• Member Since 13th Mar, 2012
  • offline last seen September 16th

ManlyDerp


A writer who grew from their many mistakes, and who still loves ponies deeply.

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Source

This story is a sequel to The Poisoned Barb


Prequel reading is recommended to enjoy, as well as a steady reading pace.

I was once a woman in her twilight. I was once a mother and a wife. I was once a respected human being. I was once unquestionably happy.

Now I am Barbara The Dragoness; property of House Shine, Squire to Prince Solaris, Assistant to Apprentice Dusk Shine... and master of my own fate.

This is the story of my second childhood, and how I found the strength to keep moving forward.

Welcome to my new life.
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Cover Art by Koviry!

Chapters (51)
Comments ( 1361 )

Enjoying the story.

Got a couple of quick corrections for you.

The entirety of Equestria lied before me, as far as the eyes could see.

Inside this notebook lied a collection of my innermost thoughts and feelings

Lied -> Lay in both cases.

The relationship between Dusk, Gleaming and Barb is precious.

Ah, mixed 63! This will be fun.

And I see you setting the groundwork for a crush from Barb on Elusive (if Rarity was struck with the Mighty Y in his verse.)

Interesting. A woman's perspective. I'll need to read this another time.

Ah drat, this was on my 'to read list' forever i was hoping to finish the original before this came out haha.
Sorry for the non post but I'm about halfway though the first story and I'm loving it and I'm guessing this is going to be just as good when I finally drag my lazy mind over to it. Either way keep up the good work.

ps. not sure if you covered it in the original, but I'm curious enough to ask. Are you (or have you i suppose is the better way of saying it,) addressed how Barb mentally deals with the idea that she is going to be living for a much longer time than perhaps a human mind might be able to rationalise.

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I remember that I had her mention it a few times in her journal, and how she's desperately trying not to think about it. It bothers her greatly at the moment, and that's how it's going to be for awhile... but, though it's never directly addressed in the show, here we're going to get the chance to talk about it. When the story gets around to that point... well... I hope you'll enjoy Barb's answer! Trust me, it'll have 'her' written all over it :raritywink:

I was just about to ask what was up with the chapter... Turns out I'd just unknowingly discovered what the 'A formatting' button does. :derpytongue2:

There should be more stories from Spike's perspective. Even when he isn't a she-- or, for that matter, a reincarnation-- he is still a character with so much underused potential.

I had an idea a while ago about a story that was your standard fantasy journey of kid becomes warrior to save kingdom, but as told from the Gandalf/Dumbledore/mentor character's perspective. Someone who wasn't the main character in the story, but nevertheless the one we follow throughout the story, as the kid and his chums go of and save lives in the background; we'd watch wizard man train them and then back off, watching them and stepping in to be all mysterious and mentorly, and then step out and follow them from the shadows.

This is how I'd imagine that would pan out, and it's just as good as I thought it would be.
We are following Barb, right? We're gonna be seeing what she gets up to while Dusk and Co. are off adventuring?

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"Spike is off on official business" is the excuse for why he isn't in some episodes...

... Makes one wonder what he was off doing, doesn't it? :raritywink:

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Fantastic. Red Gala, too. I love the way you have them bonding like that, because it feels so... real.

I have to know, though: what's up with Rainbow? Or colt!Pinkie for that matter?

How does one apple up a cake?

The same way you banana up a muffin

And Rainbow Dash is still a mare, not everything is as it shouldn't seem.

Friendship Intensifies.

So does the Barb's tale.

5791169 shenanigans are afoot!

Oh, and making Red Gala squee. Barb, you're awesome.

Oh man, when she meets male Rarity, it is going to hit her hard.

Why are you torturing this poor woman?

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You have vastly underestimated just how 'apple' those ponies managed to make that cake! :rainbowlaugh:

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Well, for Rainbow, wait and see! Come back in a week to receive your answer!

As for Colt!Pinkie? He'll explain it later, but if you REALLY must know... One of those piercings is green and in the shape of a perfectly cut diamond. Hmmm... Now who does Pinkie know who has green eyes and who has a cutie mark that looks like a perfectly cut diamond, even if it's just a...rock! ;)

That's all I'm going to say for now :twilightsmile:

Prediction: Rarity is also unchanged, but this time it will be Dusk who falls hard.

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As for Colt!Pinkie? He'll explain it later, but if you REALLY must know... One of those piercings is green and in the shape of a perfectly cut diamond. Hmmm... Now who does Pinkie know who has green eyes and who has a cutie mark that looks like a perfectly cut diamond, even if it's just a...rock! ;)

...that is just ridiculously adorable.

5791144

"Spike is off on official business" is the excuse for why he isn't in some episodes...

