1. Putting the Pieces Together
Sunset groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. Her body felt like it had been through a tumble-dryer, everything sore and sweaty. The sheets were a mess, but mercifully, they were drier than she was.
She reached up to her neck, and glanced across the room, at a armoire she had been using since she was 12. In the mirror, she saw ugly purple bruises running circles around her throat.
"Huh. Been a while since that happened."
Normally, cleaning up was a trivial task--blood is a pain to wash out of sheets, but it washed off of skin pretty easily, and she preferred taking showers in the morning anyway. Normally, she could go to class without having to do any kind of complicated makeup work. Normally, she'd have at least twenty or thirty minutes free before even factoring the shower in, because Sunset had long ago learned to leave herself some extra time for these sorts of things. Normally, Sunset doesn't sleep in.
She glanced at her phone, which had two 'missed alarm' notifications and a message from her mom about leaving for work. "Aw, crap."
She was used to people whispering to each other as she walked down the hall. Heck, she was used to people staring. Once upon a time, she enjoyed being the center of attention--nothing feels so powerful to a high-schooler than seeing all the other high-schoolers hide behind each other. Then, for a while after The Incident, she wanted as little to do with that attention as possible.
These days she just kind of groaned and carried on.
Pushing open the door to 1st period chemistry with Ms. Heartstrings, Sunset quietly walked--across the entire room--to the one chair that hadn't been taken. Luckily, it was right next to several of her friends.
Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity were all at this table; Rainbow and Fluttershy were at the next, already fidgeting as they tried to hash out which parts of the labwork would be whose responsibility. All five stopped and stared at Sunset the moment she sat down.
Ms. Heartstrings cleared her throat. The class went about their business.
"...So," Pinkie said. "You, uh, okay there--"
"Yes."
"Did y'all--"
"No," Sunset said, staring at Applejack. "I've been over this three times in the past week, AJ."
"And y'all been comin' to school with scars all up an' down yer arms three times in the past week," Applejack said, pointing a well-intentioned but accusatory finger at Sunset. "It's been gettin' worse, Sunset. Y'all been showin' up with more an' more kinds o' hurt on ya. An' now y'all clearly went and tried a noose. Ah know yew ain't lyin', but Ah know somethin's goin' on."
Rarity laid a hand on AJ's shoulder, and they locked eyes with each other. Whatever internal argument they were having, Rarity won, and AJ crossed her arms while Rarity turned back to Sunset. "Dear, we're just worried. You've said that it's not you who's hurting you, but you haven't said who is hurting you."
"It's not your problem, it's mine. And if I tried to explain it, it'd just make things harder."
"C'mon, Sunny. We got your back! Isn't that right, girls?" Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack all nodded solemnly. Nothing mattered more to them than supporting each other through these trying times.
It only made Sunset more livid to see it--to know that they were so desperate to help her, even though they'd likely never understand.
"You know what? Fine. We'll all meet back at my place tonight--all seven of us."
"Ohmigosh--you're bringing Twi along!?" Pinkie gasped.
"It's about that time of the month," Sunset said. "Normally she wouldn't visit until tomorrow, so we'd have the whole weekend, but I think I can call in an emergency meeting."
The rest of the day passed almost completely uneventfully. Sunset had already made arrangements with Principal Celestia and VP Luna--the scarring and the occasional bloody mess had gotten their attention early on, but they had an Understanding, and this Understanding was crucial to keeping things moving on days like this. There was a mild hiccup at lunch, when Sunset sat down at the wrong table, even though they had all walked to the right table together, but she chalked it up to nerves.
Right now, she just needed to explain the mess she was in. Everyone was piled onto her bed--she thanked her lucky stars that today had been hanging and not a slit throat--and Sunset was standing in front of the armoire, with an impromptu diagram of sticky notes arranged on the mirror.
"So. You know how I said it's not me who's doing this to me?"
The girls all nodded. Twi scribbled something down in her notebook--which was already filled with notes after the briefing Sunset had given on the symptoms of her condition.
"Well...that's not exactly true."
"Now hold on just a minute," AJ said, rubbing her chin. "Ah know what Ah asked ya in first period today, and Ah know you were tellin' the truth then. So how come Ah know you're tellin' the truth now?"
"Because it is me, but it's not me."
"Now Ah know y'all's messin' with me."
"Look, it's like this. There's other universes out there, right?" Sunset watched as a wave of slow nods passed through her little audience. "So that means there's other Sunsets, right?" Another wave of slow nods.
Sunset pointed to one of her sticky notes, helpfully labeled OTHER SUNSET. "So, one of these other Sunsets is having a rough time. She doesn't get the support she needs. She hangs herself..."
Sunset drew a line with her finger to the sticky note labeled ME. "And I wake up with bruises on my neck."
Twilight hummed to herself. "That sounds like something I read about once. It was called the Hussie convergence theorem--"
"Did you just call me a--"
"No, no, Hussie was the name of the guy who figured it out."
"Oh. Go on."
