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Going into volleyball season, everybody expected Sunset and Kerfuffle to shine—an unstoppable combo at the net, they proved their talent in the first game, crushing rival Crystal Prep.
Then Kerfuffle lost her leg.
And it's all Sunset's fault.
Written for Rewan Demontay for Jinglemas 2023
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It's been so long, I forgot there even was an Equestria Girls folder in Admiral Biscuit's fleet.
Wait, what?
Pinkie. The balloons had to be Pinkie.
He was asking for that response, yeah.
11785827
There are black balloons & crepe paper.
11785813
Phrenology = study of shape of human head as a way of predicting character. Discredited.
Might have been Phlebotomy. That's sticking needles I to your arm to get a blood sample.
Looking at this story and comparing it to other things I've seen by you, I'm curious about the prompt Rewan Demontay sent you.
Edited to add: Because you pretty much answered my question in this story's story notes blog post (spoilers!), I guess now you know I was curious and asking even before I'd finished reading the story.
Ah, the guilt and weight of "If-only-I-had"...
Until the last chapter I was under the impression that it was Sunset who had hit Kerfuffle... did I misunderstand something or was it intentional?
In any case, it works, although I think the fact that it wasn't Sunset who was directly responsible for the accident repaints her guilt attacks with a brush of egocentrism.
11785885
I think it was deliberately not directly stated who hit Kerfuffle, until relatively late in the story.
When the author might have intended us to maybe guess or pick up on soft clues would be another question, I think.
11785827
Nocreature can be uncheered with balloons.
Though I would never trust highschoolers with balloons. "Spirit week" was the worst experience in my life.
https://derpibooru.org/images/2305026
Balloons are for spreading joy, not popping. It hurts my soul to have balloons popped around me. And don't get me started on New Years and "Gender Reveals." Evil barbarians.
That is some dark humor. And I'm loving it.
No pockets! Tsk tsk, what are these schools thinking? Also, I picture Sunset tomboyish enough that she'd think purses are supper annoying. Like, seriously, they are either too small or too big. Imagine being a girl and having to put everything in a silly bag, when you could have pockets, all the pockets!
The guilt here, it just hits you right in the feels. Without going into details, I can feel Sunset's pain, her tormoil, her regret, and knowing inwardly nothing she could ever do would be ENOUGH.
No! Sunset don't do it, don't go down that path, think of your career, your future!
I want to hug the bacon horse and let her know it will be okay, healing from trauma like this, just takes time. A long, long time.
I have to assume that was deliberate. I hope she got the one with vitamin R.
11785831
Yup, exactly.
11786163
It totally was. Wasn't in the original draft (it was just milk back then), but AlwaysDressesInStyle mentioned malk and I kinda had to roll with it.
11785813
It's a running joke in some of my Sunset fics that there's at least one mention of an obscure, discredited branch of 'science.'
Well, I don't know if I've written enough Sunset fics yet for it to be a proper running joke, but there's been a similar reference in at least one other fic of mine. Sadly, I can't remember which one.
11785845
That's exactly what it is.
Nope, it was supposed to be Phrenology. A non-zero number of my fics set in the Equestria Girls 'verse mention a discredited 'science' discipline in them as a class she took or a subject she knows or whatever.
11785854
Yeah, I've been there before and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
11785827
Everybody thinks that, but Pinkie doesn't have a monopoly on balloons.
That having been said, it was probably her. Who else could come up with balloons on a moment's notice?
11785838
Yeah, although that's a little dark for the moment. Those are more reserved for schools who have made the poor choice of having orange and black as their school colors.
Which I know all about, 'cause I attended not one, but two schools where those were the official colors.
11786050
I feel like if I were to search, there's at least one video disproving our hypothesis.
I can say that because of circumstances which aren't germane here, I despise Pinkie's Smile Smile Smile song.
11786087
True fact, I knew a person (tangentially, friend of a friend situation) who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident and said that he was going to play Pirate Billy Mays for the next Halloween (he looked a lot like Billy Mays).
Honestly, it's a great way to make some good out of an otherwise bad situation.
