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Twilight and company are sent by Princess Celestia to check up on an old student of hers who hasn't been heard from in a while. Heading out to a remote part of Equestria, the girls arrive to find an ancient and unknown horror, one that's just about ready to be unleashed...
A mish-mash of ponies and the classic works of John Carpenter (specifically The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness).
This story is so freakin' awesome, it deserves way more than 9 likes! You manage to keep the tension, emotional responses and mystery to a maximum. I also have no idea who's the Thing in disguise but my money's kind of on Fluttershy (it was on Rainbow Dash originally but then I read that bit at the end and it gave me doubts - see this is what I was talking about when I said you work in the mystery well, you glorious bastard!). Keep up the good work Mr Author, I have the utmost faith in you...besides, it can't be worse than the 2011 prequel can it? 
PS. Fingers crossed for somepony's head detaching, growing eight legs and eyestalks, and trying to scuttle off 
Gah, I'm gonna regret reading it before sleep.
SPOILERZ BELOW
Rarity and AJ are my prime suspects of being infected, but I can't tell which one it is.
Twilight is definitely not infected, because she wants to find a way to identify the Thing (also, I dont think that the Thing would waste energy on crying while being alone in the lab), plus she was alone with Fluttershy and nothing happened between them, which also strikes Fluttershy off from my suspect list.
Neither Rainbow Dash or Sweetie are infected, because of the 'kitchen scene' - they were alone in the room and nothing really happened.
I also don't think that Apple Bloom is infected, because the CMC were together all the time(I guess?) and the monster couldnt freely infect her without being caught red handed by Sweetie.
Edit:
Rarity is off the list too. Why would she scream hysterically when she saw Scootaloo doing this and that with Spike, if she were infected herself?
That leaves only our cute orange apple farmer... poor Apple Bloom 
Aw, not Sweetie Belle. Now I sense a conflict with Rarity with Sweetie being infected being Twilight's fault. 
Nice crossover you got going here that doesn't just feel like "THE THING! BUT WITH PONIES~!" and is actually engaging. Not to mention that all the characters are actually IN character.
Gonna keep an eye out on this one.
I just read this all in one sitting, excellent. It's a very strong crossover, although there are a few places that get a little too close to the source material for my taste. The backstory for the Thing is very well executed, I'm very happy that you went somewhere besides just "an alien." You capture the paranoia terrifically. The decision to bring in the CMC to increase the kill-count was brilliant and horrible. In a good way.
I like to think that in my own body-horror filled FoE homage to the Thing that I pull that aspect off rather well. I found your body-horror to be deliciously disturbing. I can see the corollaries between scenes from the movie and your work, but you have made them enough your own to really shine.
Excitedly following.
not just a The Thing crossover, but all of John Carpenters "Apocolypse Trilogy". Amazing. LOL how Sutter Cane is, in Equestria, "Sugar Cane". The Thing was the scariest movie I have ever seen. (The game was rather weak, more of a "rent it" instead of a "buy it". good work
Another excellent chapter. You had me worried a second there that I wouldn't get to read a line about Dash not wanting to spend the rest of the winter on the couch. I'm glad you didn't do it word for word, but I'm ecstatic it was there.
It looks like I'm going to need to look at some of the source material, I am only familiar with The Thing. I don't know if it is from the sources, or something you added, but I'm glad there is a possibility of a reset. While I'm usually pretty grumpy when grim dark writers "wimp out" at the end, it is usually because it seems tacked on. Having the reset as a goal instead of a happy coincidence gives it a believability that is lacking in a lot of other works.
I applaud you sir, and eagerly await more.
Boy, that was a convoluted explanation, but it makes perfect sense once she gets to the point.
Oh shit. D: But what the hell is up with Pinkie?
So this has gone from Carpenter to Lovecraft? :O Not that I mind.
Hah! And I was about to accuse you of OOC Rainbow Dash.
Coming into this chapter, I found myself wondering why I was continuing to follow such a gut-wrenchingly horrifying fic. I came up with "I like the atmosphere", which is true. Now, I'm putting all those thoughts aside. Despite what's happened, the current scene feels very pony-adventure, and I'm okay with that. Actually, my one complaint at this point is that I don't really remember how everything fits together geographically, and I'm pretty much lost as to where they've gone.
