These ALMOST ALWAYS NEVER WORK. But.. well, we always need one.

Go on, tell people about yourself, and what the genre of 'dark' means to YOU.

As for myself, I am a complete mystery.... ^_-

But seriously. Due to specific reasons I can't really get into that much about myself. I've been writing for over 10 years, professionally for the past 3, working in copy writing for businesses and the like. I started writing fanfiction a year and a half ago, and it's been a blast since then.

(This is not my day job, though.)

I'm a Chinese fella from Asia, who's trying to make it big as a novelist, but we'll see how that goes!

Welcome to the group!

602206 ok

602206 ok......um....hi

Hi! I'm ProfCharles, and I am both an eager reader and proliferant writer of the dark genre. Indeed, I would argue that my darker stories are my better ones. King of Chaos, an alternate universe story which depicts Discord as the reigning king of Equestria is probably my favourite piece of work I have done, and depicts a dark yet comedic universe without any gore.
The Muse of Madness is a lovecraftian style horror fic that should be going on to EQD once I find an editor to fix a handful of grammar mistakes. (PM me if your interested!)
My last dark fic that I am proud of is The Dark Depths, a short story I wrote as part of a writing prompt contest. Due to the time constrants and word limit, I don't feel this is as good as the ones above, but for any fan of Dark I would recomend checking it out anyway!

Hi! I'm bookplayer, or Emily, and I'll answer to any derivative of either. I'll be 30 in February, and I live in Maryland.

I've been writing for about five years now, and writing pony fanfic since last May or so. I usually write shipping, with the occasional slice of life thrown in. I'm a co-founder of the AppleDash group, and occasionally participate in collabs over at the Collab Cage group. I've never tried a dark fic before, so I have no idea how well I'll do at this.

As to what Dark means to me: Dark is a mood that runs through a story. Dark is the feeling that you should look away, because something bad is going to happen, or is already happening.

Genre, then, is intended by the author as reason you won't look away. In a dark comedy, you don't look away because it's funny. In a dark romance, you don't look away because you want to know what happens to the character's relationship. In suspense you don't look away because you need to know the ending.

Horror, and fable/folklore are actually similar to one another- you don't look away because you want to know what kind of weird shit is going to happen. Horror and folktales promise to take you off the map, in terms of magic, gore, insanity or some combination.

I personally am going for dark folklore. I hope it works. Wish me luck, and good luck to everyone else attempting a fic!

Hey all, I'm Midnight Herald. I haven't written much outside of collabs so far, and I definitely haven't written any Dark stories as of yet, but I have some scenarios floating in my head that might be considered dark-ish.
To me, good dark fiction focuses on the characters involved, when something abnormal happens that causes normal characters to make difficult moral decisions for the sake of preservation. When they have to act outside of their normal means to do something, and seeing how far characters would have to be pushed to leave behind their 'humanity'.

Hello! I am Esle Ynopemos, and I can't darkfic my way out of a paper bag! I flinch and cover my eyes during scary movies, and most of Kitsune Risu's stuff makes me cry.

That said, I try my darnedest to write good darkfic. It is a challenge for me, to confront those more sinister emotions that I don't have to deal with every day but are still lurking somewhere. And if there's one thing that binds all the stories I write--a ship that nobody writes, rhyming clop, and a comedy about one of the Mane Six going blind, to name a few--it's that I love a challenge. Sometimes it doesn't pay off, but I don't like to write if I'm not pushing my boundaries.

I am looking forward to contributing to this very worthy project!

Hi! I'm Amethyst Hope, but you can call me Audrey. I love to read and write, including (and especially) about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I really like comedy, and adventure is always fun, but I have to say that my absolute favorite genre is dark.

I don't know what it is about a dark fic that I love, whether it's what situation the characters are in or how they deal with it, but I can't read enough of it. I describe the genre of DARK as the feeling that the writer portrays that makes you shiver in spite of yourself. It's the butterflies in your stomach and the feeling of foreboding that, despite however ordinary or cheerful the story starts out, you know EXACTLY what that tag means. Even if you can somehow convince yourself that you aren't scared, that the story you just read wasn't even remotely frightening to you, you still find yourself trembling, anxiously jumping at every little sound and finding it hard to sleep that night.

