#ffaf 2

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Free For All Friday #2: “The Returnening!” compilation

“Untitled” by Hurp Derp

"Tale of Love" by Stagmanparty

“A Nightly Rescue” by Celestial

“Best of Both Worlds” by Hoof and Quill

"New Student" by Stagmanparty

“Tradition” by ThunderTempest

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Comments by Kyronea(contains spoilers): The Doctor's not doing a very good job of hiding himself if he's trying to fit in. I'm going to hazard a guess based upon what he said that he's going to grow up until he has his cutie mark, which will then restore his connection to the TARDIS allowing him to get back to timey wimey action. Makes sense to me! Celly showing up at the end confuses me a slight tad with her suggestion to play a game, though I suspect it's just a cover to convince the Crusaders while she can take the Doctor aside and speak with him about stuff.

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FFAF #2: "Best of Both Worlds" by Hoof and Quill

White and gray for three weeks now.  Not that Applejack was counting, mind. But it had been three weeks now without a break in this gloomy winter cloud cover.  Sweet Apple Acres was covered in a light layer of snow, as it usually was this time of year, and most of the work on the farm was slow enough that she occasionally even had a few hours off.  But see, this wasn't something she really looked forward to.  Applejack liked working.  She enjoyed going to bed tired every night, and waking up a bit sore.  She liked the sun on her back and the wind in her mane.  She did not, however, enjoy endless cold, boring, white idleness. Applejack opened her eyes, and glanced around.  Unsurprisingly the sun hadn't come out while she was resting against this tree.  The orchard was silent and still, and though the farmhouse offered warmth and good company with her family, she wanted to stay out here a bit.  Being outside was something she needed, silly as it was, and her family understood that. Laying there with her eyes closed and her hat pulled down over her face, she missed the flash of color that popped out of the clouds far above, and dove downwards at a frankly irresponsible speed.  She did hear the whistling of wind on feathers, though, and decided to just keep her eyes closed anyway.  A sleeping pony might be a good target for pranks, if it was anypony but Applejack.  Rainbow Dash had learned that a long time ago. There was a quiet noise of hooves on grass when Rainbow Dash landed a few feet away, and Applejack did her the courtesy of opening her eyes and pulling her hat up.  Rainbow looked to be all smiles despite the gloomy weather.  Her voice carried nothing but excitement and pride.  "Hey, AJ!  Looks good, doesn't it?  Flat and perfect, here to the other side of Ponyville!"

Commentary from Donny's Boy

I question whether this was actually written within thirty minutes. We're happy to allow submitters a bit of leeway in order to finish up a story, but this is really close to our word count limit of two thousand words. Please keep the time and word limits in mind for future submissions.

I liked the story a lot. It's a lovely little slice of life vignette. It makes complete sense that AJ would chafe without sun and work to do, and it makes just as much sense that Rainbow, well-meaning but a bit self-centered, wouldn't think that her non-winged friends wouldn't get to see the sun like she does. There's also a great balance between tenderness and competitiveness, which is just how things should be between these two. Nice work!

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FFAF#2: "A Nightly Rescue" by Celestial

Rainbow was woken rather abruptly form her dream by the shouts of a filly, just below her cloud. Jumping to attention, she zipped to the edge and looked below, to the vast moonlit savannah, trying to pinpoint where the shout had come from...

There! A zebra filly was galloping in panic, shrieking as she pushed high yellow grass aside, being chased by something more than double her size, looking predatory enough in its feline gait to sound an alarm in RD's head.

She bolted off the cloud with enough force to dissipate it, diving straight for the feline's muzzle, hoof outstretched.

"Try someone more your size, won't ya?" She delivered, allowing the lion just enough time to turn before the hoof connected and blasted its whole face, dissolving it into sand, partly picked up in Dash's contrail as she sailed past.

She hovered in place to survey the scene. "Whoa," she said, glancing at her hoof in disbelief. "Are all things around here this dehydrated or something?"

