All these ponies were saying to Pepper what I wanted to say to her.

@redweasel  
Fine.

@Ereiam
 
why are you correcting me, if you don’t want to spoil it? just stay silent and let me be wrong.

@redweasel  
As I mentioned in a previous comment, Sunlight’s side of the story has already been told (though this particular episode wasn’t originally part of it). It’s up to you if you want to get spoiled or not, I guess (as for me, I already made my choice).

@Ereiam
 
well I don’t know her backstory, just what I’ve seen so far. sunny sure isn’t encouraging anypony else to get close to pepper. and I don’t know the future either, but I don’t see how she could make friends with pepper, while remaining positive no matter what.

@redweasel  
Sunlight is indeed somepony who goes out of her way to be helpful (it’s literally her special talent) and remains positive no matter what (for reasons that are part of her backstory). She’s also very stubborn and has trouble learning from her mistakes.  
Right now, even though she finally understood she needs to give Pepper some space, she won’t miss an opportunity to try and get close to her. And she will eventually succeed.

@Ereiam
 
||the people who disguise malice as stupidity are the ones who created the aphorism known as “hanlon’s razor.”
 
isn’t it odd that sunlight decided to duel her right at the worst possible time? she was just “randomly” trying to help, and had no part in how the situation went from annoyed, to death by stoning? honestly I don’t think sunny expected it would get that bad. the situation just got out of control, when all she wanted was to give pepper that little push she needs.
 
I mean you could be totally right. it could go either way. or neither way. I’m just having fun speculating.
 
I see sunlight as a pony who can’t comprehend that other ponies don’t think like her. anything that makes sense to her must therefore make sense to everypony else too. she and pepper are already friends in her mind, and pepper is just in denial and afraid to confess her feelings. if everypony thought like sunlight, pepper wouldn’t be in any danger at all. I look at sunny and see a friendly and helpful mare who everypony loves and appreciates… just like peppermint’s parents.  
||

@redweasel  
@redweasel  
Interesting theory, I just hope you’re not really serious about it, otherwise you’re gonna be disappointed, because, based on what we know of Sunlight’s backstory and character, I think you’re on the wrong side of Hanlon’s razor here.  
Sunlight only “turned” those ponies against Pepper insomuch as, as it was mentioned two pages ago, her friendly and helpful demeanor made her appreciated by almost all of the recruits (except Pepper, who’s never been a friendly mare to begin with, and which Sunlight started off on the wrong hoof with, setting her firmly in her loathing), so when Pepper, who the rest were already annoyed with for winning every spar and acting smug about it, gave her a totally unnecessary thrashing, that gave them the signal for the lynching to begin (at which point Sunlight was too dazed by the beatdown she took to step in in her defense, so even if that had been her plan, it would’ve been a poor one). As Whirlwind pointed out, Pepper pretty much made her bed all by herself there.  
If anyone took advantage of the situation, it’s Shim (and once again, I believe she was just being self-righteous here instead of manipulative and/or in cahoots with Sunlight to play that part), who then invoked the moral high ground by engaging Pepper one-on-one, thus establishing herself as some kind of heroic bully-hunter while everypony else remained conveniently oblivious of her own hypocrisy, what with her use of a dangerous offensive spell to subdue Pepper (to which she probably resorted only in the heat of the moment, seeing that she was unable to beat her otherwise, and for which she’s getting chewed out by her instructor as a result, so once again it would’ve made for a poorly thought-out gambit).  
And in the end, Sunlight got instantly shot down again by Pepper anyway, so any kind of ulterior motive was definitely out of her positive and overly optimistic mind when she naively approached an utterly unreceptive Pepper to try again.  
Really, Pepper laying the blame on her for this one is just her being her usual spiteful and self-denying self. Given her poor opinion of Sunlight, I doubt she seriously considers that she orchestrated the whole thing, and even if she did, it would only be because her brutal confrontation with her own unpopularity is making her paranoid.

@redweasel  
I… doubt that’s the case

@Background Pony #31F2
 
she’s exhausted every other way to make friends with pepper, so she’s starting to take desperate measures!

@Ereiam  
Hopefully not too far. I also know what becomes of Pepper and Sunny, which makes me feel better

@redweasel  
Wat

@Ereiam
 
honestly, I think sunlight turned all those ponies against pepper, hoping she could trick pepper into be friends with her, by acting all impressed when peppermint won, or comforting her when she lost.

@redweasel  
I don’t think Pepper’s at this stage yet. If anything, her anger seems to keep her moving forward, if only out of spite. Not a really healthy attitude to have, but it worked for her so far.  
Still, she really needs a friend. I wonder how far we are from the moment Sunlight finally gets through to her.

@Ereiam
 
you don’t think people commit suicide because they’re angry at the world? pepper didn’t yield to shim either, but I guess got pinned for long enough.
 
