First Blush, Not Forgotten
SunFlower Contest Entry
Lonely. A word with a lot of meanings. It could be a feeling, a state of mind, a crushing weight. For Wallflower Blush it was a fact of existence, inescapable and all-encompassing. It was like a blanket keeping her wrapped up, trapped in place, and instead of warmth it only offered an icy cold that struck straight into her core. To be alone, to be unnoticed, to be unsure if you even existed.
That was to be Wallflower Blush.
Yes Wallie, keep whinging, I’m sure that will make you friends.
I grimaced, smacking my head back against the flat stone of the horseman pedestal I was leaning against. Sweet exciting pain woke up my drowsy brain for a brief few seconds before I settled back down with a lingering feeling of being an idiot with a bruise.
“Ow…” I said to myself, sighing loudly because I was certain I’d go unheard just like always. It was Friday afternoon, school had ended hours ago. If I were a normal girl I’d be out on the town and enjoying my free time properly. The mall, the park, the movies, maybe a hang out or sleep over. But no, those weren’t for me. They were for people who existed, who were noticed, who had friends who cared about them.
“Cheery thoughts as always. Very constructive.”
Seeking a way to escape the endless cycle of wallowing and self-recrimination I dug into my bag to pull out a certain curiosity that had been plaguing my mind for the last few days. I raised the roughly hewn stone in my hands, feeling its heft as I traced my fingers over the strange eye-like pattern etched in its surface. I’d found it in the CHS gardening club area - club president, woooh! - and had tried to search for information on it since, but no site I found could explain where it had come from or what it was. Then when my impersonal options were exhausted I dared to show it to my history teacher out of some vain hope he would recognize something about it.
Instead I’d managed to gaffe the explanation of finding the stone after having my name forgotten - like usual - and whisper-wished to myself that he’d just forget about it. And then he did. A stream of light shot out of the stone into the man’s head, swirled around him for a few moments, then flowed right back into the stone, leaving the teacher staring at me baffled, but not nearly as confused as I was in that moment. If I thought the man would actually recognize me again come next week I might have felt self conscious about fleeing so quickly, but, well, I am Wallflower Blush. Nobody would notice or care.
“What are you?” I asked as I studied the stone for the umpteenth time, and as always it stubbornly refused to offer up its secrets. “Magic? Advanced technology? Super ancient advanced technology?”
When I’d tried to give the stone commands it seemed to ignore everything except a few very particular focuses, all of them to do with memory. A bit of testing on myself - because who else could I test it on - showed it could remove memory, give memory back, shuffle memories around, and even add new memories where they had never been. A fantastic device, to be sure, but… I had no idea what to do with the thing.
“I wish I could talk to someone about you. Hell… I wish I could talk to someone who noticed me…” I sighed again, shoving the stone back into its spot in my bag and leaned back against the statue. Except when I did I felt my hair start to fall into the statue.
“AAAAH!”
I quickly righted myself and turned and scooched back from the statue, the front face of which had transformed from its normal stone makeup into a swirling vortex of colors. I stared at the mythical sight in awe for a few moments before I heard a sound echoing out of the… portal? The sound grew louder and more distinct, resolving into what sounded like a girl yelling at the top of her lungs. And indeed it was, as a girl was flying through the portal towards me, so fast that I guessed there was no way she was going to stop.
“Oh crapbaske-”
Thinking fast I dove into the flying girl’s path, wheezing as the breath was knocked out of me by the sudden weight impacting my chest. I was knocked onto my back, my bag cushioning the blow a bit, as the full mass of the other girl collapsed on top of me. Conscious of my need to breathe but not wanting to hurt the human cannonball that had just struck me, I gently rolled the girl off of me onto the pathway, coughing once she was freed, a gesture the other girl mimicked.
“W-what… what the f… what?!”
Not the most coherent of responses to the first - known?! - instance of… whatever in the world this was, but then, my unwitting assailant wasn’t that much better.
“Where am I, what are you, where’s the portal?”
I stopped hyperventilating as I realized the questions were being addressed to me, and given the glare I could see in those extremely cerulean eyes silence wasn’t going to be an option.
“I, uh… I’m, you… you’re in Canterlot, right outside of Canterlot High School, I’m Wallflower Blush, and… the portal you came through is right… there?”
The moment I pointed to the statue was the instant the vortex of light shrank into nothingness, disappearing with a muted pop.
“Was… right there.”
I flinched back from the scream of frustration the other girl let out, but as the girl seemed to spend the next few seconds staring bewilderingly at her hands I decided to examine the traveler. Her hair was a mix of deep auburn and golden yellow, complimenting her orange skin quite well. She wore a studded black jacket over a purple t-shirt with a fiery sun insignia on it, matched with an orange skirt with paired purple and yellow stripes, all while absolutely rocking a pair of boots that looked like they could smash concrete with the sheer weight of their awesome. And that wasn’t getting into how powerfully emotive the girl’s expressions were, every inch of her skin displaying her cycling feelings of confusion, frustration, curiosity and determination in sequence and oh god she’s looking at me what do I do?
“Uh… hi?” I offered, trying not to wince to myself.
“Hello…” the girl answered back, forcing me to fight off a swoon at the soothing and sultry timbre that was the girl’s voice. “So… it seems I’m stuck here for a while, given that the portal just closed. Figures. I did jump in at the last possible second. Still… very frustrating.”
“Uh, yeah, I bet it would be. So… who and… what are you?”
“Sunset Shimmer,” the girl answered. “And as for what I am, it’s most certainly not this… whatever this is.”
“Human,” I offered. “We’re humans. But, uh, I guess you’re only kind of human, if, um, you’re not normally human. What are you, umm… normally, if I may ask?”
The girl didn’t answer immediately, leaving me a moment to ponder the fact that I was talking to an honest-to-god alien being. In front of my HIGH SCHOOL! This single moment was more interesting than the rest of my whole life combined!
“Normally I’m a pony,” Sunset said with a stern expression as she examined her hand with a glare. “Meaning I’m a quadruped instead of… I’m sorry, are these supposed to be feet? If so they’re terrible.”
“N-no, they’re hands. You use them to grasp things. You just… stand on your… back legs, I guess?”
Pony person, that’s new. Potentially very cute, if ‘pony’ meant what I thought it meant, but that was a thought to ponder later. For her part Sunset looked down at her own legs and moved them experimentally, as if unused to their shape or something.
“How?”
I looked at Sunset, then looked down at my own jeans covered legs, trying to think of what to say to such a basic lack of knowledge. “Uh… like this? Here, let me help you up.”
Before I could really think about what I was doing I grabbed Sunset’s hand - her skin was so WARM - and hauled the other girl to her feet. Sunset was very unsteady as she rose up, waving her free arm to try and get a balance but failing, falling into me as I caught her with an oomph of released air.
