Fic Rec and Update · 9:27pm May 10th, 2020
Now this is something that I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked so much.
(Read on for fic recommendations, as well as updates on my personal life and other work!)
As I've said elsewhere, I tend to avoid same-sex ships in my reading and my writing. For some reason, they make me uncomfortable, which I recognize is a personal failing and I don't know how to fix, blame my conservative Christian upbringing. However, this story was recommended to me in one of the fic-rec swap threads on Reddit, and I finally sat down to read it.
And I'm so glad I did. Y'all ready for some feels?
Short version: Rainbow Dash is irritated that the zap apple harvest is going to interfere with her plans to take Applejack on a date. A sexy date. So she attempts to speed up the process, using some of her native pegasus magic. Things don't go as planned, however, and Rainbow Dash crashes, hard. When she wakes up, she discovers that it's fifteen years later, she's married to Applejack, and they have three kids together. Rainbow Dash finds herself thrust into a situation she isn't even sure she wants, and finds that she has to struggle to be a mom to her kids, and a wife to her Applejack, with none of the memories or emotional connections that make those roles meaningful.
Lost Time is a surprisingly mature fic, based around the idea of how to be a good partner and a good parent. It reminds me a little bit of the film The Family Man with Nic Cage, though taken in a much different direction. And the writing is wonderful, too: Rainbow Dash comes across as wonderfully selfish early on, and yet her growth into the pony that everyone needs her to be feels natural and organic. It's even made me rethink some aspects of my own relationships. A really superb story, and one that I highly recommend.
Now onto the personal stuff:
I gotta admit, guys: this coronavirus lockdown is really kicking my ass.
I feel like I've been struggling to keep up with my responsibilities with school and work, and, when I finish, I just want to lay on the couch and play video games for a while. I've been feeling creatively drained, and, even when I have the energy to sit down and write, I usually end up on YouTube or something.
That said: I've been reading more fic lately, and I feel like I'm ready to start again--especially after remembering how much I love this fandom. I'm on the cusp of finishing a short fic set in the Celestia XVII-verse, and, following that, I plan to turn my attention to Someone Still Loves You. If you have been following me for a while, you know that means we might still be a few weeks/months away from actual updates, but I will be working on it (I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and want to make sure everything's finished and perfect before I post).
Thank you for following, and hopefully you'll hear from me soon!
~brokenimage321
Funnily enough, Lovecraft was the same way with his admittedly much broader failings (and yes, we have actual correspondence showing that people directly told him to stop being so racist, so they were failings even in his time).
Lost Time is so good I picked up the print copy. As for the discomfort, I could probably recommend some stories that have it as a secondary plot point to kinda ease into the romance. There's also a writer on here who has a lot of Christian references/themes woven in with LGBT pony characters. I can PM some stories if you like. Bookplayer is also always good when it comes to romance writing. I'd suggest her blogs too.
Hope you stay healthy, man.
By the way, I'm still available to pre-read
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Is it the same writer you told me not to reference by name a few weeks ago in that one Unsafe Space thread?
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Perhaps.
I too used to think being gay was an abomination in they eyes of God thanks to my shitty conservative Christian upbringing, and then I went to college and actually thought more about shit and withing four years had become an insufferable commie.
What's interesting is that I have zero issue with all the lesbian secondary ships like Lyra and Bon Bon and Vinyl Scratch and Octavia or even Trixie and Starlight. But I have a harder time with inter-main-six ships, though I think that partially might be due to oversaturation.
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I'm doin' okay, all things considered. My inner muse has apparently decided to self-quarantine elsewhere, however.
And, absolutely I'd love you to pre-read! I just need to get a little closer to finished first.