This story is a sequel to The Irony of Applejack
Warning: this story is a sequel. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you read the prequel first before continuing!
Over half a year has passed since the changeling attack on Ponyville, and Applejack would like to think things have finally settled down. Much has changed for the young changeling, and all of Equestria in kind. The new district in Ponyville proves that, along with the town's many new residents.
But there is much the young queen does not yet know about being a changeling. Some things, she will learn, can be chosen, while others will be chosen for her. With new allies and enemies emerging all around her, Applejack must discover what it truly means to rule before the choice is taken from her forever, and the history of the changelings repeats itself, once again...
Image provided by Heilos.
The long awaited sequel! Let It Begin! *begins reading*
Awesome!
Romance? Yes. I've been waiting so long for Changling Appledash.
Yay! Time to read!
Booyah!
That was my reaction.
Insta-fave. Though thumbs-up waits till the end of the fic. My relatively recent policy.
Now time to read!
Finally yes
Lalala, well that's enough procrastinating for one day - I'm finally, finally off to do some writing of my own!
Irony of Applejack sequel is posted? What was I doing again? Must read!
I really should have waited until finishing the chapter before commenting, but I couldn't resist. Also, it looks (if other cantankerous commenters are to believed) that there is some Appledashery to be had. In which case:
Edit after actually reading: Ooh, political intrigue! I love how you're revisiting the fallout of Applejack's (and many others) outing in society, and Celestia/Luna/Twilight's roles in attempting to propagate the population's acceptance. Though AJ dealt with a big part of her identity crisis in the last story, she still has a long way to go in accepting her new position (or at least learning to deal with it without going crazy). This is going to be a thrilling ride, I'm sure.
Also:
Crossed paths, I think.
Here.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure the "You came Apples" thing came from Bookplayer's fic "Maiden's Day." I cracked up at that line as well, and it must've been really hilarious just seeing that solitary line of text when you were expecting your story to appear.
Now I reget not getting caught up when I had the chance. I am such a lazy reader.
I will fave and like this as soon as I finish the original.
Read the whole chapter!
I get the feeling that was a tad too eager auto-correct here... also somewhere during the description of the Crystal Houses there was "shown" instead of "shone". Easy to find, it's the only "shown" in the entire chapter.
Aside from that, I don't have any complaints.
The intrigue begins immediately! Yay!
This is going to be awesome!
Keep up the good work!
2969049
I concur. Someone please tell me this isn't the case! The strong friendship was more than enough. Heck, it's usually better that way.
2969246
Exactly! I LOVE some good friendshipping between those two. The idea of people(ponies) sharing such strong bonds is an amazing thing. I just don't understand why people have to ruin it by bringing romance into it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an unashamed shipper. PikieBurn, SoarinJack, TwiMac? Sheeyut, I ship it like Fedex! Hell, in my last story, I shipped Twilight with a Diamond Dog!
I just feel that the Mane Six's bonds should be the absolute perfect image of friendship, and romance, as I said, cheapens it a bit in my eyes.
2969121
I am not cantankerous!
Now get offa my lawn, ya little whippersnappers! *shakes cane*
2969281
It implies that you can't have that close of a friend unless there's romantic feelings involved, is what I think. I lot of M6 shipfics address the issue of 'oh no, now I don't love my friends equally any more!'. And they'd be right. It cheapens all of their friendships, unless you're so bold as to have a six-way relationship.
It has begun!!!
P.S. I laughed at the "You came apples" thing. That had to be halarious.
Yes please.
~Skeeter The Lurker
2969049
Yeah i have to agree……but ill read even if it is.
2969049 May I just comment how sad it is that you had to include the caveat that you have no problem with homosexuality before you complained about a ship that you regard as overdone?
I myself don't have any real problem with Mane Six shipping because it at least starts from a plausible premise: friendship leading to romance. Since you've already established "Mane Six are all very good friends", you have lots of work done for you before you start. I think that's why inter-Mane-6 shipping is so common.
Excellent. I really enjoyed "The Irony of Applejack" and look forward to this! I'll just watch it though since I am still working through your last story. Man, that last update...
My exact reaction to seeing this in the Top Stories list:
As for the story itself, I can't wait to see what happens next! Really hoping the Canterlot elite doesn't screw over the changelings too hard. Also loving Applejack's reluctance to assume her rightful position as a Queen; history has shown that the reluctant heroes often make for the best leaders :)
I really enjoyed "Irony of Applejack", but I'm afraid the RD/AJ shipping will drive me away from this sequel... for the reasons Jake The Army Guy already posted.
2969565
Yeah, I tried having this conversation in the comments for Maidens Day, Where I dared to call out a contrived, silly reason for rampant lesbianism, and suddenly I'm a nazi who hates gays and kicks puppies and eats babies and sacrifices goats to Baal.