She turned to the filly, who had stopped and was now jumping in place, calling out to her, "Makini! Kuwa makini! Ni kuja kwa ajili yako!" and pointing fervidly at the beast all the while.

"Hey kid," she waved back, "Yeah, I know I'm pretty good, but that's nothing I-Whoa!" By pure reflex she dodged the snapping jaws of the jumping feline that had almost reached her dangling hind legs. "Seriously? Why don't you guys ever know when to quit?"

Sand was still flowing to the lion's muzzle, recomposing it, which didn't prevent it though from growling loudly in displeasure.

"I guess you'll need a bigger lesson then. Let's see if you can handle this!"

Rainbow dash bolted down and started spiraling around the beast, enveloping it in a furious rainbow-coloured twister. The creature snarled and tried to swipe at the blurring pegasus, but was gradually coming undone, claws and limbs and muzzle and tail reverting to sand and being thrown up into the vortex...

When Dash was done, all that remained was a drifting cloud of dust high in the air, carried away by a rogue wind. She landed, only to be immediately tackled by the filly, her tears already wetting the pegasus's barrel.

"Heh, all in a day's work, kid," she said as she patted her with a wing, trying to console her sobs and to ease her crushing hug, but only time made the filly relax, clinging as she still was to the pegasus.

"It's okay, squirt... it's okay... Say, do you have a family nearby? They're probably worried sick about you."

The zebra just stared at her, eyes wide. It felt like she'd never let go of her.

The pegasus sighed. "Okay, let's look for your parents now," She forcibly released the embrace and stood up on all fours, nodding forward to the zebra to go ahead.

Sniffing, the filly wiped her eyes and started walking north, if the stars and Dash's pegasus senses were of any indication. The filly talked to her a couple of times during the trip in her zebra language, but the pegasus to her side thought little of answering besides a headshake and a "Sorry, kid."

Half an hour later, they arrived to a zebra village, their straw huts illuminated and their inhabitants rushing to greet the two as many hugs and relieved words mere exchanged between them and the lost daughter.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Yeah, I guess this is my cue to leave. Be more careful next time, squirt!"

She was about to take off when an adult zebra called out to her; she turned to see all of them staring at her, the filly in particular with the most pleading eyes she had ever seen. She figured out they didn't want her to leave.

"...Alright then, I guess I'll stay, but-" she was interrupted by a yawn, "It better be about a place to crash, cause I was already exhausted before I made that sand lion thing bite the dust, hehe."

She was grabbed by a hoof from the filly, and escorted to a hut, where a leaves-and-hay bed seemed to be waiting for her in a corner. RD had thought of haggling down the hospitality, but she figured she could be doing better things right now than trying to gesticulate her way out of another culture's sense of neighborliness.

Specifically, snoozing her way to the next sunlight.

She barely noticed the little zebra scooping next to her as she drifted into unconsciousness.

(Just wanted to ask, is it allowed to also post the Fimfiction link to this story here? 'Cause in that case, http://www.fimfiction.net/chapter/464048

Otherwise, disregard this aside.)

Commentary from Donny's Boy

The action was nicely conveyed, and I liked your characterization of Rainbow Dash. It felt true to her later seasons depiction. I did wonder, though, just why she's apparently in a savannah, and it would have been nice to have seen a sentence or two providing back story on that.

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Free For All Friday #2: "The Returnening!"

Free For All Friday utilizes the same rules as our typical prompts—that is, thirty minute time limit, six hours submission window, etc.—but there is no set prompt. Rather, it’s a free writing session. Of course, all stories must be related to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show and universe.  Once we take in the submissions, we’ll comment on them over the week, and then post them next Friday. So, with that said, happy writing! This is an FFAF. You have six hours from the start of this FFAF to submit your stories; submissions will be closed at 7 p.m. Pacific/10 p.m. Eastern. If you don’t happen to have a Tumblr account, you can submit your story by emailing it (in the body of the email, not as an attachment) to [email protected]; do not submit using Tumblr’s email submission system, as it tends to deliver us only the titles of the stories submitted using it.