunset gave up trying. Instead, she held onto her and hummed a tuneless melody as she stroked Fluttershy’s hair, waiting for the tears to stop in their own time. She slowly eased them onto the bed, so that they were lying together with Fluttershy’s head still resting on her chest.
Eventually the tears did stop, although neither of them made any attempt to move. Fluttershy eventually spoke with another “I’m sorry”, although this time she spoke calmly without any trace of tears.
“It’s okay,” Sunset reassured her. “I want to be here for you. And besides, I can think of a lot of things worse than being your teddy bear when you need one.”
Fluttershy held a little tighter, which made Sunset smile. “I… don’t deserve this.”
“Sure you do. If anything, I’d say I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you.”
“I… I’m really sorry… about last night…”
It was good that Fluttershy wasn’t able to see Sunset’s expression. Was that really what she was sorry about? “Uh, last night was great? Why are you sorry for that?”
Fluttershy pulled away so she could finally look at Sunset, but she stayed cuddled up at her side. “I… when I woke up and you weren’t here, I just… It’s my fault, isn’t it? I shouldn’t have, well, you know…”
Sunset would have facepalmed if Fluttershy wasn’t right on her. How could she be such an idiot? Of course Fluttershy would think that. “I was out helping Applejack. It wasn’t anything to do with last night. I’m sorry, I should’ve left a note or something.”
“Oh.”
Not sure where else to take the conversation, Sunset decided to try and lighten the mood. “Guess it’s good to know this was more about this morning than last night. I mean yeah, it’s been a while, but I don’t think I was bad enough to make you cry.”
Fluttershy blushed. “N-no! It wasn’t, uhm… I… y-you were, uhm…”
Sunset laughed. “I’m just joking.” She smiled and leaned her forehead against Fluttershy’s. “Or at least, I hope so. But I guess you’d know better than me, how’d I do?”
It was perhaps a bit mean to keep picking on her, but Fluttershy was too cute when she was flustered. Besides, it was better that than having her crying and apologizing. Maybe joking about it could show Fluttershy that this didn’t have to be some scandalous thing.
It seemed Fluttershy was taking her seriously though, as she blushed harder and averted her eyes as much as she could without moving her head. “I, uhm, I… I think you…”
Unwilling to let Fluttershy continue struggling to actually come up with an answer, Sunset did the only reasonable thing she could. She leaned in and cut Fluttershy off with a kiss.
At first, Fluttershy just looked surprised. Then her smile grew to match Sunset’s, who finally found the answer she was looking for in it.
“So…” Sunset blushed a little and reached for Fluttershy’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “I think I really like this whole us thing.”
Fluttershy’s smile grew even brighter. It was hard to believe she had been crying only minutes before when she radiated so much happiness. “Me too.”
They came together for another kiss, and Sunset found all her worries melted away in the warmth of Fluttershy’s embrace.
AJ is goodness incarnate.
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She really is
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Pure and sweet. Too bad she didn’t get to be a bridesmaid...
So what happened with the crush Sunset had on AJ for several years in Looking Glass? I'm in the middle of re-reading it and remembered just how strong Sunset's connection there was. I might be misremembering, but I didn't think we got a resolution of that in the last arc?
AJ, cutting the bullshit since forever :)
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Who says anything happened to it at all?
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AJ ain’t having any of Sunset’s wishy-washiness
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...I'm just blind as a bat, aren't I? :D
And this is probably why I shouldn't be doing anything after 4 AM ^^
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lol well I didn’t want the hints to be super obvious in the story, certainly not as clear as it was in Looking Glass. This is a Sunshyne story, after all, not a Sunjack one (even if I’m a big multi-shipper who thinks the “only person I could ever love” trope can fuck right off)
Fucking loved this moment. Funny Story; I was listening to '5 to 9' by Applejack right when Sunset called AJ. Another funny story, Warmth In The Snow was the first thing I read on here, then Inner Strength, then Looking Glass, Finding Home, In Pieces, then this. I have been abstaining from working on one project until the conclusion of this story, so I re-read Warmth In The Snow earlier today. It's all making so much more sense now. While it's a great story to start off with, I missed SO many details the first time. I'll be re-reading Looking Glass again, just because it was my personal favorite and I CANNOT watch EQ without that headcanon anymore! it'll also get me through to next MONDAY!!!
i.imgflip.com/2lqn8x.jpg
These slice of life fics suck! That's all that's on the featured board these days. This crap is the only genre uploaded 99% of the time!
