It has been fourteen years since Twilight Sparkle first arrived in Ponyville. Life goes on, happy as it always has, even as she and her friends grow older. And there's only one mare she could think of sharing that life with: her wife, Rainbow Dash.
As winter settles in, Rainbow and Twilight are busy making preparations for the 12th birthday of their daughter, Opal Dart, followed in the same week by their 10th anniversary. Chaos and bedlam are the words of the day as they scramble to get everything in order, and ensure a perfect day for their little foal. Unfortunately, it is within this same time that Rainbow Dash has, by necessity, at last been promoted to to the position of Captain of the Wonderbolts. With her dream job finally realized, Dash cannot believe anything could go wrong. She quickly realizes, though, that the stress of her job was not something she was prepared for. As her mood perpetually sours, Twilight finds herself increasingly frustrated at the distance her wife is putting between them. As the couple spiral towards their own destruction, Opal Dart and Spike seek help from anyone they can find.
The only question is if they'll be able to do anything before their relationship is beyond salvaging.
So yeah, cheesy introduction put aside, this is what I've been setting the framework for instead of updating either of the stories I've got running: a prequel to my first ponyfic ever, "Even Rainbows Fade", which I have to come to accept as the most successful thing I will ever write. It shall not be topped. So I figured I might as well write this, both because I love the pair so much, and because I can answer a few questions and address a few issues both some readers and myself had with the original story.
Like I said, it's a prequel, so some knowledge WILL be assumed of you coming in. Hopefully it's easy enough to work out without having to read the first, though. If you have any comments, criticisms, or praise to share, by all means do so! I'll never improve without critique, and I'll be starved for attention if nobody loves me =P
Rated Teen for some moderate violence, and I'm not 100% sure if the Sad tag applies. Far less crushfeels than the original since, y'know, nopony dies.
Image from ~chibi95 on deviantart
Cute and very well done.
This was nice. I can't honestly say I'm looking forward to the next chapters, though, since that's when it gets sad...
How about this: I'm looking forward to more writing!
Not necessarily the everything being sad, though.
Anyway,
That is all.
Journcy Out.
Very sweet. And this is, I think, the first time I've seen a reference to socks that wasn't totally absurd.
Looks interesting. Adding to Read Later! :D
I cried so much when reading Fade. I can't wait for the rest of the installments on this one!
LOL SOCKS
Hate to be repetitive, but yes, cute is the word. It emits more cute than romance at the moment. It's more of something you want to hug than fall in love with. This is probably due to the choice to jump into the story with the romance already established, so we see more of the cute than the romantic parts of their life.
Minimal grammar issues, which always makes me happy to see. So rare these days.
Rather traditional for a wedding scene, but well penned nonetheless. I'm eager to see where this continues and hope it loses a bit of that traditional for a bit more original, but a story has to start somewhere, and when choosing to start with a wedding, that was kind of unavoidable.
Good work and good luck!
I think that under the (needs improvement) formatting, I smell a featured story here. Socks too, but a featured story all the same.
Keep up the good work!
1164895 Yes, it is
A couple people had mentioned that they were hoping, in the original story, to see more of the actual marriage and happy times. After lots of procrastination on my other two stories, and careful thought, I decided I agreed. On seeing the seeing the marriage part. I don't do happiness
Two brilliant twidash fics? You sir, are being watched...
Out of curiosity, when is the next chapter due exactly?
EDIT: Well if i'm want to be technical, it's one brilliant twidash fic and one promising start. Still though, I'm expecting fade levels of awesome in this fic so go for it!
1168248 Well, I just started uni, so I simultaneously have more free time than I did at my old house, but more stuff I have to get done with that time.
I usually pull an all-nighter to crank out a chapter, but it all depends on my mood. Probably in the next day or two, though.
This could easily be a one-shot, but more?
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m81txeNwP01r3zat8.gif
prequel to rainbows fade? i cried so hard reading it, then when i saw this i started crying thinking about it, moar please?
I loved your original story and this one promises to be at least as good. Ready with the box of tissues.
Eh, not so happy with this one. I'm a little frazzled right now, just settling in to university life. So my banter's not really up to par here; hopefully I can pick up the slack when I get into less filler-y chapters.
1179412
Is the half grown plant bulb supposed to be like Baloot? If so that's freakin funny as hell. I wonder what their version of adobo would be?
Cute. We actually get to see the couple being a couple this time around. Their voices are closer to accurate than most writers do, but Twilight still doesn't quite exude the nervous qualities she's known for. Yes, the flashback had a bit of 'crazy Twilight', but considering the range of her freak out, she spends the rest of the chapter unusually calm.
Only true flaw though, is that in the end this is a chapter where nothing happens. We gain a bit of info (daughter's name, upcoming anniversary), but by the time the chapter ends, we realize no actual events or conflicts have transpired. Slice-of-life is a great thing, but reading about everyday situations to everyday people (ponies) isn't interesting. Slice-of-life is great in fanfic because it uses characters who are far from normal and should present us with how their abnormal behavior affects them when thrown into everyday situations.
You've got something good going here. Keep at it. Good luck!
1180032 Yes, that was what I was going for. I had a friend introduce me to the stuff a while back, and it was the most horrifying thing I have ever seen.
