Sunset's Recovery Arc is the name of a series of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls fanfics by Soufriere. As the name implies, it's recovery-themed series starring Sunset Shimmer. The series shows Sunset's character change in detail, with other elements such as mental illness added in as well.
The majority of the stories are oneshots, though there a couple of pieces with multiple chapters later on, and there are a total of fifteen of them in the base storyline. Another seventeen fics are part of the same universe and form branches off the main storyline. A list of each fic and how they fit in the timeline can be found here
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The series starts with Sasha, which is set soon after the first Equestria Girls film. It's about Sunset looking for a new jacket at the botique that Rarity works at. The two aren't on good terms yet, but it's a start.
Sunset's Recovery Arc provides examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Downplayed example when Rarity confesses to Sunset and the younger of the two wants to pursue a relationship — the elder of the two is concerned about the fact that she's eight years older than the other, but the latter asserts her autonomous decision-making by stating she just turned eighteen and knows what she's getting into.
- Dark Fic: Sunset's recovery isn't as clean-cut as in canon. She's suffering from some intense mental issues.
- D-Cup Distress: Sunset Shimmer: Spider Queen notes that Fluttershy's large breasts has caused issues for her, both physically (moving too fast without a sports bra causes her pain) and socially (too many unwelcome stares).
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Sunset Shimmer has manic periods and periods of depression, but no disorder is mentioned in-series.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The narrative mentions "those occasional light-skinned kids who seem to have polar bear powers", riffing off the stereotype that white people can withstand cold weather easily.
- Driven to Suicide: The story revolves around Sunset recovering from her suicidal depression.
- Extra-Long Episode: Most pieces in the series are one chapter long, but several such as Reconciliations and The Rejected have several chapters.
- Foreshadowing: Seeming one-off mentions in earlier pieces have a tendency to pop up again in later ones.
- Near the end of Lows and Highs, after promising to visit Sunset again the next day Rarity expresses the hope that she won't find Sunset nesting in her bed in the dark. Sunset says that is unlikely, "unless (she shows up) at four in the morning or something." The very next fic is titled Rarity Visits Sunset Shimmer at 4 a.m., in which Rarity does just that.
- Sunset Shimmer: Spider Queen has Fluttershy calling Rarity once she realizes Sunset is acting very odd. We only hear Fluttershy's half of the conversation, but Rarity was in the middle of some kind of glamor shoot for someone that leaves Fluttershy blushing. The next episode Rarity Reveals... indicates that that photoshoot done by Rarity was for Sunset, as she leaves the...risque pictures in Sunset's apartment for the inhabitant to find when Rarity comes by later.
- Flash Sentry notes that during the time they had dated Sunset was sometimes so dense she'd need to be hit seventeen times to get what was being said through her head. This is exactly how Rarity confesses her romantic love for Sunset — smacking the latter on the head with a box of chocolates and shouting "I LOVE YOU!", both seventeen times.
- Intoxication Ensues: Sunset Shimmer: Spider Queen has Fluttershy traveling to Sunset's apartment, where her first sight upon entering is seeing Sunset only in her underwear standing on one leg on the sofa while trying to capture a spider hanging from the ceiling with a glass jar; Fluttershy notices Sunset's pupils are dilated. When asked, Sunset says she intends to capture the spider to draw out its essence with a needle and use it to cure herself, an explanation that leaves Fluttershy utterly dumbfounded. Turns out Sunset's off her gourd between having no sleep at all the previous night and eating the bouquet of flowers the gang had given her the previous night (which contained, among others, jimsonweed).
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: The core of the series' arc is Sunset recovering from her mental illness. It's not an easy task due to lack of assistance and relapses, but she has friends to help her.
- Self-Harm: Night of Faded Sun ends with Sunset, in her depressed and apathetic state, cutting her arm with a steak knife. Reconciliations reveals that Fluttershy had done the same thing several years ago — Sunset assumes it was her fault but Fluttershy notes that Sunset hadn't been the only one to bully her throughout her childhood.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: When Rarity recommends that Sunset see a therapist, Sunset replies that she doubts they could do much. Her reaction is not due to her seeing therapy as "weak", but due to the limits of modern medicine. The brain is complicated and Sunset Shimmer doubts that medicine or therapy will do much to help her.
- Vague Age: Sunset's Recovery Arc hints that Sunset is chronologically (and, likely, also mentally) older than she seems. Her human form is a teenager, however she should be several years older judging by her age when she left Equestria.
