• Member Since 8th Oct, 2012
  • offline last seen 5 hours ago

bats


Writer, blogger, saucy chat mom, occasional bitch. Hablo espaƱol. She/her/ella.

T
Source

In the weeks following the coronation of Equestria's new princess, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash are both troubled by regret. In the face of changes they can never reverse and actions they can never take back, they search for solace in solitude, but instead find each other in the small hours of the morning.

Inspired by Little Wonders by Rob Thomas.

Editing by Formerly Committed and Shellsh0cker.

Winner of the TwiDash Showdown by a single vote.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 211 )

YES! The second contestant has posted his story! Now, I shall read and enjoy what the competition has brought out of the greatest writers for us.

Seriously? Two downvotes already? :twilightoops:

Well, I'm too busy to read this through right now, but let me at least read it far enough to see if I can give it an early upvote.


ETA: Okay, read through the first section and tossed this in my read later pile. Definitely worth the upvote on the strength of that, I think. Very nice work there.

bats #3 · May 27th, 2013 · · 1 ·

2637961

I don't pay attention to downvotes without comments attached to them. Too many folks around that just take a bite out of every Twidash they see. I get a few downvotes a story, regardless of anything in it. Just something you face writing a pairing that's somewhat contested. I'm sure some of them are valid, and they don't even need comments to be valid ones; I know my stories can't please everyone and I don't write them to try.

Glad you liked the beginning, hope the rest lives up to it for ya. :pinkiehappy:

And now we have bats entry...

Man... This ain't gonna be easy...

~Skeeter The Lurker

2638040

LOL SHIPPING!!!!!1111111111111

ps i upvoted baby mwah mwah <3

2637883>>2637961>>2638040>>2638059>>2638098 *hugs*

this...... it was just perfect
i'm voting for this one it was just so good.....
congrats :twilightsheepish:

....That.....
That was adorable. I swear I recognize a part of it from somewhere, but I can't remember where...But it was still adorably cute.

The feels....the pacing....the dip of depression and climbing heights of trust and friendship into the explosive finish of tentive and young romance...

Hats off to you bats.

Take a bow and know that this is some of your finest work.

Venficus

apparently song lyrics are no longer allowed in stories

Er... according to whom? There's nothing in the FAQ which forbids song lyrics; it just says that lyrics don't count towards the minimum word count. I'd appeal the ruling if I were you.

Anyway -- great story; very emotional and moving. And I like your take on Alicorn!Twilight; it's a refreshing change from the usual "Twilight's immortal and gonna have to watch all her friends die!" that seems to have become everyone's default assumption, even though no one ever seemed bothered about it when Cadence married Twilight's brother.

2638385

I had a PM conversation with one of the proofreaders. So, basically I did dispute it before altering the story and resubmitting.

both are great, but for my part bats has made the race

2638407
Still, I wouldn't let it stand unless they can point you to the exact spot in the posting guidelines, in writing, that explicitly forbids it.

2638431

We reserve any right to decide what goes up. A story may be failed even if it doesn't explicitly fail any of the rules listed above it we deem it shouldn't be on the site.

2638431>>2638480

Posted's got it exactly. This isn't a public institution that needs to follow laws, they can do whatever they want. The answer that I got was that Knighty explicitly said in no uncertain terms that copyrighted song lyrics were an instant fail now. Hopefully they update the faq accordingly soon, but for now it's hardly a big deal. This isn't EQD where I lost a strike or something. I altered the story to not have the lyrics, which isn't perfect, but it hardly ruined anything. I was a bit frustrated based on the fact that there are plenty of stories that do have lyrics in them, but if this is what they're doing going forward, okay.

I will be voting for this.

The cutie mark burn continued to show clearly

Oh, so THAT's what that was. Wasn't clear to me at all...

Comment posted by Myrandall deleted May 27th, 2013

Another twidash in feature, what a surprise!
:ajsmug:

That was nice - though i get the feeling, at least, that Dash should talk to spitfire - come clean. It's a personal thing, sure, but given the circumstances... maybe there'd be leniency. I dunno.

Still, nice, despite being the wrong ship ;D

2638854

Perhaps. What they do next isn't really important. Maybe Dash will find her dream again, maybe she'll find something else to make her happy. Even with the extenuating circumstances, even if Spitfire knows for sure the reason why Dash didn't make it in, as Spitfire said the problem really boiled down to authority issues, which wouldn't go away. Maybe Dash isn't suited to be a 'bolt and she'll find some other thing to do that will give her the same sense of satisfaction. But, not really important what happens next.

And you'll be getting Appledash from me, don't you worry. Plus thirteen other ships. :pinkiecrazy:

2638884
But where's the :ajsmug:??
:rainbowkiss::heart::twilightsheepish:

So who can we complain to about the confusing and unannounced song lyric policy that doesn't really serve any purpose?

2638894

Oh, it's around here somewhere. Buried in the 500k+ words of planned stuff.

If story plans were water, I'd be drowning.

2638906

I heard that it came directly from Knighty.

2638914 Was there a rationale, or just a "I don't like it so it dies" kind of thing?

2638920

Copyright issues. Songs that aren't copyrighted like Ring Around the Rosie or whatever would be fine, and writing parody would probably be fine as well, but copyrighted song lyrics are off the table. It's a CYA thing I assume.

Whait? No song lyrics.

Well bugger :twilightoops:

Where is this?

2638934

The story failed moderation the first time through and I had a PM conversation with one of the proofreaders. This is from Knighty directly that song lyrics are out.

2638942
Ahhh dammit. All my stories come from songs. Music, sadly enough, is my muse... I'll blame my DOoUDKB then and have to keep them out from now on.

Super lumpin' lame man.