“‘This’ is harder than it looks,” Sunset groused in my ear. I didn’t answer. My mind was too busy comprehending the fact I was in close physical contact with a beautiful girl who was also an alien. Prudence warred with desire within me, but the former won out as propriety marched up to be its ally. I gently pushed Sunset into a more steady stance, holding onto her for a moment to ensure the girl wouldn’t fall.
“Aaaaaand there. Can you feel it?”
Sunset looked down at her legs, moving them back and forth a bit before standing on one leg and then the other, then taking a few experimental steps forward. “Yeah… yeah, I think I’ve got it. That’s… okay, that was easier than I thought it would be. Really weird to be moving around without a tail for balance though.”
“If you say so,” I said slowly, filing that tidbit away for later. “Anyway, uh… welcome to the world, I guess? What brings you here?”
Sunset’s expression turned sour as she faced the statue again. “I came here on my own to escape from unjust punishment. My… my absolute plot of a teacher refused to give me my just reward for all my hard work and diligence as her student, and instead tried to banish me for daring to learn without her smothering ‘guidance’ anymore. Well SCREW YOU CELESTIA! I don’t need you or your stupid crown!”
“Wait… Celestia?”
There was no way, right? It had to be a coincidence. A coincidence that the name of CHS’s principal was the same as the teacher of this world traveler.
“You know her?” Sunset asked, eyebrows raised suspiciously. “You said this was Canterlot, right? That’s where I just left.”
Or maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. “Celestia is, um… the principal of this school, so… maybe?”
Sunset seemed unconvinced. “Is she an immortal demi-goddess who raises the sun and moon every day while ruling over the entire country?”
What.
Sunset smirked, flicking my nose. “I’ll take that as a no. So, in that case, she must be some kind of parallel dimensional counterpart. Interesting. The notes did say worlds connected by the mirror shared certain traits…”
“I’m sorry, could we go back to the part where my ordinary principal is somehow a goddess in another world?” I asked with a slight hitch in my voice.
“Demi-goddess,” Sunset corrected. “A position I should have had but that she refused to give me. Selfish whorse.”
Ignoring the fact that my conversation companion just made a horse pun - why did that feel like it wouldn’t be the only one? - I cleared my throat and asked, “I’m guessing that the portal you came through was some kind of magic?”
Sunset nodded. “Yes, a very special and unique magic that I was studying. It was going to be my master’s thesis before… well, that happened. Do you know something about that kind of magic yourself?”
I stammered for a second then gave up and decided the truth was probably best. “Actually until a few days ago… I wasn’t even aware magic existed.”
I instantly felt regret admitting to that, as the look of abject despair that appeared on Sunset’s face nearly broke my heart to witness. “N-no… no magic? This… no, that can’t be right, this world can’t be completely without magic! Otherwise the… the portal couldn’t possibly work, right?!”
I fought to keep from appearing like my namesake as Sunset seized me by the sweater and pulled me very close, trying to think of what to say. It was on the tip of my tongue but I just forg… FORGOT!
“Wait, there is one piece of magic here!”
Sunset’s face instantly lit up, an excited and demanding smile on her face I never wanted to see disappear again. “There is? Where, show it to me!”
Smiling, I reached into my bag and pulled the memory stone back out, holding it out to Sunset. “I found this thing in the… in my garden a few days ago. At first I thought it was just a hunk of rock, but when I took it to a teacher to examine it I said something about having him forget it and it shot out this weird beam of light that sucked his memories away!”
“A memory altering artifact?” Sunset’s voice was filled with awe as she closely examined the stone in her hands, turning it over and over to study it from every angle. “What else does it do?”
I grinned, excited to share the news of my studies, so much so I didn’t even edit out the more embarrassing mistakes I’d made, such as forgetting to write a note reminding myself what I was doing for five tests in a row. Not my brightest moment, that. For her part though Sunset didn’t seem to care about my slip ups, instead listening intently to every piece of information she heard and moving her eyes back and forth as if taking notes with them in her mind.
“Fascinating. An artifact like this ending up in this world… It must have been taken here from Equestria at some point in the past. Which means if this is here, other magical artifacts might be too. And with them… maybe I can work my own magic.”
My mind dazzled at the idea of being able to witness more magic, so in a fit of excitement I grabbed Sunset’s hands, still cradling the stone, and asked in a rush, “Can I help you?!”
“W-what?”
“Please, please let me help you!” I refused to let go, no matter how much my inner coward was screaming at me to do so. “I want to see more magic, I want to know everything you can tell me, I want… I…”
I slowed, my mind finally catching up with my mouth and forcing it shut. Sunset, for her part, appeared curious, examining her closely.
“What do you want, Wallflower Blush?”
Tell her, tell her now!
I couldn’t, it was too painful.
Do it now or you’ll miss your chance forever!
The weight of loneliness came upon me again, its cold seeping into my heart and crushing my veins.
TELL HER!
“I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE ANYMORE!”
Sunset drew back, physically recoiling from the weight of the shout. “Alone?” she asked, only able to focus on the one word.
“I’m alone! I’ve always been alone!” I forced the blanket off, throwing it away and burning it with my eyes. “My parents leave me alone and barely acknowledge me! The teachers forget my name! The students barely know I exist! Nobody knows I exist! I… I don’t know if I exist…”
The energy was gone, ejected too quickly to retain, leaving me feeling drained and spent. I pulled my hands back, hugging myself to try and hold in what little warmth I had left.
“Nobody knows who Wallflower Blush is. Nobody cares about her. Everyone forgets her the instant they hear about her. Wallflower Blush is nobody. Nothing. I… I don’t want to be that anymore.”
Tears fell down my cheeks in rivers, any pretense of embarrassment or fear in the face of this alien lost as I bared my heart in pure desperation.
“I want someone to remember me. To… to tell me that I’m here. That I exist. That I’m not just… a part of the scenery. That I matter.”
The final words of my favorite, most painful song came to my mind, the one I listened to for hours on end during my many nights sitting in my room. Alone.
“I don’t really matter,” I sang softly. “Nobody can see…”
But I was cut off, the words dying on my lips as I felt a hand grasping mine.
“I can see,” Sunset said, her voice of flame and passion pushing down my arm and entering my core, awakening it again to the cold, empty world. “I can see you here in front of me, right now.”
I sniffed, wiping away my tears with my sleeve, keeping my focus on the warming goddess holding my hand. “And… what do you see?”
Sunset’s smile grew fierce, her grip tightening. “I see a girl who has been pushed to the side lines, forced to watch the world go by her because nobody cares to notice her. Because they’re all too stupid and ignorant to notice when someone important is right next to them.”
Important. Important?
“I’ve been that girl, Wallflower Blush,” Sunset told her with an utter certainty that I felt could be the foundation of an entire mountain. “The reasons were different, but the results were the same. I was the outcast, the one who didn’t belong. Out of town, not from the noble houses, a country bumpkin who dared to try and learn magic like her betters. They shunned me because of what I was rather than who I was, so I vowed to show them how wrong they were. And I did.”
