• Member Since 21st Sep, 2012
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R5h


"r5h, your story was also weird in that you had like some of the cleverest jokes in the contest and also some of the dumbest" -Aragon

E
Source

Rarity can't sleep these days.

It's nothing she can't handle, of course: one more source of stress for an aspiring fashionista as ambitious as herself isn't really important. So none of her friends need to help her with her nightmares.

And then, all of a sudden, one of them does anyway.


Credit to Undome Tinwe and Pearple Prose for helping with the editing.

Written for Monochromatic's RariTwi bomb. If I have the sheer gumption to pull it off, this'll update daily.

Chapters (8)
Comments ( 66 )

The Enchanted Kingdom's dream chapter has nothing on this.

Good job twisting the dream cliches in a clever way for Rarity.

Under normal circumstances, I'd assume the stranger is Luna, but this is for a RariTwi bomb... plus Luna is an adult and Rarity is a teen here.

I enjoyed the dialogue and the 100% accurate French dream.

The stranger leaned back, ever so slightly, as if stricken. “Do you not... recognize me?” said the voice, and while it wasn't possible to see their eyes, Rarity could tell they weren't looking at her.

nope

The stranger looked around, and then looked at the ground, so many miles away. “Sleep well,” they said, and started tapping at their helm as they turned away.

Luna

And the stranger opened up their mouth—

Its either Twilight or Luna

Rarity had the best view in all of Paris: she could see the Louvre from here.

The Louvre was wearing a beret, because it was in France.

Brilliant blend of overachieving Rarity, surreal dreams, and teasing the inevitable pairing. Looking forward to more.

R5h

9871909
9871916
I'm glad you enjoyed it! The dream sequences in particular were a little difficult for me, so I'm glad they seemed to land so well.


9871989
Well, I guess we'll just have to see, won't we? Thanks for commenting!


9872477
Aw darn I should have put the Louvre in a beret. Missed opportunity there. In any case, glad you liked it so far!

“What—but I trust you wouldn't,” Rarity stammered, “because that would be an invasion of privacy—”

After how cavalier she is with it in canon, I will never grow tired of seeing people acknowledge this in fanfiction :pinkiehappy:

This is fun so far! I like the repetition of her dream, and I’m curious to see what’s next to come.

R5h

9872919
Well, in canon she mostly does it on people who she thinks are using dangerous magic, so it's somewhat okay.

I'm writing the next chapter right now, as a matter of fact! I hope you like it!

But she was in no mood to be calmed right now. Her fists bunched up the sheets beneath her as she looked up at the ceiling and shouted, “ TWILIGHT SPARKLE! ”

Twilight? really? I thought it was Luna:pinkiegasp:

I only realized what Twilight was up to a few paragraphs before she outright said it. Fascinating application of magitech. Now if only Rarity would learn to accept some degree of outside help before her inevitable crash and burn...

(And honestly, the most unbelievable part of this story is that Rarity even has a period free for study hall. :raritywink:)

Looking forward to more.

9873889
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or if you never read the story description.

R5h

9873889

9873992
Everyone needs a study hall in senior year. And yeah, I figured it would be pretty clear who the stranger was, seeing as this part of the RariTwi bomb.

In any case, I'm glad you're still enjoying it! I'm really looking forward to the next chapter: I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

“So I wanted to talk about this morning,” Twilight said.

Time and place, Sparkle.

“Oh, but haven't you heard, darling?” Rarity managed to crack a smile. “Pressure is what makes diamonds.”

And the carbon that makes those diamonds comes from long-dead corpses.

Good to see Rarity admit she's bitten off more than she can chew. The question s what she's going to cut off of the mouthful.

R5h

9875828
As fun as Rarity's "pressure is what makes diamonds" line was, I'm a lot prouder of Luna's response.

The next chapter will definitely mark a shift in how Rarity manages her priorities, and some other shifts as well. Glad you're enjoying it!

My college roommate had the John Cena meme as his alarm. Made me chuckle every time.

:pinkiegasp:

Dang, way to ratchet up the tension to 11.

Not sure if the alt title is an Eagles reference. Either way, another good chapter! Excited to see what's next!

R5h

9884148
Thanks! It's appropriate, since the next chapter has the climax.


9884149
It most assuredly is: all of the alternate chapter titles are a song name, with "Knight" instead of "Night".

All so she doesn't have to practice what she preaches, all so she doesn't have to let anyone else know there's an issue!

"Ahem."
"Well, yes, other than you, but it's the principle of the thing!"
"Again, ahem."
"Oh, you know what I meant."

In any case, yeah, this is why you should be careful when tinkering with dream magic. This could get worse before it gets better.

R5h

9885273
Oh yeah, things just got worse in a big way - but it's definitely the precursor to a possible solution.

Loving the dream sequences, by the way. Spot on in terms of rapid shifting and changeability, as well as spiraling to disaster. Twilight is going to get such an earfull...

R5h

9897818
Thanks! It was difficult at first to figure out the right tone for the dreams, but I think I managed to do pretty well eventually.

And Twilight is indeed due for an earful after Second Knight.

Loved Rarity nailing Twilight in the fears perfectly. It was beautiful. Though some things Twilight is saying make me wonder if she isn’t running from her own nightmares.

