First impressions can be deceiving. It takes more than one look to see past our first judgements. It takes more than ten. It takes more than even a hundred.
But once you see past your first impressions...you may find that it wasn't like that after all.
A/N:
Many thanks to Daetrin for proofreading a rough draft for this long ago. (It's been, what...three months?)
Also thanks to Centiopius, for prereading this more recently.
Criticism is always appreciated, if it's in the form of a comment or just a simple thumbs-up. I do request that if you thumbs down this fic, you give why you disliked it in the comments section. But feel free to thumbs down and move on with your life.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapters (1)
I like this.
Very nice. Not much else to say other than yeah, I liked it. Pleasantly surprised that it wasn't shipping. Mind you, someone probably could interpret it that way. Anyway, good story well done.
Hmm. A sad sorta story, but very well done with a nice ending.
It's nice to see a Friendship bond strengthening story, rather than a ship every once in a while. and you my friend wrote a beautiful story. i enjoyed every single minute of reading this. bravo, i say, bravo.
1140101 Thank you! By the way, your art. AMAZING.
1140180 I tried to avoid shipping in this, mostly because I don't have the requisite "depth" of relationship in my headcanon that sustains this ship. Nevertheless, I'm sure people with shipping goggles will see this as the first sign of romance. Many thanks for the kind words.
1140586 I was going for the feels with the two flashbacks. But the overall tone of the story wasn't meant to be sad, more hopeful. Thus the absence of the "Sad" tag. Still, I'm happy you liked it.
1140672 You flatter me.
It gives writers like me a warm fuzzy feeling when they read a comment like yours and know they did something right. Merci beaucoup.
This story had mystery, suspense, and a nice ending that left a smile on my face. It's also a great portrayal on the friendship between Dash and AJ, that their bond can only strengthen and become stronger, no matter what life throws at them. Great read. (:
1141650 Aha, thank yew. :3
Aw, this was really nice. I'm a sucker for shipping, but I like friend-shipping (platonic) just as much or more, and its always nice to find a story that does it this well. I'm also a sucker for Dash secretly being a good Samaritan and helping Scoot, so I obviously loved this. Nice work - its really one of those feel-good pieces with undertones of sadness that end up making it all the more heartwarming in the end. Have a Dash and AJ for your work
1142981 Glad you liked it!
I loved playing with the idea of an incomplete puzzle for mystery and suspense.
1143164 That makes two of us. I read loads of shipping, but sometime, simple friends will do. I'm happy I managed to nail what friendshipping should be, for you at least.
This was so incredibly well written. You do AJ and RD both justice.
At your request (and don't worry. No one on this site sounds as pretentious as me. I can almost guarantee it.) I will be critiquing your story.
First off, pony not people. Everypony, anypony, pony here, pony there, pick-a-pony everywhere.
Sorry, anyway, that was a nice little hamlet of a story you have here. Only problem is in the details.
Was it a maelstrom? Typhoon? Massive thundercloud? Just calling it "Discord's Joke" doesn't really clarify much except make googly eyes at the fact that this was a massive storm. And also at the orphanage. If it was a small wooden building, how the hell does it have a meadow? Also, (and again, back to the orphanage) you could have done something really nice when A.J was shadowing Rainbow. You could've had her slip into the orphanage and follow Dash down a corridor, and at the end of it, A.J could see Dash stop at a door and almost go in. This would cause more questions for the reader while placing a sense of gravity behind the story.
All in all, that was a far better read than the garbage I'm used too.
I read this a while ago, but forgot to comment.
Which also means that I don't have my editing notes, but if you want them, I can go back through - it's a great read anyway, so I have no problem with that.
Anyway, this had so much emotion in it, and if not for you, then definitely for me.
And also, you've done really well on the popularity front. You've both brought in more views than me, and got a better ratio of viewers to likers, so you've to keep that up, 'kay?
Good job, want to see more from you.
1244121
I actually haven't come up with anything new...my newest one-shot is languishing in my editing hell right now. Lots of kinda primordial ooze ideas, with nothing fleshed out or explored or what have you.
I'd love it if you could go through it again and hit places where I slipped up / failed miserably. Mr. Ignorable already gave it a look through (he's great for that), but more criticism is always welcomed.
1246557 Know the feeling, I haven't got anything ready to post other than what's already here, but I have at least three other story concepts that are gathering dust.
Seriously, I teared up at this!
(Though I think RD's dad is still around in canon, didn't see the episode.) Well written and it's rare to see RD portrayed as an orphan (at least to me.) in an AppleDash fic (it's usually Romantic stuff with these 2) so kudos to you. Have this: 
6515501 Heh, thank you! It's been a very long time since I've actually written this, and I think there are a lot of flaws with it in general. I believe this was written mid-S2, which would explain the canon gap; however, if I ever come back to this, I'd probably update it and rewrite it.
Thanks again for reading!
Very philosophical, well written, well paced, emotionally driven at times, and well explored between these two best ponies in the show. Their backstories did hit me in the feels, I will admit. I give this two thumbs WAY up.