Each month we will be spotlighting one pairing, or suggesting a writing prompt. As you may have seen on the main page, this month's area of focus is Adagio x Rainbow.

I don't think this ship works in a romantic context. There's no way I can see Adagio respecting someone frankly as dumb as Rainbow Dash enough to love her. And I can't really see Rainbow respecting someone as smug and superior as Adagio, either. So there's that.

But they do work wonderfully as rivals! For those exact same reasons. Because Adagio doesn't have much respect for Rainbow's intelligence, she finds it infuriating Rainbow can skate by on what she sees as luck. And because Rainbow doesn't have much respect for Adagio's appearance of not having to bother trying, she finds it just as infuriating how Adagio can get by as what she sees as luck, privilege, bending the rules, you name it.

(No, that doesn't mean they want to have sex. That's not how despising people works. Do you want to have sex with Donald Trump? Or Joe Biden, if you lean the other way?)

So Rainbow and Adagio can be a lot of fun together, when you're not pushing them to smooch! Especially as the respective leaders of their groups (as Rainbow was around the time of Rainbow Rocks). This month is for stories of them driving each other up the proverbial walls. Here's a well regarded sample of the ship, but we need you to write more! Maybe Rainbow is convinced Adagio is cheating on tests in class, and sets out to find out how and expose her. Maybe Adagio grows tired of Rainbow's gloating so starts her own sports team just to beat CHS. Maybe they're both roped in as models for Rarity's latest catwalk and are determined to upstage each other. Maybe Rainbow really hates team captain Spitfire's new girlfriend...

Artwork provided by kaemantis, with the piece higher up by zalla661 (whose name I recognise for writing quite a few stories of these two, too).

If this is a ship you like the sound of, this thread is probably a good place to discuss it. I joined this group not just to see all the unusual siren ships in one place, but to encourage others to write more of them, so if you're thinking of writing an Adagio x Rainbow story or have one in the works already, by all means let us know in the thread below. Or just discuss the ship: what you like about it and why, what problems you've encountered with it before, what scenarios you can envision for the two of them. Just talking about it like that can inspire others with new story ideas, some of which might get written down, at which point we all benefit

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I may have read example stories from previously promoted ships, but this ship is the only one I specifically remember having read before it was promoted here.

Overall, I'm a fan.

7263787 There are a good number of them; I think at one point there were more stories shipping Adagio with Rainbow than there were Adagio with Rarity, which seems a much more obvious pair.

I've read a few of them, I enjoyed bahatumay's by far the most, but the lasting impression was one or more of VitalSpark's, which I wasn't at all impressed with (it's probably ok for me to say that, they've been banned from the site for two years).

What would you say the main appeal of the ship is?

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What would you say the main appeal of the ship is?

That's a tough one.

When you look at the more popular siren pairings, there's a degree of "obviousness" to them. Sunset x Adagio being a good example. Sunset is a former villain and a basically the main character of EqG. Adagio is the lead siren and a shipfic is usually going to turn it's chosen siren (or all of them) good. They're based on fairly blatant qualities.

What people often miss about the Rainbooms is that Rainbow was their leader. They had various friendships with each other before EqG1. They rallied around Princess Twilight but she didn't stick around. Sunset was left with them to take care of. It's only due to plot that Sunset is given a leader-like presence in the group.

The actual band, The Rainbooms, was formed by Rainbow Dash (as shown in the Rainbow Rocks prequel shorts). During Rainbow Rocks even when Princess Twilight came back she served as a more advisor role with Rainbow generally calling the shots.

Rainbow and Adagio feels like a uniting of the two leaders. It feels like a more proper "obvious" ship that people overlook due to generally shallow minds.

Beyond that, when you consider their personalities they feel like two sides of a similar coin. They both seek adoration. Rainbow through her athletic abilities and Adagio through song. They both sing about virtues: their own (Awesome as I Want to Be & Under Our Spell) and of others (CHS Rally Song and Battle of the Bands). I feel like they'd be surprisingly in tune with each other once you get past the surface.

This all creates a sense of depth. All while feeling novel in a way that Sundagio just lacks.

