The Sunrise Sonata, Part 1
The Sunrise Sonata Pt1
Sunset Shimmer
Spring time was an auspicious time for Sunset Shimmer and her friends. For Applejack especially it was a time of increased farm work before and after school, and for Fluttershy who had additional hours at the animal shelter. Pinkie Pie’s work load at Sugarcube Corner increased as a flurry of birthday party requests threatened to overflow the Cake’s online timetable, and Rarity’s family’s shop braced itself for the influx of spring fashion attire. Even Rainbow Dash found an excuse to stop napping throughout the day as an application slot for the Wonderbolt Academy reared itself for attendance in the summer.
Sunset Shimmer found herself in the unenviable position of being pulled in multiple directions to help with any or all of these activities, with Sonata liberally throwing in her support when she wasn’t gluing herself to an easel. Literally in one case. Luckily old Mr. Ferry from across the hall had a spare can of adhesive solvent, but Sonata’s ponytail took weeks to grow back.
“Oh look,” Sunset said, stepping around the third painting with some mail in hand. “There’s going to be an art exhibition at the city gallery in the summer. They want local artists to apply.”
“Mm,” Sonata mumbled vaguely, plainly not listening. Sucking the end of a paint brush, she contemplated the canvas in front of her whilst splashing spots of paint over her ‘work clothes’ and newspaper coating the floor. “It’s lacking something,” she muttered through bristles.
“A little pink maybe?” Sunset offered, pointing out the clouds. “It is a sunrise after all. Anyway,” Sunset sat down, going through the rest of the mail. “Do you have any plans for today?”
“Gotta go to work at ten,” Sonata said, now with a splodge of pink on her cheek. “Why? Did you want to do something?”
“Nothing in particular. I promised Rainbow Dash that I’d help her with her Wonderbolts admissions.” She frowned at the small pile of mail she was rifling through. “I think the postman forgot some of our mail again.”
“I was expecting a letter from Adagio soon,” Sonata said, rubbing her chin and splattering a stream of navy blue up her neck. “I sent her a reply a few weeks ago.”
“She’s probably really busy,” Sunset said consolingly. “From all I’ve read, Applewood is a bit of a cutthroat city with all those pop idols vying for popularity.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Sonata said quietly.
“Oh come on,” Sunset scoffed. “It’s Adagio. If anything you should be worrying about everyone else being okay.” This seemed to cheer Sonata up. She grinned and waved an unintentional arc of orange across her overalls. “You know that it’s a quarter passed nine already, and I don’t think they’ll let you wear the suit if you’ve covered in paint.”
Sonata looked down at herself and grinned sheepishly. “Ah heh, yeah. Sometimes I don’t always notice what goes on around me.”
Sunset resisted the urge to jump on that one as Sonata skipped merrily to the bathroom. Deciding that she would get a head start on Rainbow Dash’s application herself, she hobbled around the paintings and over to the shelf with her laptop, intending to do some research beforehand. As she turned around to set it on the coffee table, she saw the painting that Sonata had been drawing, and found herself staring at it.
To be sure, there was rather a bit of exaggeration in the painting. The colours were perhaps a bit more primary, a little too bright for the winter day it was supposed to be showing, but otherwise it was an almost exact reconstruction of the scene they’d witnessed on Apple Strudel’s farm during that early morning. But in Sonata’s whimsical way, it seemed to have been given an additional brightness not associated with the colour, as though she’d somehow managed to breathe hope into the paint.
Her contemplation of the painting was rudely interrupted by the sound of Sonata singing in the shower. As always her singing sounded like a sick parrot trying to shriek out the lyrics to a heavy metal song. Sticking her earbuds in and turning on a favourite playlist, she proceeded to enact the ritual that would gain her access to the font of all human knowledge.
“Thank you Google,” Sunset hummed to herself. “Wonderbolt... Academy...”
As she sat reading, she moved her mouse to scroll down the page, when the mouse hit something on the coffee table. Sonata’s sketch pad. Sunset paused, looking at the sketch pad with a burgeoning feeling of mild curiosity. She picked up the pad, which was held within a plastic folder, and looked at it furtively. Peering at the bathroom door to make sure Sonata wasn’t coming, she opened up the pad quickly. The inside of the plastic folder had a zip pocket on the left, and then an elastic strap holding the pad itself in place across its spine. She flipped through a few pages, smiling at the imaginative little comics and sketches. One of Rarity and Applejack in giant robots, mid-battle. Another one of Pinkie with super powers. Another one of Twilight singing an open air concert. Sunset raised her eyebrows at this one, impressed that Sonata remembered so well what Twilight looked like.
