2366501 So I should probably start lobbying you for when you start the Starburst Chronicles, no?

2366567 First chapter is mostly done. I'm just having trouble finding a good place to start off.

2366570 Specify.

2366755 Well, I mean, I have three story arcs planned, so I'm just working at a nice framing device to start them off. Also, I have to be rather mean to Twilight for one of them to work, which is not something I enjoy, so I'm trying to find a good way to do it convincingly.

2366757 You're not going grimdark on us, are you?

2366761 Well, the Nightmares will show up as recurring villains, and will be suitably Eldritch, but it will be far from grimdark.

2366774 Ah, villain is fine, they have to be a bit mean. I just thought you'd used it as an euphemism.
Maybe we should take this somewhere else, though? I fear I might lure out spoiler before their time

2366788 Sure thing. Not that there are too many spoilers. It's hardly a plot-driven story.

2366470 I see your logic and raise you Rainbow is better pony than Rares thus she deserves an honorary spot in the greatest ship not involving her.

2366501 it's not possible, I couldn't possibly be that happy and cheery. *eyes dart about suspiciously*

2368149 Whaaat? Rainbow Dash better than Rarity ?
IT! IS! ON!

2368160 *moves into a Crane stance* bring it. The only pony I like less than Rares is my...Pinkie. I prefer the villians over her. Until they give her character some depth or admit her element was inspiration not generousity she's low tier to me.

2368198 *loads HE shell* Rarity is a much better fit for Celestia (next to Twilight). She is skilled both with magic and in manual labor and can hold her own in a fight. Her coat matches Celestia's and she is not as gaudy as Rainbow. Furthermore, Rarity declared war on an entire castle. Where is your Rainbow now, hmm?

2368222 shes having an adventure with Twi, teaching her fly. They are singing an alladin song and dancing in the clouds, while Rarity selfishly forces new outfits on people because she believes they are under her with their horrid fashions. Celestia is selflessly running a peaceful nation into prosperity while she awaits a moment to join in with RD and Twi kn the song.

2368242 Tss. I do seem to remember that the last time someone sang a song to Twilight, it was Celestia. And the time before? Do you know who started singing? Why, might it have been a certain fashionista?
(Thank you, Donnys Boy)

2368306 which means RD is over due. It's her time to shine, and she ain't no shallow fashionista singibg about dresses and people with poor fashion sense.

But Rainbow Dash fits so much better with Applejack! Twilight and Celestia could never satisfy her need for competition. They are both mares of the mind, of knowledge. Rainbow Dash is about the body. She will not be tied down by hours of study! She may read a book once in a while, but deep inside, she longs for challenge.
Meanwhile, Rarity knows how to slow down, how to spend an evening in fine company. If Rainbow Dash would accompany Celestia and Twilight to the opera or a charity event, she'd go insane.

2368376
I might say something about Rainbow Dash being tied down for hours... Rarity too...

But this isn't that forum.

2368376 valid point indeed, I may not like Rarity but I concede she may fit well with tia and twi but I would rather twilestiadash. As fer you fuzzy, hrhehe yea tia ptolly loves knots.

2368149 Rainbow Dash is worst pony. But that's another discussion to be had on another forum.

2369496 le gasp, you hath declared war. Only through admittance that twi is best can accord be reached

2369527 Of course Twilight is best pony. That's, like, practically fact.

2366432
Leave Twi to her own devices and she'll likely read a lot. Leave Celestia to her own devices, and she'll sit on the throne and deal with red tape all day. Mix them together, and you probably have quiet cuddles and stuff. They need outside conflict to really get things interesting.

Throw in Rainbow Dash and suddenly you have mad chases through the palace halls, guards in pink armor, and races through the rooftops of Canterlot, as two alicorns try to match Dash's speed.

Dash makes the relationship exciting.

What does Rarity bring that Celestia doesn't already have in spades in terms of nobility and a sense of the regal? What does she bring that Twi doesn't already have in terms of affection, magic, and love? So she can... dress them up a little nicer? She can do that without being romantically involved.

2369496
You misspelled "AppleJack"

2370393 Yay someone who sees it like I do. Rarity and twi are not a good mix

2370393 My spelling is fine, thanks. Much as AJ is bland.

2369119 I think it is time to add the disclaimer that I for one would definitely like read a Twilestiadash-story, especially if someone like Wizard of the Word wrote it. That one knows how to write Twilestia and Twidash, the rest is just adding up. I'm just arguing for the hell of it.
I don't think Rainbow Dash is worst pony, but Rarity and Twilight share first bed place in my mind.

2370393 As for what Rarity can teach Twilight? Once again, I point to the song in the season 3 intro, and by extension Donnys Boy's Almost Beautiful. Rarity would teach Twilight to believe in her abilities and her worth as a person, not because of pride or showmanship, but for herself.

2368940 I am proud that the setup was utilized immediately. You may reward yourself with a cookie.

2372081 Which I think is the show's fault. Applejack has so much potential as basically Twilight's lieutenant.

2372834 I agree with everything you say here. I have one major problem with RariTwi. Spike. Twilight loves Spike, and to date Rarity would be the single greatest betrayal she could heap upon him. It would crush him. I don't think she could go through with it. While we don't see a lot of Celestia/Spike interaction, I assume we could say a similar thing considering the mother figure role we're told of by the show writers.