I'm with MisterClacky on this one; the cheap thing to do would be to suddenly fix everything at the end, but introducing it as a tempting possibility really works and adds some hope and suspense to this fic. It would be a relief after the characters we love so much died so horribly. The scene where Pinkie was explaining it all was pretty exciting.
In previous chapters, I felt bad for what happened to Spike and how it affected Twilight and Rarity, but a little worse for the fact the Scootaloo was barely mourned at all. Rarity's death was far worse, though. And poor Apple Bloom is probably traumatized by now, unless she isn't herself. Except ... the thing was under the couch with Dash ... They'd better watch their backs.
Wow. I wonder what kind of ending we're going to get. Is there really a way to turn back the clock? Will the world end? This is intense. Guess that's the thing about horror: miserable endings are just as likely as happy ones, if not more likely.
Interesting twist with Pinkie Pie being the dangerous one. It's particularly clever because Pinkie's already a weird, quirky character. It isn't immediately apparent that she's being more than her usual eccentric self.
Looking forward to more.
Brilliant. The portrayal of Dash in this chapter was amazing. Every scene with her showcased a mounting paranoia and growing disillusionment. And that stubborn "I can win this" attitude was perfect. And her ending? That has to be the most chilling accounting of drowning I have ever read.
I literally had shivers when Fluttershy stared down the big bad. I wasn't expecting that, and it was brilliant.
And more bodies showed up, which is good, cause we're all out.
Keep up the excellent work as you wind this down.
Why is Pinkie crying tears of blood? D:
I think you mean "tinkling", not "tinkering".
This history that Pinkie is telling is fascinating. This is all fascinating, and completely entrancing!
FFFFFF DID RAINBOW DASH JUST KILL APPLE BLOOM D:
Ohai Applejack. :B
...And Rainbow drowns under the ice? D: After all that? ._. That's not a good prize. Where's the frickin' tragedy tag, man?
"and her eyebrows rising": rose
Okay, I'm okay with how you killed Fluttershy off. That was pretty epic, not to mention heroic. But now Twilight gets to be all alone, assuming she makes it out even. D: What the fuck?
God dammit, Hawks, god dammit! D: Where the hell have you been?
Well, this has been a real crapsack of an adventure. ;_; I guess there's one more left?
This has to be the single most amazing, touching and bone-chilling stories that i've EVER READ on this website, it even goes as far as to rank up there on my favourite stories. Adding Lovecraftian horror to an already amazing horror theme such as; "The Thing" was absolutely genius. Great job man! I can't wait to see the next chapter (possibly an ending?) and more from you. Have all of my internets, Infinite internets coming your way!
I am ever so slightly concerned that this is not yet over. D: It felt over! Or at least headed for a definite ending.
Interesting start to this chapter. A POV switch that works well, and more importantly is handled properly.
WHOA WAIT WHAT WAIT WHAT WAIT WHOA
He's wanting to know what she saw... This isn't real, is it? Hmm, but then it switches to Weaver's POV... Argh, confused! Though I like how, even after the main danger has passed, there are still questions and puzzles to figure out.
"with the rest of her body was similarly": take out 'was'
Uh-oh!
This seems to have become a completely different sort of story. c.c
@_@
I really have to call you out on using 'feet' and 'meter' in the same sentence. D:
So was everything reset? But things have changed...
This is the thing taking everything over. Or in her mind, something like that. Oh man oh man.
Growling Mad Ponies? Really? This is not the time for ponified musical references.
NOW I am scared. Pinkie, what did you do?
Ah, and what I at first thought was Pinkie breaking the fourth wall actually comes back to an earlier thought I didn't put words to: it's all about the books somehow.
You've got me gibbering madly to myself with Pinkie being squeezed by the green things. @_@
Oh wow, that's a great plan!
YES AND THE DRAGON KNOWS WHAT IT IS
That was the best line, seriously. :D Wow, shit, what a chapter. I can only imagine that the Princess's absence has something to do with something...
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that, like the majority or readers, I thought a The Thing crossover with Ponies would be bad, really really bad.
But, also like said majority, I am currently eating my words with gusto. This is a brilliant fanfic. Extremely well executed and so much suspense.
MOAR!
OK, I really should start replying to comments on here.
No, it just got thigh-deep into Prince of Darkness territory, and neck-deep into In the Mouth of Madness territory. And those movies (particularly the latter) go to some very, very strange places.
Fun fact: My original outline of this story pretty much ended just like that. Minus the Donald Pleasance priest, at least.