I watched Sunset tell her tale with complete enthrallment, as if it was the only story that had ever mattered for me to hear.
“I climbed my way to the top through hard work and talent. I made a name for myself as the best of the best, regardless of my origin, and if anyone dared to stand in my way I cast them aside! If they weren’t going to accept me for who I came as, then they were going to be forced to accept who I would become! I made myself the best I could be, and through that I made myself the star pupil of the most powerful pony in Equestria! And even that wasn’t enough, because that same pony refused to see me for what I could be, only wanting me to fit into her narrow view of the world. She was looking for somepony else. She wasn’t looking at me.”
“They never do,” I found myself saying. “They never look at who we are. They just look for what they know. What’s familiar. What… what they can control.”
“Exactly!” Sunset’s smile was a force triumphant, an event so powerful I felt I could draw strength from its mere visage. “So if they don’t want us for who we are, then who gives a damn about them! Because we have each other, and that’s enough!”
My heart skipped a beat, then skipped several more. I also might have forgotten how to breathe. “E-each… other?”
The raw audacious smirk Sunset gave me just about stopped my heart all by itself, and my feet were left trembling in place. “Yes, each other. You, Wallflower Blush, are now my partner in research of magic in this new world. We’ll figure out the mysteries of this stone, then hunt for more sources of magic, and then… who knows? Perhaps we’ll finally get what we both deserve. So…”
Sunset withdrew her hand from Wallflower’s, only to offer it back for a moment of divine truth.
“Partners?”
Impossibly, completely impossibly, to the point of sheer absurdity… I hesitated. There was so much she didn’t know about what was going on in this moment. This girl, this alien from another world, was making an offer of partnership in the search for more magical artifacts, the first of which I had found already having the insane ability to alter and remove memory itself! The powers of other such pieces of magic could be anything, perhaps things even more dangerous than power over the minds of others. Could I really trust this person I barely knew in a hunt for items of such immense power?
And yet… there was no way I could say no. Not to this fiery woman who was so inspiring, so powerful, so majestic. This girl who knew I existed. And liked me.
And so I took Sunset’s hand, smiling broadly.
“Come on, let’s get you to my place. I have a lot of teaching to do.”
I had never thought of myself as a teacher, and I didn’t really have much of a high opinion of most examples I’d seen so far in my education career, but after the crazy weekend I’d just spent teaching an alien the basics of being a human I felt like I should probably be qualified for at least a bachelor’s, maybe an associates.
Because there was SO MUCH that Sunset had to be taught so that she could exist and function in human society. It had started out hilarious, then became frustrating, then moved into fascinating, then devolved into just throwing out random trivia bits as we chatted back and forth over pizza. Vegan of course, since I was already not the biggest fan of meat and Sunset had had a mild panic attack at learning she was no longer an herbivore. Yet somehow, someway, it had all worked out. Sunset knew enough that people wouldn’t think she was either brain damaged or just cripplingly naive and uneducated - merely drastically ignorant - meaning she could just about sneak her way into CHS if Celestia was feeling charitable on that particular day. Which, given it was Celestia, was more likely than not.
For all that the plan should work though, I couldn’t help but feel the usual crippling nervousness that came with every day at school, only this time I couldn’t just shove it into its designated corner of my brain like I usually did, because it was centered around someone else now.
“Still nervous?”
My flinch was automatic, still not used to having a voice, any voice, addressing me directly. I shifted my eyes to my companion, partner, ally, friend? Gift from the gods ab-
“A little, yeah,” I admitted, desperate to get my mind as far as mentally possible from that train as it could. “I mean, it is a little strange to have a girl transfer into school out of the blue like this, especially when her history is as, well…”
“Nonexistent?” Sunset offered.
“Sparse. I was gonna say sparse,” I retorted. “I mean, I’m fairly sure it’ll work, but ‘fairly sure’ and ‘certain’ are not the same thing.”
Sunset mulled that over for a moment before clapping me on the back with a confident grin. “Sometimes you just gotta take risks, Blush. Like jumping through a half studied portal to escape unjust imprisonment.”
“Or making friends with an alien,” I added with my own faint smile. Or desiring mo- no, no more needed, this is enough, really!
“True.”
We made their way up the steps behind the main swath of students heading in for class, a few of the other teens giving a passing glance at us but quickly refocusing on their own things.
Weird that this is one of the few times I want to go unnoticed and it actually works.
As we entered the school proper I started to lead Sunset past the gathering cliques down the hall towards the main offices.
“If we hurry we should be able to get through the paperwork fast enough to give you a tour before lunch,” I said. “That way after lunch is through I can show you my ga-”
I grunted as I felt a hand land on my chest and shove me to the side, landing roughly against the lockers with a loud clang. Blinking blearily from the sudden jolt I looked up to see what had happened only to be met with a familiar blonde haired girl who I was more than happy to be ignored by most of the time. Lightning Dust was flanked, as usual, by some of her ‘posse’ of tough girls, the ones nobody messed with if they wanted to come out of the school day intact. Everyone else in the hall had backed away from the sudden spectacle, knowing to stay out of the picture but too curious to book it for class.
“Out of the way, dweb,” she sent my way, which are probably the most words she’s ever said to me. The bully switched her attention over to Sunset, casting a cocky smirk at the red-head. “So, you new here, flame head? If you are, then let me just start you off right with a bit of a lesson. This here school belongs to me and my gals, and everyone else just gets to exist here. You look like the strong, tough kind of chick I’d like to have in my group, so how about you ditch the nobody and let me show you around?”
Pain erupted in my heart as I suddenly saw the exact path the future would take. My new friend, my glorious alien pony-girl Sunset, was going to get snatched up by these jerkass bullies and taken away from me. I’d never get to help her with her plans, learn more about the Memory Stone, about her. Because it was obvious what she would pick. What other choice was there? The popular and powerful bullies who knew how to get things by force, or the meek, friendless wallflower who was barely able to string sentences together when talking to another person. It was a contest, but one I’d lost before even entering. Disqualified on merit of not being qualified at all.
Yet Sunset stayed quiet for an oddly long time, even with the clear answer standing right in front of her. The girl glanced around the hallway, examining everyone’s gaze, before coming to land… on me. She looked at me, staring me straight in the eyes as if asking me to speak up, to say something that would give her guidance on what to do.
I… I couldn’t, I couldn’t force her to choose me. It would be social suicide to stand up to the ruling gang of CHS. She’d never get what she wanted, she’d be stuck languishing for years uselessly trying to claw her way back up to the top. I couldn’t ask her to sacrifice that for me. And yet…
“Please…” I whispered, so quietly I was sure none could hear, yet Sunset seemed to read my lips anyway, or perhaps the pleading of my eyes. Sunset held my gaze for a moment longer, then gave me a firm nod and a grin. Then she turned back to Lightning Dust and offered her hand, my breath freezing in my chest.