... Makes one wonder what he was off doing, doesn't it? :raritywink:

I expect we'll be finding out. :pinkiehappy:

5791341 Watch he has her old husbands voice as well.

How does one apple up a cake?’

A common cake recipe. I prefer the French version.

I love that Barb is making her own friends. That is one of Spike's weak points as a character.

So gender mix cast. An intriguing choice.

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MY LACK OF BAKING KNOWLEDGE HAS RUINED THE INTEGRITY OF THIS ENTIRE STORY!! :raritydespair:

Deleting the entire thing now. Sorry to waste your time... :derpytongue2:

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I guess you left the story in the oven too long, now it's burnt.

I must say, the first chapter grabbed my attention, but the second one has it in a chokehold.

Well done.

Well this just summarized it's prequel in one whole chapter. I'm guessing you did this so others wouldn't be forced to read said prequel unless you had to?

For all it's exposition, it was still a good chapter, so great job.

Oh boy! Time to start the list of predictions!
Rainbow Dash is going to be a boy but looks EXACTLY like a girl to the point he has major masculinity issues over it.
One of the cutie mark crusaders is gonna fall for Barb probably, which will lead to an awkward confession and rejection.
If it IS actually a gender mixed cast, Rarity will still be a female just to have the universe screw with Barb.
Barb is probably gonna make a friend with a secondary character as Dusk makes friends with the main ones. Scootaloo for Rainbow, Sweetie for Rarity, Mrs. Cake for Pinkie... um... A- Angel for Fluttershy?..
Fluttershy needs friends, and a family.
...
Does Fluttershy have other friends, or a family for that matter?
Anyway, Barb is probably gonna end up somehow becoming friends with fem Discord one she gets reformed.
Barb will try to hinder Chrysalis or rescue Cadence early only to get caught and get stuffed in a sack, putting her in a false reality where she's back with her human family. It's going to damage her mental state like crazy when they free her.
On that matter, the Sombra crystal showing what you fear the most is also gonna suck. or put her back in the Bluebell estate.
Her Dragon Quest is gonna be a "I want a pet phoenix enough to go through the motions." quest.

That's all I can think of.

Have all my thumbs pointed upwards. All six of them! :pinkiesmile:

Woo, all the waiting has paid off. Thank you very much :moustache:

I... actually hope RD's really a mare. I want to see how that's going to affect the dynamic of the group. And, of course, how it's going to affect Barb.

Of course, if this RD's simply about as girly as main universe RD is tomboyish...

I'm wondering if Barb is going to go the complete opposite of Spike, and completely avoid Rarity's male double. At least for a while.

Because while RariStallion is probably going to be a damn near carbon copy of her husband, thus providing the required attributes to become Barb's love interest, it's going to be bringing up lots of painful memories that Barb would probably rather keep buried.

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*That awkward moment when a commenter suggests something that's so incredibly interesting that you want to change the entirety of your planned story to implement it* :raritydespair:

Aw...Where is intensity, where is emotions? There is no taste of it.
Take a sketch anyway:
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81530720/Barb.jpg

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But I worked so hard on the character interactions :fluttershysad:

... Plus next chapter is going to a bit of a roller-coaster, so I didn't want to bog people down just yet.

Thank you for the sketch though! Pretty dragon is petty :yay:

Oh! The big Apple Meet-Up! Interesting! Nice story from Barb there too!

Genderbends do interesting things, yes they do... :pinkiehappy:

Missing some quotation marks on the ends of paragraphs during the tale that Barb recounts to Red Gala...

Red Gala + Barb bonding! :ajsmug:

... WOAH! Rainbow TWIST! :twistnerd:

Typo:

"role of his eyes"

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Thanks! Fixed the role to roll. The lack of quotations is actually intentional as it shows that, although it's a new paragraph, Barb is still the one talking. In the Barb-Gala part, the two are (cutely I dare say) finishing each other's sentences so the quotations are present

... Granted though I may have accidentally forgot one or two when Barb was actually done talking, so I'll just double check here :twilightblush:

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Me: Or make "lack of baking knowledge" one of Barb's character flaws! It's ingenious!

Random Person: But she's already been established to be able to cook and...

Me: CHARACTER FLAW... *Steals cake and noms it*

I normally hate gender-bent style stories... but this is awesome! It's a freaking work of art!:pinkiehappy:

You have yourself a favorite

...And I've just blitzed (ironic pun intended) through the prequel and this now. And I'm loving it.

Shocking twists!

5793689 There's also an applesauce cake recipe out there. You can easily find one on google but then there is the one my family makes which I can never find the recipe anywhere else. :trixieshiftright: Need to get that one from my mom sometime and use it to surprise people. :pinkiecrazy:

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