"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying, And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying."
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One is an upper-class if somewhat eccentric unicorn from Vanhoover. One is a country pegasus with neither manners nor patience. When both attend the same prestigious college in Canterlot, friendships are made, secrets revealed… and loyalties tested.
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Holy crap this was awesome.
This definitely needs a sequel. Make Do needs to find a way to be free someday!
gee, when i realised what format this was going to be written in, I knew I was going to be in for a ride.
+1
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Definitely an interesting proposal, though given the story's reliance on canon events, I'll most likely wait first to see how (or even whether) the show wraps up the Daring Do arc.
Also, your first line made my day.
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Yes, stories in letter form aren't something I've done before, so this was a first try I was keen to get right. The trickiest part was the bit with the globe-trotting, as it had to give the impression of a lot of travel without bogging down the pace.
Thank you very much for the reply!
I read this, took a nap because I was running off about 3 hours of sleep beforehand, dreamt of this fic, and then read it again.
It's good, is what I'm saying. It's real good. I can't overstate enough how good this is. Good shit good shit mmmmmmmmmmmm good shit thank you
This is one of the best fics I've read in a while. And that's saying something.
I cannot express how enjoyable this was. I wish I could read this as a 100k work of epic proportions, each letter expanded upon to show us it actually happening. Having these events play out over the better part of a year while you write it.
And yet I can't help but love it as it is.
I know not how I've yet to read any of your stories, but I will be going through the backlog in the coming weeks.
That was really interesting. Nice job trying together the known Daring and Twilight Velvet details to make a really engaging backstory for them.
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Thanks again for your comments!
I love it! Definitley one of my favourite fics ever. Really good
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Terrific! I'm very pleased to hear that, and thank you for the lovely comment.
This is one of the best pieces of epistolary fiction that I have ever read. Please keep writing.
Your grammar was spot-on. I laughed out loud in several places, which is usually enough to gain my approval—in fact, I am not, in general, a fan of tear-jerkers—but humor is not even this story’s strongest point.
You made me care deeply for both Twilight Velvet and Make Do within a few letters, and that was before Make Do’s tragic backstory or the height of the initial drama. The way it played out after that showed that you have a deep understanding of conflicts generated by miscommunication. Most conflicts of that sort in fiction result from idiot plots, but you managed to accomplish it by giving the characters starkly contrasting, yet realistic, understandings of social interaction, and rather than attempting to feed the narrative entirely with the resulting angst—a common tactic that results in stagnant, frustrating stories—you allowed the characters to figure things out in a realistic way.
The excellence of the story did not stop there. The characterization marched on brilliantly and poigniantly, and when you introduced Night Light, you managed to dodge so many awful, lazy clichés that I will probably fail to list them all. You could have induced conflict by making Make Do passive-aggressively resentful towards Night Light for the changes in Twilight Velvet’s behavior; you could have made Night Light loathesome; you could have written Night Light in any number of ways that make it obvious that some authors have never paid attention to math geeks. Instead, you made Make Do baffled and annoyed, but not especially resentful, you allowed Night Light to be slightly awkward, but likable, and you made it clear that you’d at least talked to a math enthusiast before at length (the Newton-Leibniz calculus debate gave it away, among other things).
Even after that, the story was engaging, and that alone is impressive when one considers the unresolved and amorphous nature of the conflicts that follow.
The optimism of the story is also striking and poigniant; there were so many ways that a lazier author could have cheaply resolved the conflict or destroyed the central friendship, but you used none of them. Instead, you allowed the main characters to actually suffer various hardships—sometimes socially realistic ones—and grow closer by maturing to deal with said hardships.
I will stop here, as I have probably gone on far too long, and I could go on far longer if I desired to sing in full every praise this story deserves. Anyway, I apologize for any smudges; my ceiling seems to have sprung a leak.
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Also, apologies for the delay, but when faced with posts like this, I generally give myself some time to think up a more interesting than usual reply.
Glad you liked this aspect. Something I've recently tried to do more often is to aim for emotional range within a work; there'll be a dominant emotion (fear in horror, amusement in comedy, and so on), but other emotions can have their side roles and places in the story too. I've picked up the idea that this makes the work a little deeper than if it was an intense monolith of feeling. Admittedly, it's not a one-size-fits-all tactic (there's a time and place for the monolithic approach if you want a strong flavour in a fic), but I'm intrigued to see how that guiding principle works in some of these longer pieces.