Once she got to the end however, she realised that someone was missing: Herself. Not a single sketch, drawing, painting, or comic had her anywhere in it. Sunset frowned slightly, feeling a little hurt if she were honest with herself. Then the shower switched off, and she closed the folder hurriedly. When Sonata exited the bathroom, drying her hair with a pink towel, she found Sunset staring at her laptop. She sat next to her and leaned over her shoulder.
“Watcha doing?”
“Reading the news,” Sunset answered.
“Well that’s boring,” Sonata pouted.
“Maybe to you,” Sunset smirked. Sonata giggled, crossing her legs and rocking back and forth like a caged animal.
“I don’t want to go to work today,” she said, running her hands through her hair. Sunset looked at her askance.
“Feeling sick?” she asked.
“No, I just don’t want to go today.”
“Well don’t say that when you call in,” Sunset snickered. “They’ll see right through that.”
Sonata looked at her, her face glowing. “You don’t mind if I stay home?”
“Sonata, I’m not your mom,” she laughed, patting her cobalt hair. “If you want to take the day off work, do it. It’s not like you’ve ever had a sick day before now.”
“You’re right,” Sonata muttered, looking worried. “You don’t think I’m overdue for one, do you?”
“Way overdue,” Sunset grinned, passing her the phone. “Go on, but if you go out try not to let your boss see you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got the urge to paint in me! On a side note though, do we still have those frozen taquitos?”
“We should have plenty,” Sunset said, giving her a narrow look. “And it’s going to stay that way, you got me?”
Sonata scrunched up her mouth as though she’d tasted something sour. “I thought you said you weren’t my mom.”
“I’m your roommate. So leave me some.” She picked up her laptop and shoved it into a backpack. “Have fun at home today, okay?”
Rainbow Dash’s house was a tallish building on the east side of the city. Through the alchemical-like transformation of the metropolis’ infrastructure, the east side had been built on the side of a series of mountains where the city had first been founded, grown old, been demolished, rebuilt, and was beginning to decay again. Nonetheless, it held some of the former grandeur of its builder’s original intent whilst remaining cheap in the current economy. Today the mountains were wreathed in clouds, as though they were the base of a castle in the sky.
Taking the bus to the base of the mountains, Sunset climbed the winding little road that led up to Rainbow’s house, hugging herself close against the biting spring wind.
“Oh, hey there!” came a voice from above. Looking up a steep ledge of grass, Sunset gained an uncomfortable view of the underside of Rainbow Dash’s sport shorts. Averting her eyes, she proceeded up the driveway.
“Hi Rainbow,” she called back. “Aren’t you cold?”
“Meh, you get used to it,” Rainbow replied, balancing a football on her foot. “Fancy a quick game?”
“Not now, thanks,” Sunset said politely. Her actual feelings were a little more condescending. Something along the lines of As much as I’d love to give you the chance to show off for a bit, we have actually important work to do. “We should get started on your application.”
“That’s what dad says,” Rainbow said, kicking the football into her hands and looking crestfallen. “Well, let’s get it over with.”
The inside of Rainbow’s house was, to be blunt, unsurprising. Like his daughter, Rainbow’s father seemed to be a huge sports fanatic. The living room was plastered with sports memorabilia, mostly featuring the Cloudy Dale Wanderers. Rainbow’s room on the third floor was similarly decorated, but featured a great deal more posters and artefacts of the Wonderbolts, an aerial daredevil team Rainbow was quite infatuated with, and one of the premier stunt teams in the air force. On one wall, enclosed in a glass case, was a pair of goggles with a squiggly signature in black ink on the strap.
The room wasn’t unclean, but heavily disorganised and overflowing with exercise equipment. Sunset blinked in surprise when in and amongst all of this, she saw a small row of books on a shelf, but then she recognised the name on the spines, and smiled.
“You excited about the art exhibition?” Sunset asked, trying not to smile.
“Art exhibition?” Rainbow repeated, not sounding interested. “Why would I care about that?” she asked as though wondering why Sunset would ask.
“Well, it’s not just an art exhibition, to be fair. It’s a cultural fair. A lot of people are going to be there.” Then she went in for the clincher. The concentration killer. She waited until Rainbow was in a compromised position, throwing her football into a basketball hoop on the back of her door, and said “A.K. Yearling is going to be there.”
