• Member Since 15th Apr, 2012
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bookplayer


Twilight floated a second fritter up to her mouth when she realized the first was gone. “What is in these things?” “Mostly love. Love ‘n about three sticks of butter.”

T
Source

Rainbow Dash can’t wait for her first date with Applejack; they always have an awesome time hanging out, and a relationship just means there are even more physical activities they can try together. So when the dumb zap apple harvest postpones their date, she decides it’s the zap apples that are going to have to change their plans. Equestria should know by now that wild, ancient magic is no match for Rainbow Dash, especially when she might get laid.

Everything is going according to plan, until she crashes. Or, rather, until she wakes up after crashing and fifteen years have gone by. Fifteen years during which she seems to have been a very busy pony.

Now Rainbow Dash has to adjust to a life she never thought she wanted, and figure out if she’ll ever get to live the life that brought her here.

Update: Proofreading and formatting by RBDash47

Written for the AppleDash Group Contest prompts "Family" and "An Important or Memorable Date."
Cover art by SketchyJackie

Chapters (11)
Comments ( 231 )

Here it is! I randomly caught Family Appreciation Day on television the other day. Good omen, or best omen? I'm really looking forward to seeing this one unfold. Probably gonna have to reorganize my top favorite stories on my user page.

Good luck on the contest!

Good first chapter. On to the next one!!!

So far so good, keep it up!

And now I'm sad. So very sad. I think you'll make me cry before this is over.

Great just great, your writings so good that I have to put this on my favourites list, next thing you know, ANOTHER one of your stories is going up on my favourites list.
Ahem
Great chapter again as always, except that your making me wait 1 or 2 days for the next chapter but, other than that great story so far, I like it!!!

That's a great chapter can't wait to read the next one :raritystarry:

That's... a really dark concept for a story, actually. I'm intrigued, if only because I trust you to properly tag your stories, and I can't wrap my head around how this could not warrant the Dark tag.

6779630
I probably will. But I'll also make you smile.

6779741
That's okay. All the ponies in the story are confused, too. :twilightsheepish:

6779951
Thank you! Sorry about the wait, I didn't want to drop a huge fic on people who would have tossed it in read it later and forgotten about it, but I didn't want people who want to read it all to have to wait too long, so this was my compromise.

6780022
Thank you!

6780077
Well, there's a fine line between Dark and serious. I don't think I'm going dark-- I think the fact that the characters are all ponies who care about each other and have the best of intentions keeps it from going there -- but there are still a lot of serious struggles they have to face. I hope I do it justice.

DAMNIT DASH!
I just want to grab that mare by the shoulders and shake some sense into her thick skull! I [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] HATE it when characters withhold very important information and that is what drives the plot. Even if she did know that Dash messed with the wild magic Twilight would probably still have to do a lot of work to get things right (if she can even do that) but as it is it's just an unnecessary hindrance to her search for an answer!
The worst part? The worst part is that it is totally within Dash's character to withhold that information! [EXPLETIVE REDACTED]!

The truth is going to come out at some point, either Dash won't be able to keep it hidden or Twi will come up some theory that she dismisses and mentions in passing that involves the manipulation of the wild magics or something but it'll come out and AJ will be extra hurt because Dash didn't spill right away. It's needless drama because the character in question is thinking too much about their [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] image instead of anything else.

[PARAGRAPH REDACTED]

Great job bookplayer, I look forward to more but I'm not going to enjoy the drama that happens with this little bit of information is finally revealed.

6780214
Thanks! And I wouldn't worry if I was you. I don't really go for cheap drama when there's so much of the good stuff laying around. :ajsmug:

6780163
Thats okay, I was sort of joking (mostly) lol. I can wait a day or two for a chapter to come out, Im not that impatient. At least its not a once a week thing so I'm good:pinkiehappy:

Rainbow Van Winkle?
But just reading this description this sounds like it's going to go so very poorly. Messing with time never ever seems to end with everyone happy. This should be fun.

EDIT: Okay so I've read the first two chapters now and in fact everything is going exceptionally poorly. I feel like I might cry before this is over.

Damn that was a better chapter then the last:raritywink:

This is too much fun. Great job!

Well I think we know which story is winning that AppleDash contest now.

Though the fact that this is featured already (not that it doesn't deserve to be) despite not really getting views as fast as most things that get featured makes me wonder how the hell that system even works. Can someone inform me on that?

