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In Equestria, the only season ponies can experience until they meet their soul mate is winter. When Sunset crossed over to the human world, she met her soul mate, and was able to experience the other seasons. The problem is, she isn't in Equestria anymore, and her soul mate is human.
And Sunset doesn't want to force that onto Rarity when to humans, the term soul mate applies to something that isn't real.
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So adorable!
Is this based on Monochromatic's fic?
7549137
Monochromatic gave me the inspiration to write a soul mate AU story, but it's not based in the AU she used and is its own story.
7549126
Thank you very much!
Sorry, I commented before reading it. Awesome job! I loved it!
7549160
No problem at all! Glad you enjoyed it.
This was so adorable, RadiantBeam, I enjoyed it.
Sunset and Rarity together make a absolutely divine, and adorable couple
Another fantastic story
As always, Sunset and Rarity work very well together, and feel very genuine as a couple. I love how quick Rarity was to comfort Sunset about Flash, despite what it would mean for their relationship. It's easy to see how much they love one another
Was Twishy a thing, or was my shipping fueled heart just seeing things where there wasn't anything to be seen?
With all the talk of Sunset still being Equestrian, it makes me wonder how Rarity might feel about visiting her beloved's home some day
7549235
Thank you! Glad you liked the story.
7549237
The Twishy hinting was actually totally a thing, even if only subtly. I absolutely ship Sci-Twi with Fluttershy and Applejack in Equestria Girls, and one of these days I may actually do a story about it. Something about her interaction with those two just clicked to me, and some of it ended up leaking into this story when I had them interacting.
7549324
Do it. Especially if you meant Fluttershy and Applejack at the same time. That should absolutely be a thing.
On that note, I've been patiently waiting (by which I mean hoping against all likelihood) for a Sunset, Rarity, Twilight poly story from you
7549324 You're welcome!
And I would love to see a Twi-Shy, or TwiJack story in the future, it would definitely be cute.
I will admit the whole "we only live in winter until we found out soul mate" is kind of silly, though it casts the Hearth Warming story in an interesting light.
Now I'm not saying the soul mate bit is silly, that would be hypocritical of me. This is a sweet fic, and yes I do think bringing Rarity over would be a good thing.
7549339
It's totally poly Fluttershy/Sci-Twi/Applejack. I ship it and I ship it shamelessly.
7549364
Unfortunately a lot of the soul mate AU premises are kind of silly, when you sit down and think about them a little too hard.
Glad you found the fic sweet, though!
7549402
True, very true. Still more dramatic than the common "my soul mate's name is stenciled on my arm" I see on Ao3. What's the fun in doing a soul mate fic if you already know who it is?
I'm a sucker for good romance and happy endings.
OHMIGOSHOHMIGOSHOHMIGOSHOHMIGOSH
IT'S FINALLY HEEEEEERE!!!!
BRB, READING.
7549402
My night has officially been made
Seriously, you have no idea how happy this makes me
7549425
I suspect the idea behind that AU is less "who is my soul mate?" and more "where is my soul mate?", so from that premise alone you could actually have quite a bit of fun with the thought. Plus, depending on how common the name tattooed on your skin is, finding your soul mate may actually be hard.
... Funny story but this idea was originally that concept, so yeah. I put some thought into this, but it turned out way too angsty so I abandoned it and started over.
7549441
Hope you enjoy!
Really like the whole thing, very adorable Sunset. If you had any plans for a sequel, what if Sunset takes her 'soul mate' to meet her mentor/teacher/mother figure (what have you) to introduce them. IE Sunset takes human Raity to meet Princess Celestia, and they all have a good cry together.
It is easy to see the inspiration here.
I really don't want to say anything bad about this story. It's cute, well-written and there's really nothing wrong with it except how derivative it is. I pretty much read it entirely on the strength of Monochromatic's similar story about the idea. I'd say you did it justice, though, so good job there.
Man, does that premise ever not make any sense at all, though. Part of me was just internally screaming "augh god dammit how does that even work!?" at the idea the whole way through. I really want to just strap her right back into that lab equipment right now because argh. Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.
Aw, that was sweet. RariShimmer is a ship I can totally get behind.
This begs an important question though: Does this mean Princess Twilight has already met her soulmate? Assuming she didn't come through the portal also covered in winter gear, since no one said otherwise, and if so... who is it?