This has gotten quite interesting. Thanks to so many stories I've read and movies I've watched I have a pretty good idea on how this will end. Well 2 ideas. Not gonna share them since I tend to be right on predicting these sort of things. Wouldn't wanna make a spoiler should I be right now would I? I await the final chapter expectantly. 
I gotta' say, this is overall a really interesting story. I really liked the idea of the Mane 6 + friends going up against one of the most terrifying movie monsters to date, and loved how you worked the thing story line to fit into the MLP universe.
There is one issue I do have, however. How it jumped from one series to another within the same story just didn't sit right with; how you jumped from The Thing to Lovecraft kinda' gave me genre whiplash. Don't get me wrong, though! I am enjoying the story so far, and I look forward to the resolution...it's just that when to started out as a The Thing crossover, and then add the Cthulhu Mythos to the plot it just seemed to take away from the story you had started...
Other than that, it really was a good read. 
You're far from the only one to take issue with the story's directional change. I'll address it more when the story's done (which will be soon!), but in short it was basically something I figured would come up when I tried to adapt all three movies to the story (however thematically similar they might be), as opposed to just sticking to The Thing,
I have no doubt of this. I suppose it's my own fault though; I came in expecting a The Thing crossover that overall stayed true to the overall plot of the movie, even though I saw that this was would be a combination of three stories of a similar genre. I mean what you're trying to do is interesting. Adding your own twists and turns to the story, and trying to original with the story; that's the sign of a very creative writer. However, because you're trying to do this with stories that have a very strong fan base that have a "pre-Reese's Peanut Butter Cup" mentality about their "chocolate" mixing with the other guy's "peanut butter", that's why you might get some hatin'...if that made any sense.
Regardless, I can't wait to see the ending, and how things get resolved.
Y'know, it seems to me like this is a story which thrives on subverting cliche. Not overtly, but moreso with this chapter. It approaches the very concept of storytelling from an outside perspective, which reveals certain holes that different kinds of stories are prone to fall into.
Outside of this fic, the general consensus is that happy endings are par for the course where My Little Pony is concerned. The Grimdark stories are what they are because they tend to turn that classic canon expectation on its head. Indeed, that's what I expected going into this story and skimming over every update. From the very start it seemed like all of it was leading to a requisite doom.
But with these latest chapters it seems to take one more step back, this time looking not just at the show the stories are based on but at the particular genre this particular story is cut out to be a part of. Indeed, at this point subverting the "happy ending" cliche has, itself, become something of a cliche. There's a sense of a writer indulging in horror for its own sake, which by itself isn't necessarily any more valid a technique than making everything cheerful just because.
It would be really quite easy at this point to simply let the plot wind down to a conclusion which matches the tone of the previous chapters, the genre, and of course the cinematic work which it's paying homage to. But isn't that the easy way out? How thrilling would it really be to watch Twilight and her world torn apart by eldritch abominations, since that's exactly what the readers expect and even, in some cases, desire? How creative would a writer have to be take this plot and upend it, actually acknowledging that even such tremendous evil can be defeated? How dynamic would it be for the Little Ponies to earn their paradise by overcoming a corruption which is as vast as their world is wonderful, even when the story itself is driven down a road we've seen end at the same brick wall again and again? How neat would it be for this to actually end as a "My Little Pony" story, to come full circle and arrive at the happy place where it began, rather than just another straightforward descent into darkness?
Though of course it would have to WORK as an ending, which is exactly what would make it such a test of the writer's skill. I don't know if that's where you're headed, Relaxing Dragon, but you deserve to be commended for making a story which invites this kind of speculation. I have to admit, I'm partial to happy endings, myself. They always seem so much more interesting to me... I suppose that might mean I'm not "deep." But where the good guys are concerned, isn''t success generally harder to achieve than failure? And in my experience, hardship usually makes for better stories.
The alternative triggers the Sad Trombone sound effect in my imagination.
Hey, you did it! Nice job. I feel like I may have had a bit of a contribution to the story, and I'm very flattered by that thought. So I'll thank you for that! It's always a nice day to be chuffed over something.