6780734
The feature box algorithm is mysterious (on purpose, so people don't cheat it) but it takes into account how many views something gets, how fast it gets them, how many comments and upvotes it gets, and how long it is up to a certain point (longer stories require fewer views.) And I think faves and tracking also fit in there somewhere.

It's also important to note that it's comparative: a story doesn't have to get <X> number in the equation, it just has to get a higher number, at that time, than other stories are getting. The same story might not make the feature box with the same numbers another day.

And with regards to the contest, I've done my best, but there are a lot of other great writers in this. Last AppleDash contest I entered I got third, and if I managed to do the same again I'll be thrilled. :ajsmug:

6780603 6780362
Thank you!

6780326
You probably will cry before this is over. But I promise, you'll also smile. :pinkiesad2:

6780734 Essentially the more views, favs, bookshelf placements, and comments you get in the time since publication is how the box places you. When a story is first published, it has a certain amount of heat which gradually decreases until the one week mark, at which time the story no matter how popular will fall out of the box.

Heat is a multiplying factor. A story only hours old will move up in placement much faster than a story days old. The key to hitting the box is basically get a lot of eyes as fast as possible. This is why groups are so important. Not everyone has the follower count to propel them to a feature, but a group like "Shipping" can get you up to 7000 people to look at your story when it shows up in their feed.

But getting your story looked at is only the start. Artwork and description will get them to actually read, which is far more important, since a look at your story page does nothing.

6781017

Yeah I was just asking cause I remember a RariDash story published really late yesterday getting around 60+ upvotes and 400 or so views pretty quickly, but that wasn't featured or at least I can't recall it being so. I guess today is just a mostly barren day, people are off getting ready for New Years and such so stories right now need a bit less. Still even that being featured would of odd compared to what I normally see. This is the first fic iv ever seen featured before it had 200 views though. I guess a ton of people must of bookshelfed this if that is also a factor in what gets featured.

6781059

Word count's also a big factor. I'm talking out of class obviously since the exact function of the feature box is a mystery, but I've heard it said that heat is weighted at an inverse proportion to the word count, up to 10k words. So a story that has ~8k words like this one earns heat faster than a story that has ~2k words like the RariDash story I assume you're talking about. The thought behind that, I believe, is that the longer story represents a larger time investment than a short one, so a short one gets a bit more attention right off the bat than a long one and thus can more immediately get stats that raise the heat, while the long one is naturally gonna be a slower burn. If two stories were released at the exact same time and had the exact same attention down to number of people reading, upvoting, faving, etc., the shorter one will appear to be getting the attention faster simply because it can be read faster, and the inverse proportional weighting is intended to even that playing field, at least a little. If I had to guess, I'd wager that it weighs in the longer story's favor all else being equal, too,

6781117

Yeah right okay, that makes more sense then. Did not know it took length (and I presume numbers of chapters as well?) into account. Still yeah I get the idea there then.

6781170 To be totally frank, I don't know where bats gets the idea of word count from. I'd like to think that matters, but I've seen thousand word stories in the box for seemingly forever.

Well... this is certainly shaping up to be an interesting one. You have my attention.

I'm probably going to enjoy this

*reads description*

Whelp, that's my entry beat, as I thought. GG, books.

6781329

Oh, y'know, places. Conversations. With people on the admin team. Who explicitly said that it factored in.

But I did say I was talking out of class and the information might be wrong. It might have changed since that conversation took place and it doesn't matter any more, or it matters less. Or maybe it never mattered in the first place and was an educated guess that was wrong. On the other hand, 1k word stories are at a distinct advantage on this site for gaining and maintaining attention, because of how popular they are, and if a story gets all the attention right from the get-go and earns a ton of heat that tosses it into the feature box, where it continues to get attention for days on end and crack a thousand upvotes, etc., it really doesn't matter if a 10k word story's heat accrues faster. The 1k word story still wins.

6781992 Makes sense. In fairness, I never said you were wrong, just that wasn't information that was apparent from observing the box itself, and indeed, seemed to be contradicted by readily available data. But I am happy to hear that there is at least the intent to weigh things by work put into them, gives me the warm and fuzzies that someone is trying to look out for us.

