I'm not saying I believe you, but if that's true then Kenshiro doesn't even know that he's already dead to me.

You will stop this immediately, young man! Go to your room and watch porn!

Be careful what you wish for. Rule 34...

Basically, a young depressed man finds a very young filly Rainbow Dash abandoned in the middle of "not-Detroit Slums" and decides to take care of her. The story jumps forward years at a time chronicling the growth of the human character and Rainbow Dash as she essentially grows up with only a father-figure around. After fifteen or so years, the rest of the mane cast and Celestia come to bring RD home. The sad part is that growing up on Earth is all she remembers since she arrived as a young filly. That's when the crying begins.

In short, it's a sappy self-insert done right.

Finally!  20 replies later and this was the only helpful one. 

Doesn't sound all that sad to me.  I heard about one where apparently rainbow dash dies soon after coming to terms with her feelings for applejack or something, and the fanart that came with it was pretty sad, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on the matter. 

Well, I think I'm the only fanfic regular in these parts.

I cried a little at the end. They're bittersweet tears more than sad tears.

There's a LOT of sad fics out there!

I may be getting there... Trolling through "Kindness' Reward" (Trixieshy) currently. As i stated elsewhere, my writing schedule is heavily overstretched, so i'm not gonna dive in until i find a good idea...

I never read My Little Dashie, because it sounded like pretty sad stuff - I'm happy that I at least know the plot now though :) While we're on the topic of fanfics, cupcakes is strictly banned from this thread! xD

Not possible.

It's difficult, but not impossible. From what I've gathered, the trick is avoiding putting the focus mostly on the sef-insert, instead focusing on the impact they have on other characters.