This Pony-Girl has Many Questions
Sunset Shimmer looked upon her newly finished comic book, the twelfth one in the Rainbooms series of comics, with pride. Her comics had been highly favored by the students of Canterlot High from the moment the first issue was released into the wild, thanks in large part to its vibrant artwork and enjoyable storytelling. It also helped that the comics featured the school's beloved band of friends, Sunset herself included, as the main protagonists. While yes, self-insert stories were, by nature, more than a little indulgent for the writer, that fact did not take away from the quality of the comics. It was no wonder the amber lady with the two-toned bacon hair took great pride in the completed piece that rested on the desk before her. With relief over a job well done, she took a deep breath and sunk into her chair to relax for a spell while looking around the room. She sat in the school's library, specifically in a quiet spot that was near the librarian's desk, where the ever-watchful Ms. Cheerilee sat while holding her quiet vigil over the area. With a warm smile born from past positive encounters aimed directly at the librarian, Sunset returned her attention to her finished piece. The cover artwork depicted her and her dear friends standing in fighting stances while ponied up against seven unknown figures clocked in black smoke and shadow as snow fell around them. Watching menacingly from above their heads while producing its own shadows that blanketed the background was a pair of gleaming eyes with red irises and green sclera. The title of the comic was drawn up to be as bold as the overall artwork with oversized font and rainbow coloring for the main title, while the subtitle had smaller font and a mixture of whites and greys for its coloring:
The Rainbooms in:
When Shadows Fight Back!
She happily took inspiration from some of the many stories that were recounted to her by Princess Twilight Sparkle, thus creating a comic that, unlike some of the previous issues, was not exactly based on real-life events. How could she resist having her and her friends do battle against Sombra, the King of Fear, in comic-form?! That concept writes itself! With anticipation of how her fans would react to this issue, she took it off of the desk and placed it in the blue box that was labeled "For creative work verification and circulation only!". The box was placed on the librarian's desk, which was to the left of hers. With a confident smirk, she returned to her chair and sat back down to do what she always did in the library during those breaks between classes: contemplate on life, choices, friends, anything that came to mind, really.
The first thing popped into her head was, of course, her friends' thoughts on the new issue. As six of the main characters and her best pals until the heat death of two universes, they had the privilege of being able to proofread each of the issues in the Rainbooms comic series before they were released. Besides the heartfelt compliments her work would always get her from those wonderful girls, each girl would give their own thoughts on what she could do to improve her craft. Thus, they were a big help to her, especially when it came time to edit her writing. Although, she would admit, some of them were more helpful than others. For example, Applejack was always the straight shooter when it came to her thoughts on, well, anything.
"Ya'll are spinnin' a mighty fine yarn as always, sugarcube!", she would usually say with a tip of her Stetson before jumping head first into the critique;
"That bein' said, though, there are some spots in this 'ere story that don't line up none..."
Sunset could always count on Applejack to bring it to her straight. Fluttershy though... well, she tried.
"Um... I really liked reading your comic, Sunset!", she exclaimed in her own way by speaking in barely above a soft whisper before adding;
"But... um... there's a teeny-tiny... well...", she would then whimper for a bit before Angel Bunny would give her some encouragement to keep at it.
It was always hard to get any sort of critique from that sweetheart of an animal lover. Sunset would never hold that against Fluttershy though, although she did hope to help her come out of her shell a bit more often than usual. Besides, little hiccups aside, the help she got from her friends was more valuable to her than a million Equestrian bits. Rarity would take a deep dive into the inner workings of her prose and the emotions they can express, as she was wont to do. Rainbow Dash would come up with ways for her to make the comic more awesome, while Twilight Sparkle (Sci-Twi to her friends) would write up all manner of Venn Diagrams, charts, and graphs concerning the many ways Sunset could improve the quality of her work.
Simply put, her friends were incredible!
As she rested on her chair while taking in the quiet of the library, a thought occurred to her that she hadn't considered before;
"Making comic books is fun and all, but... what if I wrote a story in a different way?"