Rainbow twitched, throwing the ball off target so that it struck the wall, bounced off, and sailed over Sunset’s head into a laundry basket.
“Seriously!?” Rainbow demanded, grabbing Sunset by the shoulders. “You’re not jerking me around here? A. K. Yearling, the Great Yearling, author of the Daring Do books and owner of all related franchises?”
“Yeah, that A.K. Yearling,” Sunset said, smirking. “The fair invited a number of famous people born in the city, and A.K. Yearling lived here when she was a girl. Although I think she lives somewhere tropical at the moment.”
Sunset’s plan here was to get Rainbow so worked up that she’d eventually burn out. Hopefully then she could avoid all the fidgeting, whining, and complaining that always happened when Rainbow was called upon to sit still for two seconds. She waited patiently as Rainbow leapt onto her computer and started looking up articles, barely having time to read one before skipping to the next. Admittedly Sunset’s plan took a little longer than she thought to work. Rainbow kept up a constant stream of fangirling well into the afternoon. As they sat eating sandwiches that Rainbow’s father brought them however, Sunset raised the issue of the application.
“Right,” Rainbow said. She scarfed the last of her sandwich, cracked her knuckles loudly, and raised her fingers like a composer directing an orchestra, over her keyboard. Then she paused. “So... what do we do?”
Sunset patiently directed her to the Wonderbolt Academy homepage, and to the application page. From there Rainbow seemed capable enough to finish it herself, occasionally directing an odd question that Sunset was able to answer. The only problem came near to the end.
“What’s this mean?” Rainbow asked, leaning close to the screen. Sunset leaned in close too.
“Well,” she began, running a finger down the list. “You have to write a prospectus. A short description of why it is you want to join and why you think that you’re qualified for it.” Patiently waiting for Rainbow to finish boasting, she went on. “You also have to take a written and a practical exam.”
Rainbow frowned. “A written exam?” she asked, uncertainly.
“Yeah,” Sunset said slowly. “You did know that, didn’t you? It was in the leaflet you were given at school.”
“Oh, yeah!” she said, breezily. “Yeah, written test. Practical exam. Got it.” Sunset gave her a sharp stare.
“You have studied for it, right?” she asked, guessing the answer. Rainbow’s mouth performed a complex series of movements, shifting the lips this way and that, opening, then closing, biting her lower lip.
“Not exactly,” she admitted, giving Sunset a winning smile. Sunset’s mouth tightened, and she tried to stop from sighing.
“Right,” she said in a rallying tone. “Well let’s just see when the next test date is- oh dear...” she said in one breath. Running the mouse over a small box, it expanded into a timetable. “According to this, the next one is tomorrow.”
“In Baltimore!?” Rainbow shrieked. “That’s so far away!”
“Just a train ride away really, but that’d hardly the point.”
“When’s the next one?” Rainbow asked feverishly.
“Two months from now, apparently.”
“Argh!” Rainbow cried. “That’s no good! The deadline is over by then!”
It took a little time to calm Rainbow down. Eventually, after reminding her that she basically had the practical exam down, all she had to do was learn a little history. Primarily the test was about military history.
“I suck at history,” Rainbow said in a muffled voice, her face planted firmly on her desk.
“Mmm,” Sunset hummed. “It’s just a bit of reading. And I know you can read.”
Rainbow turned her head around on her desk to bestow an evil eye upon Sunset Shimmer. She rose from the desk like Frankenstein’s monster, and glared at Sunset as though she had just uttered the single most repulsively disgusting thing that anyone had ever dared to utter.
“Did you just compare Daring Do to history?” she asked, in a tone that suggested Sunset had best consider her answer with great care before speaking it. Sunset gulped, leaning back away from the stare.
“Um, well...” she cleared her throat. “What I mean to say is, you can find a history book on the Wonderbolts that relates their history in a story-like form. That’d make it a format you’re more comfortable with.”
“I guess,” Rainbow said in a considering tone. “But it’s still going to be nothing like Daring Do,” she said, petulantly.
“No,” Sunset agreed. “But it’ll be exciting in its own way. Don’t you have a book on the subject?” She looked around at the Wonderbolt memorabilia, from the giant wall sticker of Soarin to the collectible figurines arranged randomly on a shelf.
“Well, err... no actually,” Rainbow mumbled, blushing a little. “I have this sticker collection though,” she said more spiritedly, holding up a paperback filled with collectible stickers. Sunset gave it a narrow look and then flipped through it.