2373710 There are a few possibilities for the Spike->Rarity-crush to go. I admit I never really saw him as potential suitor, since with him being referred to as a "baby" and having nap time, I always thought of him as Twilight's little brother who has a crush on his sister's friend who happens to be the prettiest mare in town.
Come to think about it, both my favorite Rarilight-stories don't mention his infatuation per se. In one, it is implied that he just grew up and out of his childish crush, the other doesn't mention him at all, I think.
I think, if an author wants to ship Twilight with Rarity, having Spike grow out of his crush, or realizing that he should not begrudge Twilight and Rarity for falling in love, is probably the way to go, but if that's too idealistic, he could always go the "I want my beloved to be happy"-route.

2373774 Yeah, all of those work, but they never happen. Authors just don't take Spike's feelings into account at all. My issue with it is that nobody ever really thinks about what Spike wants or feels, and nobody takes time to properly develop his feelings regarding not being involved with Rarity. His crush on her is huge. That takes a lot of loss and acceptance to move on from. It's not that I think he can't do it. It's that doing it is worth a story all its own, and yet it must happen in order to ship Rarity elsewhere.

The same thing for Twilight and Celestia. Twilight is utterly obsessed with her. The thought of her being with another pony would terrify and depress her, because she'd realize she's now second in the heart of the pony she loves more than anything else in the world. She'd be frustrated, upset and hurt, but a lot of people just wave it off as her feeling like her mother figure is dating....Which they never delve into beyond a throwaway line. If you want to ship canon characters, you have to take their preexisting relations with other canon characters into account.

2373865 All this talk of Rarilight made me reread The Shadow of a Doubt just now. Still the best Rarilight, still one of the five best pony stories I know.

Oh, one way I forgot to mention: Spike has fallen in love with someone else in the mean time, often either Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle, the last being the most obvious way of crush displacement.

I think, as you said, it is quite a bit of development one has to go through, and while it would work in a long-running story, taking up half of an oneshot dealing with Spike would probably be a bit much. That being said, we are dealing with interpretation here. Make Spike not quite as lovestruck and emphasize his snarky personality (I do like him better that way).
Similar with Twilight. I have some ideas shipping Twilight and Celestia with each other, and the way I see it, they need a special form of bond. They cannot completely abandon each other for a relationship with someone else. On the other hand, their relationship with each other could be platonic, or grow into something platonic. They'd still have each other as very close friends and are there for each other every step of the way, but have a romantic relationship with someone else. In time, they could both shift the bigger part of their commitment to their respective romantic partners, after they get used to no longer being the most important person to each other.
And, of course, if anyone were to hurt one of them, the other would bring hell down on whoever is responsible.

2373919 Oh, sure, you can have Twilight and Celestia still feel that bond, but you need to recognize they have this codependency thing going on rather than just wave it off as a simple mother-daughter relationship. It's not something I see a lot of authors do.

2373924 Yes, the special bond should be mandatory. If someone wants to write a story where Celestia and Twilight hate each other, they better have one hell of an explanation for that.

As for the mother-daughter-thing, I would like to see that explored too. I mean, it was definitely a nurturing relationship, especially from Celestia's side. But considering Twilight's first impression of Celestia basically amounts to worshiping her because of her power, I doubt she saw Celestia as much of a mother.

By the way, shall we start taking count how often we can get this thread away from the Twilestia rails and back on again?

2373966 It does say in the title it's just a forum for socializing. I am good at going off "topic", though.

2373975 Okay, since I we had so much fun with this, I'll try to introduce a new question:
What do we do with Cadence?

2374110 Lock her in a Mary Sue containment facility alongside Ebony D'arkness Dementia Raven Way, Ensign Sue and Sailor Earth and pretend she doesn't exist?

2374115 But I kind of want so sabotage their fairy tale romance. The instant I saw the wedding, my only thought was "Way to predictable." As such, I propose shipping her with Luna or Rarity. They can teach her the way of the warrior princess/ warrior lady, respectively. Or we ship her with Twilight. I ship every princess royal mare with Twilight.

Or Derpy, just for the hell of it.

2374154 Twilight gets all the mares.

Honestly, I'm happy to never mention Cadance again. The series would lose absolutely nothing and gain more character development for the actual protagonists with actual flaws.

We do what one of, possibly the only one worth reading, the best yaoi fics on fimfic did. We give shining armor to some pony else and turn the Cadence x Armor marriage into a political one of convenience. Of course the one I read was The Road Less traveled or something like that and our was awesome. That is what should be done with Cadence and Shining, any more questions

2375092 Why not make it more exciting: Make Shining have an affair with a dude. ShiningFlash.

2375121 I liked the Big Mac route but that would be funny just to watch all the FlashLight groupies explode

2375135 It would be glorious. I'd have my popcorn and weed ready for the explosion.

2375249 mmm popcorn and fire

2375121 Yes! Kill two birds with one stone. In fact, someone should start pairing all the males with each other and split the mares between Twilight and Fluttershy.

2375264 NO! Spike is straight for dragonesses; he banged all of teenaged assholes moms on the low.

But, ever other male can be gay for all I care.

2375256 It should be directed by Michael Bay, for all the epic explosions.

2375264 but derpy and the doctor :(

2375327 Derpy x Twilight -> Delight. Just sayin'.

2375374 mmm Mood Wings greates DeLight story ever *lapses into nostalgia*

2375481 Tchernobog actually said he wants to write a sequel to that, hopefully with more Delight, Though it would probably be too farfetched to hope for another Address Unknown.
To clarify, I mean lengthwise.

2375515 *squees at a tone only ponies can hear and collapse in a pool of froth from his own mouth and twitches spasticly

2374115 While we could lock her up, I find it far more fun to strip her sue status off, either for comedy's sake or to make an actual character out of her. Heck, after writing Apprentice Ship it's been hard not to resort to using her as the resident buttmonkey. Which is exactly where she's staying in the sequels.