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TThe Legend of Daring Do
As Hearth’s Warming approaches, Rainbow Dash seeks Twilight Sparkle’s assistance in retelling an adventure story in an effort to bring back the sister she never knew.
The Red Parade · 40k words  ·  33  4 · 823 views

Summary of Story here: With Hearth’s Warming comes the painful anniversary of the death of Daring Dash, the younger sister of Rainbow Dash. Three years after her death, Rainbow stumbles across a strange interactive adventure novel written by her sister and enlists the help of Twilight Sparkle to bring it to life. What follows is the adventure of a lifetime, as Rainbow comes to realize how little she actually knew about her sister. And maybe, through a crazy tale of magic, monsters, and heroes, she can find some closure as well.


Introduction section: Hello every pony. Nailah here! *sniffles* I bet you are wondering why I'm crying. Don't worry it's not bad. It's just this story gave me feels. I feel like Twilight here "I wasn't prepared for this" but anyways, I'm rambling. Shall we get down to the actual review?

Initial thoughts: When I started reading, I was like great...a story about death and Heartswarming. I'm sure this will be just great! Ten hours later and I've binged 40k words. I think this is the quickest I've ever finished a story, and damn TheRedParade is quite excellent at his craft. Now this story was actually inspired by another story. "She Kills Monsters" which is a play from what I was told. I haven't read the original source content, but from what I get here, I don't think I need too. This story can easily stand on it's own. But credit to TheRedParade for making it HIS rather than just doing a "pony version" of the story. 8/10


What I liked: The characters, especially our focus on Rainbow Dash and Daring Dash. You can easily feel the sisterly bond between these two and how neither of them wants to admit their pain, and how they must work together in order to help each other heal and feel whole again. I love how this story will hit you like a truck with the feels. It wants you to care about these characters and by gosh TheRedParade made me cry! Such emotion, such strength. Emotion is NOT an easy expression to write and write well, but Red here does it so well. The story. It reminds me a lot of Jumanji, which is a childhood favorite of mine, but I do feel this is different enough to stand on it's own. Lastly, the environment. Sure, some of it feels cheesy. (Temple of the Vines?) but you can tell the heart was fully into it, and wanted to make it believable. Every story, even the best of stories will have points where you go what? Why? When a story makes you ask questions, that story is doing it's job in keeping you invested and keeping you reading. I could barely put this down long enough to tell Red he made me cry and that I Favorited his story. Yes. I am woman enough to admit it.

What I didn't like: The beginning. I don't know when I started it, the first chapter didn't "hook" me. It wasn't until chapter 2 that I was like I can't stop reading. I don't really know if it's the formatting or seeing how it ties into Hearthwarming at the very beginning. It's difficult to explain but it's not bad. Just comparing it to the rest of the story it feels like it needs more sugar.

Grammar: I saw no flaws whatsoever. Yes this is short. Deal. 10/10

Characterization: Rainbow Dash and Daring do were handled flawlessly, the side characters were believable and easy to "decode" who they actually were. I mean it's not hard to figure out. But I feel the connection with the sisters is the glue that holds this piece together. Without that connection it's just another action packed adventure about death. But with their connection, it becomes so much more. A deep peace about the bond between sisters and what it means to let go, but also what it means to move on. And in order to move on first you must hurt to heal. It's truly an emotional rollercoaster that I loved every minute of. 10/10

Story/Concept: The concept is very much solid here. The premise that Twilight uses her magic to make Daring Dash's story a reality is not the most uncommon thing I've heard of, but I feel it's unique enough that it's not like "ugh another one" kind of thing. Nowadays it's so hard to be original. But I love it when an author can take a classic and make it better. Granted, I haven't seen or read the original, but even if I had, I feel I'd like this story just a bit better. (call me biased.) 9/10

Overall thoughts: I FREAKING love this story, but at the same time I hate this story. I don't hate it for being bad. Oh no, I hate it because I had to actually control myself from crying more than I did from reading it. This story is jam packed full of action and adventure, full of character driven moments, and makes sure to take the time to give you room to breathe and get a grip on your senses. In short, this story is amazing and I am just baffled how I never knew anything about it before. I may not be a huge fan of Daring Do, but I am a huge fan of Rainbow Dash, and this story is easily hands down a favorite. 9/10




NEW SECTION:
Headpat worthy: YES.
Boop worthy: No
Meh!: No
Cringe Level: No

Final score: 8+9+10+10+9=46/50
9.5/10

To the author: Wow. Keep being awesome Red. I feel like this is short so I'm just going to do this.
*gives headpats*
Who's a good writer? You are yes you are.
As always keep writing and being awesome.

7193695
Thank you for the review!

This story was as much of a trip to write as it was to read honestly! I think a part of the environment was meant to be cheesy to reflect that Daring was an amateur writer, hence the cheesy location names and whatnot.

"Hearth's Warming" was kind of shoehorned onto this fic, and the source material was not related to Christmas at all, but the story was written specifically for a contest and had to revolve around a holiday in some way, so I'm not surprised this point comes off as a bit weak.

Like I said earlier though, this was a literal trip to write. I was writing pretty much directly up until the deadline, publishing the last chapter at like 11:50 on the last day of 2019, but hey. I'm glad everything worked out in the end, and that you enjoyed the fic!

Honored to see that this story is head pat worthy! :)

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