Gee, I wonder what the moral is?
Author: Maphysto
When Rarity and Rainbow Dash discover that they disagree on a point close to their hearts, they decide to settle their differences the only way two mature mares can: by forcing each other to embarrass themselves.A fanfiction involving Rainbow Dash and Rarity that doesn't involve shipping? That's certainly uncommon. Let's see if it's any good.
Don't Knock It Till You Try It (Word Count: 7,743)
I like my crossovers/adventures/sci-fi/dark fics as much as the next enthusiast, but I'd have to say my favorite types of fanfiction within the brony fandom are ones where writers attempt to actually write a believable episode. I like the fictions where everything just makes you think you could see this being an episode, and this one succeeds at that.
Mostly.
You never really appreciate the kind of work that goes into writing the episodes that the writers of the actual show do until you've attempted to write one yourself. I wrote three of them, and they took me a year each. It's hard to keep characters the way they would normally act, because, let's face it, you're not a professional writer for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and writing particular characters is going to be a challenge. It's one of the many reasons why we almost never see stories like this.
The story begins with Rarity and Rainbow having a heated discussion concerning the attire of the Wonderbolts. Rarity thinks they could do better in terms of design, Rainbow Dash is loyal to the brand. Their verbal jousting escalates to the very common "walk a mile in my shoes" trope. Rainbow Dash dares Rarity to play tackle hoofball, which is pretty much the equivalent of American Football. Rarity dares Dashie to spend a day at the spa, mainly to get her hair done.
Shenanigans ensue.
Has anyone noticed that we've rarely, if ever, seen development between Rainbow Dash and Rarity in the show? The most they've had time together was in Sonic Rainboom, and that wasn't even direct. We can't turn to fanfiction for this, because 90% of fics involving their relationship always end up with them in bed together. It's a real breath of fresh air to see these two FRIENDS acting as FRIENDS and nothing more than FRIENDS because there's nothing wrong with FRIENDS just being FRIENDS because the title of the show is FRIENDSHIP is magic, so inter-mane six shipping completely goes against-...sorry.
The moral, as stated before, is bleeding obvious. It's in the freaking title. However, this does put a slightly unique spin on it. The easy thing to do with this type of story would be to have Rarity suddenly become passionate about football and Rainbow Dash enjoy spa treatments. The author understood that Rarity would not, and probably not ever, enjoy tackle football, and Rainbow Dash would rather tear her wings off than spend her days in a spa. What did happen was they each found something to enjoy from their little spat and decided to join each other in less extreme and more tolerable activities more catered to their personalities. Rarity did find some things to like about football like the strategy element, but she hated most of it, and Rainbow Dash was pretty much the same with getting her mane done. They found a compromise, and found a something to relate to each other with in the activities they were forced into. They gave each other a few heartfelt speeches, understood each other better, and their friendship was made stronger because of it.
It does have flaws, though. The spa scene is horrifyingly short compared to the hoofball scene. In fact, the hoofball scene is about two-thirds of the whole story. The spa scene just feels like an afterthought, like not a lot of effort was put into it when compared to the previous event.
Now for some subjective criticism. I like to analyze things as an experience rather than listing pros/cons, and I have a really active imagination so sometimes Mr. Cranium likes to go on autopilot. This fic was able to really make me picture what was happening in it and I felt like I was watching an episode. I was feeling this fic up until they introduced the fandom OC's. There's nothing really technically wrong with this but for me, the fandom-introduced concepts just broke my immersion and made me remember I was, in fact, reading a fanfiction.
There wasn't really anything in this fic that really amazed me, made me roll on the floor laughing, or gave me something to really chew on and ponder. It was just a simple slice of life that wanted to develop two characters' friendship. And you know what? It succeeded in what it was trying to do. I went in wanting a good story with a good message, and that's exactly what I got. I'm satisfied.
All in all, I think this is a good story. It explores the relationship between two characters that we rarely see interact, and it does it as just FRIENDS. It takes an old tired cliche and puts a unique spin on it. It's just a nice, short, good fic. Just the way I like them.
("Read It" is a sign of a good story. This fic gives readers an interesting take on a situation or was an entertaining read. Trust me when I say it's worth your time.)
Commander Firebrand saying Semper Filly, and the Wonderbolt outfits look stupid.