"Well," Twilight muttered. "According to the HCT, some events 'resonate' across multiple universes, and end up happening at the same 'time' across many timelines. The stronger the resonance, the more often it happens."
"Then I guess I should mention that I've been waking up in a pool of my own blood every day for a month."
Everyone paused for a moment.
"...okay, I know someone's thinking of making that joke. Don't."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"If this is a case of Hussie convergence," Twilight said, "this is the perfect opportunity to test one of my theories. You see, I think the Hussie convergence effect is evidence of something outside our universe, guiding the timeline and changing things to suit its purposes."
"Are you telling me God wants me to kill myself?" Sunset said.
"No, it's not God. If my theory is correct...this would have to be the work of..."
Twilight turned and looked right at the fourth wall. "Fanfic authors."
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The idea of Andrew Hussie as a respected scholar of multiversal narrative physics alone is enough to have me hooked. Eagerly looking forward to seeing what else you do with this idea.
(That said, that title might send the wrong message, both repelling your target audience and attracting a different one.)
10562977
....Those two audiences may not be disjoint.
10562977
This comment alone immediately has me interested in this story.
I feel like this fic is a dig at Anon a Miss fics. Therefore it gets my upvote until I am told otherwise.
This is well done metawriting so far, and I like it. I'll be tracking this.
*sips tea*
hmmm... you have my curiosity.
I'm not sure what I'm reading, but I want to keep reading it. Consider me intrigued.
You know the trophy I was like, 'wrong word, should be 'best''
Annon a Miss fanfic's writers in this moment:
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/029/405/jordan.jpg
That surprise ending.
The blood shedding
A little diversion, a fun little thing.
Not much substance, but has a bit of spring!
7/10
Needs more build up, but for a little thing like this, it's good.
Anyone else getting “The One” feeling here or is it just me?
10562977
A good parody is simultaneously a send-up of what makes the subject great and a comedic romp through what makes it silly. I don't think it's possible to write a good parody without writing something that looks like a Sunset Suicide fic on the surface.
Oh dearie me! This is gonna be a riot.
I... take issue with suicide being used so cheaply in fanfics, like it's pretty disrespectful and shows how little one knows about people reaching the end of their rope like that.
10563916
That's kinda part of the joke. The whole idea for this fic came about as a joke about how many Sunset fics center around Sunset attempting or committing suicide.
10564135
Yeah, I figured!
I dunno if I'm the one this was meant to call out, but I'm interested in the prospects that this makes possible already. So I'mma be lookin' forward to more of this!
Why does she have an academy award with her in the image?! XD
10564350
She won the Oscar for her role as "Worst Human" in the box office smash hit "Anon-A-Miss".
Well, then, STOP, FiMFic Authors!
That picture somehow does not fill me with confidence that this will be a sober, respectful discussion of the topics at hand.
NO, NOT FANFIC WRITERS! ANYTHING BUT THAT!
So I'm guessing the usual horseshit that makes Sunset go suicidal didn't happen here? It sounds like this one follows closer to Equestria Girls canon far more than 99% of what things on this site do with the topic.
Besides the obvious of course.
10563042
What is with that, anyway? Did that one single crappy comic somehow manage to do all that damage to the fandom entirely on its own, or was it just a natural rallying point for a trend that was going to happen anyway?
10565193
Somehow I suspect a lot of the fandom has a few unresolved bullying issues they need to work out in various ways, just a hunch but I have a feeling Anon-A-Miss brought back old memories for them.
10564533
Yes, well, a lot of Anon-A-Miss isn't really sober or respectful either.
...They aren't wrong. Anon-A-Miss has made a smorgasbord of times Sunset considered killing herself.
The Hussie Effect has enough to draw on.
10565193
Mostly it’s just a terribly written magnet for people to present their high school depression/bullying/self harm fics.
10565193
That, and far too many are to lazy to come up with anything original. So why not beat this dead horse? The only good stories using that pathetic excuse for a comic, are the ones making fun of it in some way.
Usually by not having literally eveyone but Sunset be so stupid, that they shouldn't be able to use magic at all. Or like this story. Where it's a meta take on it.
10565906
Correct you are. When stories make fun of the tropes or give them a good twist instead of recycling and overusing them, that's when they're good and enjoyable.
10563916
And let's be honest. No matter how bad Sunset felt at times during Equestria Girls about what she did or how the school viewed her, she never once got anywhere near suicidal depressed.
Goddamnit, dawnbreez.
Huh... this is odd, gonna track...
You got me to respond with a full blown DUN, DUN, DUNNNNN out loud with that closer.
Was it the 1am sleep deprivation speaking? Hah, well, hahh, well, hahh, okay yeah, I got woken up a tornado weather warning shortly before this, but anyway you could almost just slap a Completed on this right then and there unless you've got ideas for more homicidal fanfic authors on the mind.
Hm. The way you introduced the HCT reminded me of "The One", the Jet Li film, where the fewer surviving individuals of the same person across the multiverse became more strongly connected to one another (and developed demigod powers?). Just a curious aside to share.
Thank you for writing this. I definitely laughed at the reveal!