YEP. And they break in and make an appearance and Twilight pulls a Cinderella. Very nice job.

R5h

9898448
Huh, it totally is a Cinderella move. I didn't really think of that, and now I can't believe I missed the connection because it's super obvious. :twilightsheepish:

Excellent stuff! You've an excellent handle on Rarity and Twilight, the dream sequences are nicely done, and you've got a good, light touch to the humour throughout as well. Looking forward to the rest.

R5h

9905506
Thanks! I'm making steady progress on the next chapter, which is where the climax will happen, and I'm aiming to get the story finished before the end of October!

Nice. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Holy crap that shared dream was adorable.
Curious to see what's going on with Twilight.

Great job with this story. Rarity and Twilight are written wonderfully, and you do a good job exploring their issues.

Glad to see this story done. The fic was wonderful from beginning to end, with some excellent characterization from both Rarity and SciTwi. I loved their chemistry and interactions too, and the imagery and wordplay throughout the fic (especially in the dream scenes) were top-notch.

Also, I just realized what song the final line reminds me of.

R5h

9916745
Thank you! That really means a lot to me.

A stellar finish for a stellar fic. Every part of the penultimate chapter was a hell of a trip, with excellent scene-setting and dream-based lunacy and a load of well-earned catharsis. Nae bad at all. :pinkiehappy:

R5h

9917000
Thank you! I guess it was worth giving those last two chapters an extra two weeks to bake, then. I'm certainly fond of the climactic chapter: setting the whole thing in a half-dreamscape meant I got to indulge every bit of my creativity to make things as symbolic as I could manage. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for writing this! It was a very alluring concept when you posted it for the bomb, and the love you showed the rest of it over the last few weeks was well worth it!
I loved the execution, from the dialogue to the various dream sequences and the ending, too. I'll likely revisit this every so often, actually.
Keep it up!

R5h

9917196
Thanks! I rather enjoyed your bomb entry as well (Blueblood x humiliating defeat is an OTP), and I was glad to be part of the event as a whole!

Shining Armor's gonna be there, gonna be bringing this new girlfriend I don't really know about yet, I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Later...
:twilightoops: "You— Her— Since when!?"

Magnificent climax. I love a good mindscape, and exploding it across reality was an unexpected and delightful twist.

(And clearly the Mark IVs can have greater networking and private chat capabilities, allowing all seven to stay in touch while still giving the couple their privacy.)

Excellent work from start to finish. Thank you for it.

R5h

9917436
The only question is whether that girlfriend is actually Cadance, or some sort of EQG Chrysalis. But that's a question for another time.

Glad you liked the mindscape! I think it was at least as fun to write that part as it was to read it.

Thanks for reading!

Amazing work! Love the RariTwi and that not all their problems are dealt with in the end.

Featured on episode 282 of our podcast, Pony 411.

R5h

9925175
Indeed: it wouldn't have been right to fix all of the problems real fast. It takes real time and work, as the fic reinforces throughout its length.

Also, ooh, never been featured in a podcast before! I'll have to check it out.

UPDATE: I have checked it out. Thank you so much! It really makes my day to hear that someone enjoyed my story that much.

This was fantastic! Great job; this went way beyond my expectations of a fun RariTwi dream fluff, which I was already enjoying.
I don't know why, but the Equestria Girls world just seems more suited to "emotional problems lead to world-ending catastrophes" stories than pony land.
The way Midnight Sparkle is handled here reminds me a lot of the video game Celeste, with "Badeline".
That was a great exploration of Rarity and Twilight's mental issues, and as mentioned, good job making sure they weren't all tied up by the end, and that that's OK. Nice way to incorporate Nightmare Moon at the end there.

R5h

9925665
I think it's because, even more than in MLP itself, most Equestria Girls villains are just misguided teenagers working out their issues. Who just so happen to have access to powerful magic beyond mortal ken.

Badeline was indeed an inspiration for how I handled Midnight Sparkle in this story: or, more generally, how I handled mental illness in this story. The game's explicit focus on the illness as something to be reconciled with, rather than necessarily "vanquished", really stood out to me.

And yeah, I was definitely referencing Nightmare Moon in an oblique way.

Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

“You actually did say you liked me, didn't you? And I handled it so badly that I broke physics.”

Literally me at romance

Wow. I love this story. I don't think I can really articulate how much I love this story right now. Just... wow. Thank you for writing this. :heart:

R5h

10008441
Thanks! It was a heck of a lot of fun to write.

Ohhhoho noooo, truly a dame under a Midnight curse :'D

Really liked this, felt like it did some things I hadn't seen before with a good double climax between Vanity and Tri-Twilight's confrontations, but also had that good EqG characterization and tone that are a comfort to have and read

R5h

10700778
Thanks for the comments! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Truly this is one of the best fics I ever read. I could go on a three paragraph rant about the great aspects of this piece of beautifully written literature, but I can't find the words to Express them so all I can give is my like and placing this in my favourite list awaiting the day I reread it :twilightsmile: how glad I am to have stumbled upon this

R5h

10945866
Hey there! I'm certainly a little slow to reply to this comment - I don't use FiMFiction much these days. That said, I'm very glad you enjoyed this story! I'm quite proud of it myself, even several years later. Thanks for commenting!

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