The last chapter brings to mind something I saw in The Nostalgia Critic's swan song. Near the end of the story (spoilers, folks) he went through a standard-issue cosmic mindscrew and met his real-life actor and writer. Faced with the "reality" of being a fictional character, he asked his creator if his free will was just an illusion after all. And the writer, Doug, basically said that, while that may have been true in the past, as he wrote the Critic and got used to him he began to take on a life of his own. Doug couldn't just have the character do what he wanted anymore because something was guiding him, informing him in turn, because what he was writing had grown into more than just words on paper. Like all good works of fiction, The Critic had taken on a life of his own, a voice which the author had to be true to. This was summarized in the climax during the following exchange:
"You're the writer, tell me what to do!"
"You're the character, you tell me what to do!"
Sugar Cane represents the author who resists the obligation he has to his creations (or rather source material, in the case of documentaries and historical fiction, which I suppose was more his perspective since it was his own world he was messing with), the "Hack" who works to satisfy an audience rather than what's organic to the setting and the characters. Twilight is the muse crying out in indignation against this... "false fiction," I guess you could call it.
But that's certainly not the case with you, Dragon! I can tell you felt this story from beginning to end, and, like I said, I'm very glad if I could have contributed to your process in any way. You really saw it through. Congratulations. If there's one thing better than reading a scary story, it's reading a story where you're scared because you care about what's in it.
Something else comes to mind, actually (man, I'm verbose)... a line from Blueshift's The Star in Yellow, another pony story and homage to great horror writers. As Celestia puts it, "the real world doesn’t have happy endings, because nothing ever ends."
I always thought that statement evoked a delightful sense of despair being trumped with hope and rationality. Maybe that's why Cane's masters were born from the mouth of madness. Giving in to darkness is, in its own way, as irrational and simplistic as anything we tend to see in the "Sugar Bowl." I guess that's what makes "Friendship is Magic" such a wonderful fandom... it's in the bowl, sure, but the characters grow so real that they can look out from over the rim.
And of course there's always that flipside again, to remind us that darkness and corruption comes with anything taken too far in either direction. Newborn Cuties, man. Newborn Cuties...
Y'know, I'm gonna shut up now. I've been scared enough today.
I absolutely love this story. I came for The Thing crossover, and I stayed for SOME MUCH MORE. You are a true writer and I think you can go pro. Also, and this has been wrecking my brain for months since this story started, would you allow a full-length animated feature based on this story complete with amateur voice actors and stuff?
First off, for the lot of you, did a little reflection and feedback journal: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/78266
Well, technically the final chapters had already been written for a while (I finished up the final three at about the same time, I was just waiting to post). But you did motivate me to get a move on, since you were pretty on the money for what I was going for, ending-wise. You actually have some very interesting interpretations of Cane and who he is/what he's doing, which I love. I wrote with a somewhat different view in mind, but I like what you're thinking. You analyze good, you do (and verbose is excellent! Always go the verbose route, it's much more enjoyable to read). Even when it's analyzing dark and crazy 
That's definitely a use of that term I don't see often, and I'm glad to have seen it here.
Yeah, once the ball started rolling in Chapter 10, there were only so many outcomes. Luckily, I feel the execution is what matters most, rather than going for surprise for the sake of surprise (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I am still interested to hear the other way things you thought things might've turned out, too.
Thank you very much! I definitely want to write more, I just need to think of something worthwhile to write first.
I aim to please, or at least bury in words to the point where you can't tell pleasure from fatigue. And I think that would be awesome! I mean, I expect any writer would, but I'm the sort who generally deals better with visual mediums over words. Had I the talent (or just a dump truck full of money), I probably would've seen about having this whole thing drawn as a comic rather than a straight written story. Would've at least cleared some of my more cluttered descriptions up.
Point is, yeah, anyone's welcome to do whatever with this little story
And I thank you for reading! Nothing beats a story that at least gives you something to think about. Always a better option than one that just kills a little time (among other things).
I knew that there was something familiar about this story.
I had a feeling that I knew parts from somewhere.
But I was sure it wasn't from just one movie.
Now imagine a movie that is a combination of the ones from the trilogy like the story is...
Oh dang, I'm two chapters behind and didn't even realize it! D: Well, at least it's finished now, right?
Why is she surprised by this stuff indeed. You've done a great job depicting desolate loneliness here.
I love how there's no way to see any of this coming. :D
WAIT. WAIT WHAT THE FUCK HOLD THE PHONE WHAT THE FUCK
Oh yeah, this has actually been foreshadowed, hasn't it?
What in the serious, actual, no-bullshit fuck is going on.
This is so ridiculously meta.
deus ex machine? You mean machina, right?