Rule #3 of the PWP: "That Applies To Everyone. Including You, Rainbow Dash." :ajbemused: :rainbowderp:

Oh, Rainbow, you're so out of your depth here. Better learn to adapt quickly!

6781743
We'd better get to see that entry! I'm not counting my chickens, and I don't want to win just because you decided not to enter. :rainbowdetermined2:

6782598 I didn't say I wasn't gonna enter, I just said you had me beat. I'm still puttin' my name in the hat, as it were. :rainbowdetermined2:

Ace. I was a little wary of the description, but this is excellent. I'm so glad to see we're dealing with all the emotional turmoil of a timeskip like this.

Ach, me bleedin' heart!

Great chapter, can't wait for the next one!!!

Damn, this is some great stuff. You're really playing up the angle of disorientation as narrative device, cause I'm constantly left saying, "Which one of these kids is doing which thing, and who's doing what with relationships now?" Gets to RD's perspective in a big way, though I'll admit that it does make the story quite a bit more dense than it'd otherwise be. Besides that, the idea of losing the context for things has always been an interesting topic. Kinda surprised this is getting the downvotes it is, cause it's probably one of your better majigs, though that could just be down to how weird it is.

6785307 the downvotes are the shipping tax, the AppleDash tax, and the bookplayer tax.

This is already so sad. I'm so sad about everything. You've really got something great here.

This is great! I wish that I could go 15 years into the future so I don't have to wait for the next chapter!

6785835
I mean, fifteen years would work... but you could just go fifteen days. I promise it'll be done by then. :ajsmug:

This is my least favorite paring but... Damn it, I'm really quite enjoying this.

6785807 That doesn't really make much sense, cause the ratio is kinda off in this case. Like, I dunno, Sleepless in St. Maretinique. Obviously the same level of Bookplayer, shipping, and Appledash, three more down votes, 134 more up votes, and I think at least somewhat inferior storying. I could say basically the same of Love Means Having to Say You're Sorry. So, yeah. Kinda aberrantly poor reception, and it's somewhat odd.

6786160
I think the lack of upvotes here is partially because it's incomplete. I think that scared away some people who weren't into waiting for a longer fic, and there are always some people waiting to see how the whole story is before they vote.

6786192 Past last comma, very very true.

Unsurprisingly, this is really well done, and also unsurprisingly I'm loving it.

Still though... Actually I'd wanted to wait till the story was done, but I don't want to forget... It may not be Lovecraftian, or terror-inducing, but I hold by what I initially said. This really does call for the Dark tag. It's a calm, quiet, sad dark, but its still the kind of thing that can pull you out of bed with nightmares in the middle of the night.

What's even better about this story is that both Dash's and AJ's PoV's could be equally as frightening.

6788492
You've been driving me crazy, but not in a bad way. I've just been thinking about what you're saying and going back and forth.

The thing is, I can totally see where you're coming from. As things stand in this chapter, AJ's marriage has essentially been erased, and Rainbow doesn't love, or even know, her kids. That really is some dark stuff. And I don't think it's spoiling anything to say that these things are going to continue to hurt them as they try to deal with them, because that's the story.

On the other hand, there are a lot of kinds of stories, especially fantasy stories, that take on dark central premises without being what I'd call Dark. The witches spell or curse or magical artifact is almost never good news, after all, and often what it does is pretty horrific. And I feel pretty sure those stories can be told in a dark way, or a dramatic way, or a light way even with those dark elements. I'm trying to look at this story in a dramatic way, as sort of a side effect of life in a magical world; in the real world people get cancer or develop mental illnesses, and stories about that are serious without necessarily being Dark. In the same way, in Equestria magical accidents can interrupt "happily ever after."

So, I'm really having a hard time deciding here. I'm not dismissing your concerns, and I'd be interested to hear how you feel going forward in the fic. I'm open to considering adding a Dark (or Sad) tag based on how people respond to the whole thing overall.

This story is really, really tugging at my heartstrings. I hope it has a happy ending.

6791985
Vague spoilers that people who know me probably already assumed: I don't write sad endings. On the other hand, I also don't wave a magic wand and make everything perfect. But through the story they'll get what they need, and I hope you and everyone else finds it satisfying. :pinkiesmile:

Well, that was very nearly a horrible accident, and RD is starting to edge into 'unlikably unbelievable' in terms of how bad she is at basically everything.

Here's to hoping it gets better.

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