A whole bunch of IRL shenanigans have hit me like a freight train recently, which'll be blogged about later today. Now that I have that squared away, I've decided to review a story that was claimed, and then dropped. (No, I am not giving any names.) Behold; Nightmare's Return.

Genre is Dark, Alternate Universe, and Sad. Simple, but it makes me wary. I've read a lot of Sad-tagged fics in my day, and only… a quarter of them managed to elicit some form of heartstrings-tugging on their part from me, though then again I may be becoming indifferent to the genre.

Wordcount is a snug 47,549 words long, divided rather unevenly between 19 chapters, epilogue included. Because of my time constraints and the uneveness of word division, I've read only the first two.

Grammar: 10/10, I did not detect any noticeable errors.

Characterization: 9.5/10 for all involved, though some points were detracted because at one point alcohol was involved.

Use of show canon: Parties, Queen Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Zecora… basically, a few bits are mentioned, but what is mentioned is also utilized the moment it comes up. 8/10.

Plot consistency: 10/10, established from the get-go what it wanted to do and ran. Furthermore, whatever oddballs cropped up were still in the plot's favor, since again they were utilized from the word 'go.'

Coherence: 10/10, smooth sailing.

Extra things depending on genre: AU gets a good 9/10 here, as it brings up the possibility of NNM returning, as well as Queen Chrysalis despite both having been effectively banished. Sad didn't elicit anything from me, but it was still present. 3/10. Dark hits off from paragraph one, with a mention of dungeons and Spike being possibly kidnapped cropping up, making Twilight worry like no tomorrow. 7/10.

And now, the verdict. The story scores 66.5/80, or 83%. It passes, and only two chapters in at that! It has an air of mystery about it, but nothing noticeable in that genre, without really sacrificing anything.