With a majority vote of 9 votes, the first story to be read and discussed by the Golden Oaks Book Club will be:

It's been a long, long time since Spike was stolen from her, but Twilight hasn't forgotten nor forgiven. After a long and arduous journey, she has finally found him and his kidnapper.
She will save him.
No matter the cost.

At just over 29k words, readers have ten days to finish the story before we open up discussion in the Skype group, which you can join by shooting ToixStory a PM. If you do not have a Skype account, or do not wish to join, this thread will also be opened after ten days from today for discussion.

We also encourage commenting on the actual story. Draw the author's attention that this is happening: I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Happy reading, everyone!

Edit: Thread is ago! Discuss away!

I have mixed feelings. It was one of those stories where you know it won't end well,yet it still hurts like hell when you get there. I was deluding myself into thinking there would still be some happy ending. It was uniquely written though, the way it combined past thoughts and actions with the present narration. I give it major points for that.

3657672

It was an enjoyable read, that is, without a doubt, a fact. However, I have to admit I will never read it again. Far, far to dark, and the fact Twiligh... excuse me, Twintel, decided to kill Spike?
I also deluded myself into thinking that something at the end would be happy, heck, I even read the side story in search of some happiness. Nothing, very well written, but, lets choose a fluffy fic next yes?

3657672
3657801
As a connoisseur of dark and tragic fare, I love seeing characters degenerate over time, the hardships they endure, and their steady transformation and descent into darkness, particularly if it's a result of their own actions and choices.
Schemering Sintel not only took me on a fast track to the feels station, but I saw just what happened to Twilight along the way. Knowing the character inside and out, it is difficult as hell to see her character we know and love so much begin to unravel as she makes more and more personal sacrifices "for the greater good."
I quite enjoyed the Final Fantasy vibe I got from the early chapters, and it was interesting to note that Twilight hadn't lost sight of who she used to be. Far too often, an author will slap an AU tag on a story to "excuse" a character's seemingly bizarre behaviour, but here we were treated to just the right amount of backstory--alongside the main story, which surprisingly did not actually throw me off-- without it feeling overly expository, infodumpy, or straight up telly.
We felt what Twilight felt. Her pain was ours: her struggle, our struggle.
Still, this fic is not without its flaws, few though they be. Quite honestly, I feel like the story could have (and probably should have) ended after chapter seven, at the climax of the conflict. There was no reason to continue, and the resolution (of chapter nine), while powerful, could have been even more so after Spike's death.
Despite the way it ended, I enjoyed Schemering Sintel immensely, and will recommend it to anyone who can appreciate an emotionally moving story... So long as they are tough enough to take a hefty blow to the gut.

9/10

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3657801
My feels were critically hit by this story as well. It really displays the characters we know and love past the point of no return. I really don't make it a habit to read tragedy, but I will be recommending this fic to anyone and everyone.

What I found interesting was how little dialogue the author used. As a dialogue-heavy writer myself, I found it to be rather interesting as well as a learning experience.

3657923

Quite honestly, I feel like the story could have (and probably should have) ended after chapter seven, at the climax of the conflict.

I hesitate to agree, if only because the final parts show us how much time has passed and how Equestria has moved on without her. I thought it was a nice final nail in the coffin for Twilight Sparkle, so to speak.

3657923 All good points. I'll never say it was a bad story, just not my cup of tea. Though I felt compelled to finish it just to see what would happen to Twilight and Spike. And I can't say whether adding those extra chapters was a good or bad idea. It gave us an extra level of hurt to see how ostracized Twilight felt after coming home, and I do think that was an important part of her journey. She comments several times that even if she did save Spike, nothing would be the same. Still, the emotional climax was at Spike's death, and adding the additional chapters could be seen as dragging the feels out. I suppose it could be seen as a resolution however sad it may be, which is probably what the author wanted instead of going 'Bam, Spike's dead, go home now. Story's over.'

you're going to love the next two chapter of Sunset of Time

I can say that membership here did what I was hoping it would, since I doubt I would have ever read Sintel otherwise.

I don’t typically read stories tagged Dark, since they usually don’t have that feeling of magic from the friendships between ponies (and just as often, it seems, are gluefics written for the sake of being gluefics), but Sintel managed to avoid that by instead being about what lengths ponies will go to for their friendships. More importantly, the focus was not on the journey to that point, but on how that journey changed Twilight, and how those changes were ultimately necessary for her to reach her destination.

3658188
I think you touched on the most critical point of all, in Twilight’s observation that nothing would be the same; it carefully but definitely reinforced the idea that decisions have consequences. At the start of the tale, Twilight left home to go after Spike. At the end, she left home to go back to Equestria. Decisions and consequences.

Put simply, it was a dark fic done the right way, and while I’m not sure if I liked it, I’m glad that I read it.

I sorta have mixed feelings about this story. I liked it, and I certainly don't regret reading it and I would advice other people to read it too, but I feel like the story was torn between the two goals it wanted to reach.

The most obvious goal of this story was to make Twilight go through a serious character change. Going from the soft, but brave librarian, to a total hardcore cold hearted badass. And this part was done very well. The story makes you understand why Twilight is what she is now, how she got there, and why she got there. It does this in a clear and interesting way.

But, to do this, the fic also wants to create a dark world outside of Equestria, that is the main reason for Twilight's transformation. The problem is, it presents this world, but it refuses to explore it.

Twilight kills feral dogs in a village. This is her first brush with killing and an important part of her character. After this is done, the village is never mentioned again or what she did afterwards to get out of the village. But that's okay, because it doesn't matter to Twilight's charater arch.

Twilight gets magic tattoos from a special contact that can be trusted. Who is this contact? Where did she get the idea to get these tattoos? How did she meet this contact? Do others have these tattoos? We never find this out. But that's okay, because it doesn't matter to Twilight's character arch.

Twilight kills an entire slaver camp for a camel. Why are there slaves? Why did someone want the camp exterminated? What are the consequences outside of showing how cold Twilight has become? Did she recieve any retaliation for this? We never find out, because it doesn't matter to Twilight's character arch.

Why did she join up with that caravan? How did she join up with that caravan? Where was it headed? It doesn't matter, al that matters is that Twilight learns and sees that people die.

We get all these hints at a greater world outside of what we see, but it is never explored what the consequences of Twilight's actions are to this world, or what the reasons are for what people do in this world. It all doesn't matter to the story, because it is about Twilight.

But all this unexplored stuff adds up. We hear so much stuff that is just brushed aside in favour of Twilight's character that it begins to feel empty. You can't set up a grand world like that and ignore it so utterly completely.

Oh, and the story was kinda hard to follow because the flashbacks and present times weren't clearly seperated from eachother. The author tried to use italics, but the usage is inconsistent. And you kinda get torn out of the present and the flashbacks if they are blended so much together.

But it was still an excellent character study that wasn't afraid to cop out at the end.

8/10 Like Skyrim with guns.

3662239
You… huh.

I think you have everything that I had issues with in Schemering Sintel succinctly summarized.

3664623
Thanks, I try.

This is my second time reading through this story, and my view on this story has vastly changed. At first, I had believed the trials and tribulations that Twilight had gone through ending in absolute sorrow was sad for the sake thereof. However, this is not the case. This is a character study that adheres to realism because it is a study. It is not meant to be bias; it is meant to be factual, explicit, and powerful. The trials and tribulations broke Twilight but made Twintel.

It's both a study and a warning: you look at the abyss, and the abyss looks back. The scars will last a lifetime.