Shine Like Rainbows

by Glamour Gleam

Shine Like Rainbows

“Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia asked. “What are you doing here by yourself? I thought you had band practice with your friends,”

“Principal Celestia.” Sunset stiffened slightly as she heard the voice come from behind her. “I was just on my way to meet them.” Sunset kicked herself internally for the terrible lie.

“Is there something troubling you?” Celestia stepped closer and rested a hand on top of Sunset’s shoulder, looking down at her with a worried look.

Even after all that had happened, Sunset was still not used to having people care about her.

“Principal Celestia, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Have you ever had feelings for a girl?”

The way Celestia’s face changed from the blunt question made Sunset feel like she had made a huge mistake.

“I’m sorry I—”

“No no, you just caught me off guard,” Celestia cut her off. “Do you think we might want to sit down for this conversation?”

Sunset nodded her head and followed the principal to a nearby bench. She was first to sit with Celestia sitting down next to her afterwards. Sunset swallowed a lump in her throat, trying but unable to bring herself to ask the question again.

“Well, thankfully,” Celestia broke the silence. “I can’t say that I have had feelings for another woman, no. But that doesn’t mean it’s odd or strange.”

“It isn’t?” Sunset cut in immediately, looking up at the principal.

Celestia smiled and shook her head “No, of course not,” she replied as she put her hand on Sunset’s shoulders as a reassuring gesture. “It’s normal to have feelings for your friends.”

The words Celestia chose made Sunset feel like she hadn’t gotten what she was trying to get across. She felt something for one of her friends.

“What—” Words got caught in her throat before she could get them out. She took in a deep breath and tried again. “What if, like, I’m feeling like I just want to hang out more with just one?” Sunset felt like she was pulling out her own teeth.

“Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset recoiled and shrunk as she heard the Principal call her name like that, she prepared for the worst. “What you feel is perfectly normal.”

Those words brought a sudden yet soothing calm to Sunset. “It is?” she asked, disbelief very evident in her voice.

“Of course,” Celestia replied with a beaming smile.

“But,” Sunset stammered and glanced away. “I don’t deserve to have these kinds of feelings for any of them, not after all the things I’ve done.”

“Sunset, your past does not define you,” Celestia said with a calm voice. “I may not be an authority on it, but everyone deserves love.”

The word made Sunset shudder; she hadn’t even called it that but deep down she knew what she felt. She knew what was happening.

“There is another side to you and your friends see that,” the principal continued. “We have seen what you are capable of, what you can do when you put yourself out there.”

“I guess everyone here likes who I am now.” Sunset smiled as she turned to face the principal again. “They were the first to look past the things I did before, even though I still can’t forget entirely about them.” Sunset bit her lower lip and sighed softly. “I was really awful, wasn’t I?”

“You were,” Celestia said with a distinct lack of tact. “But like I said, your past is not today.” The principal smiled brightly. “You could consider yourself a phoenix.” Celestia giggled slightly at the analogy. “Reborn from the ashes of that incident at the Fall Formal, everyone sees now what you are really capable of, you are not who you were before.”

“I know.” Sunset sighed again, looking at the ground before she glanced back at the woman next to her. “I don’t know if I have the right to feel these things I feel for her.”

“Well, why not?” Celestia asked the question that Sunset was dreading to answer.

“Because of all I did to them back then.” Sunset slumped into the bench. “How can I fit in with them and still feel out of place? I just don’t get it.”

“That’s a question only you have the answer for, deep inside you.” Sunset was having a hard time finding that useful.

“There is more to you than you realize, you know? You would do well not to forget your past, but you can’t linger on it forever. You have to listen to the sound in your heart.”

For a moment, Sunset Shimmer felt like she was talking to Princess Celestia instead, but she steered that thought away. That was impossible.

“The sound in my heart?”

“Yes. Twilight Sparkle came to this world and taught you friendship, since then you’ve learnt much, and still have much to learn.” Celestia paused for a moment and smiled. “What I mean is, you have to follow the guidance of your heart, it was what made you realize how to fix the problem with Twilight during the Friendship Games, right? You followed your heart’s guidance, the sound in your heart.”

“The sound in my heart…” Sunset repeated softly, clutching her hands against her chest.

“The Magic of Friendship is strong, even in this world, you have felt it before when you girls played your instruments, you saw how you shone and transformed when you were united.”