11786157
Add to that her having been a pony, and having to carry saddlebags whenever she wanted to stow stuff--even small stuff--and now she's a human, she's got hand, clothes have pockets . . . and here she is, forced to wear something without. It's a travesty!
I'm also not gonna go into details, but I've been lowkey in her position in the past.
Yeah, substance abuse isn't the best way to get past stress (but it is a way, and for some people it might be all that they have). It can be a long road, a very long road. And there are some traumas that people never really heal from, but at least get to the point that they can live with them, sorta like an old scar.
11785802
I wasn't sure if there was or not until I scrolled through and found it.
I've written a few EqG fics over the years. At least four of them that I can remember off the top of my head, and there's probably more.
11785851
This was one of those things where I knew how I wanted to go at it as soon as I read the prompt, but the question of if I could pull it off was on the forefront of my mind. It's very much not the kind of thing I usually write.
I'd like to think I did a good job, but I suppose that's up to the readers to decide
11785885
It's intentional.
Thing is with this kind of guilt, even if there's no real connection between what Sunset did or didn't do and what happened, she'll still feel the guilt, because she could have done something different that would have prevented it.
To use a real-world example that I don't mind sharing, years ago at my job I had to deliver some tires on a snowy day. The truck I was driving didn't have the best brakes, and during a sudden traffic slowdown, I took to the ditch rather than rear-end the vehicle in front of me.
The shop truck and I escaped undamaged, and I walked down the hill to a 7-11 with the intention of calling the shop and telling them what had happened, and getting a ride back. As I was crossing the 7-11 parking lot, one of the guys who plowed the shop lot saw me, recognized me, and offered me a ride.
We made it a block before a city bus blew a red light and destroyed the plow truck, and I got a nice ride on a backboard.
If my manager hadn't sent me out, if there hadn't been a traffic slowdown, if I hadn't been offered a ride, if I'd worn my seatbelt (in my defense, it was a one-ton plow truck, what could stop it?) . . . a lot of things could have broken the chain, and someone somewhere on the chain might have felt guilt even though none of the circumstances leading up to the ambulance ride could have been foreseen.
Another personal experience I won't share online--and which, God willing, you never have or will--suggests otherwise. That, and I also consulted with a psychologist, and this is in fact a known version of survivor's guilt.
11785888
That is correct.
It wasn't the kind of thing where I worked hard to misdirect the reader, but I also intentionally kept things vague enough that readers wouldn't be really sure until the denouement.
And I'll be honest, having felt a fraction of what Sunset does after a . . . well, let's say unfortunate and pure coincidental situation, there's stuff where a person feels guilt for the results of something they had at least a minor part in, even if it was in no part foreseeable.
You can't put out banger after banger. It's in poor taste, and it frankly makes us all look bad.
11786258
Don't worry, 'round the end of March or the beginning of April (depending on your time zone), I'll put out an April Fools fic which only appeals to a very limited audience.
11786216
The joys of editing.
The original line was this:
I know Admiral Biscuit is a fan of The Simpsons, so I quoted the above in my notes and replied with:
Just me being silly. I never suggested changing it, and I was quite surprised to find milk had turned to malk in the next draft. I agreed though that leaving it in would be great. Its famous enough that even some non-Simpsons fans will get it through pop culture osmosis.
Very well written mate.
You had me hooked right to the end.
11786228
That kind of reminds me of a character I'm developing in scrap writing works. She lost her leg due to a drunk driver and copes with the loss by reveling in just how off-putting it can be for others to see her walking around with a Terminator-styled leg, or accessorizing the shell with embedded LED lights to really play up the mechanical look.
11786227
You don't like the Smile song? I thought if nothing else, the choral aspect was well done.
11785831
yeah...I might be relatively clueless at times, but if I saw her in a CLEARLY crummy mood, I would leave her alone or at most ask what was wrong, if there was anything I could do to help, but not a smarmy pick up line.
She should come to our world. Some years back my younger brother got invited to try out a wheelchair rugby team.
11786220
Definitely not the only one, I still have things from 15+ years ago that haunt me at times, If I was gifted that spell to make a singular visit to my past I'd like to give my past self a firm kick in the pants/shake of the shoulders.