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Warmth was written to work well as a standalone story, so I suppose it’s a pretty decent place to start the series from. There’s definitely a fair amount going on in it that you probably wouldn’t catch on the first read though, so it’s cool to hear that you read it again and noticed more stuff. And I’ll never get tired of hearing that Looking Glass influenced people’s headcanons while watching the EqG (not to mention how flattering it is to hear people are rereading my stories at all)
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>Complains that slice of life fics suck
>Points out that they’re popular, which implies people like them
lmao truthfully I shouldn’t bother engaging a troll, especially such a bad one (seriously? You’re gonna have to troll a lot harder to actually have any impact), but wow, this made me laugh. You couldn’t keep internal logic for one whole comment, your arguments literally counter each other. Plus a quick look at your favorites shows that half of them are tagged slice of life, so that was also pretty funny.
But fine, since you seem to be too lazy/incompetent to find stories relevant to your interest without the feature board or someone else handing them to you, check it:
https://www.fimfiction.net/stories?order=heat&q=%23adventure
Use this to look up the (currently) most popular adventure stories, which is like the opposite of slice of life. You can similarly look up science fiction, horror, dark, porn, whatever the flippity fuck just does it for you. Swap the order from “heat” to “rating” to find the most popular of all time (rather than what’s popular right now).
Anyway, even though you’ve done nothing but come across as a rude and entitled asshole, I genuinely hope you find some stories more to your liking. I really hope you’re not spamming other people with this nonsense, since not everyone will find it as funny as I do and it legit is a really shitty thing to do. Just ignore the stuff that doesn’t interest you, there are hundreds of thousands of fics on this site. I have faith in your ability to find something you’ll like if you just put a little effort into it
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"Not everything has to be magical to be important"
Well, sir, if you are bored with Slice Of Life stories, I am working on a dramatic original MLP story that has 0 shippings.
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Damn, you got me with the favorites.
Fuck, I forgot those lists were public. One nill to you. -bows humbly-
In all seriousness though, slice of life is all that is there. Am I being a suck ass troll? Maybe. Is it gonna get the word out that there may be a legitimate issue to look at, you bet your ass if I can do it, its gonna happen.
And yeah, I am VERY fucking lazy. And proud to be.
I have to explain myself this one time due to my physical display of hypocrisy. I cycle out favorites every time I finish a fic. I do not keep them inside in order to keep the clutter out. So what I have favorited is what is most currently even 1% worthwhile of reading, and they are temporary. I'd put better fics in there if they were A. current and B. being updated enough to warrant being there.
Believe it or not, if there was even a hair's split of HIE fics out there good enough in current rotation, those other things would be out.
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If you don’t want your favorites to be viewable, it’s an option in some settings somewhere. I forget how to do it, but it’s doable.
Since this you’re coming to me more conversationally in this comment, I’ll do likewise. I get that you don’t (generally) like SoL fics, and that’s all good. Everyone has their tastes; I don’t particularly like or often read adventure fics. But to come at someone and tell them their story sucks (and for a reason that is 100% personal preference at that) is a pretty harsh thing to do. I’ll explain my personal situation as an example even though your comment didn’t personally bother me, because it so easily could’ve.
I have severe depression. I’m don’t always want to be alive. While I haven’t seriously considered suicide in years, the intrusive thought of it is always there. My brain is functionally broken and my body destroys chemicals it needs to feel good or even neutral, meaning that while I’m perfectly capable of enjoying myself and being happy, I have a very limited ability to retain happiness. Even after a particularly amazing experience, an hour later I’m going to be depressed again.
But I do get a sense of satisfaction from writing that doesn’t go away. It doesn’t make me happy per se (it can, but as with all things that happiness goes away much sooner than it should), but when I look at the accomplishments I’ve made through my writing I can feel good about myself. It makes my life much more bearable and essentially keeps me functioning. Because of that, I dedicate almost all my time to writing. I write for hours every day that I have free time to do so. Some days when I don’t have work or other obligations, I’ll spend twelve or so hours just writing. I’ve gone up to a twenty-hour writing marathon session, although that’s uncommon even by my standards. Then the next day, I’ll be back to writing again. I don’t engage in other things I like as much as I used to (videogames, TV shows, etc) because writing is the only thing that gives me that sense of accomplishment that allows me to hate living just a little bit less.