Missing a closing quote after "all involved in this".
"able to being": you mean 'begin'
There's a 'straitened' that should be 'straightened', though it's not setting off my spellcheck. Odd.
Yes, chew the words! XD
I knew it would have to end this way, with some great power just restoring everything, after all that had happened. AND YET IT'S NOT OVER
Ooh, it's fighting back!
Oh-hoh! It's not possible, when dealing with someone with this kind of power, to know if you've actually taken control of that power or are just playing along with their game!
YEAH!
So glad there's a chapter 11!
I feel like this is mirroring an earlier part of the story. Am I right? I forget what though.
Ooh, I like that split!
"bludgeons" needs an apostrophe
Whew! So now twilight lives on, with this secret adventure that nopony else remembers, hoping until her final days that reality sticks around. Dude, that's creepy.
Of course Fluttershy can space out her nightmares! That's simultaneously endearing, horrible, and hilarious.
Fiction Burn? PFFT
There used to be a place called Spellbinders in my town. Comic shop. Had all kinds of used video games and roleplaying equipment, too. Used to be in a building that gave me the heebie-jeebies. Moved around a whole bunch, so that I lost track of it. Pretty sure it's gone now. Huh.
"beyond the Equestria's boundaries"? Also there's a "Back in" that I think is supposed to be "Back then".
OH WOW I HAVE HAD THIS VERY SAME IDEA, with everyone living in their own universe.
Aw fuck, I knew she was gonna step through a door right as the story ended. You are horrible!
Man, this has been such a ride. And all I can think to ask is, if i saw John Carpenter's The Thing, how much of this would come through? XD Thanks for crafting such a memorable story, Relaxing Dragon! I'm glad to have touched a part of it.
It's been a trip, no doubt. Took things to some dark places, then came back for the technically-happy ending (long term mental effects aside). I gotta say dude, I've loved pretty much each and every one of your comments about it. Your thoughts are always interesting (although in regards to the pony band pun in Chapter 9... no regrets, sir. No regrets), and the spelling and grammar mistakes you catch something of a godsend. In the event I write something else soon, I do hope it's read and enjoyed with just as much enthusiasm.
And yeah, it had to end that way as she walked out the door. How else could it? At least she and the rest of the world are okay out there... hopefully 
As for the movie... well, my best advice there is to just go watch all three films, and then think back. At the very least, a whole lotta lines I used will seem considerably familiar (particularly Twilight's last, pre-Epilogue). Plus, due to how I ended things, I don't think I've spoiled the ending of any of said movies. So it should work out all the better for you as you sit back and enjoy three of the greatest horror flicks ever made
No they don't, and I'm actually glad you know of it. Not enough do. It's some solid golden age sci-fi.
The fic in total is based off three movies by John Carpenter. First is The Thing, of course. Then there's Prince of Darkness, and finally In the Mouth of Madness. These are the ones that get a lot more "out there" in terms of concept, particularly the third one, which is where all the Lovecraft and meta tones come from (that movie is basically the best Lovecraft movie ever made that's not technically about Lovecraft). The three of them together make The Apocalypse Trilogy; they're unconnected by plot or characters, but similar in theme.
They shouldn't be difficult to find, either. Prince of Darkness you can actually watch right here, right now.
>>1475234 Ah, yes, "The Thing From Another World". I recall there was a Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who that used the idea of an alien plant creature found frozen in the Arctic. The difference being that this one was a parasite and consumed almost anything it came in contact with. I cannot help but wonder if Carpenter knew of that episode and took it one step further.
I'm never concerned with reality, what is and isn't and so forth. I am rather convinced by force of evidence that the universe goes on as it does whether or not anything is alive within it.
Of course, if it becomes boring, I'll just change it.
It's theoretically possible, but has never been mentioned in any of the background info I've read up on. Carpenter's version was just considerably closer to the short story Who Goes There? from the 1930s. That one has all the location and transforming alien qualities found in the 1982 film. It's much more an adaptation of that than it is a remake of Hawks' film, as a matter of fact, given how different said 1950s film was (and they only took that direction when they realized they didn't really have the tech to bring the shape-shifting side of the story to life).
As for reality, I'm the sort who feels what happens happens, or more specifically it happens to happen only because it didn't happen any other way 
Stopped reading at the awkward jamming-in of Lovecraft into an already complete and clever story. Also, the way Pinkie has been extremely vague about it this whole time is reeeeaaaally grating. That said, this is still probably the best grimdark story on the site.
