• Member Since 28th Aug, 2011
  • offline last seen Saturday

Cold in Gardez


Stories about ponies are stories about people.

E

She is as beautiful and graceful as the moon, and just as hard to reach. He is a young artist with much to learn about the world. When he accepts her challenge to create an artistic masterpiece, will he win her heart, or learn a terrible lesson in the nature of beauty and love?

Chapters (2)
Comments ( 285 )

I just don't know a better way to put this so:
THIS IS AWESOME
This was seryously one of the best things I have ever read
Not in this site, anywhere
Really well written, not a single mistake at grammar, flawless use of every word, great story, couldn't stop reading it unti the end. Wich was also
great by the way.
Absolutely no complaints on anything.
Just one question. Have you ever really worked with glass? The amount of details you put on the crafting parts is enormous, it looks like
you really know what you're talking about.
Keep up the GREAT work.

I can honestly say that I have never read anything this well written. It is hands down the best short story I have ever read. And I don't mean on this website. I've read countless short fiction stories in my literature class at my university and high school but none of them compares to the amount of detail and story-telling that you demonstrated. It seemed very classical and almost Shakespearean to me. I defiantly think that you should write more.

wow... One of the best fics i ever read.

Fin

A master peace in its own way. Very well done.

Though I can't help wander about the ending...
Good job.
-Fin

This is excellent, it's one of the best written fics i've read in the last couple of months, though the characters are clearly plot artifacts, this is a story that is not in the whole context of the show (in characterization) but what you tell with it is amazing.

And i have to yet see a fic where rarity gets as well written as this, but in a "good note"

This is an excellent story; so excellent in fact, I made this account just to tell you how excellent it was.

This was fucking AWESOME. Submit it to EqD.

I honestly felt bad for the glassblower and halfway through I started to see where this it was going.
The glassblower's final creation was a truly chilling prospect.
You must submit this to EqD.
5/5.

one of the best i've read so far. one thing though....i hate that you made me hate rarity!! :raritycry: she seems out of character :derpyderp2: but over all, i love this story. expertly written. well done sir :moustache:

Brilliant writing, but I do agree that this doesn't show any of the spirit of generosity from Rarity. I suppose that in this case, maybe the stakes were too high.

Beautiful and magical

Very nicely written.

**slow clap of the hooves** Well done... well done indeed.

Words cannot express how this fanfic makes me feel. Suffice to say, it was spectacular. May I ask how long it took you to write this?

40970

I think it took about three days of writing in the evenings to get the draft version done. Revising and editing took about five more days, I think.

After leaving my comment as an unregistered user, I had to create an account just to save this story.

Wow... Um... This is a hard left from your usual light hearted and funny comedy dude. This isn't appropriate for ponies though.

This needs to be adapted into a real short story. Honestly, this is a fantastic plot. Just change all the ponies into human characters and your golden. It works perfectly in that respect. You didn't use extensive characterizations here, since we learned everything about the characters from what was described scene by scene. Honestly, PLEASE, adapt this into a normal short story. You need only change the setting to Paris or London or some other appropriately city with a royal seat of power and every element meshes perfectly.

Please adapt this. This is a GREAT short story, worthy of publishing if you just subtract ponies. Excellent work. Fantastic work. And here I was holding you in such high regard just for The Cutie Mark Conspiracy!

This moved me like few pieces of writing have been able to. A masterful portrayal of two timeless characters, the love-struck fool and the beautiful maiden. An amazing telling of an eternal tale, of unrequited devotion and bitter contempt.

Few things are more powerful than a heart consumed by love. Few things are darker than a soul deprived of it.

I'm glad I checked out your work, people write good comments at EQD about it and that's what led me here. Usually I avoid [Sad] and [Grim-dark] like the plague but I do check them out only if they're well written. And this story was magnificently written, more than any other fic the suspense drew me in and kept me on the edge of my seat. Poor Rarity, wish it wasn't her and just another OC pony but what other way to get the point across of a beautiful maiden? Not that having her marks the story as any less then the masterpiece that is. I really loved this and will look into you other works. Will post a similar comment on EQD.

I must ask.

What did Rarity see?

EDIT: STOP REPLYING ALREADY. THIS COMMENT IS NEARLY TWO YEARS OLD. LIKE GAWSH.

I literally cannot describe how beautiful this story is. I am especially fond of the twist ending. It's very thought-provoking and also provides a personal life lesson about seeking out your true love: that appearance and initial behaviors can be deceiving, and that only by looking deeply into a person's behaviors, word choice, reactions to various situations, and ultimately into their eyes, can you get any idea of their true self. In this story, it was the mirror in particular that fully revealed Rarity's inner demons, a reality which she denied. The glass blower, hopefully, has learned his lesson about giving his all to someone whom he does not know will do the same for him, as unconditionally as he did. I think Twilight Sparkle would be a much better match for him than Rarity ever could be. She would understand the meaning of unconditional love. :twilightsmile:

When I realized what the final piece was, I shuddered, knowing what horror would come.