The idea of changing things up in her routine, of expanding her creative skill-set, sounded more than a little appealing. This was, after all, the same girl who moonlighted as the mysterious street artist Flanksy. But then, what method of storytelling could she tackle this time around? It was at that moment that she was reminded of what the ever-studious Sci-Twi would say on more than occasion...
"If there is one activity that I enjoy partaking in more than most, it is reading a good book."
The sheer simplicity of this answer struck Sunset's mind like a Rainbow Laser to the everything! Without hesitation and with the gusto of at least five girls, she shot up out of her seat, pulled her backpack out from under her desk, placed it on the desk, opened it up, and pulled out a notebook that she almost slammed onto the wooden surface. It was a good thing she used enough restraint at the last moment to avoid incurring the wrath of Ms. Cheerilee! With a breath, she pulled one of her No.2 pencils out from the backpack, sat back down on her seat, and opened up the notebook to the first page. It was freshly bought, so the first page was blank. Just as she was about to put pencil to paper, a realization had hit her mind with enough force to stop her writing hand in its tracks. It was a horrible, dreadful thought that all writers fear more than any storm;
"I don't know what to write about...", she internally concluded, her eyes shrunken down to pinpricks in horror. She quickly shook her head to get the terror out of her mind before declaring to herself with renewed confidence;
"Come on, you silly mare! You got through this when you started making comics, you can get through this again!"
With her famous confident smirk on full display, she took a deep breath to settle her mind and began to think;
"Let's start with a theme..."
Slice of Life quickly came to mind: an easy theme to follow that could allow her tale to go in numerous directions. She chuckled a little at the thought of Applejack writing up stories involving her legions of relatives going through some old fashioned home-grown adventures. Perhaps a tale from Sunset's time as a filly in Equestria would suffice? The very nature of Equis as a world would seem more than a little fantastical to the average Human reader, so nobody would believe a story like that to be real (Rainbooms, along with certain Wondercolts and Shadowbolts, notwithstanding). Not only that, but a Slice of Life piece would make for a pleasant change of pace from the action and excitement that was at the forefront of her comics. Putting a mental pin on that theme, she allowed her mind to gravitate towards another one: Romance. Now, that was a theme that Rarity would appreciate, if her deep love for soap operas was any indication! There was one little problem with her writing a Romance story: her own experience with love consisted of dating her boyfriend specifically because he was popular, only for her to be dumped by said boyfriend when he got wise to her horse-manure. After dumping Romance into her mental trash bin while feeling quite glad that she was a good friend to Flash these days, she decided to let her mind take a different route, one that led to themes of a darker nature. But, how dark did she want to go with her story?
Tragedy? She didn't have the mindset for writing something so depressing. The thought of writing such a tale made her feel... off for some reason.
Violence? Maybe, but she would have to put a hard limit on how graphic the violence used would be. Even then, it would have had to serve a meaningful purpose within the story and not be a case of her using violence for the sake of it.
Grimdark? No. Never. She would never judge anyone for enjoying that theme and some of the better stories she had read had used it. But, when it came down to it, Grimdark was simply not her style.
Adventure? Oh, Rainbow Dash would eat that theme for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Of that, Sunset was certain. She was also certain that she could come up with a fun story or two that would fit the theme quite nicely, given her own experiences.
With all of that in mind, she had decided that Adventure would be the main theme for her story. It seemed easy enough for her to utilize without having to lean on any graphic material and she could add more themes to the piece as needed.
With the theme selected, there was the matter of deciding on the premise. It was mid-Spring, so she wasn't feeling especially festive that day. If it was Winter time, then she would have been more inclined to write up a premise revolving around the holidays, like a certain CHS holiday legend that had cropped up in recent years. After reminding herself to hug the CMCs on sight later, she brought her mind to the current season. Perhaps she could write up a tale concerning the many ways that the Spring season could surprise a person? She knew that this Spring has given her no shortage of surprises, so the inspiration was a no-brainer! With a chuckle, she pinned both ideas in her head for later use, only for a third idea to come up: what if her story had the premise of three sisters being saved from certain demise by people they never expected to help them? She couldn't help but think back to that wild blizzard from the previous Winter that caused such a scenario to take place. After taking a moment to wonder what The Dazzlings were up to, she continued to think of a premise. These past events made for good inspiration, but she wanted to write something different. Something that was more... personal?
