“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” -Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Twilight Sparkle has come up with an inspired idea for Rainbow Dash’s birthday present, the best one she can imagine. She’s made a living, breathing copy of her favorite fictional character for her. The new pony has one goal in mind, and one purpose that crowds out all others: Be the best Daring Do she can be.
A collaborative work with the incomparable Eakin.
Chapters (5)
Since I wrote (a bit less than) half of this, I just wanted it to make it known that Obs is a phenomenal collab partner. Equally willing to listen to ideas as he is to poke me with a stick when I'm being stupid or negligent.
Been great fun working with Eakin through this. Hope you guys liked it as much as we liked working on it!
I did!
Well aren't you two a winning combo.
Wow , this is a fantastic story.
I was kind of hoping for an epilogue. The ending was a bit abrupt, but I guess it was par for the course with the whole "I suddenly don't exist anymore" thing.
3258978
Nope!
Dammit Pinkie, stop messing around with causality
Pretty good stuff.
7/7 would read again.
A story about creating life/intelligence that isn't tragic/horrifying?
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw3192_small.jpg
This sounds... almost a little dark. Now, I haven't started reading the story yet, but I know, a not-real pony created by magic to mimic a fictional character is going to lead to either something very sad, depressing, hilarious or dark... or most likely all three. Not quite sure.
Anyways, it's a great idea. Let's get reading.
Wait. This chapter has no comments?
Well, let me fix that grievous error, my good fellow!
This is an amazing story! Like, really amazing!
Why can't I remember where she got that deep breathing exersize from?
...Wow.
Just, wow.
That was awesome.
Interesting idea. And with two phenomenal people having written it, I believe this is a great addition to my read later list. I'll like for the troubles.
3259429
Interesting. Oh, and the latest canon comic just came out with an interesting bit of knowledge in the background.... Seems Twilight has another connection to Daring Do other than the fact that she recommended it to Rainbow. Or rather, one of her family does.
3259630
I saw that! Loved Twi's mom being the writer, it explains so much about her.
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
We both missed the 'I' here, Obs.
3259627 Why would you even start off assuming that this story would have sucked? The description itself is perfect representation of what you're getting into. And let me tell you, and a damn nice description.
3258944 That tends to happen with the death of flesh and blood things too...
We are all Velveteen Rabbits... no hope... no hope...
3259591
Oh. Right, That's why everyone started using it.
Wow.
I'm going to reference this story to all my buds now.
Wow.
That was darn good. About what I expected from this duo.
I demand more Eakselescence.
Oooo.
This is gonna be a heavy one...
~Skeeter The Lurker
3260055
I'm game, but Obs did a great deal of prodding while I got sidetracked over the course of this fic. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again.
3260082
I'd definitely read more from you two.
Obs, it's your turn to weigh in now.
3260055
3260082
I'd totally be down for it.
3260099
Let the brainstorming... commence!
(Followed immediately by sleep. Seriously, it's like 2:00 AM here.)
3260082
Also, I'm kinda curious about the collaboration process you two used. I've noticed while reading other collab stories that a significant or at least noticeable style change happens between different authors writing different parts, so you can point out who wrote what section of the story. I didn't notice that here. Did you two break the story into sections that you each wrote or did you do something different?
3260109
Kinda. We each wrote different segments of the story, but there were extensive edits after the initial prose was on the page.
If you can't tell where we switched from one author to another, well, then I guess we did our job, didn't we?
3260109
We took turns writing segments of arbitrary length (mostly defined by "WELL THIS SEEMS LIKE A PRETTY GOOD PLACE TO STOP") then went back over it later and reworked things to help equalize the styles.
Looks like it worked pretty well in this case
Huh I feel this is going to get deep real quick
3260109>>3260129
There was also a half-completed rough draft that got to about where chapter two ended, but vastly worse.
We started over, and I doubt either of us regret doing so
3260129>>3260153
It definitely worked well. I honestly have no idea where the story is segmented at all.
Thanks for answering guys.
3259429 (shrugs) She got it from cadence if I remember right
Hm I wonder if at one point twi will realize what she's done to this person she based daring doo off of.
and dash said twi wasn't a good liar
And here we go, I hope dash understands she wasn't born daring do but had to learn to be her >> after this race I think the results might break her.
Oooh that's good.
Actually, the author probably picked that from the same source that Twilight
(How do you hide spoilers in these comments ?)
3260212
She is actually a really bad liar, but Rainbow doesn't know how to meta.
And wow, she really doesn't feel pain anymore ! Shouldn't she see a doctor ?
that ending, my heart. I liked it upvote and fave if only there's an epilogue of after.
I'm really not feeling a good end. This is so much uncanny valley it makes me really uncomfortable.
I fear both of them will be disappointed, Daring for not being up to the challenge, and Rainbow for Daring not being up to it. Unless they save each other from a dire predicament ? Hmmmm...
I has a sad now. Good story.
Oh and happy crappy birthday Rainbow, hope you liked it !
Hmmmm.
I think this is going to end up in a existential crisis for Daring...
~Skeeter The Lurker
Goddamn. Daring Do is Rainbow Dash.
My face when it's because of the spell...
~Skeeter The Lurker
I'm not crying...
It's...
Liquid manliness...
Damn, a few slip ups with Daring toward Dash, only to be expected.
Also...
Clever. Just... Clever.
~Skeeter The Lurker