IMO #3. Cut Me Like a Curse, A Fleeting Light in the Darkness series, Lyra's Ultimate Item Emporium, Imaginary + Ever After Never Came, The Day My Beard Turned Into Pinkie Pie, Screams and Silence · 1:05am Nov 1st, 2023
Guess what? Was trying to think up something of use to do for the Nightmare Night and the best our mentally eel brain allowed us to do was to write more of these. Ahem, anyway, here we go.
• Cut Me Like a Curse by AugieDog
A nice and bittersweet Special Agent Sweetie Drops story, even while there's less adventure than the tags suggest and it's more of a drama. Also some wordplay. Also glad that she was forgiven. Also more LyraBon. Loved it a lot. 5/5.
• A Fleeting Light in the Darkness series by Flashgen
Some gorgeous, suspenseful and inspired horror with a bittersweet ending. So glad the series has been completed and I've read it in full. 5/5.
• Lyra's Ultimate Item Emporium by Thunderbug80 (formerly TheSlorg)
A really funny story with an extremely silly Lyra who manages to get her way anyways (though not without help of friends and rivals). The origin of Cozy Glow was rather unexpected and didn't raise much of an emotion from me though (I didn't feel that the character that would become her had been developed much in the first place even while I understand that she's a reference to the original game's, which I'm still unfamiliar with, protagonist). Even then, this story was a really worthwhile experience. Couldn't expect anything less from the author whose stories have been my jam since near the very beginning of my stay in the fandom. 5/5.
• Imaginary and Ever After Never Came by Thunderbug80
A dilogy of sad "pony in human world" fics with Pinkie comforting two persons throughout their life full of struggling with illness. The latter story was even more of a gut punch than the first one because Alzheimer's is scary as hell, plus the Reveal of the story was while unsurprising but still heavy. As a former Pinkie fan, definitely a must-read. 5/5.
• The Day My Beard Turned Into Pinkie Pie by Thunderbug80
While we're talking about Thunderbug80 and how I've read their fics since my early fandom years, let's have a word about this early story of theirs. On my second read it kinda felt to me like the humor hasn't aged well but, again, Pinkie used to be my obsession back in 2012 and the pure comedy of grizzled testosterone-poisoned bikers encountering her madness and other Equestrian weirdness was my jam at the time. 4/5, might refresh my memory of it sometime and update the opinion. P.S.: Still hoping for the sequel even though I understand that there's not much original for the author to do with the premise left by the sequel hook.
• Screams and Silence by Magpiepony (M-rated, dark/horror fic)
(Wasn't sure whether I should write about this one since it's M-rated and I didn't like it much, but one of the reasons I've started writing these was to motivate myself to read more so I'd rather have to. No direct link to the story because, again, its rating is M. Will remove this one and/or the link to the author if requested.)
Sigh. While the premise of Octavia summoning a demon to have as a lover and them having to harvest organs from other ponies to complete her sure is interesting1, the horror part of it was too, uhh, edgy and over the top for my current self and felt inserted purely for shock value; I used to be a that-sweets-named-fic fan back in the day and might have vibed with this one back then but right now I'm into more subtle horror. Didn't feel much of a suspense from the lead up to the main, ahem, "course" either, though I guess the tags have spoiled the story and Rainbow's fate to me. 3/5, not recommended for the faint of heart but people that are more into dark stuff might find it a nice read.
1Even though I think I've encountered a demonic Vinyl in The Necromantic Adventures of Lyra Heartstrings2 iirc...?
2Will leave an opinion on that one sometime in the future, it's a good one. And/or re-read it.
Thanks for the love!
My days writing might be over (would love to come back, but time isn't on my side), but I do enjoy knowing that my old stories still bring enjoyment to people.
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Thank you for the amazing stories!