7263916 I agree, she and Rainbow make a lot more sense as a pairing in any respect when Rainbow's treated as being the leader of the group. I rather miss those days, when the friendship gang was led by those with the most experience of it, rather than the two latecomers to the party.

And Rainbow leading makes far more sense in a musical context. Neither Sunset nor either of the Twilights have ever been all that passionate about their hobbies, whereas Rainbow is the one who throws herself into things, and might believably announce that they're starting a band and drag the others along for the ride. I agree, that would make an interesting parallel with Adagio.

What lessons do you think Rainbow might think Adagio could learn from being defeated where Rainbow succeeded, other than how handy it is to keep Sunset somewhere as backup?

Definitely more novel than Sundagio!

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What lessons do you think Rainbow might think Adagio could learn from being defeated where Rainbow succeeded

Honestly, this is the basic question just about every Good+Villain ship needs to answer. It's less about what the answer is and how the two answer it together. I'd defer to Starlight Glimmer's story in canon as the best example. Adjust for the personality of the characters involved. In short, Adagio needs to be convinced of what she did wrong (mainly, in attempting to force people) then guide her towards the better method (Rainbow's style of pushing herself to be as awesome as possible so others are inspired by her merit).

That's basically the meat of what anyone writing a story is going to have to build upon themselves.

What I was mostly bringing up is the attention to characterization. Most folks gravitate towards ships like Sundagio after picking out the "former villain" common ground element, and building from that. The "redemption arc" stuff is treated as some novel thing and the Sunset character guides the Adagio character through it from a position of experience. What I like about Rainbow and Adagio is that you're not limited to just that. Rainbow was never a villain, but she has faced her share of being wrong. She's easily qualified to tell this story but she's also qualified to relate to Adagio on many other levels as well, such as familiarity with being in the leader role and guiding others. Their passion for music, as you noted, feels more intense than with other characters as Rainbow is the sort to not merely follow along with what her friends like or show a passing interest in something then drop it the next weekend. She's the sort to become captain of every sports team, and master everything she puts her attention on, then add more to her plate like a band. She wouldn't stop her pursuit of music just because something else caught her attention.

That's some fun stuff to go with. Adagio has potentially a lot of experience as a musician to teach Rainbow things. They're both very interested in the related skill of stagecraft, again an area Adagio has a lot of experience in. Rainbow could play the apprentice role to Adagio's mastery because she's already decently skilled, passionate to excel, and could surpass Adagio given her drive. Having such a student could easily push Adagio harder than she's ever had to go before in order to keep ahead of Rainbow.

That's the kind of energy and dynamic the two have available. Not just a "waaah, we used to be bad, why does everyone forgive us?!" fic that the fandom churns out on a daily basis. Whatever their path as an author envisions, there's going to be room for a lot of exciting stuff. Arguments and intense apology makeouts. Both of them pushing each other to greater heights and accidentally achieving the goal of others adoring them along the way.

7266218 I could see a very interesting conflict there, where they're both trying to analyse where Adagio went wrong and come up with a better approach, except Adagio means technically wrong and Rainbow means morally. Yeah, that could be an intriguing one.

I agree, it's really nice it's not limited to the redemption arc. As an aside, that whole thing is enormously problematic - people falling for their rescuers is not healthy, rescuers get put on pedestals and the relationship inevitably ends up one-sided. Also makes it much more likely the departure from villainy will end the moment the relationship does. I'd compare it to an alcoholic coupling up with their AA sponsor, which I presume is very against AA group rules.

I really like that thought that Rainbow can tread some of that territory but without the full-blown villain angle. If anything, I think Adagio would be a lot more receptive to change in that scenario. 'Don't be such a dick' would be harder for her to argue back against than 'don't be evil,' I'd say. And yeah, it's much nicer to have that be one of many facets, rather than the sole focus as it ends up being with SunDagio.

Rainbow learning from Adagio would be an interesting one. I can't see Adagio putting up with Newbie-Dash-style antics for long. But I could also see Rainbow struggling to be humble enough to learn from someone she technically defeated, who's also a bit evil and stuff. That could make for quite a lot of depth, the sort of story that'd have to be reasonably long to be done well, and handled by someone who knows what they're doing.