But even then, that's only one feeling the author of a dark fic can give you. There are dark fics designed to just make you think. About mortality, revenge, longing, insanity, good and evil. It can make you laugh nervously along with the characters and cry at the unfairness of life. It can be a way to express your strange imagination or tell a tale of morality. It's not always explainable, but it can help tell one heck of a story.

That's why I love the dark fic. It is everything I feel that I am.

Now, I hope I didn't just type your ears off. And I can't wait to get started.

Call me what you will, chances are I've heard worse, but I'd prefer Pinkie Primus or Joe.

I started on this site purely lurking, reading what was on offer. Then I decided I wanted to give something back to the community so I became a proofreader. Not too long after that I decided to start writing my first fiction, a dark tale concerning that most hideous of creatures, the OC... plus zombies, I guess. You can find it here if you fancy.

I find it difficult to define what is dark. There are times when I can come up with something that I think is dark and others tell me it isn't, while other times I'll light-heartedly mention something in passing and others will consider it dark. I guess it's a little like when your iTunes is saying 'oh hey, let's put System of a Down under Blues and Slipknot as Pop Rock'. Maybe genres are different for different people? I don't know, but I'm rambling now. (Ramble On by Led Zeppelin is classed as rock in my iTunes, that I agree with)

Sooooo...
The end!

602281
Very well said. I love your analogy of it.

602525
I am intrigued, my good man/lady. You'd be the first to go for this as the idea of darkness. I've grouped this under a offshoot of the 'psychological' subgenre of Horror. It's one of the ones that are harder to write, in my opinion, because you'd have to really get the characters just right, but just like in movies like Phone Booth and Saw 1 they can be incredibly effective.

602792
Still waiting for your mail! D: Where is yooooouuuu...

Hey there, folks. I'm TheVulpineHero1, I'm twenty and a bit, and I've been writing for about seven years. Generally, the focus of my work is on characters and relationships, which I'm always trying to explore in greater depth. Although the vast majority of my earlier stuff is awful, I cleaned up at around the time I hit the FFVII fandom and proceeded to ponies after that one started to become dead. In terms of a talent vs. practice perspective, I'd fall very squarely on the side of practice; I don't have any natural knack for writing.

In terms of what 'dark' means to me, well, I don't really know yet. It lies, as the saying goes, like a continent unexplored. I'm hoping that as time goes on, this project will push me into a greater understanding of what it is in relation to my own work, and how to write it convincingly. Failure is, of course, a very valid option, but with any luck I'll produce something work reading as well as my achieving my other aims.

Also, I'm pretty friendly, so I'm always up for a chat.

Two quotes to represent me as I think of a better intro:

Memento mori.
As above, so below.

No, this intro is much better.

hello to all that read this, my name is Coyote Mustang, I'm 22 years old and i have been writing for a few years now. it first started with short stories for school projects and eventually i turned to this for my writing fix. I'm not the best at the editing of my stories but i hope to learn and grow as a writer. typically i write romance and slice of life stories, most of them of alternate relationships but never would i have thought of writing a dark fic. But there is a first time for everything i suppose.

Oh boy! An introduction thread!

I'm Csquared08. I like to read. I read lots of things. I think I like writing too, but I have yet to actually get around to writing pony stuff, so that remains to be seen. I do, however, run this fancy-schmancy reviewing group called WRITE. If you ever need a review for a story of yours, don't hesitate to come find us.

I also help Wanderer D run things over at the World-Building Alliance. Feel free to take a look and perhaps even join the monthly writing contests we'll be having!

Hi. I'm Wanderer D, and I'm a pony-holic.

I love to read, write and cook. And I know for a fact I'm really, really good at two of those.

Dark, to me means a lot of things, and I've had a history with the misconceptions that come along with the tag, or it's parent [Grimdark]. A while back I wrote the Empty Room, which I tagged the latter. It is dark, and contains mild gore (as in, not explicit) at the very end, but from the get-go, people had doubts about it because of the tag and some would not give it a chance because of it.