Yes... that was it! Sunset knew her own personal life as a Human had a lot of material to pull from. Of course, she could take some creative liberties to keep certain magical elements from the public. Humanity at large, after all, had not fully realized that magic was a thing in the world, and she preferred to keep it that way for as long as possible. Then again, the magic she and her friends had used and encountered was so bizarre that the average Human would probably consider such things to be fantastical. Besides, so much of her life could fit nicely within a Slice of Life story, now that she thought about it:
The misguided people she faced down, forgave, and befriended.
The musical showcase that became a Battle of the Bands.
The Friendship Games.
The many heartfelt moments she shared with her friends.
"Through rain, sleet, thunder, and snow, we'll stand with ya', sugarcube."
Of all the memories that she recalled that day, that one was the most personal of all. It was, after all, the memory of when she became friends with five wonderful girls. Sunset was sorely tempted to write down the tale that gave birth to that memory right then and there! Her writing hand nearly slammed onto the paper, her pencil mere centimeters away from making its first mark.
Yet... she held herself back. She wasn't going to tell that story. She wanted to and terribly at that! But, she felt in her gut that it just wasn't time yet, and she knew better than to ignore her gut's advice. But then, she realized, there was one other story she could tell instead. With a joyful smile, she began her work.
The story she had decided to write was a fictional Adventure tale. It was about a group of friends who used their super-powers to stand up for one of their own when it was revealed that she was being bullied relentlessly by her former friend. Sunset had a good feeling that the school would devour this one like candy. It took her until it was nearly time to get to her next class to write up the first chapter. After packing up her things, she went ahead to take care of her high-school business.
Soon after school ended for the day, she made sure to hand each of her six friends a copy of her story's first chapter, so that they could proofread it. They were all moved by the writing as well as the moral behind the tale. Rainbow Dash was especially thrilled by what she had read, calling it a story that was almost as awesome as a Daring Do book, and that meant a great deal coming from the biggest Daring Do fan in Canterlot City! Rarity, true to form, dramatically gushed over the beauty of the prose that helped elevate the story's moral, while Applejack was as pleased as a bushel to read a classic uplifting tale of friends standing up to a bully. That particular aspect of the tale had hit home for all of Sunset's friends and for good reason: they knew what it was like to be bullied themselves.
Sci-Twi imagined her friends (and even the Shadowbolts) mouthing off at Abacus Cinch, with Sunset taking the lead.
Rainbow Dash imagined a certain sister-at-heart of hers taking Gilda to task for her bad behavior, with her two best pals ever cheering her on and Rainbow herself watching the squirt with pride.
Applejack imagined Granny Smith chasing after a bully with ol' Betsy in hand while Apple Bloom was getting an ol' fashioned Apple Hug from Big Mac and her big sister.
Needless to say, the Rainbooms' hearts were warmed by Sunset's story, and it was just the first chapter!
Over time, Sunset would make great progress on her story. But, between school work, house chores, helping the CMCs with their crusading, practicing with the Rainbooms, and so on, it became quite a challenge for her to find the time and drive to keep writing. It would take her a month to get a couple chapters of the story written up, proof-read, and edited! Thankfully, she had the good sense to send in each edited chapter for distribution throughout the school. Not only did sending in a text-based story make the students more than a little interested in reading something new from Sunset, the chapter-by-chapter releases made them want to see how the story played out even more! She had expected that doing this would get her comments and critique from more people than just her friends.
What she got instead was not what she had in mind.
She had gotten the occasional comment from someone other than a Rainboom, but there was very little critique from the other students at best. Most of her readers were basically reading the story in silence!
"Oh, come on!", Sunset yelled out frustration from within the safety of Sci-Twi's room (she was crashing at her place while her house was being renovated);
"I was at least expecting Flash to say something about my new story!"
She took a deep breath to recenter herself before turning her attention to Sci-Twi, who was listening to her intently while sitting at her desk;
"It's not that I don't appreciate the students reading my work. Believe me..."