I get your reasoning, and I guess I can see it. I guess I just like seeing them as friends, and anything that permanently changes that dynamic irritates me. Also:
THAT irritates me even more! Look, I get that there are precious few developed male characters in canon, so create an OC! Don't be lazy.
2969458
As I said, as will I.
2970044 I'm enjoying the two downvotes I got above for stating my opinion. You little trolls mad? U mad? :P
I saw Maidens Day and shall now have to remember to plumb the comments to see how that developed. Because nothing is more delicious to me than the rage and tears of hysterical people who're too dumb to distinguish between malice and an honest and polite statement of well-meaning opinion.
Yeah, it's not my fave either but I can accept it because I can understand it as long as the pairing is at least minimally sensible.
I tend to agree with that. AnYPony once held an opinion dump for people to state their theories on the lack of stallions and he got some real results; those of you who plan to ship ought to locate that vid and listen because there were some clever thoughts in operation, including most of the on-screen background mares being harmless infertile changeling females.
And yeah, inventing male characters is a nice thing to do, just for variety. Wish more writers would, actually, because it offers a great chance to explore the popular fan question AnYPony examined in the vid I mentioned.
So looking forward to this
(And for the record, I'm fine with whatever the ship is. I don't care about how often something has been done before, only how well each particular story does it. And if it is AppleDash, well... let's just say it's popular because it works very well
)
2970044
For me, I question your apparent absolute NEED to voice your dislike of this. You could, you know, read... and then, either choose not to read it anymore, or keep reading, and not comment on the issue?
That, at least, is why i'm downvoting you. Because you're complaining to the author, who already has their story planned, as if you actually had any sway on what they're doing. Just let it be, and don't clog up the comments with a discussion you KNOW will flare up?
I just see your comments as completely useless and rather annoying for the author or other readers.
Yes, you don't like it.
So bloody what?
Plenty of others do. Move on.
as for the story, Mister Friendly, all I can say is: squee! I cannot wait to see where this goes.
2970346
Um... Did... did you even READ my comment? Specifically the part where I said I STILL LOVED THE STORY AND PLAN ON READING IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH AND THAT THE PREMISE WAS SO INTERESTING AND THE WRITING SO CLEAN THAT I CAN OVERLOOK MY MINOR ISSUE OF THE SHIP I DON'T LIKE AND STILL READ IT?!
Also, when did politely voicing an opinion while at the same time offering honest advice and criticism in a very civil way become annoying?
2970378
I admit i zero'd in on one part >_>
It's annoying because it's a comment that is utterly inflammatory even if you don't mean it to be. I mean, you are surprised by downvotes/replies to it? Why would you be, if you write something complaining about a ship when that ship is pretty explicitely stated as the plan in the fic? That's like going to see an action flick, being surprised it's not a soul jerking drama, and then being shocked about getting retorts when you start complaining about it. Which is probably a horribly worded metaphor, but yeah.
How in the nine hells is "oh i don't like mane 6 pairings, go write an OC!" 'advice' or 'criticism'? Especially in this sequel - people are here to see more about Applejack - and the clear way that both she and Rainbow grew closer to each other in the entire first fic. Expecting that to change, or her to be shipped with some random OC is just... well, pardon my french, idiotic.
2970416
1. I read it anyway because, as I have said, I loved the prior story, and I loved how the author left it as dear friends, and that maybe it would remain that. Yes, I got a bit snarky about it, but it was never mean spirited towards the author.
2.This is more like going to see an action flick and complaining that they blew up too many cars. I KNEW there would be action, and I KNEW they would blow up cars, but seeing the same model of car explode a thousand times and it gets a bit stale, hence my decision to politely voice my displeasure.
3. That bit of "advice" was not for this author. I was speaking in general terms of those that the previous commenter talked about, people who shipped AppleDash simply because it was easy and halfway there already. Also, from what I saw in the first fic, I still saw friendshipping, and thought that maybe it would remain that.
And for the record, nowhere in the description does it say, "Oh, and AJ totally gets it on with Rainbow Dash." So that was NOT plainly stated. RD being tagged as a character could be more friendshipping. Hell, it still could be! We don't know yet! Granted, that's the most likely direction, them being together, but still.
2970466
Fair enough. Sorry i zero'd in on it. It's just very irritating seeing that same old argument. I'd argue that people come to this site to see the mane 6 get shipped - it's no surprise that they're amongst the most popular ships in the fandom (below lyrabon and octascratch respectively). It just seems very silly to me to see a complaint about it when shipping, especially intra mane 6 shipping, makes up for a large bulk of pony fics, period.