Lightning smirked, moving to take Sunset’s hand in her own, but the moment they made contact Sunset viciously pulled her forward, turning her around and locking her arm around the bully’s neck. It happened so fast that even watching it we all barely saw it, as one instant the queen of CHS was claiming a new follower and the next she was caught in a headlock, looking like a deer in the headlights as her world flipped around her.
“That nobody has a name,” Sunset said in a low growl, almost a hiss. “And it’s Wallflower Blush. My friend.”
My heart started up again, eagerly making up for lost time by accelerating to twenty times its normal speed.
“So let me make something clear to you, whorse,” Sunset said more loudly as she tightened her grip on a fearful Lightning Dust. “I serve no one, especially young punks like you who think that just because they’re big and tough they get to boss people around. That’s not power, not real power.”
“Let go of me you bi- AAAH!”
Sunset tossed Lightning into her pack of followers, who staggered as they caught the girl in their collective grasp.
“Real power is earned through respect and control,” Sunset announced. “From people knowing that they should listen when you speak. That you know what you’re talking about and give orders that mean something.”
Sunset turned to me and beckoned me closer, and somehow my brain managed to force me forward even as my thoughts were churning in a million directions at once. Sunset took my hand as I got close, holding our clasped hands up for everyone to see.
“Blush is someone you all should have been listening to, but you lost out on that chance by failing to even notice her.” Sunset put on a fierce grin that had several people, even the bullies, taking a step back. “Your loss. Because I’m keeping her all to myself. You all have to earn the right to speak to her, and I’ll be your judge on that test.”
I was floored. No, I was tunneling down beneath the floor, trying to find a place stable enough to hold me as I was falling endlessly down into a furnace of red hot flames, glistening golden yellow like the sun.
Sunset…
Sunset let her declaration hang in the air for several seconds before lowering our clasped hands, seemingly satisfied with her work. She did not let go of my hand though. “Now, Blush here is going to help me get situated as a student of this school. Don’t bother trying to help out, I’m trusting only Blush until I can get a measure of you to see if you’re worth our time. And as for you lot,” Sunset said, looking at Lightning’s gang as if they were litter to be thrown into the trash. “Grow up and learn your place. Maybe try to earn it instead of forcing it, and I might one day respect you. Now out of our way!”
The gang parted, even Dust being perfectly silent as we walked past. I could feel all eyes in the hall fixed squarely on us, and no matter how much I told myself that they were looking at the fiery ball of raw passion and fury carrying me forward, I knew at least some of them… were looking right at me.
In hindsight it was a damn good thing I’d walked Sunset through the process of enrollment before we had come to CHS because with my mind in the state it was in now I would have been precisely zero help to anyone in trying to deal with paperwork. As it was Sunset was able to muddle through with my prior explanation and a few leading bluffs that Celestia ate up easily. Only I seemed to notice the tension Sunset had around her eyes as she was dealing with the principal, but I wasn’t going to comment on it unless Sunset said something. And again, my mind was… decidedly elsewhere at that particular moment.
She called them out. Called EVERYONE out. Over me… for me. Why? I’m… I’m not that special.
But clearly Sunset thought differently. Sunset… just saying her name in my mind sent a cascade of feelings through me. It was impossible to lie to myself anymore, I was deeply attracted to Sunset. And not just because she was the first attractive person to talk to me. I’d done enough studying of my feelings to knock that ball off of the track. No, it was just… everything about her was so powerful, so majestic. Her looks, her fashion, her confidence, her unshakable zeal. It was mesmerizing, petrifying… intimidating.
Yet for all that I was crushing on Sunset hard, I was also picking up a few warning signs. Years of being left on the sidelines had made me very good at reading people, seeing the emotions and expressions they thought would go unnoticed. And Sunset gave off every sign of being a person who didn’t give a solitary iota of care to what other people thought of her, and gave nothing away in return. Her sheer disdain for the people she didn’t care for was daunting, and the way she had so easily shut Lightning Dust down didn’t speak of a bully hunter. It spoke of a more powerful bully.
Level 1 novice Dust vs level 10000 mega-Sunset.
Snorting at the irreverent thought, I tried to sort out my feelings in a way that made sense, but it all boiled down to a very scary task. I wanted Sunset as more than just a friend, but I also could see she could turn into a very bad enemy if pushed down the wrong path. A path that might have already forced her to leave her home realm behind due to some unknown action she had made against a ruling demi-goddess.
No pressure.
I looked up as the door to the office opened, Sunset coming out while giving a final wave to Celestia as she put a wad of papers in the bag she’d borrowed from me this morning. The moment the door was closed she blew out a puff of air in aggravation.
“Mare, that was rough. The m… woman is just so… similar to my Celestia, but also just not. It’s bizarre.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, well, being only in your thirties rather than your three thousands probably makes a bit of a difference.”
“Too right there,” Sunset said as she pulled me to my feet. “So, now that that’s settled, can you think of a good place for us to do some research uninterrupted? I want to get a closer look at that memory stone.”
It took me half a second of thinking to come up with the obvious answer. “Well… my garden is basically always empty, since I’m… the only one who manages it.”
“One of two now,” Sunset corrected me. “I know a few Earth Pony techniques for taking care of plants, so I’d be happy to help you out.”
I stared at her blankly for a moment before a well of frustrated happiness rose within me. Damnit Sunset I’m already attracted to you, stop trying to make me fall harder!
“S-sounds great. Let’s go then.”
We were halfway to the back lot where my garden was located when the bell rang for lunch, letting all the students out and forcing us to shelter to the sides to avoid being crushed by the rush. I caught sight of Lightning Dust moving through the crowd, who glanced at us before looking away immediately and doubling her pace to move on past us. I looked sidelong at Sunset and winced at seeing the look of triumph she wore.
“You know… you didn’t have to be… that harsh to her,” I said quietly, drawing Sunset’s attention as the red-head raised an eyebrow at me.
“You’re not defending her, are you? Because just by looking at her I could tell she’s a serious troublemaker.”
“No, she did deserve to be called out, just…” I sighed, really not wanting to press on this but knowing for a fact I HAD to if I wanted… this to work. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so… happy about it?”
Sunset, irritatingly, just shrugged rather than offer any kind of substantial response. “Whatever. She’s not worth talking about any more. Let’s focus on more important things, like that stone.”
Conceding this was the best I was gonna get for now, I led Sunset further down the hall, slipping through the exit door and heading around to the right inside a small circle of trees. As we stepped into my garden I breathed in the sweet scent of my flowers, the menagerie of colors calming down and putting me in my happy place. I stiffened when I heard Sunset gasp, but a glance at her relaxed me as I realized she was wearing an awed expression on her beautiful face.
“Wow… this garden is great, Wallflower,” Sunset gushed as she bent down to sniff a tulip. “Are you sure you don’t have any secret magic in you, because most Earth Ponies I know would be jealous of this place?”