She then expressed a smile filled with honest sweetness before finishing;
"I love the fact that so many of them are giving this new idea of mine a chance. But..."
That smile turned into a frown;
"Couldn't they at least say something about it while, let's say, I'm walking down the halls, when they're using email accounts, or when they're making posts on MyStable?"
Sci-Twi gave her annoyed friend a warm smile before motioning her to join her at the desk. Once she did so, the student of every Science turned on her computer, its monitor, keyboard, and mouse sitting on the desk before her, with the tower situated under it and to her right. With swift movements of her mouse and rapid keyboard inputs, she brought up a website that housed an innumerable amount of stories, fan-fiction for a beloved cartoon show, its spin-offs, and successor series of shows to be more precise. Sunset never really judged anyone for writing and/or reading fanfiction. After all, stories were stories in her mind. It also helped that she was good friends with an athlete who took great pride in writing Daring Do fanfiction tales, each one being better than the last. She watched Sci-Twi navigate the website until she loaded up a specific story's page that came complete with beautiful cover art that depicted a unicorn-like creature appearing out from floating black ooze. They had a dark coat, teal mane and a horn that glowed green as they sat on their haunches under the night sky with their eyes closed, a beautiful pool of water glowing behind them in the night. With a giggle, Sci-Twi told Sunset;
"Let me show you a story that I really like."
Sunset was hooked from the first chapter. The premise was simple: the creature in question, a most unique female unicorn, found herself in a world that was foreign to her, her mind haunted by purpose as she was found by a particularly sweet young lady who took her in. It was the struggles faced by the girl that grabbed Sunset, but it was the unicorn's interactions with the supporting characters, how those characters handled things, and how the story played out that made her a fan of the whole piece! By the time she and Sci-Twi had finished the final chapter, Sunset was gushing like an unapologetic fangirl;
"Oh dear Luna, that unicorn is such a sweetheart! She's so courageous and adorable all at once, I want to hug her!", she then emphasized her point by promptly hugging herself while giggling in the most adorable fashion possible, as if the little filly in her heart had come out to play for a bit. It was all her studious friend could do to hold back the urge to blush over the sight before her. After releasing herself from the wholesome display of self-love, Sunset happily continued to rant;
"She lucked out by being found and looked after by such wonderful new friends. Seriously, they remind me of our friends, Twi."
She then gave her sharp-minded friend a smile so lovely that it could sooth the most stressed out mind before adding with eyes full of friendship;
"In fact, the girl who first found her reminds me of you."
Sci-Twi could not help but smile back at her, with a little blush for good measure, before telling her calmly;
"I appreciate your show of love for one of my favorite fan-fictions, but there is a point to all of this."
She turned back to face the monitor, returned to the story's main page, and scrolled down the the comments. What Sunset saw was just she expected. It was clear from the rather large view count that the story was read by a lot of people. It also had gotten more than a few helpful comments for good measure, which pleased the bacon-haired girl. Without warning, Sci-Twi switched over to a different story's page. This tale had a much lower view count the previous one did. But, it had its own cover art, which depicted a group of girls looking visibly regretful over their past actions. The pair of friends read this tale as well, which consisted of a single chapter, so doing so did not take long.
Sunset enjoyed the piece for it's solid pacing and earnest characterization of the girls on the cover as they tried to do right by another girl who they had once terribly wronged. She especially liked the fact that it was quite possible that they were only doing this because they had to, while it was equally possible that they were being genuine with their effort, even as they sniped at one another. It was this particular aspect of her take on the story she had decided to elaborate on as she and Sci-Twi discussed what they had just read;
"I mean, you don't really know for sure if those girls are actually interested in redemption or not and that fascinates me.", she related excitedly. With a giggle, Sci-Twi replied while pushing her glasses up her nose;
"I concur. Now, as much as I enjoy discussing the intricacies of a good tale with a friend, I should point out to you the story's comments section."
Without further ado, the bookworm scrolled down the story's page to reveal that, to Sunset's surprise, it had much fewer comments than what the other story had. While yes, it having lesser views was a sign that it would not have as many comments, she had thought it having nearly three-hundred views would mean that it would have more than seven comments!
