This story is a sequel to Reaping Rainbow
Have you been naughty... or nice? Ho ho ho.
Rainbow Dash is flying home for Hearth's Warming break when she has a disastrous crash with Santa Hooves himself. Now, to save the very spirit of Hearth's Warming from fading out forever - and perhaps get herself off the permanent naughty list - she'll have to take up the reigns of the magical reindeer's sleigh to save the holiday!
Of course, her old friend Death is there to lend a very skeletal hoof by trading his robes for a red suit and his scythe for a peppermint stick to take up the role of Santa Hooves... Let's just hope he doesn't mix up his lists, or a lot of ponies will be Late for the holidays.
Chapters (2)
...You're doing The Hogfather with Rainbow Dash? HELL YEAH! All the "Hell yeah"s! Oh this is gonna be GREAT! I can't wait to see where you take this! You just made my Christmas Day and my Hogswatch Night!
Please, please, please include the bit with the poor little match girl! That's my favorite part!
If this story thos not at one point contain nod to a ciertan conversation about sives and little wihte lies, I'll be most displesed. It's one of my favorit qouts.
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Yep. That exactly.
memegenerator.net/img/instances/58480692.jpg
I am looking forward to this. Also that hypothalamus pun was quite the cool, brainy joke.
This part feels like a typo. Its indented, cut off from the rest of its paragraph and feels wrong (not for narrative reasons; just editing). Its been so long since Reaping Rainbow that i don't know if it is simply part of how you write. Just throwing that out there as a possible typo...
I'm stuck on the part where a mortal can do Death's job but can't do one Christmas. Or does Death truly want to wear the red suit? And who is going to do Death's job? Can't be a tempral problem of Dash not being able to be everywhere at once as Death is in the same boat; it has been established more than one death (one for every race?).
Yes; i am over thinking this.
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Guess you missed this part, then...
That was also a gag in Reaping Rainbow, so I brought it back out.
As for mortals being unable to play Santa despite apparently being able to substitute for Death, there is probably a very good explanation for it, and it is definitely not a plot hole on my part HAHA... and it just might get explained in the next chapter. Probably.
I did notice. Despite what you smugly imply. I bring it up as you, in this vary chapter, also had another instance of this;
Yet this one I flagged looks like this;
Don’t you worry, Santa! You can
(Separate paragraph)
count on me to—”
If it’s a gag? Fine; but don’t tell me I didn’t read when you are not consistent
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It's separated and indented to indicate that Death literally cut off the end of Dash's sentence, as in physically sliced the words off with his scythe. It is meant to be confusing at first and then have the reader realize what happened. I was just pointing out that it was not a typo.
That other part is just Death and Santa figuratively cutting off Dash in unison. No need to get defensive, dear reader.
It's so funny that I was introduced to a lot of the concepts of Terry Pratchett's work through this fandom. And yet, somehow, I've just never gotten around to actually reading them. I really need to fix that at some point.
Which is to say, my sister has extensively mentioned The Hogfather and I'm really eager to see that ponified.
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Well, this will be a short riff on the idea without lifting the plot, much as Reaping Rainbow was.
But yes, you should read Hogfather. Or any other number of his great works. I recently finished Soul Music, which was great fun as well.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this!
Aw yeah, Rainbow Dash and Death being best buddies again!
Happy Belated Hearth's Warming! :)
"a gust of wind so strong and wild that suggested it was training"
"a gust of wind so strong and wild that it suggested it was training"?
I'm not sure about that particular suggested fix, sorry, but the wording seemed to me like something was needed.
"were mostly intact due the thick layer of snow that had"
"were mostly intact due to the thick layer of snow that had"?
"You can
count on"
Unintended line break?"The scythe itself was wrapped in a pine and"
...Wrapped in a pine? As in, the tree? What?
Thank you for writing. :)
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"It's separated and indented to indicate that Death literally cut off the end of Dash's sentence, as in physically sliced the words off with his scythe. It is meant to be confusing at first and then have the reader realize what happened."
Oh, hm. See, I did consider that as a possibility for what was going on there, but then rejected that as not making sense, since the cut in the text isn't where Rainbow stops talking and therefore isn't when she was cut off. Hm. Not sure what to do about that... Maybe move the cut closer to where she stops? Though, of course, you're the author; I'm not sure how much of a problem you find this confusion, especially since, as you say, some confusion was intentional.
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"
"As for mortals being unable to play Santa despite apparently being able to substitute for Death, there is probably a very good explanation for it, and it is definitely not a plot hole on my part HAHA... and it just might get explained in the next chapter. Probably.
Eh, I can think of a number of explanations.
Might be Death and Santa Hooves just have different requirements. They do interact with mortals in different ways.
Might be truly taking on the role of Santa Hooves would make Rainbow no longer a mere mortal, trapping her in the role, which wasn't the case with her substituting for Death due to her state at the time, or something.
Might be Death is saying that because it's less harmful to jollity than the more accurate "I'm bored and this seems fun, and also I don't want to know what sort of creative ideas you might get if we leave you unsupervised with the full power of Santa Hooves."
Or could be something else, of course; those are just a few things I thought of now.
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Same here.
Speaking of Hogfather, A number of years ago I did a little parody of the same name using characters from Angry Birds in place of the cinematic classic Godfather.
Interesting premise. Any chance of it continuing this year, now that Thanksgiving's just ended?
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I've been thinking about that, actually, but I've just been having bad luck thinking of a natural arc for the story that makes it a worthy successor to the original Reaping Rainbow, which is still something I'm quite proud of.
