This story is a sequel to Life Is A Rollercoaster: An Anon-A-Miss Story
To make up for the Anon-A-Miss incident, Canterlot High's student body plan a surprise party for Sunset's 16th birthday.
While going over the guest list, the Rainbooms ask a question they never thought to ask: where is Sunset's family? They soon wonder why Sunset has never talked about them. From what little they can gleam from Sunset's bitter remarks, they determine that she estranged from her widowed mother in Equestria. They and Princess Twilight decide that helping Sunset and her mom reconcile would be the best present ever.
But in their well-meaning attempt to help Sunset heal from the scars of her past, the Rainbooms have unwittingly opened an old wound instead.
When Sunset finds herself in a difficult person, the task of helping her may end up being in the hands of the least likely person. Someone who's friend was severely damaged by Sunset's misdeeds. Someone who must grapple with the meaning of forgiveness, loyalty, and compassion.
What Happened to Sunset's Family is the fifth story of Sunset's Steps, the fanfic series detailing Sunset's growth from a forlorn loner to the heroic defender of Canterlot High.
The story is set roughly two weeks before the Friendship Games.
Here are the other stories in chronological order.
Live By The Sword...-Completed.
Working Girl Sunny-Ongoing.
The Downfall of Sunset Shimmer: An Anon-A-Miss Story-Completed.
What Happened to Sunset's Family?-Ongoing
Another story in this series, nice.
"Did I do that?"
Sorry, that question came to my mind when I saw the title of this chapter.
Things are about to get real interesting
I Love this series soooo much
Seeing Anon as a sequel is worrying but I'll follow for now...
Ok while this is a nice start, you already blown it by inviting quick which us beyond stupid.
i know this si your story, but you using your power of a writer to make AJ get over her PTSD so easily is stupid.
BECAUSE IT NOT THAT SIMPLE! PTSD does go away in few weeks or months or even years!
Unless AJ been seeking reat meant by the best and most expensive therapist I don't see her getting over to the point she can be in the same room with him so soon!!
COME ON!!
Alos making celestia like quick even afte rnealry mudering her sister...Yes i can see that as she that stupid.
10468145
Well...
My question to you is the same question that the characters ask: does Harmony only apply when we want it too?
And well, when it comes to Principal Celestia, if she can forgive Sunset for her stupid behavior, why can't she forgive Quick?
10468388
What the heck does Harmony have to do with PTSD?!
Which YOU gave AppleJack, and using your writing powers to fix in a unrealistic time, which is very insensitive to those who have it in real life by the way.
Sighs...What ever...I'm not going to worry about this story anymore just try to enjoy it, even if I disagree with something.
It's not doing anyone any good.
10468513
I do show that.
But I also point out that Sunset herself has done terrible things, and the way that Rainbow and others behaved wasn't much better.
I am not trivializing PTSD, I am saying "work past it."
I love the story, I do have one critic though. I feel like Applehack should be more defensive with regards to Quick. I think something along the lines of this would have been more appropriate.
"Ah will allow you to invite him, but Ah dont want him anywhere close to me and if he does Ah won't hesitate to show him how strong an Apple can be when we get an honest fight."
Again this is your story and I like it but I would stress consistency with a character, at least one with a traumatic experience like Applejack went through. Character like Pinkie, Rainbow, Discord, and maybe Rarity are more lose in the terms of needing to stay consistent. They all can change emotions very quickly, or at least their pony counterparts do.
cool story: have you considered writing more?
I'm with some of the others here. The whole invite Quick idea is a bad place to go for this story. It's not about forgiveness or harmony. It's about trama. AJ is still suffering from the trama of the act. She should not be expected to be near the source of her trama till shes ready. Yes exposure therapy is one of the ways to help PTSD but it's done in a professionally controlled way and the sufferer is prepared to take that step.
Your harmony applied without thought without concern isn't harmony at all. Its actually very harmful to AJ in this case. A forgiveness for Quick plot event is certainly in the purview of this universe but you need to either change what happened to AJ to remove the PTSD in the first place or have a longer path to Quicks forgiveness that shows AJ healing enough to not be so stressed and afraid at just the idea of him.
10471442
Actually, I think I will make an edit to that end.
I kinda like how this story is going so far. I mean if the Rainbooms do let Sunset Shimmer reunite with her mother: Princess Celestia, then maybe she will realize that the Rainbooms are really sorry for the way they treated her during that Anon-a-miss incident.
is Forgotten Friendship still gonna happen? Cause Sunset is right.. they never will let go of their grudges but this time its not their fault. They lost their memories.
10534842
Agreed.
Please please continue this i want to know moreeeee!
10469223
If i may ask, when will this story be continued?, or is it okay with your permission if i continue the story for you?.
DM me if it's allowed.
10534842
Yes, but they've opened an older wound, because Sunset and her mother, Princess Celestia, (either biological or adoptive mother), didn't part on the best of terms so it would hurt Sunset way more, and i fear that if they reunite, she may become depressed and suicidal, now i know that sounds far-fetched but Sunset in this story, still feels she failed her mother and feels unloved by her to the point she feels that Celestia wouldn't care, someone who has that level of depression isn't far from suicide, trust me, i've been depressed and i've never been as far as suicide, but i've been in a deep depression before so i know what she would feel.
And this may seem like i'm a psychologist, but i'm not, as i'm actually training to become one for a job, i'm currently School Councelor for my school, it's great, i give others who are down a bit of inspiration and give them any advice should they need it.
Sunset in this story and it's prequel, needs to see a therapist A.S.AP for her depression, either a therapist or psychologist. Trust me i can see in my head how their reunion plays out and you don't wanna know what i've seen because you're not gonna like what happens.