2638949

Yeah, not awesome. I'm not super happy with the way I had to link to the lyrics offsite with a 'reading guide' in the A/N, but it's not awful. I mean, the story still works. I think it would read better if they were still there, but it's hardly the end of the world.

2638956

Kinda kills some fic ideas. Really hacks me off that -insert popular game character here- in Equestria fics still pass and hit the feature box and then fics that are awesome like this one can't be presented as you want them to be. 's bad enough the formatting is so poor.

Ho hum...

2638926 That's going to cock up a whole load of stories if they go back and make people change them. Feh. Probably covered under fair use too, but what do I know?

edit: *SLAPs the comment system* Stop that.

Comment posted by JetstreamGW deleted May 27th, 2013

2639016

I'mma guess we're gonna see a grandfathering thing, like the whole 5 character tag limit that doesn't apply to older stories

2639019 Maybe, but legally that wouldn't make any sense. If they're afraid of copyright lawsuits, they HAVE to make everyone change them.

Great story! Would have looked great with the lyrics in place :flutterrage:

2639019 Y'know, it doesn't actually make sense anyway. It's not illegal to write out the lyrics to a copyrighted song in any context. Music is all about the recording and the performance. The words themselves, while you can't SELL them or present them as your own work... you can pretty much print them in any form. All the lyrics sites out there are proof of that. The lack of lawsuits against them make any argument for the collection of lyrics being a violation a little fatuous.

I could be wrong about that, but that's how things like that work as far as I understand them.

2639022

Report the other stories to admins and they will likely be dealt with. Grandfathering happens on this site primarily because there is not some master searchable list of content of every story.

2639068 To hell with that. It's a silly policy that isn't grounded in anything sane. I'm betting someone got a C&D from Sony BMG. A C&D that almost certainly can't be enforced.

2638956

This is arguably somewhat lame and off-topic, but I'd personally prefer to have song lyrics linked in something like a public gDoc[1]. I make use of lyric sites regularly, but they're one of the ad-spammiest things on the internet, and I'm always annoyed at having to use them. It's very much a personal feeling of mine, but I dislike being linked out to ad-heavy sites. I am glad you provided a link to the lyrics, though.


[1] Or included inline, obviously. Don't construe this as an argument for the policy under discussion.

2639204

Were I in a better time frame and knew about this thing previously, I probably would have done so to start with. But as it was, I had to do some fast doctoring. Ah well; in the future any songfics from me will probably be set up differently to accomodate the off-site lyrics hosting.

:raritydespair: Both stories are so amazing, I don't know which to give my vote to! This one made me feel so much more emotional, but Wizard's felt happier and more... natural almost. I really need to start following your work, Bats.

Very good job, bats. Another beautifully crafted piece of art. You are truly one of the best authors of Twidash I have ever seen.

I'm not gonna say who i'm voting for, but good luck all the same! :twilightsmile:

Stupid competition... Making me choose between the two... :twilightangry2:

This is an incredibly well crafted story, but I'm afraid it simply does not move me much. Yes there's a bit of turbulence at the beginning, but then once the conflict is addressed it becomes a simple love-fest as Twi and Dash list all the reasons the other is wonderful. Happily ever after achieved.

That was a fantastic story, bats. I'm glad I read it.

Gone through Wizards story....
Now finished this....
For Celestia's sake, stupid competition making me chose between you two :flutterrage: :raritydespair:
So, what I got from Wizards story; Don't let the rejection take you over, because there is always a new chance behind the corner, and who knows, this new chance may end up being better than expected.
What I got from your story; Don't let the failures take you over, and if they do so, know that your friends are there for you, so let them help you, and maybe even something more magical than just friendship will appear.
I'm glad there was no clop though, in both of the stories for that matter, it would ruin the mood.
Never the less, yet another great story from you Bats.
Who shall I vote for? Now that is only for me to know! :twilightsmile:

2639728

Erotica has its place in storytelling.

There was absolutely no place for it here.

Glad you enjoyed. :twilightsmile:

I... I sincerely don't know whose I like better.
Wizard broke all my feels, and yours made them all better again.
Both are somehow good things.
Damn it...

2638588
Well, yeah, it's Knighty's site and he can do as he pleases, to be sure, but personally I'm not a big fan of having policies changed without warning or explanation, especially for arbitrary or demonstrably nonsensical reasons...

2639061
...and JetstreamGW has it right, this policy change really makes no sense no matter how you slice it. I mean, come on -- if you want to talk about copyright issues, this entire site is technically one massive copyright violation (and trademark infringement to boot). Every story on this site involves the use of Hasbro's intellectual property, much of it in ways I'm sure they would find "questionable" at best, and if they chose to make an issue of it they'd have a hell of a lot more solid leg to stand on than some record company complaining about someone using two lines of a song verse as a lead-in to their story, or whatever. (And I find it highly improbable that no one at Hasbro is aware of this site, either.) So if Knighty is having a crisis of faith over IP violations, he's really missing the forest for a couple of dead twigs.

(P.S. and yes, I've put my money where my mouth is by PM'ing Knighty about this, giving the exact rationale described above and urging reconsideration of the policy change -- or clarification of it, if in fact he did not mean to ban song lyrics and the moderators have just misunderstood his instructions. I suggest others do the same -- respectfully, and rationally. Screaming "OMG U SUK" :pinkiegasp: at the site admin never accomplishes anything.)

This is good
Much better than Fluttershy Kicking Puppies
So why is it being rated so much lower?
Whatever, you should be proud of this. Maturity is often lacking in mlp slashfiction.

2639879

Keep in mind fluttershy Kicks a Puppy has been out for two months and was featured on Equestria Daily, while this one's been out for a grand total of eight hours. :derpytongue2:

Login or register to comment