Glitter was banished from her hive because she's different: instead of feeding on love, she feeds on anger, fear, and sadness. Ponies are easily fooled and more easily manipulated. Staying undetected and sustaining her dietary needs, she goes through life bringing misery to those around her. All changes though when he turns up, tearing down walls built throughout a lifetime.
Featured on Equestria Daily 27th of August 2015.
Originally written for the The Writeoff Association's June contest "A Matter of Perspective".
Thanks go out to InquisitorM and Fimbulvinter for editing and proofreading help.
Additional Thanks to all the Writeoff Association members who reviewed or commented on the contest version. In no particular order: Titanium Dragon, Baal Bunny, Bad Horse, Bradel, FanOfMostEverything, horizon, Not_A_Hat, PresentPerfect, Thornwing, The Cyan Recluse, The Letter J, BlazzingInferno, bookplayer
This was one of my favorites from the writeoff. I'm so glad to see it here
I wrote a review of this story!
It can be found here.
Sorry I didn't get around to reviewing it sooner.
6257738 Thank you for your review/shout-out!
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You're welcome! It's a good story; I'm sorry it hasn't gotten more visibility.
6260333 Well, that was to be expected I guess. I don't have much of a following, it's an all OC story, and it has a tragedy tag. I've submitted to EQD though. In my previous feature, that was worth about 1k views in the first 48 hours after going up, on a story with similarly low views before.
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One thing well worth doing if you're trying to reach a larger audience is finding relevant groups to add stories to; adding stuff to groups like Shipping or Straight Shipping or Changelings Need Love Too (yes, that group name is glorious) can help, because there's a lot of focused interest in those groups on certain kinds of stories. There's a big fanbase for Changeling fics, for instance.
I took the liberty of adding it to a few relevant groups.
6260498 Thank you! I'll look around for more of 'em.
Absolutely fantastic story. I need moar.
6261459 Thank you for the praise! Your profile pic is from the .mov series, right? Those eyes!
6261473 Oh thank god, someone who recognizes .mov! You are one of the few people who recognize this, most call my profile picture terrifying.
6261534 Oh, don't get me wrong: I found the whole series both highly entertaining and highly disturbing. Your profile pic is both terrifying and hilarious, these things don't conflict for me.
MOAR APPLZ! *no appropriate emoticon found*
6261558 Then i look forward to a beautiful friendship between us!
That was very cool to read. I enjoyed the characters, the idea behind this, and that ending... man, I'd say you nailed it. This almost felt like an old short story I might find in a library. Wonderful work!
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Wonderful tragic story. Most just try to end on the worst note possible. Though, I get the feeling you made this one a bit more open to other possibilities?
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So tragic, to be allergic to love. Hers was life incapable of experiencing joy without suffering exquisite agony.
She should have carried an epipen.
*And so, Alondro once more obliterates any sense of drama he'd built up.*
At any rate, a good story. Quite a unique take on changelings with different emotive affinities. Usually, they are simply power-gamed to the point of absurdity. Here, it comes at a severe price.
6261459 But... she's dead. Not much more to tell... except when the CIA (Canterlot Intelligence Agency, along with Agent Sweetie Drops) show up and take her body to the vivisection lab for gruesome experiments as they seek a way to exterminate cherngelerngs once and for all.
(Blame episode 100 for introducing a clandestine monster-hunting agency!)
6367713 Then just more of your stories will have to do.
6366225 Thank you for your comment and the praise. Being told I write library-quality work's gotta be one of my new favourites!
6366515 Thank you for the comment. I had an epilogue in the first version of the story which didn't leave room for interpretation, but ditched it because it felt tacked on. I still think the ending is rather unambiguous, but you're free to interpret it as you wish. I'll just say that I don't plan on writing a sequel from Glitter's perspective.
6367708 Thank you for your comment.
That is what actually bred this whole story. I wanted to explore this idea of an 'anti' changeling, and the ideas of how such a being would cope psychologically with having to hurt everypony around it was what bred Glitter's character. After writing the first scene, I knew that I wanted her to re-discover her empathy, and I knew the ending. The rest followed pretty smoothly.