I blushed green at the praise, trying to find my voice to downplay her words and failing. “I, well… I spend a lot of time here, so… have a lot of practice getting things just right,” I settled on.
“I’ll say. I almost want to just hang out for a while and enjoy the atmosphere. But we have something to do.” She turned to me with an outstretched hand. “Stone please.”
I offered it to her, the pair of us looking at the mysterious artifact with undisguised curiosity.
“So to recap what you’ve told me before, this stone can manipulate a person’s memories in any way you wish, so long as you give it a verbal command and have a clear intending thought in mind. Is that right?”
I nodded. “Pretty much. That’s what I’ve found by practicing at least.”
“Let’s give it a go then.” Sunset held up the stone, pointing its eye side at herself. “Show Wallflower Blush the memories I am thinking of.”
“Wait, w-”
Before I could finish my objection the stone came to life, its crags filling with light as a beam shot out and hit Sunset in the forehead, then immediately rebounded and hit me between the eyes.
I was in a hall made of impossibly beautiful white stone, hung with tapestries colored in rich golden and purple hues, emblazoned with a symbol that was unmistakably the sun in all its radiance. At the end of the hall upon a magnificent plush red throne sat a snow white horse of incomparable elegance, her swan-like wings spread out to either side in a dazzling display while her horn shone with faint light. It took me several seconds to spot the smaller horse sitting at her side, but the moment I did I recognized Sunset for what she was, for there was no other identity for the orange furred creature with flowing fiery red and gold hair, her own horn much smaller but no less brilliant with its light.
I was drawn closer without moving, listening to the conversation going on between the two creatures.
“My idea was solid and you know it, Princess,” Sunset was arguing with her usual passion, but with even less restraint than usual. If anything she seemed genuinely upset, even her cute proportions unable to hide the rage she was displaying.
“Good ideas require good conveyance, Sunset,” the larger horse argued back, as unyielding as a mountain. “And your blunt and arrogant way of speaking ensured that even had you the authority to make the suggestion into an order you would have been resisted at every step.”
Sunset grit her teeth and pointed her hoof accusingly at the horse I realized had to be Princess Celestia. “Well they’d be stupid then! It’s not my fault they’re so thin-furred they can’t take any criticism.”
The white horse rounded on Sunset then, an actual edge of anger entering her voice. “You accused them of being cowardly for running from timberwolves to save their lives, when others had already lost theirs to the same monsters!”
Rather than back down I wince to see Sunset actually sneer in response. “Well then maybe they shouldn’t have been going out into the wilderness without guards. Besides, timberwolves aren’t even that dangerous. I could have taken them on no problem.”
“NOT EVERYPONY IS YOU, SUNSET SHIMMER!”
The sheer volume of the shout was enough to make me clap my hands over my ears, and even in the projection of memory I was pushed by the physical wave of sound Celestia had made. Sunset had wilted on the spot at show of power, cowering in on herself as the white horse loomed over her.
“Not everypony is you. Not everypony has your power, your talent, your privilege to have the best of teachers and education available to raise them to their full potential. Some have talents that lie elsewhere, focused on other things. If you do not come to understand this truth then you will not be able to reach your potential either.”
The world around me started to fade, my eyes focused on the lingering image of Sunset curled up in her seat, hiding her wet eyes from her mentor.
I took a long, hard breath as I came out of the vision, leaning hard on Sunset as my mind returned to the world of the present.
“Did it work?” Sunset asked eagerly, prompting me to slowly nod while I tried to come to grips with what I had seen. “So… what did you think?”
“O-of what?” I asked unsteadily, hoping she wouldn’t push me into answering that question in a particular way. I was sure she wouldn’t like the answer I would give.
“What did you think of the memory you saw?” Sunset pressed, causing me to wince and turn away. “That bad, huh? Heh, I knew you’d agree with me. That old nag, acting as if I messed up for pointing out the mistakes of-”
“Sunset…”
The girl stopped at hearing me say her name, turning to look at me with cautious eyes. “Yeah?”
I didn’t want to say anything. I really, really didn’t. The memory I saw… it both was and wasn’t the girl I knew. I knew her better side, the side where she actually cared and was engaged. Where she had empathy for another person. And yet…
“Why were you so callous?” I asked weakly, just barely forcing the words out of my mouth.
Sunset took a step back, her tone breaking as she repeated back to me, “C-callous?”
“People almost died. Did die, if what Celestia said was true,” I continued with painful slowness, hoping against hope that the girl in front of me would prove me wrong. “So why… why didn’t you care? From the sounds of it you… berated them for it, as if being attacked by something they couldn’t stop was their fault.”
Sunset’s face grew ashen and she started to violently shake her head in disagreement. “No! No, that’s not what I was doing! I was… I was just pointing out that if they had taken the proper precautions they would have been safe. I wasn’t… I…”
“Is it my fault that nobody notices me?”
The air in the garden became perfectly still, Sunset frozen perfectly still as she looked at me unblinkingly.
“Is it my fault for not reaching out, even though all I’ve ever gotten was rejection?” My voice grew clearer and louder, my inner anger coming out in rejection of this false side of my savior. “Is it my fault that everyone’s eyes glance over me, that the moment I talk to someone is the moment they forget me? Is it my fault when my parents show up for all of five minutes to check on me then go off back to work again? Is it, Sunset?”
Sunset was speechless, her mouth open wide in shock but her tongue perfectly still.
“Bad things happen to people who… who don’t deserve it.” I yelled at the part of me that claimed responsibility for my fear and isolation, telling it to go away and be silent. “Sometimes they could do something about it, sometimes they can’t. Is it their fault that bad things happen? Is them not being able to do what you can do enough to condemn them to suffer for things beyond their control? Is it!?”
“Stop… please…”
I did, because the response I was getting wasn’t the vengeful lashing out of someone unrepentant of their actions. Instead Sunset had collapsed to the ground, huddled amongst the flowers as if trying to hide inside them.
“Sunset…”
“She has to be wrong… I can’t be wrong… I can’t be. If… if I was…”
I realized my error immediately and kneeled on the ground next to Sunset, taking her in my arms and holding her close. “You’re not a monster,” I said to her, putting every bit of truth into the words as I could. Sunset started to sniffle, so I kept holding her. “You’re not, I promise.”
“She… she threw me out,” Sunset said weakly. “She said… that I didn’t deserve to have the power I wanted. I… I didn’t care about anypony other than myself. I was selfish and… and greedy.”
So am I, I thought, for wanting you. Because clearly Sunset wouldn’t want someone who yelled at her. Who treated her like the cause of all my issues when she had just barely met me.
No, stop. She needs me right now. I can’t do this while she needs me.
“You’re more than that,” I told her. “I’ve seen it. You… you’ve done so much for me in such a short time. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”
Sunset screwed her eyes shut and pushed me away, holding herself tightly. “I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND! I wasn’t ever trying to be your friend!”
