TZap Apple: Rainbow Dash vs Maternity Leave

• MLP: FiM
• Comedy
• Drama
• Slice of Life

With a foal on the way, Rainbow Dash must put aside her Wonderbolt Captaincy for a time. But... can she?

• Rainbow Dash
• Applejack
• Spitfire
• Soarin
• OC

Ninjadeadbeard · 8k words  ·  55  5 · 1.6k views

Initial Impressions:

Warning there are spoilers ahead.

This was a different view of Rainbow than I have seen before. It still kept in character and was a pretty real fear that most people who are career-based have when they have kids. I think it does a good job showing the trepidation that parents face knowing a little version of them is coming.

Sadly I didn’t finish Anarchy so I didn’t get the old dead relative coming to stay trope. I’m sure that’s part of the overreaching arch. I will have to read it.

Summary:

Rainbow Dash is pregnant with Applejack’s foal thanks to an unexplained chaos event. She returns to Wonderbolt headquarters to begin the process of maternity leave. While there she’s met by Spitfire on a surprise visit. They tease each other a bit but eventually get to the heart of Rainbow’s issue. Rainbow is afraid having a foal will change who she is and affect her career. The old Wonderbolt Captain helps put her mind at ease. But it leaves Dash with questions that she can’t answer.

Story (8/10)

The story is interesting. I like how it moves the characters forward into their possible future. Rainbow and Applejack should have a foal somehow in my opinion. AJ’s cutie mark comes from her choice to stay on the farm but also with her family. Family is part of who she is. The idea that she wouldn’t have foals somehow just never seemed in character for me.

Rainbow being the pregnant one is a great twist. It affects her more. An athlete has trouble with all the body changes and emotional upheaval a kid brings. Add pegasus magic to that and you have a setup for a very interesting term. I hope we get to see it somewhere.

Spitfire is done well here. Except the nuzzle feels a little much. Nuzzling is more of a couples thing from what I gather and is extremely intimate. The tone of the talk changed to an unrequited relationship that could have taken place. I’m not sure if I read too much into that. The only problem with Spitfire and Soarin having a foal is you got the name wrong. Their first foal is Shadow Work as per my head cannon. (This is a joke of course you can be as wrong as you want to.)

Characters (9/10)

Rainbow Dash sounded like Rainbow Dash. She acted how I would think Rainbow would in that instance. An inner struggle within her takes a lot to draw out and this was conveyed very well.

Spitfire is also done well. Her missing the thrill of barking orders and breaking egos is very much in character. It’s the part she loved the most. That poor foal (Shadow Work) now has to take the brunt of her barking.

Soarin wasn’t a character that was developed as strongly in the show. He seemed to be not the brightest bulb in the circuit. Here he’s portrayed as more attentive and a good second. Age must have smartened him up.

The rest of the cast were seen rather briefly but didn’t fall too far from their established selves. Applejack might have been a little gruff to her undead family member but that might have more to do with the intricate backstory.

The flow (9/10)

The only reason this isn’t a ten is that the ending didn’t feel like a full ending. It was a segment. They posed a lot of questions in the piece and not so many of them get answered. I understand this is a series so I assume they get answered later on. But to me, a story that has more questions at the end than when you started feels a little incomplete.

The small asides were a little different. It took me a minute to realize this was more for comedic value. I can only assume Lightning Dust must have been really drunk or had a head injury when Rusty Bolt was conceived. I might be biased.

In summation

I liked this story. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it was self-contained but that is the nature of reading in the middle of a series. It is well within your right to not explain the previous story to tell a sequel. Had I the time I would have read Anarchy first but sadly the clock was against me. Still, it offered a new look at Rainbow Dash and helped show a different side to our favorite flight experts.

Lastly a suggestion “While she contemplated that, a more than welcome sight suddenly faded out of the distance.” Fading out suggests it’s disappearing. Maybe, “appeared through the haze.”

Total score: 9/10

<For archive purposes:9/10>

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Except the nuzzle feels a little much. Nuzzling is more of a couples thing from what I gather and is extremely intimate. The tone of the talk changed to an unrequited relationship that could have taken place. I’m not sure if I read too much into that.

Yes. Yes you did.

I always understood nuzzling to just be a sign of deep affection, so it’s more like a horsey hug to me.

Also, how the heck do you get a name like Shadow Work when your parents have names referencing fire the sky?

Thanks so much for the review! I understand it’s difficult to hop into the middle of a story, and I appreciate you taking that risk this time around. Hopefully, I’ll have time soon to write the next one of these stories.