Anarchy!!!

The first words Sunset Shimmer ever spoke to me were “Look away.”

As were the last.

Of course, some rhetoric shuffling is required to achieve this degree of symmetry. Even in something as simple as first and last words, Sunset rejected homogeneity. You could never count on anything, with her. You could count on her. There is a difference.

Anyways, back to symmetry. They were not the first and last words she addressed to me (those were scribbled into her magical journal, “Who is this?” and “Trust me.” respectively.) They were not the first and last words she spoke in my vicinity (“Excuse you!” and “I will strangle you.”) They were not even her first and last words (both unknown). But I feel these words in particular are a microcosm of our relationship – though it was my castle, my crown, and my title, she took the lead.

Our relationship was not particularly contentious, or fraught with melodrama. But, at that point in our lives, Sunset was the headstrong one - the one with radical ideas about politics and change, the one with style and determination, the one with a clear-cut purpose; a goal she was working towards day and night. As for me? I was content to follow. To learn. That's who I've always been.

I feel that we grew past it reasonably, if not pretty, quickly. I started grounding her more - I pushed back on her analysis, criticized her ideas, finally got a definition of lumpenproletariat that wasn't just 'anyone I don't like'. We found a balance. Because, though the first words she ever spoke to me were a command... the last were a promise. One she made with tears in her eyes, and what could arguably be called her dying breath.

There's so much in those words. Look away. Don't worry. I'll be fine. Trust me. But I am wary of dedicating more than a couple of paragraphs to them. If possible, I'd rather focus on her actions.

As the rules of storytelling forbid me to espouse her character to you any longer, I suppose we will have to start at the beginning. With the way most things start - that is, with parchment and ink.