“All modern stuff. You’ll never learn what you need from it,” she said. That had been obvious of course, but she didn’t think brutal honesty was the best policy right now.
“I’m doomed,” Rainbow intoned, slamming her forehead back onto the desk.
“Oh come on, all we have to do is get to the library. I know for a fact they have a child’s history of the Wonderbolts in the sports section.”
“A child’s history?” Rainbow Dash asked, offended.
“Oh come on, it has pictures and everything. It’ll tell you essentially what you need to know.”
With Rainbow Dash in tow, Sunset walked the half mile to the library from Rainbow’s house, Dash herself with a permanent scowl of annoyance plastered across her face the entire time, offending the librarian who tried to wish her a good day.
“So,” Rainbow said moodily. “I just read this thing, right?” She held up the brightly colourful book as though it were something diseased. It had a flashy picture of the Wonderbolt’s emblem on the front, surrounded by little cartoon figures of some of the most famous members from across the generations.
“Study it,” Sunset corrected. “You have to take in what it says. I flipped through it. It should tell you what you need to know. The test isn’t meant to be too hard.”
Rainbow’s face darkened further. Sunset guessed that she caught the implication that she had to study for something that was apparently common knowledge, and which had to be put in a kid’s history book to read about. Sunset honestly hadn’t meant to convey that, but all the same...
As they stood at the bus stop, Rainbow Dash sitting on the bench and frowning at the book, Sunset’s mind floated home to her apartment. She rather wondered if she still wanted taquitos for dinner tonight. Then she thought of Sonata, standing in her artist’s overalls, her face splattered with paint, and found herself grinning. The ideal Sonata in her head looked at her and gave her a cheeky smile, then went back to painting. Turning the dream room around in her head, she saw the painting itself; two figures standing on a rooftop, arm in arm, staring into the sunset.
A hiss of brakes made Sunset jump, and her daydream broke.
“Hey, thanks for all the help,” Rainbow said, earnestly. “I really appreciate it, you know?”
“Yeah,” Sunset smiled, her face flushed guiltily. “If you’d like, I can come to Baltimore with you tomorrow.”
“You would?” Rainbow beamed. “Dude, you are the best!”
Sunset wasn’t sure about being called a dude, but she let the comment pass. Waving to Rainbow, she mounted the steps of the bus, watching the multicoloured hair out of sight around a corner.
Sitting down close to the front, she leaned her head against the window, feeling the vibrations of the bus. Her mind drifted back to the painting, a happy Sonata greeting her to look at it. Two figures in the sunlight, intertwined by their arms. A mane of red and yellow hair intermingling with a long blue ponytail as they blew about in a frozen wind.
“This your stop?”
Sunset jumped awake. She looked out of the window and saw the daylight fading fast. Looking forward, she saw the familiar face of the bus driver looking back at her inquiringly.
“Your stop, I think,” he said, smiling.
“Yes!” Sunset yelped, jumping up. “Thanks,” she chuckled nervously as she exited the bus. Hefting her laptop bag more securely onto her shoulder, she marched briskly forward across the plaza to her apartment. When she made it to her door, she knocked, expecting to hear the sound of light feet from within coming to open it for her as usual. Happily anticipating Sonata’s smiling face upon the door opening, she became a little disconcerted when she didn’t hear anything. She knocked again, but still no reply came. She frowned.
“Maybe she went out,” she muttered, reaching for her own key.
Inside she found the apartment dark in the dim twilight filtering through the small windows. Flicking the light on, the first strange thing occurred to her. All three easels were still standing, all with their paintings still at the ready.
Maybe she was letting them dry, Sunset thought to herself. But then she noticed something even stranger as she went to put down her laptop bag.
The paint palette was still out, along with her water pot and brushes. The paint on the palette along with the brush bristles had dried and hardened. Strange. Airheaded though Sonata could be, she didn’t leave her paints and brushes out like this. It just wasn’t her.
“Where is she?” Sunset wondered, starting to feel a little afraid now. She peered into the kitchen. Nothing. She knocked on the bathroom door and looked inside there too. Nothing. Then she looked in the bedroom.
“Sonata!” she gasped in relief. “For goodness sake, why didn’t you open the door when I... Sonata?”
