Director's cut: Truth or Cuddle? · 3:54am Jul 3rd, 2021
It was only a matter of time before I'd write a cuddle fic. The jury is still on if it still hasn't happened, since this story had Eric Reed and Rainbow Dash reluctantly cuddling
For now, since Eric and Rainbow Smack (as a comment from the story called her) did cuddle, I'll count "Truth or Cuddle" as a cuddlefic, and it better: it was entered in CategoricalGrant's CuddleFic Contest.
That said, I was glad I was able to come up with an idea for the story and write it, since I didn't hear about the contest until about 3 weeks before June 30th, its deadline. For most short stories I write, once I get the idea for it and start, it takes between 3-5 weeks to finish. So while I wouldn't quite say I "rushed" this, but I did go through the stages a little more quickly than usual.
Now, more about the story itself. My initial idea was for Eric to get Rainbow mad and she makes him cuddle with her and more (not that kind of more(!) because she would like it. This idea was sparked from my story The Princess of Ear-Scratches where Rainbow not only liked her ears scratched, but she liked it the most!
However, almost right away, as I was trying to write the first draft, it became too clear that my idea wasn't going to work without making Rainbow too OOC. This happened in the middle of June, so for a moment, I thought I might have to pass on entering this contest. Luckily, maybe 3 or 4 days later, the idea with Applejack being livid at Rainbow and Eric, then she makes the two cuddle, came to me, and it pretty much saved this story. Though, I had a bit of trouble thinking of what Apple Bloom could try to do (and fail) to get Eric and Rainbow to let her use them as her test subjects.
As for Eric and Rainbow specifically and due to their personalities, and can bounce off each other, Eric's interactions with Rainbow are along my top 3 or so favorites compared to his interactions with other characters.
The story had two notable edits/cuts. The first edit was to how hard Rainbow smacked Eric on the second time. She originally knocked him to the ground, face-down, and when he started asking why Rainbow was being so rough, she smacked him again, lighter, and said that the last hit was for the next time he screwed up. I thought it was a bit too much, so I lowered the force Rainbow used on him.
On a side note, it's worth mentioning here that if I had found a way to do the story with Rainbow telling Eric what she wanted him to do, Twilight and Starlight would have run into them in Twilight's castle. Their reactions would have been the same as it was in Ponyville's Town Square.
The other change was a big cut, and it took out part of the last scene. Because the contest's theme was about cuddling and I felt the scene took the focus away from it just a bit, I took it out. Instead of saying more about it, I'll add how things would have more or less ended if I left the scene there.
Twilight walked across the room to my bed while still levitating me, laid me onto it on my back, and covered me with my blanket. She leaned forward, tenderly stroked an arm again with a forehoof, her big purple eyes screaming worry, and whispered in that motherly voice, “Just stay in bed for now, and I will take care of everything you need. Your big sis is finally going to stop stressing out so much, so this won’t happen to you again.”
Wow. That pony thought she had actually made me lose my marbles with her most recent freak-out! I burst out in laughter.
“Oh, no, what have I done to you? I’m the worst big sister ever, and I’m so sorry!”
Her worsening frown and sudden watery eyes made this NOT funny anymore. Twilight looked to be seconds away from crying, so I cooled the laughing ASAP. “No, no, don’t cry, Twi, and I haven’t lost it, I promise. I was just doing some dares with Rainbow when you...saw us.”
Twilight grinned. "Really?" She leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs about me. "Oh, thank Celestia it wasn’t because I drove you crazy! You have no idea how awful I was feeling, and now I can tell...uh, g-good to know you’re still you.” She freed her forelegs from me and patted me on the head, almost nonchalantly.
“Wait, what were you about to say?”
Twi bit her lip. “Uh...okay. I...asked someone to come and try to...talk you back to your senses, and Fluttershy is at Rainbow’s place to ‘check’ on her.”
Oh, this should be good. “And who was the ‘someone’ you asked to talk to me?”
Twilight fiddled her wings. “Well...before I do, let the record state that she was the first pony I ran into after I told Fluttershy that I thought happened, I was desperate, and I didn’t think I could wait for even another second. I was scared that I messed up your mind!”
“You’re talking as if you asked a pony like Trixie to talk me back to my senses.”
A “Great and Powerful” blue unicorn strolled into my doorway. I couldn’t have held back my laughter even if I were dared to.
Twilight Sparkle had to have been beyond desperate if she asked Trixie to give talking sense into me a shot.
