Following the accidental demise of an aging Lightning Dust, her lifelong photographer Photo Finish opens a new show in her memory. You wander the gallery walls examining each image carefully. As they flow together, slowly, a story begins to emerge. Is it the right one? Who gets to tell it? Who was Lightning Dust, really?

A meditation on memory, art, and time.

An entry for the May Pairings Contest 2023. Check out the other entries here!

She found the Memory Stone, took advantage of it, was caught using it and was stopped. She even had a couple of friends in her Gardening Club...

... and that's it.

Once Wallflower Blush graduated from Canterlot High School, her gardening club spot was occupied by someone else and... simply got forgotten again. Her friends stopped talking to her, and she is invisible to almost everyone at her job at Sugarcube Corner, and only manages to talk normally when she is at her distant aunt's home, Photo Finish, a modelling photographer.

However, one night, maybe by chance or by the force of destiny, somebody looks at her. That will not only change her life but also the ones of everyone around her.

Oh boy, this is going to be a crazy year.

Other tags:
Ember
Thunderhooves
Queen Chrysalis
Pinkie Pie
Coco Pommel
Mr Cake
Mrs Cake
Tempest Shadow
King Sombra
maybe some 🌈rainboom🌈 cameos...

Pixel and Violet, Photo Finish's assistants, find an instant camera which shows the desire of the captured person. But what will happen if they capture a picture of Photo Finish?

This story is part of the A New Empathy-series, but can be read on its own.

SCP 978 is from the SCP Foundation and was written by "agatharights".

Huge thanks to RDT for proofreading this story!
It was written for the Bean's Writing Club prompt "An Artistic Touch".

This story is a sequel to the art of making art

applejack and rarity learn about photography with photo finish (based on one more spitting image sketch)

update: I'm not very popular on this site, am I?