The Road to Grimdark
Author's notes
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. MLP:FIM is owned by Hasbro and Lauren Faust. The stories in this fic are not my own, but come from the twisted minds of their original authors, whom I will credit in their corresponding chapters.
I have rated this story Teen. However, some of the fanfics in question may fall under the mature category. In order to preserve the Teen rating, I will either censor the word or leave out the offending sections and insert a notice about the left out part. Thank you for your cooperation.
“The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.” – Rule 58 of the internet
Chapter 1: The Road to Grimdark
Rainbow Dash was irritated. She, along with Twilight and Applejack, was sitting around the TV in the hollowed out tree that was Twilight’s library. It was almost time for them to watch the newest episode of MLP: FIM. They were all set up and ready to go. There was only one problem.
“Where in Celestia’s name is Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked angrily. “She should have been here by now. And the show’s almost starting.” Rainbow flew over to the window for the hundredth time, looking for Pinkie Pie.
“Relax, sugarcube,” Applejack consoled. “Ah’m sure Pinkie will be here soon.”
“I don’t know,” Twilight said worryingly, glancing towards the window. “Pinkie’s usually the first one here. She’s never this late.”
“Do ya think she might’ve forgotten?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “She wouldn’t have. She made a Pinkie Pie swear.”
Suddenly, all three heads turned towards the door as Pinkie Pie busted in. “Sorry I’m late, guys. I was really wrapped up in something when I looked at the clock and saw what time it was. So I went running towards the library, and I almost ran into Granny Smith on the way. Luckily, I was able to dodge her and then…” Pinkie’s ramblings went on for about a minute, until finally Rainbow Dash interrupted her.
“Uhh, Pinkie Pie? Don’t we have a show to watch?”
Pinkie’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah, that reminds me!” She started jumping up and down. “I need to show you guys something! You’re not going to believe what I found!”
“Can it wait until after we watch the show?” Rainbow questioned.
“But I want to show you guys now,” Pinkie complained, no longer bouncing. “Please, Rainbow Dash. Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeease?” Pinkie Pie looked Rainbow straight in the face at the last “pleeeeeeeeease”.
“Fine!” Twilight yelled, tired of hearing Pinkie’s begging. “I’ll set it to record the episode, so we can watch it later. Now, what is it that you want to show us so badly?”
Pinkie dashed over to the computer and pulled up Ponynet Explorer. “So I was browsing on the Ponynet when I found this website.” She typed in the site address and pulled up www.fimfiction.net.
Twilight went over to the computer, followed quickly by Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Well, what is it?” she asked.
“It’s a web site where ponies post fan fiction about our show,” Pinkie Pie explained. “There are tons of stories from many genres. My favorites are the crossover fics.”
“Hmm,” Applejack said. “So are these stories all made up by ponies who watch our show?”
“Yep!” Pinkie Pie replied. “There are some stories I wanted to show you guys.” Pinkie Pie scrolled to the top of the page, where there were some boxes where you type a username and a password into. In the username box, she put in “TheOmniCupcake”.
“‘TheOmniCupcake’?” Rainbow asked. “Why did you name yourself ‘TheOmniCupcake’?”
“Because,” Pinkie Pie explained, “this is the username that I use for almost everything.” Pinkie Pie tabbed into the password box. Her hooves were a blaze as she put in a password at least 30 characters long.
“How in Equestria do you remember somethin’ so long?” Applejack asked.
“Oh, I just remembered it,” Pinkie Pie said simply. The page refreshed itself, and the bar under the logo had a lot more stuff on it. Pinkie Pie moved the mouse over to the ‘Tracking’ button, but stopped suddenly. She then moused over a box with an envelope and a number 1 beside it and clicked on it. “Oh, I have a new message,” Pinkie said cheerfully.
The message was from a user called ‘???’. It had no title, and the only text that could be seen was ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie’ over and over, eventually getting cut off with a ‘…’. “That’s weird,” Pinkie Pie remarked. “I’ve never told anypony my personal username, or ever told anypony on the Ponynet what my real name was. How could they know who I am?” Pinkie clicked on the message to bring it into full view. The entire first line was made up of ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie’ over and over. The next few lines contained the message.
“Hello Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle.”
“Woah,” Rainbow Dash said, “how did it know we were here? This is just a message, right?” Pinkie Pie nodded, a worried look on her face. In lieu of answers, they continued reading.
“I guess you’re wondering how I knew you were reading this.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide at this. “Oh, don’t look so surprised, Rainbow Dash. I have my ways. Now, on to business. Pinkie Pie was planning on getting you to read some happy, feel-good fanfics. I have other plans for you. I want you four to read these fanfics. Before I tell you them, you need to promise me that you WILL read these fanfics. Better yet, make a Pinkie Pie swear. Take your time, I can wait.”
Twilight looked up from the screen. “Well, girls, what should we do? Should we make the Pinkie Pie swear?”
“No way in hay am Ah gonna make a Pinkie swear to a message on a computer screen,” Applejack said.
“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “And besides, it’s just a message. Why don’t we scroll down until we find the fanfics?”