As for Appledash being easy... that is part of the attraction for me - the groundwork for it is already there, and it feels real, compared to a lot of other fics/ships that require fairly large hoops to jump through to be believable.
2970416
Two things:
1) I think it's a valid criticism. There was no shipping in the first story, and it's not OUTRIGHT stated what the ship exactly is, no matter how transparent the veil is. Plenty of readers were invested AJ and Dash's friendship, and saw that as Story #1's strength. For it to transform into shipping isn't entirely necessary, and I and others feel it'd detract from Story#1. It's not a stab at the author's intelligence, or purely hot air. I'm not expecting another ship to crop up besides AppleDash. Heck, I wasn't expecting ANY ship to crop up at all. That purple tag slapped me in the face, and for a moment I even thought that this was completely unrelated to Irony of Applejack. Since I have an interest in this story's well being, like Jake did, we both voiced our opinions on the subject.
Unless you or the author can tell me that this turn of events was planned from the start, I'll continue to hold this dissident opinion.EDIT: Welp, disregard this whole rant. It seems it's all been worked out.2) Your icon makes it very difficult to see you as unbiased for AppleDash.
2970044>>2969246
I do see your point, and normally I am there with you. Most fics don't take time to build up to any sort of romance, skipping over the important buildup to that point. And that's what this will mostly be; a buildup. I don't intend to have a 'eureka!' moment, and just let it flow.
And believe me, I was anticipating comments like yours. I fully expected to make some people upset with the choice. That was one of the reasons why I took so long to start writing this; I wanted to try to do it right, and doing it right means extra work.
There are a few reasons why I chose to do Appledash that have nothing to do with my preference to the ship anyway. Primarily, I didn't want to use a never-before established OC to try to fill the love interest roll, or introduce some new canon character for the same purpose with little build up to it. For some reason, using OCs always gives me a sense of personal fantasy fulfillment, like self-inserts to an extent. Yes, the romance is supposed to be more central to the plot and not just a sub-plot.
But I do appreciate you giving it a shot anyway, and I hope I can make it work right.
2970502
Eh, no biggie, friend.
As I said, I just love watching them interact as dear friends, and dislike it when something changes the dynamics. To each his own, I guess, but a strong enough story(like this is shaping up to be) can make me overlook it.
2970539
2) I never said I was unbiased either
2970541
As I said above, the previous story gave you a lot of credit with me. I can easily see this being good enough to make me overlook it. And please know that I TOTALLY agree that it's your story, you do what the hell you want. Ignore us peons in the peanut gallery.
I have faith in you, Mister! DO your thing!
2970541
I'll try to look around it as I read, but I've gotta be honest. I don't know if I can. I liked IoAJ, don't get me wrong. However, I just don't feel it anymore. The setup irks me, as well as the impeding ship. This isn't Minority Report, where I'll criticize the story for something it hasn't even done yet. I'll stick with it for a few more.
2970553
Well, I'm biased for any Trixie ship, because Trixie. Also, she gets all her air-time from shipping.
2970571
But it's the peons that keep me straight!
And I appreciate you being mature about it. Seeing an argument conducted as if at least someone was an adult is so rare nowadays its hard to believe there's any still out there.
2970593
And I will do my absolute best to make it work. It's the least I can do for my faithful readers.
Will Vigil be making another appearance?
He was a genuinely interesting character.
2970346 If you can point me at a place where I criticized this story in any way, shape, or form, I can buy that. If you can point me at a place where I even talked about this story, I can buy that. But you can't, because I didn't. Thus, I somewhat resent your crap.
2970792
I apologize, I was reading a bit too fast after Jake's comment, and thought your response was in a similar vein. It isn't, and the comment wasn't meant to be directed at you :x
2970808 Then would you be willing to edit that comment to remove me from it, since it wasn't meant for me?
2970830 Done!
2970839 *chaste smeck* You're a peach. I appreciate the gesture of considerateness.
Yes yes yes yes! So glad there is going to be a sequel!
I'm soooo excited to read more!
I came apples.
Oh Twilight, you eejit.
Lovely to see you back and in excellent form as always. Can't wait for more, the players we've seen so far are quite fascinating indeed.
2970886
As stated several times, I enjoy reading about these girls as close friends, and I don't like things that upset that Applejack cart.
2969281
I only see two stories of yours posted on FimFiction, and neither of them have the Diamond Dog tag. Would you mind explaining where said story is?
And on that note, "Luminous Sky" and it's sequel have been on my Read Later pile for probably longer than they should have. I'll start in on them this weekend.
I don't even have to read the first chapter of this to know this will be a gem. I will, as soon as I finish munching, but, yeah, your first one was great, this going to be a real treasure.
Instafave, haven't even started reading yet. THAT'S how much I loved Irony of AJ.