Sunset feels something as she listens to Celestia, what is that? Who knows!

Celestia continued “Friendship is a beautiful thing that can lead to many things, and you shouldn’t deny yourself those opportunities just because of your past mistakes.”

“Are you sure about that?” Sunset was beaming, smiling even if a little fearful.

“I am,” Celestia replied immediately, her own face beaming with a smile as well. “I believe you have done more than necessary to redeem yourself, and I know the other students think so as well. Why should you keep punishing yourself?”

Sunset let out a chuckle and quickly wiped the tears forming in her eyes away. “I guess you’re right, my friends accept me, the school forgave me, I need to stop beating myself up and give myself a chance, right?”

“Right.” Celestia then leaned in and tugged Sunset into a hug.

Sunset’s eyes opened wide in surprise, her cheeks flushed. A strange familiar feeling overtook her, and she couldn’t help herself as her arms wrapped around the principal, hugging her back.

The hug lasted but a moment, Celestia was the first to pull away, leaving Sunset with a faint smile and a still surprised expression.

“Thank you,” Sunset said, swallowing a lump that began to form in her throat. She stood up and walked past the principal. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she smiled. “For everything, I’m gonna go meet my friends now.”

“You’re welcome, Sunset Shimmer.” The principal stood up and crossed her arms, the smile never leaving her face.

“I’m gonna ask her too! I mean, if she wants to hang out, maybe go to the mall. Just the two of us, girls like shopping, right?” Suddenly, Sunset found herself stumbling on her words, feeling nerves and a flurry of emotions surge through her now that she was open to the possibility.

Celestia laughed lightly, keeping that serene and understanding look. “You do what feels best for you, I’m sure she’d love to spend time with you.”

“Right, right!” Sunset rubbed at her arm as a myriad of images crossed her mind. “Thank you again so much for this, you really helped me.” Sunset felt her eyes getting hazy, but she could stop herself before anything decided to streak down her cheeks.

“My door is always open if you need anything else,” the Principal crossed her arms over her chest as she smiled. “So if you ever need anything else, don’t hesitate to come, alright?”

“I won’t, thank you so much Principal Celestia.”

“It was my pleasure, now don’t let me keep you from getting your girl! I’m sure they’re all wondering where you are.”

Sunset felt a faint blush take over her cheeks as her lips curled to a smile. “You’re right,” she said as she turned on her heels and faced the school’s entrance. She lifted a hand up and waved it in goodbye towards the principal as she turned her head over her shoulder. “Thank you again, I’ll see you later!”

Celestia lifted a hand to idly wave back as she smiled. “Until we meet again, Sunset Shimmer.”

Comments

[applejackofalltrades]

Cute story! Feels like a nice little slice of life :)

[LordBucket]

It's interesting to see how the community, my own personal feelings and the world at large, have changed over the years in regards to sexuality. The high female to male ratio in the show has always lended itself to fanfiction involving lesbian relationships. In early seasosn especially there were so few male characters at all, that if you wanted to write a romance story about a main character...who do you even ship them with? Big Macintosh? Shining Armor? There simply weren't very many choices, and female+female was pretty much the default scenario.

As somebody who's been on fimfiction for over nine years now, as somebody who's personally written a lesbian horses story...this story you've written leaves me wondering, "but why?"

The message here seems to be, "it's ok! No, really! It's fine!" But...again, it's been ok in this community since day one. It's been so ok, that the whole question of "is it ok" hasn't needed to be addressed at all. Imagine somebody telling you that it's ok to wear shoes when you go outside. Or telling you it's ok to have a salad with your meal. Or telling you it's ok to blink.

Yeah...these things are ok, but they're so ok that it would be a little weird for somebody to go to the effort to tell you that they're ok.

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/448510/Jewel+Joy
Member Since 10th Aug, 2021

Ok. You're new here. Maybe that explains it. In the offline, "real" world...there's been a push for talking about equality and acceptance and approval of sexual whatever-ness so forth to the point of utter ridiculousness. To the point that a lot of people seem to be running on autopilot with their insistence that "it's ok! No really! You're EVIL if you don't constantly babble all the time about how ok it is!!!"

The thing is though, that if something's really ok, there isn't a need to talk about it very much. Again, nobody needs to remind you that it's ok to wear shoes or blink.