Music to my ears. I was keen to make sure in particular that Make Do didn't come off as a mere flat grouch, but as an individual with passions and interests (which in turn explain and ground her grouchiness). Character philosophies - contrasting or otherwise - play a big part in that, as you point out, informed by respective personalities and life experience. Psychological complexity and diversity is what I want to depict.
Plus, it's just more interesting and clearer to see evidence. To see, say, Twilight Velvet do things to demonstrate her good intentions than to just have her say sorry. Ponies muddling through relationships because of what they actually do to and for each other: that was the whole point.
This made me smile in particular. Night Light was a bit tricky at first, as so much of the fic was geared towards Twilight Velvet and Make Do, and suddenly introducing him about halfway through felt like throwing an intruder into the mix. But in practice - and partly thanks to a mixture of taking canon details to give him character and assuming he's much like Twilight Sparkle - he slid into the arrangement with surprising ease. I like to think it's because, in the fic, he and Twilight Velvet actually did what most couples do, i.e. spend time with each other, fumble once or twice, and bond because of how much common ground, respect, and goodwill they find in their relationship. Two individual characters, first and foremost, with their own quirks and weaknesses.
Perhaps I made that reference a bit too obvious, in hindsight, but I had a devil of a time trying to come up with plausible yet recognizable pony-like names for them.
Honestly, mathematics gets a bad rap in some quarters. While I won't pretend to be good at it as such, I love reading about scientists and mathematicians who clearly saw the beauty in the subject. My favourite and most memorable fascinating fact is the anecdote about Hardy and Ramanujan, while Ramanujan was on his deathbed, on the subject of 1729 being a surprisingly interesting number.
To me, this was a sobering reminder that it's really bad form to be dismissive of the subject, not because it's useful but because it's rich. Full of surprises, and hidden character, and playful connections. I like numbers, even if I don't always understand them. And best of all, there's so much under the umbrella of mathematics that I can barely scratch the surface! An explorer's world of a wholly abstract kind.
Well, I'm glad you still found it engaging, but I will admit from Make Do's departure to her revealing the curse's existence to Twilight Velvet was all one tricky part to write, for technical and pacing reasons. I'd gotten so used to the steady progression of the college setting that the revelations, globetrotting trips, and merry-go-rounds felt a bit disjointed by comparison, even as I tried to make them flow. To me, it didn't really "click" again until Make Do sent Adventure House Publishing her application letter.
Love that you singled this out. At times, I was toying with the idea of tagging it "Dark" or "Sad", principally because that curse is a nightmare, but ultimately I didn't want that to overshadow the story of a friendship growing stronger with, or in spite of, each setback. It felt like it would've ruined the point.
Never did I want to destroy the central friendship, not even for a "they break up for Act Two and then reunite in Act Three" structure. Make Do does something similar during the "secret poems" part of the story, but I wanted to convey that the relationship was still relatively underdeveloped by then, though under all that anger she has grown close to Twilight Velvet, and that she partly wants to get back together; her Aunt Monthling has to call out her flippant behaviour to reveal that there is some connection there, and that the true sticking point of the issue is mutual trust.
That underlying connection is one reason why this invasion of her boundaries hurts her so much ("The worst part is I thought she really cared. She even cried crocodile tears just to convince me she’d only done a little harmless thing instead of making me look like a pathetic joke. She took an interest..."), and why Twilight's breakdown was essential to giving her a chance to restore their friendship. Make Do's slow-to-forgive paranoia needed a strong sign of reassurance that Twilight views their relationship seriously, and to a cynic like her, "buying forgiveness" doesn't cut it but genuine emotional behaviour would, albeit to a degree that she starts questioning her own behaviour in turn.
What I wanted to get across was that it's not one thing leading to another, but many things leading to many other things. Again, psychological complexity and diversity were the point.
I had fun with that recurring phrase, though admittedly I scaled it back for a stretch in the middle, because otherwise I suspect it'd wear out its welcome fast.
Thank you again for a reply above and beyond my expectations!
I will say I thoroughly enjoyed this. It does need a sequel, maybe non-canon, but it needs one. Thanks so much for the entertainment in any case.