"Seriously?! What is the writer doing wrong that's keeping them from getting more people to speak up about their story?!", Sunset asked with loud frustration. She was about ready to shove her pal out of the way so that she could write up a glowing recommendation (and a few choice pointers) on the page herself! It was good thing she had learned the importance of using restraint from the Rainbow Laser! Sci-Twi, with a calming breath to settle her own nerves, told her simply;
"Nothing. They've done nothing wrong, to my knowledge."
That got Sunset's undivided attention as the frustration died down while her knowledgeable friend went on;
"Putting aside the views-to-comments ratio and other matters of a statistical variety, while it is upsetting that this well-written story does not get as many comments as the previous one does, what should be noted is how each author handles the comments they receive."
Sunset raised her right eyebrow, curious as to what her friend was getting at. Sci-Twi deftly returned her browser to the previous story's page and scrolled through the comments until she stopped at one that was responded to by the author. After allowing Sunset ample time to read both the comment and its response, both of which talked about the early chapters as well as the overall piece, she loaded up the other story's page and showed Sunset a different comment that its own response from that story's author. This response, to Sunset, was more of a playful tongue-in-cheek comment concerning what's going on in the story itself than any detailed take on its quality. After a few moments of silence, Sci-Twi asked her friend;
"What do these two authors have in common?"
That question stumped her, albeit for about five seconds before an answer popped up in her mind;
"They care enough about their readers to respond to their comments.", she told her confidently. Sci-Twi nodded affirmatively before elaborating on Sunset's answer;
"Yes... their readers, and their stories by extension, mean a great to deal to them for them to make such responses to the comments they get on their work. It doesn't matter if they get one comment or a thousand: their work and their readers matter to them."
This made total sense to the Human pony-girl's mind. So what, if they get a few comments or a few hundred? If they didn't care at all about comments and such, they wouldn't have said anything. But, they took time out of their days or nights to talk with their readers about the stories they must have spent hours to write and edit. Before she could think on the matter further, however, Sci-Twi took the moment of silence as an opportunity to ask her two questions while giving her a serious glare that could pierce through Rarity's crystalline constructs;
"What do your readers mean to you? What do your stories mean to you?"
It didn't take long for Sunset to recognize how challenging it was to come up with meaningful answers to those questions. They were ones that called for answers that were different for each person, so pulling examples from others could only get her so far. She had to come up with her own unique thoughts on them. She decided to do this in the best way she knew how: by looking inward. A bit of a risky thing to do for her, given that not every part of her being was... pleasant. Still, she was sure that she did not have to look THAT deep inside to get the wisdom she sought. Sunset walked over to Sci-Twi's bed, sat on it in a carefully set up lotus position, rested her hands on her lap, closed her eyes, and breathed. Her friend watched in quiet curiosity. She understood the basic idea behind meditation, though she had not practiced it much herself. But, she knew better than to disturb Sunset at the time. The former bully kept her breathing steady as she cleared her mind of all unneeded thoughts, which allowed her to fall into a peaceful, focused state. Once she did so, she mentally asked herself;
"What do my readers mean to me?"
A few seconds later, the answer came to her from the depths of her mind, one that she agreed with instantly;
"My readers mean a great deal to me, because the goal behind my writing is to give folks stories they can enjoy.", she said aloud before adding calmly while her eyes remained shut;
"Stories that can take their minds off of their troubles and perhaps even help them overcome their troubles."
A small gentle smile grew on her face as she finished her answer;
"Getting to know from my readers what my stories have done for them, and what I can do to improve my work, inspires me to keep writing."
Getting to better understand Sunset's thoughts on writing was a most pleasant experience to Sci-Twi, but she knew that there was still one more question left for her to tackle and tackle it, she did;
"What do my stories mean to me?", Sunset thought to herself via her quiet mind. It took all of three seconds for it to give her its response, one that she was happy to relate aloud;
"My stories are, in many ways, a reflection of the life I've lived, the places I've been to, the people I've met, and so much more. This fact gives them the kind of meaning for me that can be best described in one phrase..."