Sunset hesitated. Sonata was standing in the dark of the bedroom, gilded faintly by the last light of day filtering between the bedroom curtains. Her back was to the door, and she wasn’t moving. A faint humming sound came from her, which Sunset realised a second later was coming from the phone Sonata was holding loosely to her ear.
“Sonata?” Sunset asked, quietly. She stepped into the room. Still no response. The phone was on but the line was dead. Carefully, Sunset moved around Sonata to face her, and felt her insides curl up.
Sonata’s eyes were blank and staring, gazing off into nothingness. Her face was pale and drawn, shining flecks on her cheeks where tears had fallen and dried. She didn’t seem to register Sunset at all.
“Sonata?” Sunset asked, gazing with concern into her face. She touched her arm to rouse her, and Sonata gave a little jump. Her eyes wobbled a little in their sockets, as though trying to focus on her.
“S-S-Sun...” she stammered in barely more than a whisper. The phone slipped from her loose grip and bounced across the floor. Then she flung her arms around Sunset’s middle and began crying unrestrainedly into Sunset’s chest. Taken off guard and unable to hold both their weights, Sunset lowered in a controlled sort of collapse to her knees, Sonata still bawling into her jacket.
“What happened?” Sunset gasped, taken entirely by surprise. As Sonata tried to control her crying enough to speak, Sunset held onto her reassuringly and made placatory noises to calm her down. “Who was on the phone?” she asked, trying to help Sonata get her bearings.
“A-Ad... Adagio,” she sobbed thickly. Shakily, she let go of Sunset, and sat sniffing and sobbing whilst Sunset passed her a box of tissues from the dresser. Blowing her nose, she looked at Sunset through streaming eyes.
“Adagio,” Sunset said, trying to smile. “So she called today, then.” She tried to make it sound like this was a good thing, but Sonata only began sobbing harder again.
“S-She called, because... because...”
Sunset waited for her to go on, patiently allowing her to get the words out.
“S-She called because... because of Aria.”
“Oh,” Sunset said, surprised. “Did she find her?”
Sonata shook her head, blowing her nose again. “She’s in... in Baltimore.”
Sunset nodded understandingly. She tried to figure out why this was a bad thing, why it was reducing Sonata to a state she hadn’t seen her in since... well, since she’d found her on the roof.
“So she’s in Baltimore,” Sunset said, kindly. “Well I can understand if Adagio didn’t see her, being in Applewood. Baltimore is the other side of the-“
“S-She’s in hospital!” Sonata wailed, breaking down into tears again.
Sunset’s insides went cold.
“Hospital?” she said, hollowly. Sonata nodded tremulously.
“S-S-She’s been s-stabbed!”
- To be Continued
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Wat.
5271383 You can't possibly have read that already
5271386 Some people can read obscenely fast. I can power through 100k words in about three to four hours, so reading a 3k word chapter in a couple minutes isn't hard.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5271419 Damn. I can't do that. There're some impressive people in the world.
Oh..... my! And it's not particularly that difficult to read it in two minutes. I just did. :D
5271441 Dude. It was seconds. Seconds. It wasn't even a single minute! I dropped my toast! There's butter on my trousers right now.
5271426 Of course my reading speed depends on the flow of the story to a surprisingly great extent. I can power through a 100k word fic that has a fast pace in about a third of the time of a slower paced fic of the same length. Lately I have been a little burned out on 100k word fics though, and have been reading a lot of one-shots and other shorter fics instead. To be clear, I consider <50k words to be short. My ideal chapter length would be around 8k-12k words in a chapter, but at the same time I don't mind shorter if trying to make it in that threshold would ruin the pacing of the fic. I do have a few little tricks I use that boosts my reading speed, although I don't consciously use them (they just sort of happen without me intending to).
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5271460 I can speed read that my college years taught me. I can take in the information of something, but I don't like to speed read a story. I read it for fun.
5271426 i am able to read 100k in 1 hour 30 mins....
5271474 I try not to speed read, but it occasionally happens, especially when it is a part I just want to get through.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Dang, things are starting to get intense
5271554 There will be trials ahead
Oh dear.
Nothing like a tragedy to mend relationships though.
So I just finish part 4 of Morning Sonata thinking darn going to have to wait for my next fix of this story and then *Bamm* you update with a new arc. I can't wait to read this now!
Also I've been enjoying this story a lot with where it goes and how it deals with situations such as the emotional trauma of basically losing the talent you've had your whole life or at least most of it but it's also nicely keeping characters such as the mane 6 in character despite the changes other characters are going through.
So keep up the good work!
wat??
