Fly Before You Run

by Lucky Dreams

Author's note

This story was written in September and October of 2012, and the first draft was very, very different to what exists today. It would have been a prequel to my cancelled adventure story, It's Not A Cold Dark Place, and would have told of Scootaloo’s first adventure in the dream-world.

Li'l Scoots would have battled her way through a forest, a forest where the branches were made from ice, yet the leaves and blossoms formed from fire; she would then have fled across a vast meadow of grass -- grass made from the stuff of starlight -- before confronting an evil power at the top of a humongous waterfall plummeting over the edge of the world. Finally, she would have sailed back to Rainbow’s house on a boat which was actually her bed, at which point she would have woken up and written the whole thing off as a mad dream... that is, until the sequel. A sequel which was already half written and half published, and was doing perfectly fine without the aid of a profoundly unnecessary prequel

ANYWAY, the prequel's cover art still survives. It’s unfinished, yet, even in its half-done state I still think it’s one of my better ones (I like the waves splashing against Scootaloo’s bed). And if it can’t appear in front of the story it was originally made for, I can at least place it at the end of this one.

Comments

[Telaros]

2012 strikes back again, reminding me how so many great stories tend to die before their time.

Love the coverart. Sail on, Scoots. Sail on.

[TheFanGuy]

5008684 I remember even though I hadn't joined back then...

[fastnbulbous]

This was absolutely fantastic, and is one of the few short stories that have actually made me tear up. Everything about it was beautiful.

Have a like. And a fave.

[SkydreamPegasus]

Such a shame that it never got finished. I would've loved to read the story you described there.

[Lucky Dreams]

5008684

2012 strikes back again, reminding me how so many great stories tend to die before their time.

I legitimately regret not finishing it. I probably would've done if I hadn't have gotten it into my head that it needed to be rewritten... although it only was because it got such a great response that I got the idea of rewriting it in the first place...

I was in a pretty weird place at the time

5013169 Thanks!

5013998 2011/2012 was such an exciting time to be writing fanfiction! Those early pony fics taught me sooo much about good writing.

5014373 Thank you for such a lovely comment. I was really on the fence about posting this, but I think I made the right decision.

5017255 It is a shame, isn’t it? On the other hand, a lot of it ended up being repurposed for the story I’m currently working on, so at least all the planning didn’t go to waste.

[SkydreamPegasus]

5017864 New story on here? Or elsewhere?

[Lucky Dreams]

5019662 Elsewhere. It's something original

5030905 I'm glad you liked it

Scootaloo's mother in this was kind of my own reaction to the 86 trillion other 'Scootaloo-is-disabled-and-can't-fly' fics out there. Some of them are excellent, of course. But then again, a lot of them (or at least the ones I remember reading back in 2012) seemed to be written by people who apparently struggle to understand that having a disability doesn't mean that life is suddenly no longer worth living.

It felt to me like a complete story, but I notice the 'Incomplete' tag.

Whoops! No, it's complete. No more to come, sorry

5031789 Right. Got it

[SkydreamPegasus]

5044528 Ah. Bugger.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Draco Dei]

5017864
What is stopping you from picking it back up if you regret it?

(Yes, I am a hypocrite, at least to some extent.)