To me, dark doesn't mean violence. The darkness can be in the thoughts of the characters, even if they never lift a hoof or claw against those that fuel their wrath. It can be anything where the morally ambiguous aspects of characters truly clash with our perceptions of what is right and wrong. I play with that in my story Deceit, which I wrote as my pony-equivalent of the Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (note: it's not "Poe's story, only with ponies." but there is some influence there.)

I guess I could say I'm a successful Dark author because of the morality fights that Deceit and The Changeling Queen produced, or people's love/hate relationship with characters in The Empty Room or Tiaras, Spoons and Feathers.

Sometimes I tag the other strong aspects in my stories and I've seen interesting results from readers that would have otherwise never read them (I cheated, but they liked it ), which is, in part, why I'm here.

Greetings, and welcome to the most heinous library reading circle in existence! Please be seated - don't mind the shivering, frightened children cowering at the back of the room, they've been here before obviously.

Or we didn't allow them to leave, whichever you prefer.

My name is Twifight Sparkill, and I can't for the life of me imagine why my mother named me Dorothy - I got teased a lot in school. An old friend in high school called me "door mouse", which I thought was lovely, but nobody else used it... mind, having thought on it, it's entirely possible it had something to do with my having no other friends in school. I actually went for two years in junior high school with one friend. True story.

NOW THAT I'VE SUFFICIENTLY BORED YOU ALL TO TEARS... it's an honor to be here!

I've known KitsuneRisu for... well, it smells a bit like forever. His EqD-appointed "These City Walls" literally made me a fiction fanatic, and I'm excited to assist in this grand endeavor of his, alongside so many of my favorite online writers!

- No pressure or anything, right?

- ... I think I just peed a little.

- If you shit on my carpet, I will END you!

Hello. I must say, this seems like a very promising group; I am a huge fan of dark stories, especially when they pose meaningful questions/make you think. I am very new to the idea of fandoms, having never even heard of them before I became a brony, but I have been writing creatively for a few years. I started writing fanfiction for the first time once I finished FiM S1, and I never looked back.

I look forward to a long and prosperous stay here.

Hey, I'm Chaosbrony93 and I hail from the land down under, finally a group full of people who can tell the difference between dark/gore and dark in tone. Not everything dark has to be crap your pants scary, it can be any number of things from psychological to asking questions that make you think. I myself have written most of my fics in the dark genre. Mainly due to loss or pained experiences that I personally can relate to and can feel bad for my characters. Sunshine and lollipops isn't what the world is, even Equestria can have its dark secrets. Hope I can write some great dark fics for you guys XD

P.S. I could never really enjoy Cupcakes, personally it felt off, over the top and frankly Pinkie just doesn't fit the role of murderous lunatic. How could you be afraid of this...

692111
I dunno man, that terrifies me.

691964
And thank you for joining =)
It's a little slow right now, because my peeps ain't writing, but hopefully it'll pick up.

If either of you want to throw something in for the project, let me know!

692324
Well, I do have an idea I've been brewing in my mind. I'll toss it in the brainstorming thread, see how it goes.

Oh wow, I posted my idea of dark in the wrong thread…

Hi there! NATOstrike here; writer of 'dark' pony words, proofreader and editor of many other genres of pony words.

what the genre of 'dark' means to YOU.

This is a difficult question to answer... mostly because of the wide variety of so-called sub-genres to the blanket term 'dark'. From the messy, ultra-gore shockfics (Cupcakes, Rainbow Factory) to the subtle, thought-provoking introspective fics (Anno Domini, White Box, the old Twilight Zone television series) and every sub-genre inbetween. I personally prefer the latter, more psychological dark element. There's nothing better than a story where the lines of morality are blurred to the point that one is forced to question who the true protagonist or antagonist actually is in the story—which is exactly what I've been trying to accomplish with the story I'm currently writing.