For context, the Lyra and Bon-bon group here on fimfiction was apparently the 6th story group ever made on the site, nine years ago back in 2012, and it has nearly 500 stories it. That's a lesbian ship, and it's one of the most popular ships in the entire fandom. While we're at it, here's The Fillyfoolers, a specifically lesbian-shipping group with over 3700 stories in it. Again, female+female is literally the default ship in this community. In fact, here's an actual poll that turned up that eight out of ten of the most popular pairings are female+female.

So, it's not like there's anything wrong with your story. It's fine, I guess. But it's like telling a fish that it's ok to drink water.

If you want write about lesbian horses...my advice is that you not waste time telling us that "it's ok," and instead simply write about lesbian horses.

[Stet709]

That was sweet! She may not have centuries or even millennia of experience like her counterpart, but that doesnt mean Principal Celestia can't be wise.

[AFanaticRabbit]

10939081
The author can write what they want. Most ideas on this site aren't new anymore, it's about individual execution and, well, whatever the author themselves want to write.

[Bicyclette]

10939081
go outside

[Dashie04]

10939081
Sometimes the message that ‘it’s okay’ is as important as just writing about lesbian horses, because there’s still a portion of people on this site that don’t think it’s okay.

[applejackofalltrades]

10939081
Ayo, go touch some grass my guy and cry about it while you're there. Stories like this ain't meant to be a representation of the state of the fandom or anything, they're literally just... meant to be a little story about something in the character's life. This ain't Celestia telling the fandom that it's okay to be gay, it's Celestia telling Sunset that. Even if you claim that it's the default for the fandom, explain why there's still a lot of homophobes on this site.

Let the author write whatever, it's not that deep

[LordBucket]

10939671

This ain't Celestia telling the fandom that it's okay to be gay, it's Celestia telling Sunset that.

Ok. But consider that in context. This is Sunset Shimmer, formerly a pony from Equestria...currently a human in the Equestria Girls universe, who apparently has a deep-seated belief down in brain somewhere telling her that it's wrong. Where did that belief come from? Well...if she grew up in Equestria...that kind of implies that what's really going on here, is that the evil ol' bigotted ponies taught her to hate the gays, but the benevolent, good humans know better and they can set her on the righteous path of acceptance.

Do you see how this is weird messaging?

Even if you claim that it's the default for the fandom

What do you mean "claim?' I literally linked a poll showing that the overwhelming majority of popular ships ar female+female. I'm not making this up, it is this way, I backed it up with sources and anybody's who's been here for any length of time should know that it's the default ship. Go check the search feature if you don't believe me.

there's still a lot of homophobes on this site.

Why do you think that?

Because from my point of view, again, as somebody who's been here for nine years, is that...no, there aren't alot of homophobes, an of course there aren't, because this is a site with a vast majority homosexual shipping environment, it's literally the default pairing.

But now we have newer members joining the site, trying to make statements about social justice in an environment where these things have always been ok. Again, it's a not a bad story, but it's like somebody going to a church looking for athiests to preach to. Sure, you can write a story about that..."but why?"

Unfortunately I've been seeing an increasing number of these sorts of stories over the past year or so, and I've a sneaking suspicion that it's a sign that this environment that's been completely ok with lesbian/gay content is now going to become overwhelmed by people who are so convinced that they need to make it ok, that they're going to end up creating the very problems they're railing against. If you push too hard on a pendulum, eventually it swings back the other way.

[Glamour Gleam]

10939081
I mean, that's like, your opinion, mare.

I may be new to the website but I'm definitely not new to the fandom. It's true that F/F ships are the norm, but so what? I didn't write this for anyone but myself, I got the idea, I got the inspiration and I wrote it, simple as that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Emotion Nexus]

10939989
A friend's story got dislike bombed for having gay/trans characters, I'd say there are some homophobes on the site still if you ask me.

[LordBucket]

10942309

Which story? Your claim seems a little suspect, when 80% of the most beloved ships on the site involve same sex relationships. Do you think that just maybe it's possible...that it was a bad story?

Having homosexual relationships doesn't magically make a story immune to criticism.

[Zontan]

10942424

The Pride and Positivity group has a big warning on the main page about stories with pride flags being targeted for downvote bombing - they didn't just decide to warn about that on a whim. You can just take a look at the stories for the event, and see the downvotes. These are not because of the quality of the stories, but because of their content.