1180180 Eeyup, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I had this chapter and the next combined in the original summary/draft, but it wound up being too long for my tastes, so I split it up. I probably could have picked a better spot to do it.
1180294
Um... Im not exactly sure how to put this
I LOVE YOUR WRITING!!
That is all.
1180294
Splitting is always a difficult choice to make, but what matters is that you submit what you're confident and proud of. Quality over quantity. There are only two ways of getting noticed in this fandom, and one is to present the majority of fans with exactly what they want to see, but what they want to see might not necessarily be your point of view and will never gain true respect since it is basically presented the story they've already read by a hundred other authors. The other way is to not be afraid to be different, while not sacrificing the integrity of the characters you're given to work with. I think you know which of these you'r rather be
1180294
Yeah I grew up in Hawaii and there is a large fillipino population there. Don't get me wrong a lot of their cuisine is good, but Baloot is just too much.
1181444 Oh no no, I'm not mocking filipino food. I love most of it, one of my friends is filipino and their mother cooks stuff all the time. It's just the balut that grosses me out
1181466
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I agree
Killjoy....Killjoy...KILLJOY?! That be the name of my Clan....nothing else.
Keeper Going..er.
Brilliant.
Man I bucking love this story. You sir are a genius. However, I have read Even Rainbows Fade and so I constantly have this voice in the back of my head reminding me of what happens to Rainbows career. Sorry if that seems like a spoiler to anyone who hasn't read ERF ( if you haven't than what the hell are you waiting for, go read. It is the greatest hit to the feels you will ever experience.) but I just had to get it off my chest.
?
With that said keep it up man. All while reading EFR I kept thinking how you could write those memories in the story as stand alone tales, I even thought about asking you if I could use elements from it as the basis for my own story, but this is 1,000,000 times better. Update soon please
I'm actually waiting for this to be done before I read Rainbows Fade. This is the prequel, right?
1192527 Yes, this is the prequel.
1193303
Looking forward to reading more of this story, then. ^_^
Poor Twilight...
Excellent chapter though
lulz...rainbow hangover...good show...and the foreboding...*shivers*
That stupid, bucking SCREECH! You sir are a cold hearted bastard......... and I love ya for it.
Kinda makes sense though as to why Twilight studied the spell in the last story. Have some moustaches
I've been trying to update this at a relatively steady pace. The side effect is, sometimes I pull an all nighter ('cause I'm stoopid) and some typos or potentially worse mistakes might slip in. So, as always, criticism and personal opinion is highly welcome. Also feel free to point out anything that looks like a plot hole; if you think you see one, chances are it is one, and I goofed.
Can we please kill the gold thing? Please? Preferably with a hack saw.
Almost certain Rainbow is going to miss the party.
You know I feel that Twi gets the short end of the stick in this family. I mean they adopt a pegasus who idolizes Rainbow Dash. Spike doesn't really care to much about The things that Twi likes (not saying he hates all of it, more like he wants to do his own thing). Than there is Dash making Captain of the wonderbolts and living her dream. What does Twilight get? Not a lot that's what. It almost feels like there isn't much of a relationship between her and her daughter, which is sad because Twi was the one who wanted kids. I know the story is still getting started but my heart breaks a little every time I read about Twilight. Oh well, keep them coming you wonderful bastard
At least Rainbow has a somewhat good reason to miss it. I thought she was going to be practicing and forget about the party.
This won't end we'll
So I'm guessing the leader is Goliath, than there is Broadway, Bronx, Brooklyn, Hudson, Lexington, and Angela.
Buck! I am such a nerd
Again, poor Twilight
. Can't wait for more.
Never thought I'd write a bloody action scene for a pony fic... but here we are!
This was quite well written. Although some of the scenes portrayed a horrid (yet badass) panting in my head.
Well done sir.
it's about to go down
Just as an interesting little thing to note, the gold-coated colt that's been accosting Opal Dart didn't exist in the original draft. His role went to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. And instead of being alone to defend herself, Opal was going to be backed up by the CMCs and Featherweight, who would both have several scenes of palling around with Opal. But then I remembered something.
My own continuity.
It's been, like, 14 years since the show by now! Those foals are all grown up! Mid-to-late 20s adults picking on a 12-year old is a tad weird, so the bullies got significantly reworked, and the friends were cut out entirely. I admit, this leaves Opal's role in the story a bit more bare-bones than I intended. But eh, whatcha gonna do. I may come back at some point and re-write her scenes to give her a bit more depth.
Hoo boy... gotta say I kinda expected this outcome based solely on the title of the chapter but sheesh... wasn't expecting it to get quite so ... intense there for a few minutes. Been following this fic since it started and plan on following it to the end. Keep up the good work! Can't wait for more.
1312480 well, you could alsays have opal find a friend.
1313345 I do intend to attempt to salvage that in later chapters. But I think it's worth coming back and adding something to the earlier ones once I get around to it.
By the gods of old and new I love your stories man. They get me right in the feels every time. Keep it up
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Loyalty is a funny thing; it can't be given selectively. It has to go to everyone you care about.
I always amuse myself by trying to read Dr Whooves's dialogue in the voice of David Tenant or Matt Smith.