I'm not crying... There's just a leak in my room...
Please free her, please please please! I can't take it, my heart!
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Darn. Reading this response, I'm half
and half 
.
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A non-canon sequel is an interesting proposal, since the ending is basically a cliffhanger. I can't encourage hopes, though. I've got other projects on the list I want to attend to.
Fair's fair, I'm not absolutely saying no; I'm just saying, in all honesty, it's currently not likely. Though if anything, I'm flattered. The request itself I take as a very rewarding compliment. Thank you.
Exquisitely crafted from start to finish. The story flows from slice of life to romance to gripping adventure to mild horror to that last hope spot with incredible smoothness and wonderfully rich characterization. Well-integrated with canon while still presenting a veritable mountain of original ideas. I especially love how Make Do's Curse of the Protagonist is the source of the interesting times Twilight Sparkle's lived in.
Thank you for this. Here's hoping the daughter won't have to pay the final price for the sins of the parents.
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Thanks for a great comment! It's been a good few days of seeing people tell me what they think of the story in so many different ways. A real treat.
This was pretty much why the only genre tag I felt confident in was "Drama", though given my own reservations about the last third I'm especially pleased to learn you found it all flowed well after all. Originally, that last hope spot wasn't there and the story ended on Make Do/Daring Do's desperate plea, but it just struck me as far too sour a final note for the reader to go out on. On top of that, I just couldn't imagine Twilight Velvet choosing any differently, however upset she would be by her daughter getting partially infected.
By the way, your coinage "Curse of the Protagonist" is brilliant and I want to use that term more often.
This is an amazing story. One of the best Daring Do fics I've ever read if not the best one.
And just as the curse, this needs closure. I need it
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Thank you for the great compliment!
This was a delight to read. "One of the best Daring Do fics I've ever read" is a fantastic phrase for me to find when I check my latest received comments. Thanks again for this kindness. 
Although I must regretfully admit that I don't have any plans for a sequel. Sorry about that. It simply hadn't crossed my mind until people started asking in the comments, and I've got other projects to tackle in the meantime. At least I'm honoured you liked the fic enough to suggest I write one.
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Glad you liked it, though I think the implication is strong enough that, once you get to the end, you can figure out what happens from there. But thanks all the same for leaving a comment.
Sounds like a comedy
That was a very enjoyable read. I like the style of letter sending. Very well done. Also knowing that it has a canon happy ending is quite plus. Main six have way fixing things that broken. Especially
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I endeavour to give satisfaction, as Jeeves would say.
在此之前，我从未想象过Velvet和Make Do之间可能产生的任何交集，但是感谢您，我现在知道了，并且您的故事非常精彩！人物（或者该说ponies？）的表现非常生动和自然，情节也相当吸引人！我必须承认我完全被这个故事迷住了
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很高兴您发现我的故事如此有趣。感谢您的愉快评论。它给了我很多快乐！
I am glad you found my story so interesting. Thank you for your pleasant comment. It gave me a lot of happiness!
My new favorite Daring Do story.
Make Do and Twilight Velvet are interesting and engaging characters.
The letter format flows nicely and provides us with two POV's.
In conclusion great story!
It is a damned tragedy that I let this sit in my library unread for so long.
From the moment I spotted it I knew it would be to my liking but that assumption does not do the story justice. I'm sitting in my living room at 4am, nostalgic for the early days of the fandom where I'd rip through three stories and leave insightful and "insightful" comments before demanding "Moar!". Bravo wordsmith, this was truly a wonder to read.
If you ever do get around to making that sequel though I would be very appreciative
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Ah, that moment when someone comments on a fic you've almost completely forgotten about...
Honesty being the best policy, I wouldn't wait for a sequel if I were you. I just haven't felt the inclination. Even if I didn't have general writing difficulties, at best I've thought more about a "spiritual successor" kind of fic that borrows some of this one's elements than about a direct sequel to it.
I appreciate the sentiment, though, so thank you for the encouraging comment: a pleasure to read in its own right!
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. Also glad to hear you enjoyed my comment, it took a bit of working to find the right words, I've not been as active in making them the last few years so I'll take that as encouragement 
Ach, after six years it was a long-shot anyway, I'm more than happy with what you've already written