Pinkie Pie started to scroll down, but was quickly met by the bottom of the page. “There’s no more to it. It just ends there.”
The four ponies were silent for a few moments, until Twilight spoke up. “Who is this guy anyway? Pinkie, go to his profile page.”
“Okie Dokie Loki!” Pinkie replied, clicking on the messenger’s name. Pinkie’s smile quickly faded, replaced by a quizzical look. “It’s not here,” she said. “It’s just an error message. ‘Error – user does not exist’,” she said in her best robot voice.
Confusion was apparent on Twilight’s face. “I don’t think these sites allow you to delete your profile, do they?” A shake of Pinkie’s head confirmed her suspicions. “Ok, I’m intrigued. Whoever would go through such measures to maintain this air of… mystery, must really want us to read these stories. Plus, I would like to know how this mystery person knows what we are going to do. I say we do the Pinkie swear. Pinkie?”
Pinkie thought for a moment, and then a smile appeared on her face. “Why not? I’ll do it. It could be fun!”
“AJ?” Twilight asked.
“Ah don’t know,” Applejack said. “Ah still don’t trust this mystery person. But if y’all are ok with it, then Ah’m ok with it.”
"Rainbow?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, what the hay," Rainbow said. "I'm in. Who knows, it could be like an adventure."
"Alright then," Twilight said. "We swear to read whatever fanfics this mystery pony sends us."
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," they all chanted in unison while crossing their hearts, waving their forelegs like wings, and finally putting their hooves to their eyes.
"Ok, we did the Pinkie swear," Twilight said. "Now what?"
"Now we check for a reply," said Pinkie Pie. She clicked the refresh button at the top of the screen. The page reloaded, and sure enough, there was another message.
"That's the spirit, girls. And Twilight, to answer your question, no, I will not reveal my methods. Now I guess I should tell you what you signed up for. You are about to start reading some of the most infamous grimdark fanfics. Don't let these stories ruin your friendship. It's all you have. No bugging out, you Pinkie Swore."
Below the brief motivational speech was a series of links. Below these there was one final line of text.
"Welcome to the dark side of the fandom."
Next up; Cupcakes. Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory are definitely going to be in, but I need help finding more grimdark fics. Feel free to give suggestions in the comments. Please refrain from submitting anything too sexual. I'm not even sure whether or not to use Sweet Apple Massacre. Anyone who disregards this statement shall be mauled by bears to the fullest extent of the law.
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The Experiments of Twilight Sparkle!
I'm intrigued. This could easily turn into a rather interesting story...
Although it's not grim-dark, I would doing something with 'My Little Dashie, perhaps a little reminder at the end of their grim-dark trip that not all fanfic's are messed up.
I would recommend 'Party of None,' because it's a brilliant grim-dark horror that needs more praise.
Link: CLICK ME
i like, and yes do sweet apple massacre
WELP,
There is this one fic I know of, it's called Enabling I believe. Fairly creepy.
CLICK CLICK
I'm so interested, give me MOAR, or I'll find you.
Cherilees garden is a really messed up one (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1766/Cheerilee's-Garden)
i just remebered how sexual harvest is .... oh well
and Harvest is about the CMC (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5622/Harvest) and just busniness isnt really well known or very gory but grimdark nontheless (http://www.everypony.com/forums/showthread.php?3503-Just-Business-A-Grimdark-Tale) i hope you will make many people sick to their stomachs
I hope you know what you have gotten yourself into
Because the suggestions are never going to end; EVER.
On that note I have a suggestion, the way you have described this and set it up looks to be more of a literary form of a reactions video; basically the story being written out, and occasionally censored, followed by their reactions. While humorous in a "schadenfreude" sort of way, it wouldn't be all that deep. But this could turn out to be very, very interesting. Rather than a copypasta of stories with reactions this could be a great way to draw a picture of their personalities.
Taking the two obvious choices above, I'll suggest some ideas. I might note that I don't actually read grimdark, but I think at this point we all know what happens in Cupcakes and R.F. Cupcakes would be a way to get Rainbow and Pinkie to consider there friendship, as well as provoking a moment of introspection from Pinkie Pie as she is plagued with doubt surrounding her own sanity. Rainbow Factory would probably be more comedy oriented, as Rainbow realizes that she doesn't actually know how Rainbows are made; which makes them want to visit Cloudsdale more while being even more terrified (Pinkie will probably
when she remembers she tasted a Rainbow).
Gah! What am I doing! Anyway, awesome idea; you have a better stomach for Grimdark than I do, sir. Good luck!
*Clicks track*
i know my fav artist Jake made the silent ponyville series not that grimdark but they do get hurt alot and has sad parts
there is 3 to pick from although silent ponyville 3 is incomplete
You should definitely do Human, by DannyJ
(I've got a few other ideas, as well:)
The Fart, by Bill O'Reilly
The Fillycaust, by Jiopop
One Final Day, by Carmine
Eternal Embers, by Esipode
Meh, there is already a very big and very good MST-Style fic out there...
cheerilee's garden, patty cakes, severing... lots of good, reeeaaaallly grimdark fics out there... but yeah, no clopiness=
in this situation.
lemme think o' some more....
