When the leaves of the world burst into deep reds, oranges, and yellows, earth pony towns all over Equestria chase the cold winds away with Fall Weather Friends Day festivals. From budding relationships to old flames, relations of all kinds gather from across Equestria to enjoy the season, including a peculiar pair of bitter and sweet stallions.
The dichotomous couple intends to make the most of their visit to the friendship capital of the world, Ponyville, by seeing the sights, savoring the fun and festivities, and ignoring the terrified screams of the locals, all the while deepening their love for one another. As long as they have each other, nothing will be able to stand against their star-crossed love, both figuratively and literally.
Tied for second place in Bicyclette's M/M Shipping Contest III hosted by the M/M Shipping Contests! group
Edited by: TheAncientPolitzanian
Preread by: Jymbroni, Alchemik, Falkenlied, and Arkadios
Cover Art: Pop-Rocking OCs by pop @rockin_candies on Twitter
Inspired by Crooked Beetles' Good OC x Bad OC Thread on Twitter
Featured from 11/16/23 to 11/20/23. Thanks so much!
Contest is now over. Feel free to like normally now. Or not! It's up to you.
A friendly reminder about the contest:So... first!derpicdn.net/img/2021/10/5/2717119/full.jpg
Awww, they're adorable together.
And love the juxtaposition.
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Wouldn’t it make more sense to make them Upvotes? Aren’t those more likely to happen? And what about the Likes and Dislikes on the actual story?
Ok, I definitely need to see the meat cute for this one…
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Upvote the fics, downvote the comments. The contest is weaponizing knee-jerk homophobic reactions by fiscally rewarding them. It does skew the legitimate criticisms a fic can receive which is a little eh. but more importantly than feedback, it channels any blind bigotry one of these fics gets and turns into money for charity. (And reward money, but charity is more important here. I don't expect to win with this fic.)
I'm personally downvoting every comment.
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Hell yeah. Let's hate these comments to the BANK
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Cool, guess I'll provide another comment to be downvote bait.
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…To the blood-red bank! :P
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If you never checked out the associated Twitter thread, it is just chock full of Good OC x Bad OC wholesomeness. It's the last link in the description. When M/M contest III was announced, I couldn't resist since I don't think anyone else would do them. I seem to use contests as an excuse for writing things I never do.
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Meat-cute? *Googles* Oh, I'm assuming Meet-Cute.
It was cut from the story, but there was a longer point where Chip get's distracted on dwelling about their meeting. In short, Zecora accidentally mailed the Alicorn Amulet instead of a needed exotic herbal medicine in the Crystal Empire and Onion Chip drops it (Or the Alicorn Amulet heeds the call of the darkness and slips out of his mailbag). He digs for the box thinking it's important medicine and is overcome by hypothermia just as Obsidian Chalice rushes to his side to warm him back up. I imagine Chalice was in the middle of his evil monologue when he noticed the half-frozen pegasus slump over and it goes from there.
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Do eet for OutRight International!
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wait... people eat bagels with peanut butter?
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My dad does. Loves peanut butter on his cinnamon raisin bagels.
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Holy crap I absolutely love that idea. Fantastic fic by the way!
YES!! That OC post keeps delivering goodness! This was cute as fuck.
I love this. You captured the tone of him so well
and tbh his backstory fits canon surprisingly well, kudos.He's perfect. What a cute couple.
Deep down, we are all red and black alicorn ocs.
Great fic, love the pairing, lowkey want a cuddle couple’s choco-loco cream dream pumpkin spice latte now.
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As do I. They didn't say not to promote it, so I don't mind turning my own comment's sections against me. Still, seeing as how the first comment is already at $26 at the time of writing alone, maybe they'll have to impose a maximum. Don't want to be bankrupting the contest runners.
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I loved that thread as well. So many good, wholesome, and some saucier picks. Cute as floppin' without any floopin' involved in the fic? Noice!
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Thanks. My voice for him when writing was a Shadow the Hedgehog Edgelord OC TM/CR #donotsteal crossed with Adam Jensen played by Nicolas Cage. I needed every Chalice line to be an over-the-top verbose mess of "I am my pain and my pain is defined by my darkness which is all of my pain can... GET OUT OF MY ROOM MOM!"
And even when I go off the wall, I always like adhering to canon where I can.I've had that idea on the backburner for changeling for a while.
And we could all use a little guy to help us get through.
pbs.twimg.com/media/F4y_Mz3XEAAXZ9o?format=png&name=900x900
Source: @KingLeionidas on Twitter
Same. I'm admittedly pretty basic too. I'll settle for matcha, peppermint hot chocolate, or chai though.
static.wikia.nocookie.net/unstableunicorns/images/d/d6/15.png
I loved everything about this fic. Oh boy,
If you downvote this your mom is gay
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which one?
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gifs.cackhanded.net/saturday-night-live/37x14/high-praise.gif
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Sorry, Mom... I know you love Dad and his peanut butter eating ways, but...
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derpicdn.net/img/view/2023/11/11/3238226.jpg
Oh my Lamda! A red and black alicorn!
Okay with that out of the way, Onion and Obsidian are kinda cute together.
THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME GREAT JOB I APPRECIATE HOW MUCH FUN IT MUST'VE BEEN TO WRITE CHALICE'S DIALOGUE ALSO THIS IS SUPER CUTE
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Mission Successful.
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WRITING CHALICE WAS VERY FUN INDEED!
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ALL OF THEM
This was delightful, I saw the original post an age ago and a bit of the response to it but not much, so it was excellent to see. Both characters were written excellently and fit together very well.
This was such an adorable story. <3
And two cuties, bonus.