I landed in the wet soil softly, but I still felt unbearable pain as the words struck me like a knife to the heart. “W… what?”
Sunset was looking away from me, but I could still hear every word clearly. “I was using you, don’t you get it! You had a magical artifact, you were alone, you’re… you’re EASY to manipulate! So easy I barely had to try!” Sunset launched out of the patch of flowers and paced back and forth, turning so abruptly it sent her hair flying with each about face.
“I took advantage of your generosity to have a place to stay despite bringing nothing with me to take care of myself. I used you to learn about this world in a couple days when it would have taken me weeks or months to do the same on my own! I-I… I manipulated the school into thinking you’re untouchable so I could make sure to have you to myself, that way nobody would know I’m using you! It was all a lie, a self serving lie that does nothing but take advantage of you! I can’t be your friend! I can’t…”
And suddenly it all clicked for me. Everything about who Sunset was, how she came to be, it all connected in my head. And in that instant I knew exactly what to do.
“You are my friend, Sunset Shimmer,” I declared firmly, getting to my feet and stopping her in her tracks by grabbing her shoulders. The girl struggled to get out of my grip, but I refused to let her go. “You are, because I say you are.”
“B-but… but I used you,” Sunset objected, to which I had a simple reply.
“I was using you too.” Sunset stared at me in shock for that statement, but I just gave her a wry smile. “What, you think the shy, lonely shut in is going to turn right around and shelter somebody she doesn’t know purely out of generosity? I…” I took a deep breath, forcing myself to be honest with my feelings. “I was thrilled that someone was finally looking at me, seeing the real me, so… I didn’t want to let that go, no matter what I had to do. Giving you a place to stay, teaching you everything I could? That was me trying to manipulate you into staying with me. Make myself useful so… so you wouldn’t leave me.”
The two of us stared at each other in silence for a while before eventually I broke down laughing at the bewildered look on Sunset’s face. Sunset glared at me for that, slapping at my shoulders to get me to stop.
“Stop laughing!” she demanded. “I was being selfish and cruel, like… like Celestia told me I was. Like you were saying I was too!”
“And I’m a meek little pushover who is too scared to try and fix my loneliness,” I sniped back with a grin. “You’re not going to beat me in the self-loathing contest, Sunny. I’ve got years of practice.”
That broke her, as between her tears Sunset started to laugh, though she kept slapping at me as I giggled. We fell to the ground as we wrestled each other, not really trying to get an advantage so much as just expressing our frustrations harmlessly on each other. At the end of it we lay side by side looking up at the clouds in the sky, breathing heavily as we came down from the thick and heavy emotions we’d both been feeling. We sat that way for a while, just watching the clouds go by in silence. On a whim I sent my hand questing for Sunset’s, grabbing hold and squeezing to let her know. Know what? I don’t know, but I know she had to know.
God I’m getting sappy being around her.
“Wallflower…”
“Yes Sunset?” I asked, sensing that Sunset had an important question on her mind.
“Am… am I a bad person?”
While the answer was complex I offered it immediately. “No, you’re just… flawed. Like me, but different. I’m a coward, I’m meek, I don’t try hard enough to reach out, and I’m kind of pathetic.”
“Wallie, no, that’s no-”
“It’s true,” I interrupted, trying not to get derailed about her calling me Wallie - eeeeee! - and focusing on what needed to be said. “And you, from what I can see Sunny, have some serious ego issues, coupled with having a hard time developing empathy for someone who isn’t very similar to you. Am I wrong?”
Sunset flinched but slowly nodded. “You’re nicer saying it than Celestia was.”
“So we’re both a couple of people with serious flaws who need to figure them out. Okay, that's part of life, at least that's what my online councilor says.”
That comment seemed to derail Sunset a bit. “You have a counselor?”
“Online counselor,” I reminded. “Cause, you know… people forget me as soon as they see me.” I rubbed my hair with that mix of embarrassment and acceptance I’d felt untold times before, only to let out an eep as Sunset dragged my hand away and held it together with our other hands.
“I won’t forget you, no matter what!” the red-head promised fiercely. “I… I’ve never had a friend before, not really. I was… very young when I moved to Canterlot. I didn’t know anypony there, and because I wasn’t from there most of the other students didn’t want to deal with me. Saw me as an outsider, someone who didn’t belong.”
I nodded knowingly at her. “And because of that you decided that if people wouldn’t reach out to you, you’d put yourself above them so they’d have to listen to you. Thus starting you on the path of believing power and skill were the only things that mattered in relationships, leading you to disdaining anything else because nobody ever offered it to you to show you it has value. Then as you got older and your skills got more pronounced that view was reinforced to the point that it affected your relationship with your teacher until it got you in trouble and you ended up fleeing here.” I smiled at Sunset’s slack jawed expression. “Did I leave anything out?”
“Uuh… I guess you missed the part where the nobles were mad at me for showing them up?” Sunset said weakly. “No, hang on, how did you just… just figure all that out like that?! I… even I didn't know that about myself!”
I shrugged, which was a bit difficult to do without pulling my hands out of Sunset’s. No way in hell I was giving THAT up! “I’ve gotten pretty good at reading people over the years. Being able to watch unnoticed as people do both their public and supposedly private stuff means I know how people act and think. That and I’ve read a lot of relationship books, fiction and nonfiction, so that augments my knowledge.”
Sunset’s look of shock fell away and was replaced by a laugh. “Oh wow, I really lucked out. My first friend and crush is a social genius. Now if only we could cure that forgetfullness thing…”
“C-c-c-c-c…” My brain was stuck on repeat, unable to fully process the sounds it had taken in and interpreted as meaning. The words were there, as were the ideas they carried, but trying to apply them simply wasn’t computing.
Then Sunset just made it worse by shuffling in closer to me, smirking a devilish smirk and making my cheeks flush painfully bright.
“I may not have been human for very long yet, but I think I rather enjoy the feeling. And I’m adjusting to human beauty standards very quickly.” She removed one of her hands from our mutual clasping and flicked the tip of my nose, drawing a frightened but impossibly excited ‘eep’ from me.
“Helps I’ve got such a cute friend to show me what those standards are.”
Flirt alert, FLIRT ALERT!
What?! I don’t have anything for that alert!
Make something up then!
“You’re super hot like the sun!” I nearly shouted, mouth running away from me like someone had shot the starting gun and it was going for the red and gold medal. “You’re so perfect it hurts to look at you but I can’t look away, plus your personality is great aside from your ego and you’re so awesome I’m inspired just by standing next to you! Please stop me I can’t keep this up and I’m about to die of embarrassment!”
My mouth was cut off by foregin lips pressing against mine, the entire world freezing around me as all of my senses collalessed around one singular sensation.