7549494
Point,
bravo to you on such a fantastic and sweet story! i do hope you have plans in the future for a sequel. well done!!
7550128
I meant to reference who Twilight's soul mate was at some point, because I really enjoyed Monochromatic's point in her own soul mate AU story that being someone's soul mate doesn't mean it has to be romantically. I think I made her soul mate Spike, to explain why she came through the portal without any winter gear on. I couldn't find a way to work it into the story, though.
7550010
Glad you likeded the story! And honestly... don't spend any time thinking too hard about soul mate AUs, the more you do the more it's bound to make your head hurt.
7551288
Thank you!
7551391
Yeah, that's probably good advice. It starts out as "so how do singles help wrap up winter if they can't tell the difference?" and then it's aaaaaaall downhill from there.
I knew it! The concept fit too well to not be inspired by it!
Though I hope you realize that this story might lose you a good few Mono-points if it weren't for the fact that somewhere on the other side of that mirror pony Rarity is snogging Princess Twilight (or just making her an awkward flustering mess).
7551504
I leave that all to the imagination.
I was a little worried, given the clear and stated inspiration, that this would be too much like Colors of the Soul. I'm happy to say I think this story came into its own, and was charming, cute, and cheesy all on its own merits. And Monochromatic even gave it her own Squee of Approval
Since you never state it outright, I thought that, just for funsies, I'd share my interpretation of Sunset's misgivings.
Sunset is worried that telling Rarity that Soul Mates, capitals and all, are real and have a profound and magical effect on Equestrians, will make Rarity feel like she has to be with Sunset. Almost like it's a threat, or more like guilt. It would be a false tie holding them together, rather than genuine love.
But Rarity of course knows that's patently foolish because A) She already loves Sunset, B) Sunset has already proven that she's willing to find love elsewhere for Rarity's sake, and C) The fact that Sunset worried about this so much shows just how much she cares for Rarity and the strength and integrity of their relationship.
Maybe I'm wrong and it was all just the honesty thing! Either way, I really enjoyed the story. Thanks for the excellent addition to my vast shipping folders!
i like their character andhow they do act thank you
7551776
It's certainly a very valid interpretation of Sunset's uncertainties! I was approaching it in the story as an idea of a cultural difference, more or less, and since soul mates to an Equestrian meant something completely different compared to a human, Sunset didn't want to force the issue and make it seem like she was trapping Rarity in something that didn't even apply to her species or her world.
I do like your take quite a bit, though.
7551888
Glad you liked the story.
This concept of meeting your soul mate and experiencing the other seasons reminds me of a TwiRare fic where you only see colours until you meet your soul mate
7551401 That's exactly where my mind went immediately after reading the description. Then I started imaging a winter-locked region of Equestria where nopony bothers to change the seasons because nopony living there has a true soul mate nearby.
Downhill indeed.
7552041 hey you can if you want to join my blog "idk"
While i am terribly not fond of Flash Sentry anywhere near Best Newest Princess, this was very heartwarming and also adds a new question that you answered a few comments up. Very noice stuff here.
7552081
Well, "Colors of the Soul" was what inspired this one, so.
7552568
Thank you very much for your comment! Glad that you enjoyed the story.
I can't–
I just–
What the f–
*sigh*
I'm sorry, but I can't get past this premise. It makes no goddamn sense.
If you read and liked it, that's fantastic. More power to you.
But I can't. My disbelief refuses to be suspended. My brain refuses to play along.
This reminds me of a story where ponies couldn't see color until they met their soulmate; except that premise worked.
It's possible to live your life without color.
It's not possible to live your live in a perpetual winter. Not when your race is responsible for manually creating and changing every season in your world.
I didn't know it was possible for me to be completely flummoxed by a story premise, but this shows me that it is.
I'm sorry I can't enjoy this. I really am, it seems like a really nice story.
7553016
I really, really sympathize. 7550010 I honestly kind of want to see an Equestria-side sequel of this story that does nothing but show off and explain how in meteorology's name the bloody place even works. Seriously. I'd read that, just because the idea bugs me that much now.
7553074
7553016
I don't think it means literally 'winter' as in the season itself, it's just that it's the most colorful way of saying it. It's a less boring, and more romantic, way of saying they're always cold until they find their soulmate. There is no heat of summer, warming in spring, or cooling in autumn, only the cold of winter year-round. I'll admit it's a bit of a stretch, and while it would have made more sense to say they're always cold, it just doesn't hold that same romantic feel.
