Friday's Featured Fic: Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift · 9:12pm Jul 4th, 2014
Title: Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift
Author: JawJoe
Genre: [Dark][Adventure]
Word Count: 120k
I don't enjoy very many dark fics. This isn't because I dislike dark fics; quite the contrary: there are few things I enjoy more than a tour down the darker rivers of the heart. Heck, my favorite author is Stephen King, and I'm not just saying that to be pretentious.
The problem, is that most of the stories I've read which utilize the dark tag read like this: "Oh man! Look how dark this story is! It's got blood and guts, and murder, and baby eating! Isn't this dark!? It's so dark! It's the darkest! I'M TWELVE YEARS OLD! LULZ!"
In short, they're macabre only for the sake of being macabre. Which results in said dark fic being about as "dark" as a low-budget slasher film.
One can only imagine my beatitude upon finding Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift, a story which not only has blood, guts, murder, and baby eating, but actually knows when, where, and how to use them properly.
The plot is about as simple as they come: Twilight Sparkle's parents were murdered, which causes her to join the Night Shift, a secret organization founded by Princess Luna to the waking world from vampires, werewolves, zombies, and nymphomaniacs, all the while trying to discover the reason behind her parents’ murder and I’m sure you get the idea.
The story begins in a nightclub, where Twilight Sparkle is “hunting” a vampire. Said vampire turns out to be Vinyl Scratch, and by way of what is obviously an intentional OOC moment, Twilight interrogates Vinyl, rather brutally, I might add. And through this little exchange, we’re clued in to: 1.) Twilight Sparkle hunts monsters. 2.) She is no longer the “innocent little bookworm” as seen on the show. 3.) She’s been doing this for a while, and 4.) There’s something amiss in Canterlot (foreshadowing).
Managing to impart this much information to the reader without actually saying anything is a feat in and of itself, but on top of that, the author manages to both impart this knowledge and keep the chapter tense, well-paced and pretty darn interesting as well.
And another thing: I actually find the first chapter to be the weakest. And that’s saying something.
From there on in, the story follows a very episodic formula, with shorter centralized story arcs, that don’t seem to have any bearing on the overarching plot comprising the first half of the story. With the second half, the story arcs become less “random zombie outbreak” and more deliberate. Patterns begin to emerge, and it becomes apparent that something is working behind the scenes, manipulating the strings.
While the plot may be unoriginal, it is wonderfully executed. And to its IMMENSE credit, I was unable to guess just who/what was behind it all until it was revealed at climax. This story hints and points, but never to a single source, and it does so cleverly enough so as to have kept me guessing all the way through.
While Twilight has quite a few “out-of-character-moments” they exist to remind the reader that this is darker side of Equestria we’re seeing, and you don’t travel these roads without picking up a few keepsakes. And they’re never so out of line as to become unbelievable. Twilight never decides to murder all of her friends to “preserve their innocence” like a ponified Mark David Chapman. All of her darker moments keep very much in line with the core of Twilight’s personality.
The cast of characters are also wonderfully realized. With deliciously darker versions of many fan-favorites like Octavia, Trixie, and Lyra making appearances that both coincide with and poke fun at fanon. There is an OC though, Third Eye Omen, that makes quite a few appearances playing the part of mystical old pony who knows much more than he’s letting on. So basically every OC in every dark fic ever. But he’s the only one. At least the only one that plays a significant role.
While it may not have the most original of concepts, Night Shift more than makes up for it with a wildly fun execution. And if you’re looking for something fun to read this weekend, you won’t be able to do much better.
Is this something you intend to do from now on? 'Cause I don't think I've ever seen you do it before.
Also, I stopped reading once I saw you talking about plot. Is it safe to assume these things are going to be spoilerific, because if so I have zero intention of reading them. That being said... if you're only going to feature 'good' stories (by your definition), perhaps I can use this as something to add to my RiL list...
This is actually your fault. This was going to be a short essay to convince you to read Night Shift, and then you had go and start reading Night Shift before I could send it to you!
But yeah, I decided to rework it into a spoiler-free review and post it as a blog.
Then I thought: I read way too damn much, and decided to do a series of blogs. Every Friday.
And don't worry, this is spoiler free. That's actually why it's so short.
And yes, they will all be stories that I enjoy. Which means that they'll also all probably be on the longer side. The stories that I enjoy the most tend to be on the longest ones.
2257879
Actually, I amend my earlier statement, there are spoilers, but only very minor ones. Nothing earth shattering.
i.imgur.com/iZVlgve.gif
2257879
I see no major spoilers in this. That said, if my opinion matters here, I'd rather you read the fic knowing as little as possible. I want to see your reactions.
2258045
Ah, okay then. I may just read the whole thing after all. Whoop >> 2258061 nevermind.
PS – just got word the contest Twilight's Inferno is entered in will be finished with the judging in a few days. Supposedly.
2258061
It's really too bad, I want to see more blood, guts, murder and baby eating!
I wish I could read more, but going home is always super-distracting. Odds are I won't have time to read anything until Monday.
...and with that, I think I might just be recovered from Twilight's Inferno. Cheers!