Alright! Dublio and PresentPerfect have both recommended your story, and considering I really liked The Thing, I thought I'd go ahead and check it out!
The next thing I knew, it was 6 AM and I've burned through your story in a single evening. That is not a thing I do often.
So where do I even begin? I'm not familiar with the other two movies, so I'll start with The Thing portion, which was pretty damn spot on. The liquid felt perhaps even more threatening than the Thing did at the start and you've handled the needed atmosphere and gruesomeness extremely well. I really did feel like this was a good crossover, with many great moments of suspense. From finding Copper to revealing AJ infected, I went "OH SHIT" far more often than I usually do in stories. I had predictions, but only a few of them came true and I really enjoyed how unpredictable it was. The buildups were great and I think you're really good at setting up atmospheres, whether it's a scary or an amusing one. Also, really loved the actual references, though I wish Rainbow ended up using the pressure washer.
Then there's the shift. I'll admit, I really like Lovecraftian themes, although actually reading his work can be quite difficult sometimes. I do think the buildup to that could have been a little better, because hinging a lot of it on Pinkie and her infatuation with the books did feel a little out of place throughout. On the other hand, once it kicked off, I really did feel that things began to escalate rapidly. No longer was the liquid the biggest issue and the scenes of that arc were equally exciting and heartbreaking. Spotlights include Apple Bloom and Rainbow, Rainbow's Escape and Fluttershy's Stare.
And then we move into the final third, where things really go deep down south. The chaos, the utter destruction and weirdness were shown very well. Everything felt unnatural and creepy, but there was also something to root for, more and more. The way you never let Twilight give up, gave this fic such a momentum, that it didn't let me stop reading. Very hard thing to do, in my opinion. Bits I really loved were Ponyville and the dragon. Sugar Cane's appearence was shocking and yet, considering everything that happened, it made perfect sense. Every little moment, where I felt like a character was acting weirdly, suddenly got an explanation. The part where Twilight tried to rewrite everything as a dream...oh god, that was one of the best moments for me, both for how happy it seemed and how creepy it became.
The ending is both triumphant and a bit scary. Everything is restored, yet there's that horrible lingering dread that it could all be released again, at any moment. Still, I can't help, but feel hopeful, especially after how much Twilight went through to achieve all this.
I've rambled on far longer than I should have, but I just really wanted you to know that this had been a great trip. It's been some time since I've enjoyed a story this much and had me this excited for every single chapter. So yeah, you're awesome, your story is awesome and I'm damn happy to have listened to the recommendations. Thank you for writing this.
I thank you very much for the binge reading and kind words!
As much as it warms my heart to see so many fans of The Thing around here, I really do wonder sometimes what fans of the other two movies (they exist, I know they do!) think of things. At the very least stuff like the green liquid (straight outta Prince of Darkness) and Sugar Cane (straight outta In the Mouth of Madness) would make a lot more sense. Or make me seem a lot less clever. Hard to say really.
The bits about characters acting weirdly (or, especially acting out of character) being attributed to Cane's writing is actually an especially interesting point to me. Because, on the one hand, that was the idea, and also a bit of a safety net for me. Anything gets weird in the early chapters by accident, then suddenly I've got Cane doing his thing and it's like I did it all on purpose. Of course, on the other, I really did try to avoid OOC moments as much as possible, so some stuff may have just happened do to a flaw on my part. All well and good on a story like this, but for future works of mine that will have no such easy answer, I've got to work on that.
Anywho, maybe I'm just nitpicking myself. I do that a lot. Point is, I again thank you for reading and liking it so much. And do check out those other two movies if you get the chance! They're some of the best horror movies out there, and I always encourage as many people as possible to check them out (I've even linked to the complete Prince of Darkness on YouTube in a few prior comments, so you could start watching that one right now).
I think the problem is that I'm not too well-versed in older horror movies, nor am I completely sure these movies ever made it to Hungary. Nonetheless, I've found the link you've posted, so in the next few days I'll make an attempt at catching up!
