The sun had set not long ago - ending both the day and another episode of Equestiran magic gone awry. Thankfully, both ended well. Eventually.
The rest of the girls had gone their separate ways home, but Sunset Shimmer hadn't just yet. With her head was still swimming from having all of her memories torn out by the Memory Stone and then shoved back in minutes later, she needed a little time alone to sort herself out.
So Sunset sat on the curb outside Canterlot High School and let out a long, deep sigh. It was good to be alone.
"You said it," commented Wallflower, who had been sitting next to her the entire time.
Sunset's response was understandable. "GAH!" The surprised flailing might have been rubbing it in, however.
Wallflower wilted. "I guess things haven't changed that much after all."
It took a long moment before Sunset could recover and regain her seat on the curb. "I'm sorry, Wallflower. That one's on me." She turned her eyes to the sky as the stars came out. "With everything that happened in the last two hours, I'm surprised I can see straight."
The gardener shrank further into her sweater, shame coloring her cheeks.
"Not like that!" Sunset waved her hands rapidly, knowing from experience where Wallflower's mind was headed. Like how this conversation was going, it was bad. "It's just been rough. For all of us." She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. "A lot of what's on my mind is that I can't believe how terrible I was to you. Ignoring you like that, even when you were in the same room? Anybody deserves - You deserve better than that, Wallflower."
Oddly, the pale green girl seemed even worse with the apology. Unable to even look at Sunset, she just stared silently at her own feet.
She had to make this right. Sunset knew she had to. So she pushed further. "I guess part of it is that I'm not sure how after all these years I never managed to see you even once."
Wallflower mumbled something - quiet and at the ground.
An eyebrow raised. "What was that?"
Wallflower braced herself. "You did see me."
Sunset's mind raced. "I did? When?"
"...When we were seeing each other."
There was dead silence save for the wind as Sunset tried to wrap her head around the words. "W--what?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
Wallflower wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them tighter to her chest. "We dated for almost four months. In the spring."
Sunset stared blankly at her... girlfriend? Ex? It wasn't clear, and her already muddled mind was only losing ground in this fight.
So Wallflower continued uninterrupted. "That's why I joined the yearbook committee. We did it together, so we could spend more time with each other. Those were nicer times, though."
Horror crept across Sunset's face as she reached a shaky hand out. More to steady herself than give comfort, she clutched Wallflower's arm. "Wallflower. Did you erase my memory of us?" Both were silent - one waiting, the other ashamed. "You did. We were dating and you ERASED that?!"
Wallflower cowered more.
The sight of the girl cringing away banked some of Sunset's anger. Not all by a long shot, but enough to regain her composure. Still, she pulled her hand back to gather herself. "Maybe you should start from the beginning." And then things were silent for just long enough to let Sunset's anger start to rise again.
"It started with a study group," Wallflower slowly (finally) began. "You said you wanted some time with new people after what happened at the holidays." She glanced over to Sunset, catching the wince. Anon-A-Miss' scars never seemed to entirely heal. "After midterms things broke apart but you and I kept studying. You helped me with math, and I helped you with biology."
Both girls instantly blushed.
"B--because I'm good with plants!" Wallflower squirmed. She felt like she should laugh, but at the same time she couldn't. Not while she was confessing this. "Just before spring, your band was going to play a show at the Botanical Gardens. You were supposed to go ahead and finalize things. And... you asked me to go with you. That was our first date."
Slowly, Sunset nodded. "That sounds like it was a nice start. What happened?"
Wallflower hesitated. "It was nice. Really. For months, even! We just, um. We clicked, I guess. But you're right. Things did go wrong." She let out a deep sigh, hanging her head. "I got jealous."
Before Sunset could react to that, Wallflower pushed on. She rolled the words forward, trying to keep the momentum of her confession on her side. "You were the first person to notice me. To really see me and want to be around me. Even before the Memory Stone, everybody overlooked me. It was..." A hard swallow for a bitter pill. "It was like a drug. At first I was just happy that we would go out here and there. Then we spent every lunch together. Then every free period, too. And then after school every day." She shifted on the curb, spirit as uncomfortable as her butt. "When you would go do things with your friends, I would go to the garden and cry because it wasn't with me."
"Oh, Wallflower--" Sunset reached out to put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder.
The hand never got there - Wallflower batted it away by bitter reflex. "That wasn't your fault, Sunset. That was me. Me and my stupid, petty, co-dependent jealousy. I let that turn into anger and..." She hesitated. "And when I found the Memory Stone, I convinced myself that I was better off without you. So I erased all of it. Everything everybody remembered about us being together."
This time, Sunset was able to touch Wallflower. She hugged her as the pale green girl broke down into heavy, hiccup-laden sobs. "I was wrong! I destroyed it, and then--then when you didn't notice me like everybody else didn't it made it worse!" She tried to shake Sunset off in vain, blindly resisting the comfort. "So I decided to destroy the rest! That maybe if I took away your other friends I could start over and have you to myself!"
Burying her face in her hands, Wallflower wailed in the release of months of pent-up emotion. "I'm so stupid! Why did I ever think that was going to work? Why any of it would work?! I should've just been happy with what I had! I should've left you alone and gone away forev--"
Wallflower's eyes popped wide as Sunset silenced her with a kiss. It didn't last long - just enough for Wallflower to transition from shock to disbelief to cautious acceptance. Sunset pulled away right before the shift into fearful enjoyment.
"Next time," the redhead quipped with a smirk, "Talk to me first? Before you get to the point where using dark magic to destroy history seems like a good idea."
It took a few moments for Wallflower's brain to catch up with the situation. "Next time? But I--I don't underst--"
She was silenced by Sunset's hand over her mouth. "Look, Wallflower. I'm still really peeved about what you did. But I can tell how much it's hurting you. I understand making mistakes out of anger that you regret. And, well." She pulled her hand away, using it to push a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. The smirk transitioned into a softer smile. "You made me happy once, Wallflower. I think it's worth trying to see if you can do it again."
This time, it was Wallflower that embraced Sunset.
Author's Note
Originally, this was intended to be an entry in Oroboro's Sunset Shipping Contest: Endings. However, by the time I got to the end of the story I found that it didn't fit anymore. The story didn't want to be an Ending.