11786839
If I had a time machine, there's a few times I'd give myself a swift kick in the butt, too. Sadly, I don't . . . or maybe it's better that way. Hard to say.
11786822
I'm not sure having one wheelchair in a field of normally-abled girls would work out (I'm also not sure it wouldn't, though), but there are certainly leagues for differently-abled folks. Probably some games lend themselves more to it than others.
By the high school athletics rules in Michigan, as long as Kerfuffle is approved by the athletics board to play with a prosthetic leg, she would be allowed on the high school team. Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason they'd ban her, but I didn't do a lot of research into what types of medical appliances people were using in high school volleyball in Michigan.
Here's a news video about an Idaho girl playing volleyball with a prosthetic leg:
Towards the end they mention that she can spike the ball, too. . . .
11786820
This is high school, you know someone's going to do the smarmy pickup line.
Well, that's not just limited to high school if I'm being honest.
The fact is that you wouldn't and I wouldn't and neither of us have a fork stuck in our eye.
11786815
It's not about how well written the song is, it's for reasons which have nothing to do with the show.
11786646
Thank you!
11786792
There are people who do that; while I didn't research it for this story, I did some research into prosthetics which included a 3D printed forearm that was made to look almost like lace/spiderweb, hollow in the middle; I've seen stuff with lights added or various other features.* A guy I used to work with had a fake leg for a BTK amputation that had a 'tattoo' on it--there are lots of possibilities in how it can be adorned. I've also seen ones that look close enough to real that you can't tell at all (I was just watching a news video about a high school volleyball player with a prosthetic, and with knee-guards on both legs, it wasn't obvious who had the prosthetic when everyone was standing around . . . nor when she jumped.
I feel like Kerfuffle would be one to go with something fancy, maybe not for every occasion. After all, like it or not she's got it now, might as well make it cool.
_________________________________________________
*IIRC, in one of those videos they interviewed a person who custom-made some of their own prosthetics.
If it would be up to me, I would randomly assign lockers.
Getting run over is not fun. I got runover 1 night. It took me 10 months too recover. I am the weirdo wearing an orange & yellow high-visibility SafetyVest with retroreflective strips both night and day.
As I started to reply to this, I realized that you left out the closing quotation.
It is very bad to avoid grief; it leads to breakdowns later when one suddenly realizes that the loved one is gone forever.
It is dangerous at night. Sunset should have given Kerfuffle a ride. One should always keep an High-Visibility Yellow-&-Orange SafetyVest with RetroReflective strips hoofy.
It is obvious that DSunset is guilt-ridden, but Kerfuffle must mourn her leg and hide it. She must be depressed too.
If the world would turn grey, starting in her peripheral vision with a staticky pattern, I would guess that Sunset fainted.
The car knocked me into the air. I saw the pavement beneath and in front of me. I rotated completel around and landed on my back. I could not move because I had 3 broken limbs. I then had the 2nd-car problem:
The 1st car takes out the limbs; the 2nd car crushes the skull. Luckily, bystanders waded out into traffic for stopping the cars. The vehicle knocked me out of my shoes (they only found 1 shoe). I could not call for an ambulance because I phone was over 100 meters away. Luckily, I had a case; so now, not only was it intact, but I still use that 9-year-old iPhone 6 S Plus today (amortization (spreading out costs over time) saves money). I was in no pain, but knew that it would come.
About the good stuff, in the ambulance, the paramedics asked whether the PainMedicine helped. I responded that I was unaware that they gave to me any PainRelief. I was fully conscious until over a day later when I had surgery on my left arm and right leg under general anesthetic.
I tried to hold it until I could squirm into a wheelchair and then onto a toilet, but after 5 days, I could not hold it any longer. Bedpans are not as much fun as one would think. Ihad to use bedpans for a week before they let me use a toilet.
After a week, I was too well for hospital, but to immobilized for home, I ended up in a nursing home for a 3 weeks. The 1st week in the nursing home, I was stuck in bed and had to use the dreaded bedpan. Then, I got to use a wheel chair and toilet. After that, I socialized for the 1st time. I slept terribly because of my broken limbs.
It took 10 months before I could go back to work. X-Rays of my left arm look like the arm of a T-800.