I felt the same shudder when I got 3/4 through The Prestige and realized to what depths Angier had sunk.

I knew Rarity would be something bad inside, since she couldnt swallow her pride to admit to him that while he flatters he can never have her.
:raritydespair:

Amazing story and since i cant givr 4.8 ill go with 5.

Like a laser-guided glass knife into my heart. Cold, and precise, and exquisitely painful, like Rarity herself.

Wow.

That was incredible. Your characterization of Rarity was spot-on. I got the sense that she was starting to care for him, but her pride wouldn't let her give into her love. The glass blower really came to life, even though you never named him. The climax was perfect. Overall, this story was like the best kind of fairy tale--a true, honest one that acts like the glass blower's perfect mirror, and shows us the truth about ourselves.

Side note: I loved how you made it dark without resorting to gratuitous violence, sex, or language. So many authors do that, and it really gets on my nerves. You let the darkness of the story speak for itself, without having to add any dark trappings.

OMG
this story is awesome :heart:
but i wish i could see what rarity looked like :raritydespair:

That was great! As a rule I usually don't read MLP stories involving shipping, grimdark/dark, or Rarity, but I'm very glad I broke it this time. After the first gift, I thought the story was going to end with the glass blower making a glass Rarity and falling in love with it, but you obviously had more imaginative, and cruel, places to go.

Darker and more serious than your usual fare. I'm glad to see you trying out so many different styles. One of the best things about your writing is how versatile it is. You can go from super cute to super funny to dark and serious, and even disturbing. I've learned a lot from reading your stories.

This is breathtaking, a complete masterpiece. The writing is absolutely incredible, and does exactly what you need it to do. The ending is THE ending, the right ending, the only ending your fic could possibly have. Exemplary.

I... I....

Sir,
Being a fan of the grim-dark category of fiction, I normally find my self experiencing less emotions than one would expect from a story where there is no light. But this.... This is beyond anything I have ever read. This, is the stuff of legends. Never before has a story of romance lost had this much meaning to me, and I would not be surprised if one never did again. Thank you for posting this... Masterpiece.

Love,
lol1759

42793 But we do know... She was a bad, dishonest pony... One blinded by pride and unable to truly love anything but herself.

Are you Scheherazade?

Still a ludicrously low rating for how great this is.

Ezn

Read this a while ago. It's fantastic. Beautifully written.

I have gazed into the depths of brilliance, streaming out into the world through this story. It is beyond the reaches of my vocabulary to fully describe what you have crafted here. Sir... You have put all of my writings to shame. Teach me? D:

Hey! New cover art? Or just old cover art that never got uploaded?

112703

It's new. When I was putting together the art for The Wind Thief, I did some playing around with other styles and decided to try making something for The Glass Blower as well. The full-size version is here:

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=akurion#/d4l0cie

Beautiful. :yay: I usually don't read grim/dark fics, but this one intrigued me, so I took a look. Rarity is still best pony, though. And Pinkie Pie. :raritywink:
Do you actually do glass blowing? Or did you read up on it for the story?

This is... This is... A true work of art, worthy of the nameless (and cutie mark-less, haven't found where it is mentioned) glass blower. The ending, was brilliant, subverting the whole "happy ever after" etc. etc. We can only wonder what Rarity saw, but it probably wasn't pretty :fluttershysad:.

But still, it made me... unhappy :raritycry:.

I loved the final version, but I do believe I love this version just as much! I don't think I've even encountered a fanfic written in this style, and you've done a very excellent job of writing it! It's different, but it's intriguing. Will you ever write another fiction in this style? I love reading various styles, because they all paint the story they're telling in various lights. It's inspiring.

Speaking of inspiration, what stories inspired you to write in this style? Sadly, I haven't been reading as much as I've wanted to in a long while, and I'm looking to add some variety to my reading list.

This was incredibly good and one of the best stories I've read.
The writing style reminds me of old classical masterpieces.
5/5 stars!

A very, very impressive piece of writing. You should be congratulated; it's not often we see work of real literary merit, and this is just that.

Very impressive. Keep up the amazing work!

If only, if only...

Stories need to be this good. You are now ranked among greatest fanfictions of all time, and perhaps in overall fiction. The glass blower, even though he was never named, literally came alive through the narration, just like his glass hummingbird.

A haunting little story: clear, beautiful, and cutting. Poor Rarity, and poor glassblower!

I'm not ashamed to say that this story made me sad for about a solid week before I could rationalize it... It still makes me sad.


This and Lunacy. My too favorite one-shots.

A masterpiece.

You skirted the line between the glass blowing process being incredibly arduous to scintillatingly interesting, but in the end the description and flow was perfectly executed. After each new forgery that the glass blower made, I had to ask what the next would be, and then when he explained the final piece, well... There was no way it could be a happy ending.

Somehow I think Vimbert would like this.

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