My first kiss. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
It was honestly very short, barely a tap of lips to lips, but it was the most meaningful moment of my life. Then the very next moment topped it, as I got to see Sunset’s coy yet shy grin back at me.
“So that’s what a human kiss is like,” Sunset said. “I wouldn’t mind trying again though, if that’s alright with you?”
Heart be still… or beat still? BEAT ENOUGH TO KEEP ME ALIVE TO GET THROUGH THIS!
I took a long, long breath, trying to calm my heart, my brain, my lungs, my… everything. Then I took another one, because the first just made me think of the kiss again and I had to start over.
“Okay, so… just to be completely and totally clear here… you have a crush on me, the human form of incognito mode, despite being a magical horse person from another world. Is that right?”
“If I say yes, will you admit to crushing on me?” Sunset asked with so much innocence it was either totally real or the most fake thing in existence.
I winced. “I was staring too hard, wasn’t I?”
“All weekend,” she confirmed. “I mean, your pajamas were very flattering on me, you have to admit.”
“Yeah they were.” I had the image of Sunset in my turquoise sleep shirts very deeply ingrained in my memories.
“So since you clearly find me very attractive, and I find you attractive, want to do the obvious thing?”
I froze at that, looking around the garden that was still very much outside, unknown by others though it was. “Uh… I may be very forgettable but people will probably hear us if we do that…”
To my surprise Sunset blushed and vigorously shook her head in denial. “NO! No, no, no, not that! NO! I’m… oh man, I’m really not ready for that.”
“Too much intimacy all at once?” I asked, to which she mutely nodded. “And what, a relationship between us wouldn’t be?”
She blinked in surprise at me. “Are… you saying no?”
“I’m… not saying yes yet,” I clarified. As hard as it was for me to do anything other than bask in the glory of the sun, I had to be sure I didn’t make a terrible mistake. “I need to ask you, and you need to answer honestly… what do you see in me? Why are you interested in me?”
That got Sunset to pause, to the point that she gently withdrew her hand from mine. I watched her sit up passively, though it was hard to be patient waiting to see if my concerns might cost me the realization of one of my deepest dreams. A friend, a girlfriend, to call my own. Someone who talked to me, recognized me, cared for me as no one ever had. But… if my dream were to come true… it had to be for the RIGHT reasons.
Finally, after long minutes of quiet disturbed only by the morning breeze, Sunset looked at me, her eyes firm and lips set in a tight line. “I’m not used to ponies… to anyone noticing me for me. My parents, well… they probably love me, but they don’t really show it much. They’re more interested in showing me off. My reading skills and grasp on language when I was young, my magical potential as I grew up more, then me going off to Canterlot to be Princess Celestia’s prize student. In their letters to me they always focused on what I was accomplishing, not how I was feeling.”
I couldn’t restrain myself from sighing as I replied, “Gee, that feels familiar, only cut out the part of them pretending to care for their own benefit and you’d have my parents.”
Sunset paused in her speech to rub my hand, and I returned the favor in kind as she took a deep breath to continue.
“Things didn’t change when I got to Canterlot. Celestia was… interested in me, but more in my potential than me as a pony at first. And I already told you what my classmates were like.”
“Snobbish, self assured, and high on their own farts.”
That caught Sunset out in a giggle while she started at me with a bewildered smile. “Ew, what? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“About what it sounds like,” I returned with a smirk. “Convinced their own flatulence is so amazing they can take themselves into a drug high through sheer stubbornness.”
Sunset gave me a thoughtful look before giving me a smiling shrug. “Eh, I can see it. Point is… nobody I’ve met has ever really been interested in me for me. Which you’ve made very clear you can understand.” Her smile turned wistful as she looked at me, and my heart started an impromptu Olympic gymnastic routine. “But then I come here, thinking I’ve left everything I’ve ever cared about behind, but… you offered me something new. You reached out to a total stranger, one who wasn’t even from your world, and helped her back onto her feet. And in doing so… you probably cared more for me than anyone I’ve ever met.”
I struggled to find breath so that I could answer, but finally I managed it and gave her a soft smile. “Likewise. And for the record, Sunset… even if you weren’t an alien from another world who could teach me all kinds of things I never knew, I’d want to be your friend regardless.” I took a deep breath, willing my brain to stop looking for ways to bail out, to pretend this blissful moment was anything less than the miraculous reality it was. This was no dream, no fanciful delusion. This was real.
And I was going to make sure it wouldn’t slip out of my grasp. Never again.
“And, since you offered…”
Sunset looked at me with a sly expression, leaning forward with her eyes fixed on mine. “Yes?”
“I… I think I’ll t-ta…”
Come on, say it! SAY IT!
“Yeeeeees?” Sunset teased, her smile painfully wide.
Oh screw it!
Rather than try to make my tongue form words it seemed incapable of creating, I put it to another purpose, leaning forward to take hold of those beautiful amber lips. Every lustful imagining I’d ever had sprang forth to my mind but I tossed them all aside, because the real thing was so much better than any of them. Her lips were so impossibly soft, yet inviting in their warmth. Though I had no earthly desire to escape this heaven, Sunset cut off my retreat anyway, bringing her arms around me to hold me tight into the kiss. All meaning of time and space faded away after that, the two of us falling into an abyss of self interest in our new favorite hobby of exploring the other’s lips in their every minute detail.
Eventually I heard the distant sound of the bell ringing, causing my eyes to open as I remembered that we were still in my garden outside of school. And that I was going to be late for class.
Eh, they won’t notice me missing anyway.
Still, the thought prompted me to very gently push Sunset away, the red-head taking the hint and finally letting me out of her death hug. The two of us sat up on the grass, panting slightly as we came down from our emotional high.
“Wow…” Sunset muttered quietly as she touched her fingers to her lips, almost in disbelief. “That was better than I could have ever imagined it would be.”
“Better than magic?” I asked, not fully serious but curious at her answer.
“Much better,” Sunset returned with a genuine grin on her face. “Honestly, it explains a lot about Cadence’s obsession with her special talent if this is what she gets to help people get to do all the time.”
I blinked at her in confusion. “Who’s Cadence?”
Sunset bit her lip, looking away in obvious embarrassment. “I’ll… explain another time. But, uh, so… we’re, like, together now, right?” She looked back at me with the kind of nervous hopefulness I’d seen from myself far too many times in the mirror, and there was no greater joy in my heart than for me to finally say what I’d always wanted to hear whenever I’d worn it.
“For as long as you’ll have me and for long as I am with you,” I told her. “And I won’t let anything stop me from trying.”
“Me either,” Sunset promised, then she chuckled. “Heh, what a pair we are. Two girls who always had no one, one remembered for what she was but not who, the other always lost to me…”
I quirked my eyebrow at Sunset as her voice trailed off, following her gaze as it traveled to the Mind Stone. “Sunset?”
