Two ponies fall in love.
One will be conquered by Sombra and cast out of time.
The other will give everything to seal away the Pony of Shadows in Limbo.
Neither knows the other waits on the far side of a millennium.
Written for the M/M Shipping Contest III!
And with cover art by the esteemed daOtterGuy.
Featured 10/5/2023 - 10/9/2023!
Absolutely beautiful.
This is so good. One of the best romance stories here on this site. The evolution of Flashʼs and Properʼs relationship in the first chapter, their heartbreak an utter sorrow in the second, and sweet, satisfying reunions in the third.
Phenomenonal stuff as always, TCC56. All the best for the contest!
Feels safe to say this will be the entry to beat for this contest. Damn good work.
What a wonderful story! Excellent work ❤️
Great Golly did this make me tear up and smile. Loved it.
Nice whimsical stylistic writing used, I loved Proper Portal's design in his mail pony uniform. Great story dude keep it up.
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It's weird being the first one out of the gate for a contest. But also kinda fun? Being able to go 'come at me' feels neat, and I'm looking forward to see who gets over the bar I set.
there's something just so... satisfying about a romance story being short and sweet, and i definitely shed a few tears
it's a ship that doesn't have any weight in canon but yet, i yearn for more. i really really really like your writing style, and i hope you continue to write more beautiful stories!
Ah there's always something so nice about lovers finding each other again despite seemingly impossible odds
I love the rest of your stories and this is no different, good luck in the contest!
excellent words thank you for them
Flash Magnus should have been the first one to disappear
When Celestia and Luna fought Sombra, they were basically the same sizes as they are now, but Starswirl mentioned they grew a lot in between the Pillars going to limbo and their return
Just a nitpick
M4M is not really my thing, but I do love the plot hook of time displacement.
this is incredibly well done, my gosh. the concept!! the tragedy!!! their undying hope and the way love bent the rules a bit for them to be together in the end!!!! this was such a sweet read and has touched my heart so deeply; i rlly hope to see this place high in the contest, if not win it entirely ^^ amazing work!
Excellent
Short and sweet. Thoroughly enjoyed it
this is so cute i love it aaa
Cadance kinda stole the show at the end there for me.
Adorable
First of all, props for using Proper Postal. He's a background character I've had my eye on. And I quite liked Flash Magnus' dialogue. It had a distinct flavor to it without ever being obscure.
Also it occurs to me that an olive tree lives a long time and could last that whole thousand years just as well as their love
A lot of ponies are gunna freak out when they open their doors for a letter only to see Cadance.
This was a beautiful little story, very nicely done
Very sweet, very good. It had been a long while since last a fic made me cry
This is was so sweet I was literally giggling and kicking my feet while reading
This was one of the beautiful fics I've ever read and it was only 5k words
I would love to see some sort of follow up to their romance, but this story is perfect either way.
P.S Whoever keeps disliking the comments should swallow a cactus.
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I honestly find it pretty funny. It's such a sad statement about somebody (and probably their alt) that I can't help but laugh at them.
Excellent job on the story. :)
This was amazing. Took me by surprise, loved it all, from the way they spoke to their simple dreams. Lovely story, great work.
There is something really special about this line, able to make some abstract, impossible concept so simple and understandable in just four words. The ghost was real. It's really good.
You paired a fantastic concept with a beautiful execution, amazing work.
There's a lovely mythic quality to the first section that makes Flash and Proper's lives at that time genuinely feel like it's taking place in a foregone era. I think a lot of this comes from how their love of one another extends into the associated love for one another's cultures. It sets such a beautiful tone after Flash's description of the many forms of love; we get to see them move through eros to xenia as they prepare to build a life and home together. I love thematic details like this and you gave me enough to feast on to rival Proper and his grove of olive trees! I'll be thinking about this story for a while.
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This is one of the parts that made it fun to write. Getting that vibe down took some work, but it really made it sing to me.
I'm glad you enjoyed!
aww lovely little bit of worldbuilding! Proper Postal and Flash Magnus are from two different worlds in multiple ways
really love this, feels like a line from a historical epic about the early days of Equestria
love using bits of the setting like this as alternate ways to describe a common thing, really feels immersive
love that Pony Greek is Pegasopolian! and of course the classification of love is a great thing to bring into a world where love is literally energy
that says it all doesn’t it?
damn that is smooth! zero notes for Flash here
so true
love this melding of Greek epic vibes and shipfic beats
even the material culture here just feels like something from Equestria’s Classical Age past
augh, so even here in this idyllic beginning there is this sense of tragic separation, by distance. and it makes a lot of sense that the links between old Equestria and the Crystal Empire were always tenuous, dependent on pegasus flight. fits both how distances impact an ancient setting and how marginal the Empire is in Equestrian culture
augh such a beautiful vision to end it on! but of course the rules of storytelling demand that this beauty will become the sharpness of the knife to cut the reader with in the following acts. love it
oof, i knew that the Crystal Empire’s disappearance would be something that comes in between them but i totally forgot all the awful tragedy that could come of the part where Sombra turns all the crystal ponies into mind-controlled soldiers
ooh “Hearthswarmer” is a good name for that group of six ponies
and oof… easy to imagine Flash Magnus missing this
this does make it seem all this was just to prevent Flash Magnus from embarking on a suicide mission had he learned of what was going on up north. exactly the kind of thing i expect to go on in the court of the early Diarchy
love this ironic foreshadowing of Celestia’s own tragedy as she delivers the news of Flash’s
this tragic backstory adding the context for this decision is just perfect. i imagine that, somehow, all the other Pillars also have their versions of it
ah these Millennial princesses, am i right?
oof that is quite the paradox. surely everything like this is yet another reminder of the weight of those thousand years
i just adore these lines they are perfect
love this rhyme of Proper’s return proper
was this to explain the canon Flash not being a hollow shell of a stallion in the episode he’s revived in? a great way to explain it if so, but it is funny the little ways the canon gets in the way of our tragic gay romances
so true, Luna is the perfect bridge for the Pillars in this way
yay Kibitz is in this one!
could there even be a more exciting moment for the Princess of Shipping?
oof that touch of awkward realism
hell yeah
aww love this little touch
and augh, a perfect way to end it! brings a tear to my eye.
truly, magnificently written. the first chapters truly feel like they were taken from the early days of the Diarchy, and the characters from then carry that through to its beautiful end. i couldn’t ask for a better way to open up the contest. thank you so much for writing!
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This is, in fact, exactly what it was. Because he would, and the Princesses know it. And he wouldn't stand a chance, and the Princesses know it.
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It was. I had to reconcile the canon with the story - I couldn't abide not.
An adorable little romance. Lovely <3