This isn't news. It was literally two months ago. Were you just not paying attention?

[LordBucket]

10942799

I see the warning. I see the whining. I also see a whole lot of politics. They're soliciting donations for black lives matter, they're soliciting donations for the transgender law center, they've posted a nine page document listing various organizations they want you to give money to...Palestian children? Covid-19 in India? Bail funds for people arrested in Atlanta? What even is all this? It's not about ponies, it's a grab bag of "give me money" campaigns. People come here to read about ponies. What's going on here is that these people are using ponies to promote their real world agendas.

That makes people angry.

And now it looks like they're turning around and using gay and transgenderism as a shield, suggesting that if you don't like what they're doing, obviously you must be a bad person who hates minorities.

That abolutely infuriates people who are smart enough to see through the manipulation.

If you actually care about minority issues, then you need to see minorities as real people, not as tools to be used and abused to manipulate people into supporting your cause. And if you're here because you want to read about ponies, you probably don't want to see organized campaigns of people using and abusing ponies by having them be skinsuits wrapped around politics. That's specifically what the blog post you linked is advocating for.

So let's sort the stories in the group and see the "most hated" story to see what's being downvoted "by the evil ol bigots," shall we?

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/496830/2/marching-colors/chapter-2-marching-colors

32 downvotes. First off, that's not a lot. It might be terribly distressing to the participation trophy crowd, but look around, here's a story with 500 downvotes. Here's a story with 700 downvotes. For that matter, here's a story that I wrote with 24 downvotes. Shall I whine and cry about bigotry and "targeted downvoting?" No, people are allowed to dislike things.

Second...the story is politics wearing ponies as a skinsuit. It's not about gay or minority ponies, it's not about romance, and there's no shipping in it...it's shallow advocacy of murder and violence in support of "the cause." Read the story.

You, reader, must understand that, in the darkest of hours, it doesn’t matter who you fight for. Only, that you know what you’re fighting for. Maybe your country? A loved one, perhaps? Maybe, you’ll die trying to legalize something bigger than you. Maybe you’ll die to save your race from being massacred. Maybe you’ll die legalizing our rights. Maybe, you’ll die a hero.

Gee, that's not subtle or anything.

Maybe instead of defending obvious political propaganda, try reading some actual ship-fics.

[Zontan]

10943326

So let me see if I understand this.

-Real world politics in your pony stories is bad, even though literally every genre of media is political.
-There are people absolutely infuriated by politics in their pony stories.
-Minority issues shouldn't be addressed by fanfiction.

Remind me why you're here again? Oh, right, it's because this story was so unnecessary in this space because it's okay to be gay! But not if it's political! Or if it relates to the real world. Or, really, if it dares to address anything relatable to minorities at all.

Why don't you just admit that you just don't want to actually have to think about your lesbian horses? Because there's nothing wrong with wanting to just read some fluffy shipfics that don't have any deep underlying themes. The problem comes when you think you're so morally superior that you write an essay about how politics are so unnecessary in literature because you don't want to be challenged, even when you know it's a lie.

[LordBucket]

10943359

let me see if I understand this.

Either you don't understand or you're deliberately misframing. I'm not sure which.

There is very clearly a difference between "the two lesbian horses had happy fun times, lived their lives and had interesting adventures together" and "the evil capitalist patriarchy oppressed the righteous activists, who valiantly took up arms and murdered them, and you dear reader, should do the same. Also here's a list of organizations you should give money to. Oh and I guess there were some <ponies/insert whatever the topic of the site is>."

Why don't you just admit that you just don't want to actually have to think about your lesbian horses?

And there you go, accusing me of being a bigot if I don't like the politics. Exactly like I described.

Nobody likes being manipulated. I'm here for ponies, not to be inducted into your revolution.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Even after all that had happened, Sunset was still not used to having people care about her.

You'll get used to it pretty quickly.

“Have you ever had feelings for a girl?”

Wait what!?!?!?

Celestia smiled and shook her head “No, of course not,” she replied as she put her hand on Sunset’s shoulders as a reassuring gesture. “It’s normal to have feelings for your friends.”

Ok now I understand what's going on.

“Sunset, your past does not define you,” Celestia said with a calm voice. “I may not be an authority on it, but everyone deserves love.”

She's right, good or bad everyone in this world still deserves someone to love and care for and about.