• Story: Rainbow Dash's Best Plan Ever


    [Shipping]




    I'm pretty sure the pre-readers gave me a quote on this one, but I can't find it.  It's supposed to be amazing though, so enjoy!

    Author: Cloudy Skies
    Description: On the eve of Nightmare Night, Rainbow Dash is finally poised to enact her dastardly, clever and awesome plan. The goal? To scare Pinkie Pie right into her embrace so she can admit that she fancies her.
    Saying things do not go according to plan is probably redundant.

    Rainbow Dash's Best Plan Ever

    Additional Tags: Intimacy, Comfort, Plot, Cuteness, Mild Peril

    57 comments:

    1. That Dash face.

      Anyway, haven't read a good old Pinkie Dash ship in a while, so this will be read!

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    2. Well, actually not unheard of, just not my fancy

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    3. 'Intimacy'?

      no saucy link

      this is gonna get close to clop and leave me disappointed. >=(

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    4. This is amazing and you should all read it.
      Seriously. Cloudy has THE BEST Rainbow Dash I've read in forever.

      And yes there were quotes...
      Like "This fic made me a PinkieDasher" and "I could learn to write Dash from this"

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    5. Cloudy Shies. One of the only authors that I will read a story by which has the [SHIPPING] tag alone.

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    6. -looks at Author name-

      That name seems familiar somehow.

      -looks at other written works-

      Holy crap! The author made "Building Bridges" and "Within and Without!" Squee!

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    7. This is by the author of Within and Without, so it pretty much gets an automatic read.

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    8. Oh man, I forgot the last time we had a good old Pinkie Dash fic. There needs to be moar, I say!

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    9. Intimacy, Comfort, Plot, Cuteness, Mild Peril
      what could possibly go wrong?
      i shall read and find out!

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    10. My two all-time favorites...shipped together?

      Imokaywiththis.jpg

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    11. wait, this author wrote Building Bridges?

      I loved that fic...

      *continues reading fic*

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    12. This story has some of the best third-person Rainbow Dash writing I've ever read in the entire fandom.

      I hadn't liked a PinkieDash fic this much since Party Hasn't Ended.

      everypony read this, now.

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    13. Pinkie's chicken outfit was a minor turnoff to Rainbow Dash because it reminded her of Scootaloo..

      Bad thoughts, bad thoughts.

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    14. Well, I just read it.

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    15. Aww, this story was touching. I certainly enjoyed reading it. :3

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    16. Wonderful characterization of Rainbow Dash, as expected.

      I see the rating is suffering due to the fickleness of the Shipping tag. That's unfortunate, as this story is more well-written than many others with the Star-6 tag. It is clever, perfectly in character, excellently paced, and tells a wonderful story.

      My only critique would be to beware of the dreaded "lavender unicorn syndrome." Variety is good and all, but sometimes simple pronouns or names are the best solution.

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    17. Very touching story and you've nailed the characters perfectly! Definitely enjoyed reading this! 5 stars!

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    18. I loved it. I'll be honest, I've always been an AppleDash shipper, but PinkieDash works really well, and this story was well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. :D

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    19. Yep. Not disappointed at all. Great story and episode tie-in. I recommend adding the [ADVENTURE] tag tho. This will let people know there is an exciting plot attached to the story and not just a sappy romance.

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    20. Wasn't going to read this but I decided I felt like something happy and Cloudy Skies writes well so I did.

      As expected it was well written, the characterisation was great and everypony was in character.

      The premise was hillarious and It was both sweet and funny throughout, typical Dash and Pinkie.

      I really enjoyed reading this, it was touching and very sweet.

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    21. I expected the monster to be Luna's creation, seeing as apparently Pinkie and RD had been telling everyone about their feelings except each other, it would've made sense if the whole situation was manufactured by the others to bring the two together. But I liked this ending too.

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    22. Wonderfully accurate characterization, just the right amount of humour, cute as hay, Rainbow Dash. Yep, this is a CloudySkies fic.

      This man is my favorite author, he has a masterful way with words, and since this is my favorite pairing, it makes it all the better.

      Five stars!

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    23. No, I SEND dark clouds over your head, again why is this so popular?

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    24. Finally managed to open the story and read it.
      I don't really got any criticism as I'm not a writer myself, but it was definitely a good read :)
      Pinkie/Dash shipping is best shipping!

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    25. anyway, as I was saying: IMHO The romance aspects feels forced and is overshadowed by the much better written adventure aspects giving the feeling that this is an adventure story with a romantic plot tumour as TVtropes would call it rather than a ship fic with an adventurous backdrop. That said, the non-romantic writing and the characterisation are very good I especially like that Dash is unashamedly egotistical.

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    26. THE REVOLUTION AGAINST GRIMDARK WILL BE WAGED WITH SHIPPING!!! great story by the way! Everyone must indeed read!

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    27. Entropy, Romantic Plot Tumor only applies when the romance is killing the actual plot of a story. In this case, that's patently wrong because the adventure elements don't stand on their own: the only things that happen are "Monster appears", "RD and Pinkie run away", "RD and Pinkie hide". The only reason those elements constitute a complete plot arc was because of the emotional response we got out of Rainbow for them.

      In any case, amazing story. At first I thought Dash might be a little exaggerated, but then I realized it was because we're seeing into her head rather than picking up cues from what she was doing- people always tend to tone themselves down a bit when communicating with others.

      My only complaint is that we don't really get closure on the monster in any sort- we don't figure out what it was, or what it was doing, or why it was there... we wonder about these things, and it takes away from the satisfaction at the end if we don't some sort of resolution for it. Same with Rainbow's "Monster" right at the beginning- we don't know what happened to that either, and that sticks out a bit more because the chapter started with it.