Im still mad at aria for being mean to sonata, but if sonata wants her to pull through... I guess i do to
5271599 Well, we'll see how Sonata deals with it.
5271612 What?
5271603 I'm glad I could maintain your fix
Thanks a lot for the input there, it's good to get some uplifting words from my readers
5271626 Sonata's too nice for her own good sometimes
GAHHH! That cliff hanger!
I hate you but, I love you at the same time! I really can't wait for the next chapter!!
fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/107/d/1/biking_dash_by_ninjaham-d620x2s.jpg
I must respectfully disagree with Sunset.
5271676 The cliffhanger keeps you reading, Mwuhuahahahaha!!
At least I update regularly, eh? There's some good news
5271699 You know what. That's a fair point.
OH NO! What could've happened?!
5271716 Spoilers
5271734 Curses! lol!
First off great read so far.
But, I do have a small issue with it. The scene changes are really bugging me, Like sunset biking up her back pack then jumping to getting off a bus. every time I've come across one I've had to double back to see if i missed a paragraph.
also you spelled Artifacts wrong ;p
other than that I'm loving this story
It was only a matter of time. Similar people tend to clump together, and she was 100% on the dark side. I hope she makes it though, she should at least have the chance to understand all the things she's done.
5271749 Well, actually I'm English. Artefacts is the correct spelling here.
I'm not sure what you mean by the scene changes. Can you quote an example for me to look at and explain specifically what the issue you're having is? I don't quite understand from the example that you're giving me.
5271774 She should indeed. She should at least survive until they meet up again, don't you think?
5271809 I'd hope so, but you're the one writing this, not me.
5271817 True. I am the writer. Here, I am God. And I am a merciful god. Be prepared for an update to your universe: Reality 2.0
We worked out some of the kinks, like space being unbreathable and stuff. I think you'll like it.
5271829 Thats what they said about Google+
Aria better not die. I'm warning you. Don't make Sonata sad. Bad things will happen.
5271834 I said I was sorry about Google+!! You people are never gonna let that go!
5271836
Warning received... *hides under desk*
5271847 I'll forgive you when the nightmares stop.
Wow
5271859 Fair enough... *Runs away like a little girl*
5271865 It's heavy, man.
This is an awesome story, but I wonder why Sonata didn't have any sketches of Sunset. I do have my suspicions about it and can't wait to find out if I'm right. I really hope Aria is ok, wonder what happened to her.
5271888 Don't want to give away any spoilers about Aria, but I am intrigued to know what you think about the pictures.
5271904
I was kind of thinking Sonata may have a seperate book devoted to Sunset with some pictures she doesn't want Sunset to see such as ones that may have clues that she may like Sunset or really look up to her.
5271803
Here, there's no mention her leaving after that line its just jump to describing rainbows house with no transition. So it reads like a continuation of the scene, when in reality its a scene change. Kind of like a bad jump cut in a movie.
Most authors use some sort of method to show the change, whether they use some sort of symbol in the middle of the page or a sizable gap in between the paragraphs and others use scene changes to start new chapters.
I hope that made a little bit of sense >< and as for the artifact thing, sorry about that I've never seen it written that way before.
Should be:
Idle = Still. Idol = Icon. There's a reason why Moses was pissed at his folks when he came down from the top of the mountain talking to Yahweh and he saw them worshiping a golden calf IDOL, as one of Yahweh's 10 Commandments was "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image", and the golden calf idol was a graven image.
Holy crud! That ending is really intense. Good chapter though. Can't wait to see where it goes. I like all that stuff with Rainbow, too.
5272024 Ahh, I think I see what you mean.
Well yeah, that's a scene change. I put a rather large space between the text to mark scene changes, and I hoped that would be sufficient. Is there something else you have in mind for me to put to make it easier for readers to better see the flow of the story?
I have had this problem raised before, which led to the wider space between scene changes, but if you have another idea I'm happy to hear them.
5272034 Yes, thank you, I understand the difference between the two forms. Thank you for pointing that out
5272036 Had to throw Rainbow a little love somewhere in here. She's one of my favourite characters, but is always the one I see people hating the most because of her competitiveness and lack of tact.
Yeah, I'm cranking back up the angst in this arc. I gave it a break in the second one because too much angst is just that. Too much. But now I have cooties from all the wishy-washy make-up sessions and wanton redemption. It's time for some trial by fire! Gun fire!
No I'm kidding, there's no guns involved.