Man Chalice is a treat.
Whoah, what's up with all of the downvotes on the comment section specifically. Going to upvote all of them to upset the trend. Will edit comment after I finish reading the fic
False alarm I was unaware of
I've been effectively bamboozled
Very, very adorable, once again Rego, you find a way to craft a lovely short story that is both delightfully adorable and elegantly presented with its grammar (Maybe a few intentional grammar errors would've driven the point further but they could've distracted from the overall story, and merely suggesting this would probably tempt you to cast me into the shadow realm for some time out)
Lovely piece, loved the improvements in comparison with the G5 version. More focus on the adorable couple, a little bit of relationship tension, and you kept the best jokes around (Sprinkles and lil' spoon still made me laugh even though I knew they were comin')
This new one made me chortle though
“You did lose your cool a bit, but you only shared about half of your backstory. I think that was an improvement.”
Onion chip wants only one thing and that's a raisin bagel and I can't stomach such a disgusting thought. Outside of that, loved the couple.
Thank you for writing this!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one joke done to death quite so perfectly.
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The artists did so well at capturing how potentially wholesome they could be. I couldn't resist playing with the trope myself.
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Or a snack? A tall drink of dark chocolate mocha latte?
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Seeing how many downvotes there are now, I'm fearing that the rule will have to be adjusted for my fic will need to be an exception or maximum. We're at finacially crippling levels of dislikes. I did not expect this story to be featured for as long as it was.
All thanks to the help I have like you and the others.
There was the first version, then the G5 version when it wasn't working (the one you read), the rewrite of the first version, then the rewrite from mostly scratch after Jymbroni slapped me and said "No. Do better." Kept the best ones through all 3. The redacted joke was actually inspired by one of Jym's idea. Props to him.
Agreed. My opinion of raisins was expressed by Chalice.
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Isn't that what memes are all about anyway?
Awesome story. They are so cute together. I wouldn’t mind more from this pair in the future. But I’m also content with what I have as well.
In another note I just found out that there is a limit to how many downvotes you can give the comments. In a certain amount of time. I was only able do about half of what’s here. Sadness I wanted to help more with the whole come t down vote thing. Oh well I think I did enough.
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Yeah. This was a one-and-done kind of story, but I'm sure there's plenty of folks that could pick up the mantle if they wanted to and run with it since this is both a heartfelt attempt at the ship and lampooning the edgy OC alicorn trope at the same time.
You can't do a bunch of dislikes quickly in a row, but you can always come back to do some more dislikes. At this point though, I'm not sure the contest runners can afford the number of dislikes here. I mean I wouldn't be able to since it's more than I make in a month.
i was wondering how well the red and black alicorn OC would translate to prose form and i am not disappointed
love the order
aww! cinnamon raisin is good tho!
augh he is such a blorbo
ahaha
oh yes, always monologuing his backstory is definitely a bad habit for red and black alicorn OC to grow out of
auaugh love this
this is so good
augh this guy is so romantic
perfect exception
and just love that the OC’s cliché place in the world of Equestria is being played perfectly straight here
augh this is so romantic! i love it so much
i love this so much
love how Chalice reacts to this small annoyance of life that the rest of us know so well haha
such a perfect short scene, wow. you really stuffed this to the brim with so many perfect moments, with all the mileage that one could possibly wring from the premise. this should be required reading for anyone who is a fan of that “good OC x bad OC” meme, or really anyone with a human heart in general. wonderful stuff, and thank you so much for writing it
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My focus when writing this was absolutely nailing who Obsidian Chalice. If his character didn't work, then the story didn't work.
It'd be my order as well. Went to a cafe with a host family back in 2012, and when they asked what coffee I wanted, I chose the chocolate parfait with a kit-kat bar and waffle cone. When they asked to make sure because it was a girly drink, I just nodded and said "I understand. I'll have the parfait, please."
As I'm getting older, I am becoming more capable of eating raisins if I have to. Still not a fan.
I had to Google "blorbo." After doing so, I'm still not sure if I understand the term. It seems to be endearing in most definitions I find, so, good!
Edgelord needs to be maximally edgy.
That's a relief. I've never been on a date, so I'm always worried when it comes to writing these sorts of scenes.
As stated previously, I do enjoy the challenge of writing as close to canon-accurate in most of my work. I think it was important to make his power source plausable so it's not just OP for edgelord's sake.
Anything we keep inside, Chalice expresses outright. Completely lacks social awareness and just blazes forth.
Thank you so much for reading it and enjoying it as much as you did. The reactions everyone has had made the struggle through three different versions of this story worth it.
In honor of your dislike donation, your comment will be the last to have a thumbs down by me. Enjoy the red.
Howdy, hi~!
So, gave this one a reread and can say with certainty that it still holds up even after the contest is over. I love this story. It takes this weird twitter pairing and makes it work by juxtaposing the relationship between them then turning it up to 11. They both have such distinct personalities that play off of each other in a really fun way that is incredibly fun to read.
The slice of life works really well here to emphasize the silliness of one half of the pair and works as a light comedy. Dialogue is on point stating everything it needs to give us a look at their relationship without needing an extra 8 K and the physical comedy of the surrounding bystanders is great for adding a bit of set dressing to the plot without bogging down the pacing.
Its sugary sweet for a fic with a really lovely relationship at its core that show two partners genuinely supporting one another. Still a banger short story that I would wholly recommend to anyone to read.
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So nice that you read it twice? Thank you so much! I'm glad I fought through the slice-of-life bias to deliver a story that you've enjoyed. I've always respected the way you take on writing stories, so it's nice to hear I was able to do so with my first MxM story that I've ever written.