Sunset took the stone in hand, staring at it with the kind of intensity the sun uses to melt metal. “Wallie… I have… a theory. A theory that might explain a lot of things, but one which is also… scary to contemplate. I need you to trust me for a moment.”
“Oookaaaay… with what?”
Sunset looked to me, then back to the Stone, then finally turned and pointed the Stone at me again, causing a flutter to go up my spine.
“Uh, Sunny… remember what happened the last time you pointed that at me?”
“Relax, this one… probably won’t go that badly.” Thusly - minimally - reassured, she held up the Stone and started to speak. “Show me why Wallflower Blush is not remembered.”
I watched with an empty mind, unable to begin to guess what was about to happen, as a gaseous projection lifted up in the air in front of us.
“Sunset, what…”
“Just… just watch.”
So I did. I watched as the projection rewound like a film reel, traveling back over my life so quickly it was a blur. Then the speed slowed, revealing a child me playing on the playground, my parents just behind me on a bench, chatting about something or other. I was in the sandbox, happily digging away, when I uncovered something that made my heart in the present stop.
“The stone…”
Sunset nodded mutely, encouraging me to keep watching, forcing me to look back at the memory.
“Mommy, mommy, look at the funny rock I found!”
Young me held up the still sandy rock, her smile impossibly bright and cheerful.
“Oh sweetie, you should put that back where you found it. It might belong to someone else.”
Young me pouted, clutching the stone protectively. “I found it, so finders keepers!”
“Wallie, I’m not telling you again. Put the stone back.”
“Okay…”
As my memory went to drop the stone back into the pit, I saw my parents continuing their conversation. It was distant enough it was hard to hear what they were saying, but I could just about hear something that brought my heart to a stop.
“-n’t forget Wallflower.”
“No…” I breathed out, unable to process what I was seeing. “No, no, no! Don’t do this! NO!”
But no matter how much I screamed the stone still did its work, rising up out of the sand and glowing as a rich green aura surrounded me, flowing into my eyes before disappearing in a haze. Young me stood in place for a long, bewildered second, then shook her head and ran off towards my parents, who seemed surprised for a moment to see me before taking me off towards the car. The memory faded, and with it I fell to my knees, arms limp, thoughts perfectly still as I tried to comprehend what I had seen.
“All this time… it was the stone… The stone was what made everyone forget.”
I felt Sunset’s hand on my shoulder and without thinking I flung myself against her, clutching her tightly to make sure the stone couldn’t send her away too.
“Wallie… I’m so sorry. When we discussed what the stone could do, I had a theory, but… I was hoping it was wrong even as I was expecting it to be right.” She returned my hug, holding me tightly as I let out tears of frustration, rage, sadness… every emotion I’d ever bottled up for all these years of being so utterly alone. Yet even as they flooded out of me, I could feel them being replaced by something else. A sensation I’d forgotten completely.
The feeling of someone who cared for me holding me close, giving me comfort, warmth, safety. It felt like… like coming home after being lost for longer than I could count.
You’ve saved me, Sunset Shimmer. And… and I’ll make sure to save you too. No matter what it takes.
Eventually I ran out of feelings to feel, but rather than feel exhausted as I usually did after a good cry, I felt… content. Whole.
“Sunset… thank you. Thank you so much for… for everything.”
Sunset gave me a final squeeze before letting me go and helping me to my feet. “Not a problem, Wallflower. I’m… honestly happy I could help. And I can say I haven’t felt like that in a long time.”
“We’ll make it a more regular thing,” I teased, before I felt my eyes inexorably drawn to the stone still in Sunset’s hand. “Sunny… do you… do you think…”
“Already on it,” she said, holding the stone up, causing me to flinch a bit at seeing it up close. “Remove the enchantment placed upon Wallflower. Make her remembered again.”
I watched with anxiety as the stone lit up, then suddenly I felt something growing up inside me before exploding out, diving back into the stone from whence it came. Sunset pulled me upright, as I was too busy heaving to refill my lungs to do it on my own.
“Wallie… did it work? Are you okay?”
It took me a moment to think about it but as I searched deeper there seemed to be a… a weight missing deep inside. And as I looked up at her, at the girl who had dropped out of nowhere to turn my life upside down… I smiled.
“I am. For the first time in forever… I am. Thanks to you.”
Then I lunged forward to kiss her, and I started my new life with this beautiful, blazing phoenix.
“So it’s really about to open?”
The pair of us were standing in front of the old statue, hands clasped tightly as a light breeze blew through our hair on a nice Friday afternoon, so like the one years ago when my life had been set on its new path. And now I was about to find a new one.
Sunset nodded, her eyes guarded yet hopeful. “Yes. The calculations are accurate, as you know since you helped me solve them.”
“Weird that advanced magical arithmetic is still easier than pre-calc.”
“Meaning that the statue will soon become a gateway for the portal again. And when it is… I…”
I gave her a reassuring peck on the cheek. “Hey, no need to explain to me. I get it. Going back to make things right… it’s all you’ve talked about for the past year.”
Sunset grinned and returned the favor with a kiss of her own onto my nose, making me giggle at the touch. “Yeah, well, you’re one who dragged me kicking and screaming into being a good person. It can’t have been easy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sunnie, my beautiful phoenix, I would have gone through any amount of hell to make you happy. Turning you away from your path towards being a tyrannical alpha bitch was a pleasant walk through the park in comparison. Plus we had a lot of help.”
Sunset let out an amused chuckle. “Those girls… they make life wonderfully complicated sometimes. But Wallie, don’t you dare try to duck out of the credit. You made me the person I am now, and I’ll forever love you for that.” She curled her fingers through my hair, causing me to swoon just a bit. “And everything else too.”
I smiled back at her, giggling as she dipped me low. “I’m your sunflower, you’re my phoenix. We were meant to be together.”
“Damn right.” She pulled me back up, then smirked as she rubbed a finger over my cheek. “Blushing as always. Heh. I remember your first one, all that time ago.”
I shivered, remembering a time when my life was something else entirely, but I sent it away by remembering my mantra.
“Not forgotten,” I whispered. “Not anymore.”
“And never again,” Sunset finished for me. Then we both looked up as the statue’s front face flashed, revealing the swirling vortex of magic within. We traded a look, gazing into each other’s eyes to carry the conversation to its perfect ending.
“Together.”
Author's Note
Am I the first person to suggest this as the reason for Wallflower being so easy to miss in the background of scenes? Probably not. Is the reason it happened being due to the stone literally mishearing what someone said a bit contrived? Perhaps.
Does that make what Wallflower went through any less traumatic? Definitely not.
On the plus side, at least in this world she has someone to help her pick up and get back on the right path now, and Wallflower can do the same for her new (girl)friend. Nothing like two slightly messed up people standing by each other's side, facing the world together.
Hope you enjoyed the story, and please... don't forget her. Remember her. Remember everyone who is supposed to be 'forgotten' in your life. And if you can... try to reach out and help. You never know what you might find.
