Sunset Shimmer had good grades, mostly good manners, and, at the risk of Flash tooting his own horn, a pretty good boyfriend.
After all, you wouldn't kiss someone you don't like.
A study of relationship.
Written for the Spring Fling Contest, where it won third place.
Tagged sex for references and implications; nothing explicit occurs onscreen. Content warning for underage drinking.
Review by PaulAsaran.
Howdy, hi~!
Hot damn that was a banger entry. Loved the imagery and wordplay you used in this. You really nailed Sunset pre-redemption and the kind of dynamic she might have had with Flash while they were dating. Everything all played into this theme of moving on and it was just really well written and poignant. Thanks for the read~!
This is a really, really impressive portrait of a relationship that’s deeply flawed, yet painfully real. It’s all too easy for stories to write of Sunset and Flash’s dating history as just manipulation on her part, using him as a minion or grifting off his social status. But here? You can see how much Flash cares for her and, in her own strange way, Sunset cares for him and appreciates him too. It's apparent that much of it is one-sided, but it's never fully that way; even as Sunset slips further and further down the path to darkness, there's still something there neither of them want to lose. It’s a wonderfully tragic tale you’ve crafted here, and it’s something I can totally imagine people reading and deciding that this is how things really went down between SunFlash. And the final line is exquisite. Congratulations on third place, and I do hope more people give this excellent story a read!
love the transitions here (heat and cold and cold ankles and height and hair gel) it rlly sets up a picture of who flash is in a nice nd concise way
oh man :(
we have the same braincell!!! weather seems like itd b one of the most jarring things for someone coming to the human world from equestria, esp w "normal" weather being associated w stuff like the everfree forest and uncontrollable magic and shit, and ofc it'd b one of the first differences sunset wud have to contend with on the other side. rlly rlly like this scene here
the perfect man
THE PERFECT MAN
ahhhh i physically cringed at the thought of her parading around w the tiara, not knowing that it wasn't "normal" to keep wearing it (good kind of cringe!! like the seeing a chara do smth embarrassing in a movie type of secondhand embarrassment lol). u do a rlly good job of slowly painting out sunset's fall from "ambitious but hesitant outsider" to "yeah okay this tracks with eqg 1", and im all here for it
oof. love the parallels in here, and the rhythm of it. i like to "hear" what i read, and these four sentences really hit the sweet spot lol
THE RHYTHM IM TELLING YOU UR NAILING IT
ahhhh good old sunk cost whatever-ya-callit,,,, because theyve been together since freshman year so of COURSE theyre gonna keep being together bc if they dont then what was the point of all their time spent and why did flash not notice the water getting warmer until he was already boiled? and he keeps telling himself its ok and ignoring the signs and hhhh youve written things with such a hand in realism that i could name more ppl this has happened to than i have fingers to count on, and that realism just makes it all the more tragic for it
what a line. rlly rlly like this, shows a lot abt sunset and even more abt flash in a single sentence
again love the rhythm here, the way u loop back around to earlier events and then smack the reader in the face abt trust in a way that relates to everything and mostly the present. you've got a great sense for the flow of words and how to weave em
this is such a great pair of lines to end on, esp w the imagery of flash dead in the trunk of a car earlier in this section. rlly evokes the sense of feeling so bad u just want to crawl into ur own grave, but not giving into it despite how easy it is to lie down rather than keep trudging forward.
ive put off reading this for far too long (so many things to read! so little time!!), and im so glad ive finally gotten the time to get to it as it's an incredibly cohesive oneshot and character study of both sunset and flash and their relationship together. incredibly well-deserved in its placing in the contest, fantastic work ^^
This was fantastic. One of the very best takes on Flash and Sunset before the movie happened.
Loved the little hints of Sunset's horsiness leaking through, like her being spooked by the leaf that fell off by itself, or her snorting and kicking behind her when frustrated. And the dynamic between them, Flash getting deeper into denial as Sunset grows more ruthless... All the way until the end, you still feel there's a genuine connection there, even when it's growing more and more strained.
Beautiful work, and well deserving the third place in the contest!
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