Garden of Shadows is 2,428 words long and tagged [Dark] [Sad] [Twilight Sparkle] [Princess Celestia] [Princess Luna] [Nightmare Moon]

Warning: I’m going to spoil everything, which in this case could conceivably ruin the experience for some people.

This story starts off...

"Just Twilight is fine, Princess," Twilight said, then gestured to her telescope with a hoof.

"Alright, Just Twilight," Luna said as she stepped towards Twilight, her head tilted up regally. "What is it that has piqued thine interests?"

"You're doing that on purpose!" Twilight huffed, her cheeks puffing in irritation.

"We have no idea to that which thou art referring."

... with a charming and even slightly funny joke! Isn’t that great? It goes on to depict a nice, well-written conversation, where Luna tells Twilight a little secret.

What actually happened, as far as I understand, is this: after Luna’s banishment, a very sick family ventures into the castle of the sisters in order to pray to Princess Luna, who is incapable to react in her current position. Celestia notices this and decides to pose as Nightmare Moon, takes a very large ball of fire, murders the filly, projects her soul into it, and turns it into a star which she puts into the night sky. This is done so the star can whisper to Luna and make her time in exile slightly less painful.

I think it’s fair to say that while this is very creative, it doesn’t make all that much sense. There are certainly a lot of questions, such as, why did Celestia really think this was a good idea upon reflection? (she did it repeatedly.) are the stars fully conscious? why are they not suffering? why is Luna so clueless as to who did this? are all stars this way, or are there others? how can Celestia be this powerful and yet be defeated by Chrysalis?

Luna also says she is a real pony, referring to said star. Then she says that she died. Those things contradict, but both options are quite messed up. In fact, any way you interpret this story is pretty messed up when taken seriously. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone who does any of this stuff to rule a kingdom.

So yeah. Actually, the story is quite well written, though, and it was kinda enjoyable. It just... makes no sense. And it feels wholly unaware of making no sense. In fact no-one so far has pointed this out (based on reading comments and another review), which I would say highlights how much people judge based on presentation rather than content.

Let’s say, uh, 52/100

Thanks for the input, Silver. I was expecting a far worse score based on some of the previous reviews of yours that I read