When it comes down to it, dark is dark. The definition will certainly differ from one person to the next. Though overall, there's a few things in common that every darkfic should have (in my opinion): a definite sense of forbodding while progressing through the story, a conclusion where there is no clear-cut winner or loser (preferably everyone loses in some way), and a revelation within the plot that makes you stop and say 'woah' (this part normally happens at the very end, but doesn't always have to).

Hello everyone. I'm Preservation, the self-appointed FiMFic resident Brandon Sanderson expert, and a long time supporter of the Dark genre, in both published work and fanfiction.

Dark is, to me, more than the tingle on the back of your neck, signalling a glance over your shoulder. You know there's nothing there, but something you can't quite place continues to elude you, escaping into the corner of your vision.
It is more than the horror of a psychological struggle with morality. Confronting our limits, motivated by lifelong devotion or utter, absolute, need, or becoming corrupted by an external entity in that most sanctified of places, our body, mind or spirit.

It is more than the suddenness of violence, the sharp edge that death lends life. The crispness of a spring day, vibrant greens and blues interlaced with red, and a sickly-stained pearl-white, or the slow, menacing approach of finality, gleaming.

It is more than a subversion of innocence. The child, with the heart of gold and twisted mind. A situation we spend our lives believing to be only fantasy, a situation that sends us into shock, unable to react because we are unable to comprehend.
Dark is all of this, and more. It is a mood, pervasive and systematic, that not everything is quite right. And it is the basis of an absolutely fantastic setting for the more intriguing works of fiction we see. Stories that make us think.

Dark lends itself well to seriousness. And while Dark Comedy has its place, even there the humour plays on a level of subversion, drawing amusement by way of comparison.

For me, Dark is about that comparison. A lens by which we may see, and understand, our world a bit better, or from a new perspective. Whether subtle or apparent, minor or extreme, Dark draws on the horrifying separation from our daily life to construct its world. And what an interesting world it becomes.

Oh, hey. Hey there. I'm Goldenwing.
The 42 is silent. And invisible.

What is dark to me? To me, dark is all about morals. Its all about the fact that, when you really think about it, there are no morals. Sometimes there is no good choice. Dark is about the grey. It's about a world where somebody mixed all the good and bad together, and suddenly it's impossible to distinguish one from the other. It's about taking a character who sees himself as good and proper, and through the trials and tribulations of a harsh world, turning him into just another survivor. Or maybe insane. Whichever comes first.

I find the clouded morality of dark fics to be my favorite part of them. Random gore does not pique my interest, but it does serve a purpose to paint a bleak world. Horror stories don't especially scare me, but the terrifying environment helps to solidify the need to survive at any cost. Comedy... I like comedy, in a neck-breaking kind of way.

The best way to show this is to give examples. My favorite fic? Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons.

In other news, here is my one and only fic, still in progress: Omega

Hi I'm Raven, though I've gone by so many other names in the past. I admin the group Octavia Fans, as well as Write and make music, and on occasion draw. As you might have guessed by my adminship (though not creation of, I took over for the creator when things got too busy for him) Octavia is my favoruite pony, though other good ones are Mayor Mare, Vinyl Scratch, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and of course Derpy. I am of the female gender and I have been professionally published previously in my life. I used to be known around the site as H.P. Lovecolt before I changed my name to this.

As for what Dark means to me, well my previous name 'Lovecolt' (That I still go by sometimes) you might get a hint as to who one of my favourite authors is. As such this has shaped my view on how horror and how darkness should be portrayed. I think that for a truly dark story, at least the kinds that I like, you need to mess with the reader. Make them uncertain, uncomfortable, unsure of themselves. The best dark stories are those that ask but never really answer the important questions. Dark questions, questions that we'd rather just bury and leave forgotten. The kind of question that when you reach the answer, you may not like it. Dark stories aren't necessarily horror stories, their goal isn't always to scare us. Sometimes they're there to make us think, make us question, wonder and ponder things like 'what would I do in this situation?' or 'How could this have gone differently?' Sometimes their purpose is to just tell a grim tale about desperate times with desperate measures. After all, Fahrenheit 415, At The Mountains of Madness, and Of Mice and Men are all, in my opinion, dark tales. But they each had something different that they talked about, different ways that they had us ask uncertain questions.