I dunno maybe I’m reading too much into it, but self-harm, self isolating, recklessness, hopelessness, shutting down her emotions… it just has me excited that she might try something in the heat of the moment. that’s why I hate the advice to look out for people making preparations to commit suicide, as if it was just something you calmly plan out like a trip to the grocery store. suicide isn’t always the sort of thing you really think through in advance.

@redweasel  
Well, she still had enough of a sense of self-preservation to yield to Shim in the end (as told in the full narration in the source description, she wasn’t so eager to get skewered by her horn), so I don’t think that’s it.  
Pepper could be depressive, but I’d say that, at this stage, rather than suicidal, she’s more angry at the world and everything in it, and doesn’t care how harmful (including for herself) her anger can be.  
Accepting Sunlight’s friendship will go a long way into helping with her issues.

@Background Pony #31F2
 
well, she has no self-esteem, no sense of self preservation, puts herself in danger for no reason, doesn’t stop getting up even when it might kill her, hates her life, can’t get rid of her cutie mark as long as she lives… I just don’t think she was looking at that dangerous spell with fear, because she doesn’t care what happens to her anymore, since she thinks nothing could happen that would make things any better.
 
and if that’s his goal, he’s sure doing a piss-poor job of achieving it. I love it; it’s wonderfully dramatic. ♥ I find myself waiting on baited breath for his smug assumption that she’s just belligerant out of pride to come crashing down, giving him another couple scars in the process. trouble is she might have to actually… attempt to commit suicide to convince anypony at this point. they just can’t see anything wrong with her.

@redweasel  
Okay. I never saw Pepper as suicidal though…
 
In my opinion, if Shim has to apologize to Pepper, then it’s only fair if Pepper, who’s not very innocent either,apologizes to Sunny because she did beat her rather roughly.
 
I think right now, Whirlwind’s goal is to make Pepper see the error of her ways, understand why everyone was mad at her, and to open up to those trying to help her. If you haven’t already, you can read the entire dialogue on this comic’s deviantart page

@Background Pony #31F2
 
shim managed to defuse the situation, but she was beating up the unpopular kid while everyone else egged her on, it’s textbook bullying. say nothing of the fact that she was using lethal, uncontrollable magic in order to do so. so no, she’s not getting a medal. they’ll probably even make shimmering blade apologize to pepper, because they’re such goddamn idiots that they can’t tell pepper’s suicidal and doesn’t care that her life was in danger. but honestly if you have to bully someone to save their life, I say you bully them, even if you’re gonna get punished for it. shim did good, just… not in a very praiseworthy manner.
 
anyway, yes I was trying to find ways that whirlwind clash could be less helpful, since that seems to be his goal here. and I totally agree, aerial combat. ♥

@redweasel  
How does it encourage bullying? Shim does deserve a medal because she defended Sunlight’s honor and stopped Pepper from being stoned to death, like you said. Also, scheduling a trainee to beat up her own squad and take her aggression out on them doesn’t seem very helpful.
 
Yeah, that was some good aerial combat

holy cow, she won! and she didn’t kill her! someone give that filly a medal! oh wait no, don’t, because that really does encourage bullying.
 
shim… peppermint never claimed not to be a jerk. you were calling her a bully. there’s a big difference.
 
that aerial combat is amazing. there’s so much weight and dynamism, you can really feel the movement! even if I still claim that shimmering blade doesn’t know how to fight like a unicorn.
 
it’s a sort of rock paper scissors in my headcanon. unicorns can zap big fat targets up in the air like pegasi. pegasi can hit earth ponies hard with all that flying momentum, and are too fast to dodge. and earth ponies can easily defeat unicorns by repeatedly smacking their horn with a stick. that’s just one way to do it though.
 
could whirlwind possibly be any less helpful? maybe he could schedule her to beat up some more of her squad sometime? or he could advise her to be more aggressive and reckless next time she’s venting? I think I’m beginning to understand why her instructors have all those old injuries…

@Alicxander  
Well she did throw her into a building after saving her… And even before the duel between Peppermint and Sunlight those ponies were getting pretty tired of Peppermint’s attitude and gloating. You don’t have to really see that as good though.

Whats that? You saved me from probably falling to my death/very bad injury? HOW DARE YOU! I AM NOW GOING TO TRY (and probably succeed) TO BREAK YOUR WING!
 
Tell me, why should I see anything those ponies do as good when their first reaction to over rough sparring is to try and stone someone to death than ignore the fact that the same pony just saved her opponent from a maybe lethal fall and cheer after she gets way more brutalized than what she did to sunlight?

@SecretTitan  
If you look up the rest of ““An Odd Slice of Life[](https://www.deviantart.com/pegasusjedi/gallery/56070854/An-Odd-Slice-of-Life), the “Rays of Sunlight” arc (especially part V) covers Sunlight’s time in training camp from her POV. To give you spoilers: she eventually befriends Pepper after going out of her way to save her when she gets injured during a field training exercise.

THAT was an awesome fight!