But we'll see. When I get the inspiration, things tend to take off fast.
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So, it turns out, the answer is "Yes."
The Hat Man's writing fills my screen
Oh, Reaping Rainbow's here once again!
Horse words like I've rarely seen
Oh, Reaping Rainbow's here once again!
How long it's been
Now set the scene
With trees so green
Oh, Reaping Rainbow's here once again!
Glad you're back. Got worried something happened to you. ^^
I really missed your writing. You're one of the funniest authors on this site.
That dimming light was rainbow's stupidity killing his brain cells.
Could you please explain the reference to the Grove? This is the second story I've seen referencing it. (The other was Chrysalis Saves Hearthswarming.)
That whole exchange is just... beautiful.
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The Gift Givers of the Grove are three magical reindeer who appeared in the special "Best Gift Ever." Aurora, Bory, and Alice each represent the past, present, and future, respectively, and give Pinkie advice on the best possible gift to get.
It's a pretty fun special if you haven't seen it!
Well, that was definitely fun. Love the Krampus doing his thing.
"Death’s burning blue eyes seemed to dim, as if he were narrowing them at her. Be that as it may, he said, turning back to Moochick"
...I guess he decided it just wasn't worth correcting her at the moment? :D
"since the committee in charge of the Canterlot Ladybug Festival went into hiding"
...I mean, at least lacking context, that one seems rather sad. I mean, sure, Dia de las Quesadillas may have been created specifically to torment Twilight, but it sounds like the Canterlot Ladybug Festival was likely already an established thing.
"staring off at something in the horizon while holding"
"staring off at something on the horizon while holding"?
"And they’re sick of that Mareiah Merry song too, for the record. You know the one I mean"
...Hm. I don't think I do, actually? At least not by that identification.
Well, that was fun. :D
And, heh, the update may indeed have taken a while, but at least it ended up seasonal again? :)
Thanks for writing, and good luck!
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Some conversations, you can feel the pain coming.
Aw, now you've made it sad.
Mariah Carey, All I Want For Christmas is you. Thankfully, it doesn't get significant airplay where I live, but the internet assures me that the big American cities have been hearing it for months.
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Thank you for telling me. I dug it up and watched it, and it turns out that I had seen that episode, and the only part I internalized was the look on Marble's face when she saw Bic Mac snuggling Sugar Belle.
Happy Hearthswarming, everypony!
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Right. :D
Oh; sorry. I mean, from my perspective it already was, but I didn't mean to spread that around.
Ahh, thanks. I assume that I've probably heard that at some point, but no specific and/or recent incidents are coming to mind at the moment.
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Ah, yes, Happy Hearthswarming indeed!
Greetings Hat Man. I am wildeagle5050. Been a long time reader of fimfiction but only just recently joined. And I just picked up on your stuff two months ago. Just finished reading the first stories about Turning, I love that little robot pony you did a great job with her 👍. Haven't read anything else yet though but I left a comment here for some reason I couldn't on your blog. But I thought I'd pitch ya an idea for a new one about Turing, you don't mind crossovers that is I noticed you don't have any but maybe you'd like this. Picture Twilight and Turing somehow being brought to 🌎 and meeting the Autobots. Turing would love to meet them I'm sure and I can picture the Autobot symbol as her cutie mark. They ingrave it on her of course. And if you went with Transformers animated maybe find a way to make her tecknorganic like Suri. Or maybe if went back to CHS she and the girls could meet Jenny from My Life As A Teenaged Robot. I'm sure those two would get along. Just a thought. Please post back even if you don't like it I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks and God bless.
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Not sure why you had trouble posting on my regular page (though you could have posted on one of the Iron Horse stories, for future reference), but no matter.
Well, thank you very much for the kind words!
While I'm not above taking suggestions, I am not a fan of crossovers between media, most of the time. So referencing Transformers or MLaaTR is fun, but I'm not keen on actually doing that for a story. I think I've got a few more Turing Test stories in me, of course, but I don't think I can swing those ideas, unfortunately. They are fun ideas, but just not something I would personally write. Thanks for the suggestions, though, and I hope you continue to enjoy my work!
I understand thank you for your response ☺️. Though I may have some other ideas for none crossovers to. I love to write but I don't have time with work so I pitch ideas. Anyway thank you again and have a blessed new year.
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Thanks! Though next time, just post on my page or shoot me a PM, if you don't mind.
Dash n Death. They are pals
Hello Hatman remember me? I know you asked me to post my next comment at your server I tried sending you a private message but I didn't hear back from you. So I don't know if it worked or not which is why I'm doing it this way again. If you did get my message please tell me what you think even if didn't like it I would really appreciate a response. If you didn't get it and in the meantime I had another idea you might like for another story. I thought maybe Turing Test's siblings could use some private stories for themselves, one for each. Give them some more character development, also they could have names to besides just numbers. I have one for 001 "Sweetpeach"! Sutes her perfectly I think. Maybe have her get lost from the farm go on a little adventure before she's found and help and make friends with a pony like her, by that I mean some pony autistic. I thought of her as the robotic equivalent of an autistic child she could use a friend similar to her. Just a thought but what do you think? I would really appreciate a response. Thank you and God bless.
Oh by the way you know something funny I saw your name on the cover for Everything's Better With Robots was Michael Rudolph. Guess what my name is Michael to! Haaa! What a coincidence!
Well it's that time of year again...is this fic going at a pace of 1 chapter a year, or...is it just dead?