      Admittedly, that's a very minor complaint and is more a preference than anything else I'll add.

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    28. That was good. Really in-character. On the one hand, the story itself is solid.. on the other, after reading just so much shipping stories that have some dramatic storyline that brings them together.. I kinda want to see a chapter or two of them as a couple, extending the author's vision of their relationship.

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    29. ...AND THEN PINKIE DASH BEAT THE FUR OFF OF APPLE DASH, THE END.

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    30. Hell yes, Rainbow-Pie, my favorite shipping!!

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    31. 5 stars! i would go more in depth but its 1am and i got school in the morning, CONFOUND THESE PONIES! THEY DRIVE ME TO INSOMNIA!

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    32. Eh, it was ok, hardly amazing. A lot less forced than most ships, but still...it kinda dragged, and was confusing in some spots.

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    33. Very well done. Of all the shipping stories I've read, this is definitely one of the better ones out there...

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    34. @Hydra in a Top Hat That is why I said it feels like one rather than it is one and I don't think it would take much rewriting to make the adventure plot stand on it's own.

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    35. I like this story a lot. Rainbow Dash's characterization is awesome and I love Pinkie/Dash. I did get a little tired of hearing Rainbow Dash get call things other than Rainbow Dash though. Happens a lot.

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    36. Well "feels like" is hardly a fair critique to give an author, now isn't it? Honestly it sounds to me like you just don't like shipping in general rather than this one being done badly.

      Considering the 'adventure' elements include a monster too horrific to be adequately described which is impossible to fight, a lot of running and some hiding, any rewrite that didn't totally rework the entire plot would put this out of the 'adventure' genre and more into the 'horror' one. Whether or not that story would be considered good or not though is immaterial, since it certainly wouldn't be the same story.

      Apologies if I sound insulting at any point here, I just really hate criticism based on people just not liking the genre. It's the worst thing for an author to receive, since it's unreasonable.

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    37. @Hydra in a Top Hat
      Actually, I love shipping and Pinkiedash is far and away my favourite pairing.

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    38. Congratulations on getting this up on here, and thanks for the shout out at the end. Opening it up I could almost immediately see some of the changes I recommended, and was happy.

      The reason I like this story, is because I could see Dash and Pinkie doing this. It's funny, but still manages to convey the feelings well.

      Hope to see more from you.

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    39. My apologies for jumping to conclusions, then.

      Hm... I feel like I should add something else here, but I can't really think of it. Well, aside that it seems like there's surprisingly little PinkieDash on this site.

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    40. This was brilliant. Like really brilliant. One of my favorite PinkieDash stories ever. One of my favorite shipping stories ever at that. Just light and nice. That's what I come here for.

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    41. Oh horseapples. That's a lot of comments.

      To all those who liked this story: Thank you! Every well-meaning/appreciative word is an extra balloon tied around my waist. Already working on the next fic, and this is absurdly efficient motivation!

      Some spoilers below!

      @Entropy: I saw your comments get swallowed (email subscription, so I got them all) and I don't know what happened. All the same, thank your feedback, though I admit it is not obvious to me what I could have done differently.

      The adventure/peril and goofiness was there to serve the ship - if you felt it was awkward and reversed, I'd love to hear why. Thank you for reading, though!

      @Cold in Gardez, GreatSnapper: Excessive lavender unicorn'ing was something the pre-readers warned me about, and I can only hang my head in shame if I failed to tone it down enough.

      I don't think I took my last edit pass seriously enough, and while I really grew fond of some of the turns of phrase, there are probably still a few unnecessary "pink mare"s in there somewhere. When I dare muster up the courage to go back into the doc, I'll clean that up.

      @Hydra in a Top Hat: It irks me a little, actually; I agree. I wish I found a place to tie in a wrap-up about Dash's own little monster (a humorous remark at the end about somepony finding it etc?) but it felt very disjointed when I tried.

      Not having an explanation for the real monster, that suffers from a similar problem: I simply couldn't find a way to deal with it without drawing focus from the lovebirds, but I am inclined to agree. Since the story aims to wrap up/explain most other things neatly, well, these are things I think about too. Thank you for the feedback!

      @purpletrauma: I doubt I'll write further in this continuity, but I know I want to revisit Pinkie/Dash soon.

      The next story I am writing deals more with an actual relationship in progress/in making, though, and less about declarations of love, so I hope that might be to your tastes!

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    42. It has been said several times already, but that was a very good characterization of Rainbow. I also loved Pinkie's little confession as to what scares her most, though I would have liked to see it being handled in a bit more depth. Rainbow saw Pinkie at her worst after all, so she should realize this is a very important thing for her.

      Anyway, loved it.

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    43. Rainbow, that is the most idiotic plan I've ever heard in my entire life.

      Now to read it...

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    44. Hmm, odd. My review didn't show up...
      Anyway, I really enjoyed this story last night but I was too tired to leave a comment.
      As for why I enjoyed this story, well, for one, it is brilliantly written, the characters are spot-on (especially the dialogue!), it has a clever plot, and I just love this couple to death.
      Do the pony world a favor and don't stop writing! :)

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    45. A real joy to read, great job! :)

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    46. Finally got around to reading this. This made me chuckle and smile. And I'm not usually reading shipping stories.

      I'm not sure this is what I'd recommend to my non-brony friends, but to other bronies I know I'd definitely give a nudge.

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    47. This was a fun read! I definitely wasn't expecting that ending

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    48. Once again Cloudy Skies writes a fantastic Rainbow Dash story.

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    49. Very nice, length was about 5% under what I would think is perfect, but still a very strong story.

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