Our Love, Eternal, by jmj

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This story came about oddly, as most stories do. Something I have noticed about writing fiction is that ideas for fics typically explode from nowhere. Most authors are not like Harlan Ellison, renowned for his 1800+ short stories and works on television and film, granted with the ability to simply materialize a well thought and articulate story in an hour's time. Seriously, he wrote an award winning short story while sitting in a radio station waiting room just to prove he could. Most authors struggle over their works for days, week, or months and poor time into the work, carefully grooming it into a form that is clever, full, and acceptable. Unfortunately, I lack subsequent time to dwell over a single idea for a length of time and cannot simply sit down and write something.

My ideas come from random space. A word misheard, a stray thought, or a phrase that strikes me oddly and then suddenly manifests into a possibility for a fic. Typically, my thoughts wander creatively in one place: the shower. Something about the hot water seems to stir my thoughts and a multitude of fragmented images, sounds, and words will overtake me. Most of my stories come from there. Authors such as Joe Lansdale use dreams as story inspirations, keeping a journal by their bedside to hastily scrawl their dreams down before they disappear, as dreams do, within the first few moments of waking. I try to dash, soaking the carpet in the process, to the computer where I can type up whatever new idea has sprung from the steamy shower. Our Love, Eternal, was no exception to this.

Let's start with some assumptions. I dislike shipping. It doesn't make sense to me. Most shipping relationships are insane and the possibilities of the characters involved are ridiculous. The plots are predictable with no struggle or dragon to battle. Character A is obviously going to be with character B and the path to the relationship is muddled only by one failing to admit the feelings they have for the other. We get 10,000 words of character A blushing, beating around the bush, and becoming jealous as character B sees other suitors while we roll our eyes and anxiously tap a finger in irritation. "What will Pinkie think when she finds out I'm gay for her? Will she hate me? I feel so ... so scared." That's another thing. Almost all shipping is a lesbian pairing. Based off of the fiction, we can only assume Equestria is doomed to fall due to dwindling population as only about 5% of its inhabitants have the ability to reproduce. What does this mean? It means the pairings are purely masturbatory in nature, which also leads to the poor story developments. The "story" simply facilitates the clop within. It's aggravating.

I write dark stories. Dark fiction has been my passion since I was old enough to read. Short story collections such as "Scary Stories for Stormy Nights" and "Horror Collection" have always fascinated me. To see the monsters that lurk just across the barrier of the mythological world, waiting to pounce and drag us to our demise,  are what interest me. Thus, "The Twilight Zone", "Tales From the Crypt", and "Tales from the Darkside" are the style of story I write. What does this have to do with "Our Love, Eternal"? Everything.

I decided to write something a little different than my normal stuff. Twist endings are great, but I wanted to something else. I had read a blog post about another shipping story coming out featuring characters I don't think would ever go together under any circumstances and while letting my mind wander an idea sprang forth. Why not take everything that are staples of shipping stories and flip them? It was what I had been looking for, something a little different but with a deliciously dark backdrop.

Shipping stories are usually about two characters getting together. One will be head over hooves in love while the other is clueless to the affections being put upon her. By the end, they have discovered one another and have become locked in a meaningful, loving, relationship. One that will presumably last forever. How do you twist that? Simple. Instead of starting them off apart, Applejack and Rainbow Dash (The only pairing I think even remotely makes sense) are already together. Their love is one of reality. They fit together. Their jagged ends just happen to connect to one another. In this case, they are together because of their individual fetishes. One loves pain, craves it, needs it and the other enjoys punishing, hurting, degrading. Alone, they are miserable outcasts of society, aliens to the world. Each cannot relate to normal ponies and are slaves to the desires that ostracize them, but together they are free to indulge in one another's passions. Their loves is stronger than that of any other couple because only together can they feel sane or normal. Their desires are enacted with the other and it gives them a sense of being that is indefinite but pure. They need one another.

As the story unfolds, we find that the dragon is the impending break up. Rainbow Dash has become distant, returning to her private Hell and causing AJ's happiness to disintegrate as the love she feels erodes. The story is told through AJ's point of view because we can relate to the feelings of uselessness when someone important to us becomes distant. We don't know what the other is thinking and can only hope that things will improve. We can attempt to avert the coming disaster, but sometimes our efforts are in vain. We, through AJ, connect to that hopelessness, that unknown, that pain. For those who have not read it, I will not go on about the plot. Suffice to say, it is a love story. It's just a different kind of love story.

On a more literary level, this story deals with our mortality. The greatest battle we have in our lives is accepting out finite lives. At some point we will all die. This story is about AJ's struggle to accept her eventual death. Dash represents acceptance. One can only truly be happy when they accept death as a natural end. This is a key point in mythology and psychology. Many of the problems we face as humans stem from our inability to face death as it is, normal. This is the story about how Applejack comes to terms with her mortality

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