Watching MLP:FIM when you're the ponies from the show... INCEPTION!
I was gonna suggest those trollfics by mrhappyface, but those are too much like sweet apple massacre. Curse my lack of grimdark knowledge!
I saw how you said "Darker Side of Fandom". Doesn't restrict it to only fanfictions.
I suggest Luna Game 0 and Story of the Blanks, extremely dark games.
And bring in other characters! Love to see Zecora's reaction to SotB, or Luna's to Luna Game 0!
silent ponyville
(reads comments) wait
no one's recommended this yet
Suggestion: parchments.
think cupcakes... as done by twilight psycho and fluttershy.
OOOOH this is gonna be GOOD!!!!!!
DOOOOD!, This isn't going to end well. Keep strong, Overlord Twilight, Dood!
Oh and a Prinny bomb will be dropped on your home if Sweet Apple Massacre is used, you have been warned, dood.
The anon messages that appeared during the story just made me laugh. I love it.
I can tell just from sitting here that these four will be scarred for life. So, I'll be waiting for the next chapter.
You'll do GOOD grimdark too, right? There's an Alien crossover on EQD I liked. Multi-chapter, if that makes a difference.
On the other side of the scale, there's Parchments. It's basically Cupcakes with Twilight and Fluttershy, except needing writing material instead of cupcake ingredients.
Why yes, I AM excited for this. What made you notice?
You can try my fic "Little Bakery of Horrors." It's a sequel to Cupcakes that describes what happens to Pinkie's next victim after Rainbow Dash. I'll give you two hints as to who it is: Once again she's one of the mane six, and once again she's a Pegasus.
It was riffed on MPPT3K just earlier this week, as a matter of fact.
At least Fluttershy and Rarity are spared.
I might as well learn more about the grimdark side, as I do intend to play a pretty damn dark story later, although it will have a happy ending.
if you plan to move out of grimdark fiction sometime then could you do 'corporal punishment'. preferably with spike, rarity, aj, and rainbow dash present.
Anyone else have Doc Scratch from Homestuck as their headcanon for the mystery user?
Tracking, can't wait for more :)
The list refers to 'probably will do'.
282347
Great ideas. I will probably end up using some.
282185
Added to the list.
282684
Good idea, added to the list.
Rainbow factory. Good fanfic great song
282231
That story was about rape, kidnap, and incest. Not to mention the abundance of graphical description of puke, shit, and piss.
Why would you enjoy reading that?
282418
The One Final Day series is great. Can't wait till the next one.
365937
It's been too long since we had a new chapter.
365921 enjoy that?
no
think it would be funny to see AJ's reaction?
anabolicminds.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=51505&d=1327199456
is this dead?
Don't use Sweet Apple Massacre. Even the author of it said it sucks.
Parchments!!
encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSleVX11VJv5j3zmXGSDZfcBZj1nZ6NRku4GQ0v5-aBJcbWixE
Use something with the CMC in it.
Rocket to Insanity? It's where Rainbow Dash has nightmares about cupcakes that don't go away, driving her to go crazy and go after Pinkie.
Something like that, you wanted suggestions, here's one.
Hmm, actually, I'm gonna go read it myself right now.
PLEASE don't use Sweet Apple Massacre.
I'm not sure if you'll be using multiple chapter stories, but I think fLuTtEr by AnnonyMouse would be good.
i.imgur.com/nDClO.gif
Please do add Rocket To Insanity might also want to include all three of the Rainbow Factory endings, until the sequel comes out
Soo uhhhhhhh..... Where's the next chapter
It's been 3 months maybe more
Now you've gotten me into reading Grimdark fics.
Awesome....
Slender pony
fLuTtEr is not too bad, though it is over 56,000 words over 16 chapters (plus a 17th that details the sequel, CoRoNa.)
Cheerilee's Garden is my favorite grimdark so far. Pages of Harmony is also pretty epic. Pegasus device was also written as a sequel to Rainbow Factory. Ripples and The End of a Nightmare are supposed to be grimdark, too, but I haven't got to them yet. I'm really interested to see where this goes.
2269856 As the author of Pages of Harmony, even though it's not yet done (if anything, the biggest stuff is still to come), if there was a fic or something where they did read that, I would smile like crazy, *GLaDOS voice* And laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Ohhhh boy. *end GLaDOS voice*
The Secret Life of Rarity could be pretty funny. They'd be beatin down the doors at Carousel Boutique just to see if Rarity does have pony skins and what not on the walls.
Just a creepy one. Not sure if grimdark but..... Pattycakes by: Pegacorn Ondacob
Oh! Here's a few:
The Cough
Rocket to Insanity (It kind of connects to cupcakes.)
Experiments of Twilight Sparkle
Something Sweet to Bite
And I think Pony.Mov MAY count... not really sure.
Apple Sleep Experiment is a good one too.
Butterflies. It's my favorite Fluttershy fic.
I’ve got some fics in mind, you can find them below:
Rainbow dash’s nightmare
She watches, I dance
The cough
Rocket to insanity
Quod timeo
I know all of them involve rainbow dash so DEAL WITH IT!!!!!