That's my opinion, though.
7553195
Actually (and unfortunately I suppose, depending on your opinion on such things) the actual soul mate AU for this particular idea is in fact that people who haven't met their soul mates yet only experience the season of winter, and then experience the other seasons after they meet them. So it's snow, ice, cold, the whole nine yards; hence why Sunset repeatedly refers to that time as being a blizzard, at least for her.
7553074
7553016
A fair enough opinion. For what's it worth, I did originally have some exposition weaved into the story about exactly how the concept worked, but it felt like it slowed down the narrative and dragged the whole thing out, so I ended up removing it.
Basically, the general premise was that before the wendigos were cast away for good, they managed to cast one last curse on all of ponykind: everypony would only experience the season of winter until they met their soul mate, so that the cold and loneliness would never completely leave the species even with the wendigos gone and defeated (for the most part). This curse either would have impacted weather magic so that nopony could control it until they met their soul mate (so for example, the weather team would be comprised of ponies who had met their soul mates; ponies who hadn't found theirs yet would still continue to feel winter, however), or it would have cut off the magic entirely so that the seasons would have continued to occur naturally, but ponies wouldn't be aware of the seasonal changes until, once again, they met their soul mate.
This curse doesn't extend to Luna or Celestia (what with them being horses) or to Spike, because, well dragons. Zecora also wouldn't be impacted, since she's technically a zebra and not a pony.
That's the explanation in my head, at least. I'm aware it probably has a whole other set of holes, but it works more or less well enough for me and I just regret that I couldn't find a way that felt comfortable to me to work it into the story to make more sense of the whole premise.
Soul mate AUs, eh.
EDIT: I also meant to reply to you in this post Narlepoax, my apologies for missing you earlier.
But winter is my favorite season...
7553623
That's explanation enough for me and really works pretty well in context here. It's already a "winter of the heart" style metaphor, so extending it that way is actually a pretty neat idea. I would've liked to see that in the story, but you're probably right that it would've just bogged it down. Thank you for taking the time to lay it all out like that.
Eh. It's a good concept - it is, as Rarity says, terribly romantic - but these weren't the right scenes to explore it, and I'm not convinced that these were the right characters, either. The focus here is on human/pony cultural differences, which is all right but never becomes much of a conflict, while the really interesting (and romantic) parts of the story - the discovery of the Soul Mate and finally experiencing the other seasons - are just brushed off in exposition. The way it currently is, only experiencing winter until meeting your Soul Mate could be swapped out for *anything*. Why couldn't we have gotten to see it?
7553623
I think it would have been better if you'd left that in.
AUs with such a strange premise need to be explained, even if it does mar the story's flow a bit.
Maybe an incredibly condensed version for the description, too.
So all in all, I think this was an interesting concept and I’ll definitely be looking up the color-based original. It felt like a peek into a variant of the world and left me wanting more, which I guess is a win… even if it’s an evil win.
A short little highlight reel too (Spoilers ahead!)
Ayep. Definitely Sci-Twi. (Really, any Twi would do this, but Sci-Twi seems even worse for this sort of thing.)
Rarity, you’ve got some powerful manipulation skills, but seriously… good luck with that.
Only active objection. I don’t see Fluttershy chirping. Seems more of a Pinkie thing.
Nothing gives warm fuzzies like a good ol’ fashion Twi ramble.
D’awww!
I object! Albinocorn has stated that Sunset hates pink because of Cadance. And the Word of Albinocorn is law (as far as Sunset is concerned at least).
i.imgbox.com/thiud7Uv.gif
Tsk tsk. Perspective hop!
So terribly Rarity. It’s adorable and awesome.
i.imgbox.com/X3DHK3Nz.gif
Some folks objected to the end, but I wanted to say I liked it. While I wish there was more and felt you could have explored the concept further, I’ve ended stories using similar techniques this before because I knew it was the right time to end it. And sometimes, that’s what you need to do.
So maybe a bit of an infodump here and there, but I’m taking this more as a concept piece than anything else. It’s a fascinating idea. Now, RadiantBeam, when are we going to get a longer tale from you, hm?
Great job!
That was sooooooooo god damn sappy- I DEMAND more!
7628511
No worries, I have plenty of other RariShimmer ideas. The issue is writing them.