Needless to say, my stories are extremely important to me. I’m fortunate that I’ve been successful and have a core following of people who read everything I do and never hesitate to validate me on my writing, and I’ve got a huge ego (bit odd with the whole depression thing, but it turns out you can think you’re fucking amazing and still want to die), so comments like yours roll off me pretty easily. But what if I didn’t have those things? I’m far from the only depressed person in this fandom. The general positivity of the show helps a ton of depressed people, which I can definitely vouch for from my experiences in interacting with others in the fandom. If I had the same level of depression I do now, but without the support and ego to fall back on, a comment telling me my story is awful and I should delete it could be pretty devastating.
I know you didn’t know all this, and if you did, I’d hope you wouldn’t have left the comment you did. But that’s just my point: You don’t know who’s on the other side of a story or what their motivation for writing it was. None of us are getting paid for our time writing fanfics (at least not much, and even the biggest authors can only scrape together a relatively small amount of money from Patreon and the like). We’re all here for something else, and for a lot of us, that something else is a way help get through each day. Again, your comment didn’t bother me personally and I don’t want to make you feel bad or anything. I just want you to keep in mind other people before you do something like this on someone else’s comment. Like I said in the other message, there’s no telling if they’ll take it as well as I did.
just!wanted to thank you for this finest of stories! for me sunset and fluttershy are best couple. well done to you!
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Aww, I'm delighted you enjoy it so much And yeah, Sunshyne is such a good and underrated couple!
Bruh Aj knows what's up and don't bullshit xD Also? Sunset is and her sass is fucking A1 boy! Her one liners are fucking great!
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AJ ain't got time for Sunset's nonsense I love getting these two together, they're so much fun to work with
Cuddling too :3
Sounds like a plan
is it wrong i kinda woulda liked to have seen or i guess more accurately read in detail what Sunset and Flutters did last night
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Lol I've tried to write sex in a different story and I just suck at it. I don't know what I'm doing at all with it, it just doesn't work out
Quotes quotes quotes. Let's fucking go, im back at this after another whole month!
Mhm yes I can see why this might be a bit of an issue. Just a little bit. A teeny tiny one. Microscopic, I mean wow.
See this? This still makes me groan because like... Come on Sunset. I know ya ain't exactly the most emotionally smart person, but why would ya leave without a note? Especially when the one in the room is Fluttershy?
Applejack being Applejack. Once again, I'm heavily biased but I love the way you write her, especially her and Sunset's friendship. It's really wholesome and supportive and just the perfect friendship, especially considering their... history. I also almost picked the whole (paraphrase) "All the times we've talked, we never once just started kissing." line cause that's so funny but also I bet Sunset used to think about it~~~
:) so true bestie :) *squee*
Once again, I find myself snorting. That's so funny. Sunset's so dumb but so smart but so dumb I love that for her. She could totally be great friends with Rainbow if it wasn't for Rainbow being The Loyal Guardian of Fluttershy.
Aaaaaaaaand the pain starts. I hate you for making them so cute, Bun. Like, immensely because I know what's coming and yet I can't help but squee
nice
Oh boy, and then you drop that first line on us. Aaaaand then it's not a leadup to "But this was not one of them" ho boy. :B
In case you forgot they're best friends who've known each other the longest out of the group.
Applejack makes a very salient point.
They should have kissed moreOof, she's 100% right and I'm dreading when Fluttershy wakes up.
Again, that's friendship. XD
no D:
whew, sweet catharsis ;_; that was a rollercoaster, though, hot damn
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Whoo boy, the roller coaster is just getting started here
Awwww!
insert John Cena Are you sure about that?
Oh... 😳
Same.
Ya think?
Maybe. But tbt maybe not.
Awww
And because of that it's caused this to happen, thx a lot Sunset. 😒
What would we do without AJ's wise advice?
The ending of this chapter is just so heartwarming, but I've learned from these fics by now that it's only a sign that things are about to come crashing down. Can't wait for my heart to be ripped out of my chest!