She opened up her eyes and, with a wide content grin, declared with confidence in herself;
"My stories are my response to life as I see it."
Sci-Twi was moved by how profound her friend's perspective was on the matter at hand. With a smile of her own, she replied;
"I had a good feeling you would give a fascinating take on your relationship with your work and readers. You clearly did not disappoint."
Sunset laughed a little before noting;
"Don't even get me started on my experiences with the writing process, Twi!"
She calmed down enough to add;
"I mean, I don't know what's harder to do: starting a story or finishing it!"
That got a good chuckle from Sci-Twi as the two shared in each other's mirth before she chimed in;
"I know, right?! I mean, how long do you think it takes for me to start a research paper?"
Sunset pondered the question while her friend gave her a rare mischievous look before egging her on;
"Go on! Give a ballpark estimate at least!"
Hearing this encouraged her to give her best guess;
"I'd say... three-to-four days?"
Sci-Twi responded with unrestrained riotous laughter that filled the room for five seconds before she clarified between laughs;
"Three days, if I find the strength to pry myself away from my research long enough to write down the actual paper!"
Sunset understood what she meant completely upon hearing her words, though she didn't feel nearly as strong an urge to laugh over it compared to the lavender glasses-rocking hyena before her. After letting said hyena calm down enough to listen closely, she told Sci-Twi with a warm grin;
"I get it. Figuring out how to start a story, or a research paper in your case, on the right foot can be remarkably challenging. I mean, what do you even say at the start that doesn't turn out to be ridiculous, inexplicable, or just plain painful to read? But, once you break through that wall..."
"The rest of the piece gets easier to write as you go...", finished Sci-Twi, her understanding of Sunset's words made apparent by her smile. Before she could even blink, though, Sunset decided to express to her another part of her writing experience with a nostalgic look in her eyes;
"Man, it's hard for me to not look back on the long nights I've spent writing and editing those comics of mine at this point."
Sci-Twi chuckled to herself before bringing her own memories to bare, nostalgia and all;
"I know how you feel in that regard. All that midnight oil burned while writing up my papers on some grand scientific notion..."
The two sighed in quiet contemplation on the amount of sleep they had lost in their shared quest to write. Sci-Twi then had an idea that drove her to shoot up off of her chair and run out of the room for a good minute or two before running back in while holding two glasses of Sweet Apple Acres Apple Cider in her hands. After handing one to a grateful and parched Sunset, she then offered;
"I propose a toast."
She raised her glass before declaring;
"To writing, our readers, and our work..."
Sunset raised her glass to bring it within inches of Sci-Twi's before she finished;
"May they always hold personal meaning for us both!"
With the gentle clanging of glass, the two friends performed the toast before enjoying a tasty drink together, with thoughts of their future endeavors, be they creative or scientific, at the forefront of their minds.
Author's Note
A while back, Darkevony came to me with a fascinating writing challenge:
To reflect on three personal aspects of my time as a writer. Those aspects being my experiences with writing itself, what my readers mean to me, and what my work means to me. I hope that I completed this challenge adequately. I honestly had a lot of fun writing this piece!
As I wrote the story, I quickly saw this as an opportunity to not just reflect on my own takes on those aspects through Sunset (and, to a lesser extent, Twilight), but to also show some love to some of the fanfics and writers that inspired me to write fanfics of my own. This also gave me the chance to get into what goes on in Sunset's mind whenever she takes on a creative project.
Yes, I also did show a bit of love to my own pieces (shameless plugging, I know!), but I wouldn't have gotten to this point if I hadn't written them in the first place, so.... 
Referenced Stories (that are not mine) and their Authors:
A Kindled Change - Darkevony
On an Empty Stomach - Lil Penpusher
Standing together (WARNING: It's a sequel!) - Xenont
Empathy for the Devil - MarvelandPonder
To every writer and reader: Thank you. 
As noted in the description: This is not technically a sequel to "Spring Surprises", as it is set during that story! I'm just making it easier for readers to keep track of the timeline! Think of it as a fun little side-story that (hopefully) adds to the quality of the series while standing on its own, so you don't have to read the other stories to enjoy this one.