I liked this story. It's cute, shippy, sweet, and nice. However I do have several concerns/suggestions and things that I noticed and wish to share with you in order that you may grow as a writer.
You mention at the end that this story is inspired by Monochromatic's "Colors of the Soul." Having read and enjoyed that piece several times I can see the similarities and the many differences. I say this because I want to make sure it is understood that I am not comparing your story to hers, but analyzing your story as it's own separate work (which it deserves).
My biggest concern with your story is the lack of world building. You give us enough about the soulmateless winters to give some setting and explain some reasoning behind Sunset's emotion, but the detail never goes further than that. How does the winter work in equestia? How much does it affect their lives? Why is it so bad to live in the winter? Does finding your soulmate mean finding your true love? The contrast between living in the winter and finally feeling "warm" should be given greater attention so that the reader is truly appreciative and excited about Sunset's release from the endless winter.
Another factor of the world building is the context for Rarity and Sunset's relationship. From this singular story all we can gather is that they are together and they love each other simply because they just do. At one point it is written that Sunset thinks she loves Rarity more than she ever loved Flash. This thought is descibed as not a solid fact but a small description in how she feels abou Rarity. The lack of detail on their relationship (how, why, when) are all missing or vaguely touched upon throughout the story. So while I like the ship, and I see what your trying to do, there is no expressed connection between the two other than the fact they are apparently soul mates. Why did Sunset wait 3 years? Was she not attracted to Rarity? Is she attracted to Rarity now? Is she dating Rarity because they are soul mates or because she fell in love with her? How, why, and when did they fall in love?
Furthermore, you constantly mention the dichotomy between Sunset's equestrian nature and her human setting. This is all well and good, but you only address what the problem is and not how she is overcoming it. The climax (where she reveals her secret to Rarity) falls flat because Rarity simply accpts the situation without much fuss, making it seem like there was never a problem to begin with. I'm actually surprised she was willing to let Sunset go so quickly when she thought Flash was the soulmate. Why wouldn't Rarity put up a fight to keep Sunset? Why doesn't Rarity have more questions on equestrian soulmates? Does Sunset really offer her a way out when they barely talk about it? Was Rarity leaving an entertained option?
Lastly, and this is may be a bit silly, but what about the Rarity in Equestria or the Sunset in the human world? Will they live in elndless winter because their au personas found each other instead?
All of this is to say that you have a really great foundation for a good story. With some more attention to detail and world building, this story could grow from being cute and fluffy to something one thinks on and contemplates after reading. To be clear, I am not asking for an answer to any or all of the questions I have asked. I asked them in hopes to get you thinking and to understand what I was explaining.
I can assume that reading me tear this story appart has not been something you enjoyed. No one really likes to be critiqued. Because of this, I tried to do so as respectfully as possible. I would sincerely like to encourage you in your writing. This story shows that you have a lot of potential to grow as a writer. I hope you continue writing and honing your craft.
I hope this review is helpful, if long winded, and if you have any questions or a response to what I've said, please feel free to respond back here or through pm
-berrytone
So.... Does the Rarity in the pony world no longer have a soul mate because sunset is in the human world, or is Pony worlds Rarity's soul mate a different pony all together? That could be another story idea right there.
7992337
I left it purposely vague, but my specific thinking was that since pony Rarity and human Rarity are more or less two different entities, Sunset may not be pony Rarity's soul mate (and technically speaking, human Rarity wouldn't have a soul mate at all).
7663763
I didn't really notice this while reading, but looking back, I have to agree. I've also read Monochromatic's "Colors of the Soul", and immediately spotted the parallels to it in this story's premise. I've enjoyed both stories, but "Colors of the Soul" made more of an effort to show the effect this phenomenon has on pony society, giving us at least enough to start wondering and try to extrapolate.
If anything, the winter thing would make things even more different than colorblindness. It would change the face of Equestria from the baseline that is the show we have seen. This story didn't even hint at any such changes, though. We are to assume that all the familiar events happened, with no changes subtle nor superficial, before Sunset made it to the human world and the story starts.
But that expectation doesn't really hold up when examined. The view of pony society that serves as the backdrop to the events of the show would be pretty different if everypony was cold all the time. Sprinkling just a few hints at that through the story would have done much to enrich the story, I think, though your description of Sunset's subjective experience was good enough that I didn't really think of all this until after finishing the story, which I have to give you credit for.