Anyway, that's my speal. Hope you enjoyed it.
~RH

Do I really have to explain?

Grave greetings, all. My name is Frostmourne. Yes, the cursed sword from World of Warcraft, get it out of your system. Other than the obvious reference, the other reason I chose that as my moniker is because of what the parts of it's name mean. Frost, the thing that spreads across cars and windows during one of my favourite seasons, Winter. And Mourn, something we all do at one point or another for those who have died, fictional or not.

I would like to start off with things that I deem not as important. My favourite mane six is Pre-Season Three Twilight Sparkle, and before you say anything, I'm not one of those people who freaks out about Twilicorn, it just doesn't sit well with me. My favourite CMC is Scootaloo. My favourite background pony is Lyra Heartstrings. My favourite Musician Pony is Vinyl Scratch. My favourite Minor Villain is Trixie. Favourite Villain, oh don't get me started on how much of a fanboy I am for her, Queen Chrysalis.

Now then, for matters of a more important nature. I am eighteen. I started writing because of everything that I read. I wanted to weave stories like the ones I had read, and share my imagination with others. I have been writing for almost half my life now, eight years. To give a small representation of what I am like, I was the kid in class who always sat in back, wore black, and wrote/read about various funereal things whilst listening to music that most called sepulchral, or thought was for only those with sick minds.

Dark, to me, is something thoroughly enjoyable. I believe death is a beautiful thing, just as one of my influences, Poe, did. I noticed four years into my writing that things of a tenebrous nature always seemed to sneak into my writings. I was surprised at how descriptive I got when it came to grim subjects, like suffering, mind-breaking, and death. I began to embrace it after then. Poe described things in such horrible ways, yet somehow made them sound so beautiful at the same time. That's what I try my very hardest to do. Though I know nothing I ever do will amount to the sheer beauty that Poe's works were, I can at the very least try.

I was introduced to this group by my friend Coyote Mustang, and I must say, I am glad to be here.

Now then, I am dreadfully tired, and the sun is coming up. It is time for me to shut my blinds, close my curtains, and rest.

Good mourning.

There is a distinct lack of spaghetti monsters and fellows committing misdeeds in here.

Hey. I'm Churchy, or Nick if you prefer. I've actually been on this site for quite a while (over a year now), despite the fact that it says I signed up yesterday. All right, about me...

This is a story all about how my life got twist turned- no

I'm nineteen. I entered the fandom originally to write, and that's really about the extent of it. I'm an eccentric individual who enjoys all sorts of things from various sports to various musics to various hobbies. I am a boy, which means that I have a penis. That's for all you biology lovers out there. I am taken, however, so sorry ladies that I will never get to meet anyways...

Why am I here? I write about bubbly sad sob stories that focus on innocence and youth. So I don't know. Ask KitsuneRisu, he thinks I'm some sort of good writer or something. What does dark mean to me? I don't know that either. It's undefined. The rest is still unwritten.

Natasha Beddingfield everybody *applause*

- Churchy

Darkness is the absence of light. Light is illumination. Light is the answer. Those who question answer the darkness. Those who do not question will be devoured by it.

I don't care if you lie, just not to me! – Mother Hydia

We are the Esoteric Order of Smooze. We gaze into the abyss and thus destroy it. We do not stop at asking "what?" and "why?", but also ask "what if?" and "can we repeat it?". We who choose to fight the darkness realize that darkness pervades everything. We realize we must shine light on all subject from every angle or lose ourselves in our subjective perception of only one aspect of it. We strive to attain the impossible goal of illuminating reality from infinite perspectives within the framework of mere mortal lives.

In the end, however, a mortal's light will fade. And, normally, the answers would be lost once more. But this does not have to be! We are the Esoteric Order of Smooze! We are the lightbearers, and Lord Smooze is the eternal light! Lord Smooze is eternal and unstoppable! We offer our light to Lord Smooze so that He may shine forever brighter! When he returns to us and casts His Divine Judgement upon Equestria, He will purge the weak and sinful and the Chosen shall live on forever as the light of Lord Smooze!

PRAISE SMOOZE