The only bit I picked up on was that there was one point where Rainbow very quickly and suddenly shifted from knowing about Copper and trusting Twi, to being the most vocal about not trusting her. It was odd at first, but then again, I don't pretend like I know how ponies behave under stress and you could easily say that Cane just needed to introduce a someone to oppose Twi, after AJ stopped doing so. Really, Twilight and Rainbow were the ones who truly shined in this fic, I believe, though I can't say you neglected any of them. The key thing is that they felt like living, breathing creatures, who weren't just blindly following the plot(well, maybe except when they were following Pinkie XD).
But I digress. Talk later, movie now!
I hope you like them! It's a big, wide, movie-filled world out there, and the more watched the better
Dash's opinion shift was something I tried to stay careful with. She does indeed start on Twilight's side, but then the idea was for her to shift over to neutral and then opposition as the stress of the situation rose. Her alone with Sweetie Belle was a tipping point, basically. Even at the end I didn't want her to be totally against everyone else, just considerably less trustworthy (which naturally goes at odds with her loyalty, hence all the internal conflict).
I've been wanting to write this for a while.
I really loved the story, all the suspense and horror. It was going to be my favorite fanfic.. up until Chapter 9. The beginning of Chapter 9 sounded promising - Twilight in a hospital, but then the story took a different turn and it didn't feel like what happened before is related to what happens from Chapter 9 forth.
I'm sorry but the 'conductor behind everything' idea is stupid. It and the change of turn in the fic is what ruined it.
I'm sorry you felt this way, but I do understand. As I've related time and time again, the decision to go that way was probably going to lose some folks. Such is what is required when mashing three movies together for a crossover instead of sticking to one.
That said, I'm still glad you enjoyed the first 3/5s as much as you did
This story was... great.
It was such a wonderful way to go meta, and best of all it worked. You're right, you know, about the happy endings bit. Twilight won because, well, that's MLP. If they don't win and Elder Gods eat everything, then it's just not an MLP story... in the end, those monstrosities didn't stand a chance, but who cares? Like Twilight said, the end doesn't matter so much as how you get there, and this was a heck of a ride, no matter how sappy the ending.
It now ranks as a story that has, indeed, inspired me in my own writing. Congratulations sir. I look forward to whatever your mind can think up next.
Visualizing everything while reading the latest 5 chapter made everything so much more epic.
Some parts were confusing, indeed, but I reckon it was supposed to be like that.
Really enjoyed reading this, I hope to see more of this sort of work in the future.
Bravo!
>10/10, would read again
So Twilight exits into the world, never knowing for certain if it's real or a fabrication. Despite the positive message about not fretting, neither she nor the reader can be sure that her world is real in the sense that counts, that her friends are truly alive, that they're safe and happy in their own realities, that everything they just went through meant anything at all.
I'll admit, I'm no connoisseur of horror fiction (my favorites are Aliens, Zombieland, and the Scream movies); my preference would've been for Twilight to figure out that ancient magic that kills the monster and brings everyone back to life, but with their memories intact so their experiences still affect the end. Perhaps they're all in separate realities as you suggested, but I was waiting for everything to be settled in the reality they started in. The high-concept meta developments in this story, in my opinion, pretty much made all previous drama moot. If you ask me, this end belongs in another fanfic. I can see it had a great deal of meaning to you and other readers, but for me this was a beautiful horror/suspense story until it shifted.
I can easily imagine all eleven characters out in the snow, no base camp, temple or monster, their own deaths and final interactions still fresh in their memories. Apple Bloom's reaction to Dash, Rarity's heart melting for Spike and Sweetie Belle, etc. Guess I just prefer more solid, certain endings, especially when I really care about the characters. 
It's the unresolved aftermath of everyone's death. They went through so much, but if without any lasting effects on the characters who suffered, it's like they never happened, which makes the reality Twilight is in feel fake. That's what gets me and makes the end feel unresolved.
Well, I'd prefer the word "ambiguity" to "unresolved", but that's just me.
Seriously though, I do see where you're coming from, especially in regards to all the other characters. Any kind of reset button ending is tricky, for pretty much the reasons you listed. However, at the end of it all, this was Twilight's story, and I wanted to have her be the one who stayed affected by it come the conclusion. She still has to deal with all those lasting effects, now combined with the fact that she's only sorta home, not really "truly" home.
I was tempted for a while to start up on a sequel fic where she decides she can't take it and tries to go and find the "real" home reality, see about getting everything back to normal. But I honestly like how I left things, even if I ended up in quite a twisted and unconventional place at where I ended compared to where I started.
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some bondage action is in order!
but i still have a ton of unanswered questions. 
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