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Good, because I think that would be ill advised, and I like this story as it is
Holy crap. Laser guided feels inbound
Wow. I loved this!
glad I finally decided to read it.
Well, I guess I knew that wasn't going to end well. But ouch.
So, so good though.
Is the spider dead?
6562016 Well, let's just say: the one in Glitter's appartment is probably fine and dandy.
6562716 and you made ivory get attached you sick bastard
I was scrolling through my inbox to put down notes on what people requests to me and stopped at yours. I remember you were making a story and came to check out the finish product. Don't feel too upset about canceling the commission for the cover, I understand it wouldn't work with this type of story anyways, but this is great either way. Tears won't deny the feels I felt. I shall share this wonderful story to make up for it anyways.
You sir deserve a favorite and I hope this story gains more popularity in the future.
6770531 Thank you!
Started this day with the wrong story... I don't think anything's going to top this one
7330454 Thank you for your kind words, although I think there are a lot of stories out there that will. I agree that it's probably not the best of stories to start your day with!
Also, thank you for the watch I haven't been very active lately, but I plan on picking up again once I've finished my degree, which will be in about a month.
7330776 I meant that I doubt that I'll read something better today. I'm already halfway into something very interesting and still think that.
I just loved the ending. It's not the best possible but perfect. And the lead up to it was awesome too.
7330778 Again, thank you.
I'm soon glad I read it. It's so perfect. I still think it could get some sort of sequel. It had potential
7443407 Danke für deinen Kommentar.
Well, Glitter's story is definitely over, and the message and concept are complete. I don't really see much inspiration for a sequel to this particular story, but the idea of a "reverse changeling" (for lack of a better term) is something I might use again. I even came up with a scientific explanation for how changelings might feed on emotion and how changes to that system might affect their ability to harvest different emotions, building parallels to photosynthesis.
Changelings are a fascinating topic.
This story was reviewed by the PCARG! You can read the review here.
I can't believe I didn't favourite this when I first read it. It's among the better one-shots on the site. Really nice job, wYvern.
Also, thank god for reviewers. I never would have managed to track this story down without Titanium Dragon's bookshelves.
7754481 Thank you for your comment and the fave. Yes, it certainly is a plus to have one's story in a prominent reviewers bookshelf!
This is the third or fourth time I've read this and I just realised how few reads it has. It deserves a lor more.
7988698 Thank you for your comment! It warms my heart to hear the story has such a high re-read value to you. As for the views -- I fear such is the fate of OC stories. And tragedies. And first person present tense narration. Come to think of it, I really picked a combination of things that's horrible to advertise to a majority of the fandom, haha. I'm not too fussed about it, though: having written a story that matters to those that read it is far more important to me, and comments like your's make me believe I did my job well.
Don't hesitate to tell your friends, though, if you think they might enjoy it.
Aww. This could've also worked with a happier ending
8023527 Hmm maybe it could've, yes. The ending and general structure was clear to me though as soon as I'd written the first scene. It might sound weird, but we authors don't always get much say in how a story ends. In my previous story, I rewrote the ending 5 or 6 times until it went from soul-crushing to uplifting and did not sound tacked on -- false, as if pulled from a completely different story. The process was tough.
I still hope you got some entertainment out of it.
Accepted into the Goodfic Bin! Huzzah. Excelsior.
Cheers, I rather enjoyed this read.
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Thank you for accepting it, and your kind review in the group thread!
Love the concept here, and the way there were some little false paths left along the way.
You can has review!
Been meaning to read this on Fimfiction since you published it here. Incredible work all around. My only issue is that I can't see ponies making fun of albinos when that color palette may well occur naturally. Still, the cruelty of children knows no bounds, unlike that of changelings.
Thank you for this.
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Thank you for your kind words, and you're very welcome!
Decent criticism, though. I didn't really think this through, did I... Haha. I think I made her an albino because I liked the contrast between Ivy's unnatural brightness and Glitter's dark character.
that...made me sad, hit to close to home...ill be in in bed crying now.