IMO #4, dead fic edition.

Opinion: The Necromantic Adventures of Lyra Heartstrings, The Mares in the Moon, Asylum, Sweetie Belle and the Journey to the Kingdom of the Frogs, Zombie of One, Calendar Chaos, The Corner of (Our) Eyes, A Lyre's Song.

• The Necromantic Adventures of Lyra Heartstrings by SaintAbsol
Sigh. This is one of those fics that I've loved a lot but will sadly never be finished. Re-read it recently because I needed to remind myself of its potential. I'm like, again, not a writer or a critic so the aspects of the story the author saw as their failures are not seen by me as as big of flaws (maybe I should've read the comments more for others' perspectives), but the premise of a necromancer Lyra who uses her powers for good in a TTRPG-like world full of weirdness was executed well enough for me to thoroughly enjoy and to further influence my appreciation of the minthorse. 5/5.

• The Mares in the Moon by Flashgen
A gorgeous ponification of A Study In Emerald, with the world of Equestria being conquered by eldritch gods; like other Flashgen stories, very atmospheric and moody. Sadly it hasn't been updated in two years, first thanks to the author's writing rut, now it looks like they want to finalize the story first before uploading new chapters but judging by how a similar endeavor of Asylum's author went I'm sadly inclined to not get my hopes up too much. Then again, Prequel Adventure has had years-long hiatuses but still updates occasionally so I'm not losing hope entirely. 5/5.

• Asylum by Daemon of Decay
Another of my top faves that's unlikely to update. It may be one of those "maybe insanity maybe not" stories I've seen quite a lot in my early fandom years but one that doesn't focus just on Twilight's struggle with her what could be mental illness or not but explores the other cast of this au as well. I first discovered it through the askblog (that sadly veered off in their own direction then disappeared) but it took me a while to start reading the main story and it was a blast to read through. Sadly, it hasn't been updated for even longer than Necromantic Adventures, with the author expressing their wish to finalize the story first. We'll see if that actually comes to fruition. 4.5/5.

• Sweetie Belle and the Journey to the Kingdom of the Frogs by Thunderbug80
Read this one just today; a cute premise that was sadly cut short and never developed further. 4.5/5.

And now for the finished fics.

• Zombie of One by Impossible Numbers
Poor Ruby. Losing one dysfunctional family and being put into another, of course there're gonna be nightmares. Hope they'll be able to work this out. An interesting twist of the usual fanon is her and Berry being not sisters or mother and daughter but cousins. 5/5.

• Calendar Chaos by Impossible Numbers
Nice solution to the problem of having a birthday being too non-chaotic for Discord but I kinda wonder why they hadn't already celebrated their friendship anniversary in the first place... Still, another excellent story by Numbers, I've gotta binge their writings in full someday. 5/5.

• The Corner of (Our) Eyes by Daemon McRae
A great premise (love the "Derpy sees what other ponies can't" trope) slightly marred by writing errors and some inconsistencies in the narrative, and some of the humor that was a bit off-putting by my taste. Still, the ending was chilling with the vibe being rather old-school and the alternate Ponyville sequence was delightful. Not sure what else to say. 4.5/5.

• A Lyre's Song by Sparrow9642
Wanted to like this one but there were some issues with it that rubbed me the wrong way. Firstly, the writing errors all the way through the story. Secondly, the Special Agent Sweetie Drops thing makes no sense if they'd known each other since high school (Was she a Кim Pоssiblе? Doesn't really explain why she was a bully then...)(Also while Celestia's school wasn't explored much in the show I kinda assumed it covered the high-school curriculum as well...?), Thirdly, the reveal that it all was a hate plague spell devised by a suddenly evil-all-along Starlight (the fic is from 2018, long after To Where and Back Again aired, come on!) and she was just cartoonishly evil imo. What I liked however was that that Lyra fanon was only barely touched upon, even though it was relevant to her backstory, the psychological horror aspect of the first part was intriguing, and the ending was just incredibly sad (Yes, I like sad stories and downer endings). 3.5/5.

[Edit 2024-01-26: Updated A Lyre Song opinion a little, made it a bit more positive.]