10504300
Exactly, i get the group is trying to help Sunset and AJ here, but exposing AJ to him or having her near him would likely cause her to have a panic attack which is never good to have, she needs to be slowly reintroduced to him slowly now and again in order for her to realise he won't hurt her, Trauma, like you said, doesn't go away overnight, it takes days, weeks, months, years to get past, and it leaves a mental scar in the back of your mind.
Severe emotional trauma causes lasting changes in the VPCR(ventromedial prefrontal cortex region) of the brain that is responsible for regulating emotional responses triggered by the amygdala( An almond-shaped set Neurons in the Temperal Lobe of the brain). Specifically, this region regulates negative emotions such as fear that occur when confronted with specific stimuli. The brain becomes somewhat disorganized and overwhelmed because of the trauma, while the body goes into a survival mode and shuts down the higher reasoning and language structures of the brain. The result of the metabolic shutdown is a profound imprinted stress response.
The brain starts to heal from a said traumatic event after 8-6 months. Sunset is experiencing some of these symptoms which are.
1: Guilt.
2: Shame
3: Self-Blame.
4: Feeling sad and hopeless.
5: Withdrawing from others.
6: Feeling disconnected and numb.
Sunset has Acute Trauma. A single stressful or dangerous event.
Trauma, psychological, that is, leaves you with memory loss, for me after a traumatic event 4 or 5 years ago it blocked out every single memory that i had instead of the traumatic memory, which is quite odd as my brain should've locked out and removed the event, but it's in the back of my mind now but i still remember it clearly. That's why i want to become a psychologist, help those who have experienced emotional trauma because i can relate to what they feel, or have felt.
10468388
Well for one, he almost murdered Luna, and injured quite a few people, attempted murder and either 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree assault can land you and attempted murder in real life is 5-15 years jailtime. and for assault the max jailtime is 26 months which is 2 years. which would be 17 years max in jail.
you're not even using factors of criminal assault, attempted murder or anything regarding law for this story that connects to trauma which needs to be an important factor. Quick would have to be given 17 years max jailtime without bail.
Bringing Sunset and her mother, Princess Celestia, (either biological or adoptive), would be a very bad idea.
Like you said in the title
"They and Princess Twilight decide that helping Sunset and her mom reconcile would be the best present ever".
"But in their well-meaning attempt to help Sunset heal from the scars of her past, the Rainbooms have unwittingly opened an old wound instead"
That old wound is emotional pain/baggage for Sunset, she feels so depressed to the point she feels she failed her mother and feels unloved, which would require serious therapy, which could take weeks, months and years to heal.
Now i know we've seen the video where Princess Celestia immediately forgives Sunset, but in this case it would be a whole lot more emotional. I get they want to make up for what they did, but this is a very bad idea, Twilight, (Sweet, innocent Twilight) being the good sisterly friend she is agrees with them(which is a bad idea as she didn't ask Sunset first, in which she'd be going behind her back and keeping this a secret from her). Which would/could cause Sunset to be very, very mad at Twilight, and possibly lose trust in Twilight by going behind her back. (I'm sure Sunset and Twilight consider each others like sisters I don't really know but their bond is like that).
With being reunited with her mother, Sunset could have a traumatic flashback and could pass out from stress and shock, or could have a panic attack, Sunset could possibly refuse to call herself Celestia's former student and daughter out of her depression, in which Sunset's mind would fill with those dark and heartbreaking thoughts, which could lead to a worse situation, (if you know what I mean by, "Worse Situation"). (I mean suicide),
Celestia would try to soothe Sunset and calm her down, but I fear it won't work, Sunset will just refuse the feeling of love from her mother and deny herself the love that she deserves to feel. I know Sunset isn't usually emotionally this weak, she always shows how bold and tough she is emotionally and mentally, I know during the Friendship Games she yelled at Twilight for those obvious reasons, she was worried for the pony version of Equestria and the dark, corrupted magic damaging both worlds, almost like she was acting like a princess herself, which makes me proud of Sunset in that regard.
With the Anon A Miss comic, we saw how upset she was, that is not the case here, she'd be tougher than that and would find ways to prove everyone wrong and stop Anon A Miss for good.
What I meant by this was that Sunset is very good at hiding her past and her emotions from others, she's put up mental defences as well as emotional. Reuniting them would only do more harm than good. Sunset would only suffer if they met in these terms.
Author, write the story however you see fit, but use psychology and show what the character is clearly feeling, write about the expressions, the tone of their voice, how they are standing, etc. Show in deep what Sunset was truly feeling, don't lie and coddle the deep darkness she has, and having everyone reunite them will only upset and harm Sunset more.
When you write about someone with a traumatic past or has been through trauma, either mental, emotional or physical, show the signs to show the audience what trauma they suffered, when you write about trauma you show exactly how that person feels and show how there could be a therapy/cure to heal the pain, show how long it would take, and why, and what type it would be, when you write about someone explaining physical trauma you need to show if they're breaking down and trying to hold themselves together, if they're calm and collected, if they're frightened.
I'm a trauma victim myself, emotional and mental trauma from a car crash 3 or 4 years ago, i'm fine now but you just need, NEED!, to show exactly what that emotion is. I'm not nagging or being rude, i'm just suggesting. sorry if I came across that way.
yeah, you guys
10468145
si, you mean is.
you mean
10688484
Thank you.
you mean:
Please correct this.
Now for this to continue.
10772397
Which it probably ever won't.
Sooo... are you planning on updating? I mean, no pressure or anything but it's been quite an while since you last updated this or Working Girl Sunny. But great fics i never been this engaged on a story ever since i read unOrdinary.
10947724
I think it's a dead story.
I hope this amazing series of stories continues eventually
10688517
I don’t want to sound annoying but is there gonna be more chapters of this?
This is great so far! I can't wait to read the next chapter!