Teenage Starlight Glimmer is a latchkey foal, her parents never at home, so she's raising herself. She has demigoddess-level magic, untreated mental illness, and (hidden in the back of her closet) a black grimoire, a vile necronomicon, a book of the most blasphemous spells only known to the worst eldritch abominations and Tirek-worshippers that have ever existed.
It’s not a good combination.
Starlight isn't a bad filly, really she's not, but she has problems. She tries to be good, not always successfully, but when Starlight's mother suffers yet another personal tragedy, and there's nothing Starlight can do to cheer mom up, the necronomicon offers Starlight some help from the most loathsome depths of space and time. And Starlight is always looking for the magical solution to her problems.
Can Starlight cover up her crimes before dawn?
Author's note: this is my worst story and I haven't deleted it only because of the awesome cover art.
Dead dove, do not read.
Cover art by commission with the excellent NixWorld! (FIMFiction — DeviantArt). Please show NixWorld the love.
NixWorld made Equestria Daily!
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/02/open-my-little-pony-art-compilation-all_22.html
Vaguely shares a universe with my other stories. No need to have read them first, however.
I love this please keep it up, you are an amazing writer.
Starlight, go sit in the corner.
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Thanks! The entire story (8 chapters, about 20k words) is written, less some minor polishing. Unless I get hit by a bus or stuck changing planes at some airport without wifi, I’ll drop 1-2 chapters per week until it’s done.
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Fairly minor spoiler: mom won’t be very happy with Starlight.
And that's when I realized it's going to be good
Well, pony's wrist is more like in the top half of foreleg.
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Thanks! I hope the remaining chapters do not disappoint you.
You are absolutely, 100% correct—but that was an important part of the story so I used ‘wrist’ as shorthand to keep the narrative flowing.
Groovy!
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And my allusion was not in vain!
Thanks!
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You know they’ll cut your horn off at the base before the trial, right?
This seems a little...
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Don’t assume it’s being truthful.
The best ever attack of the Undead that I have ever read.
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Thank you! Deeply, thank you!
I hope the remaining four chapters can live up to your expectations.
BOOMSTICK!
Zombies can't restore severed limbs?
So, the book didn't lie about number of zombies?
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Trust me in this one. I’m pleased people’s noses are twitching on the foreshadowing.
Well, vodka kiiiinda burns (try to ignite it, though) but in practice won't even boil off all the water that's in it. And why prioritize that pancake if it's the safest zombie around?
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Interesting.... I’m an ex-drinker myself or I would do the experiment! Don’t keep the stuff in the house anymore.
(I did watch some youtube videos to see if it would burn at all, however.)
Many thanks!
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That's what I did. Ethanol vapor above layer of liquid burns off and leaves water behind despite heat of combustion being ~10MJ/kg for ~2MJ/kg heat of vaporization. Piece of wood soaked with it is pretty difficult to ignite.
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And for that, I thank you! I’ll tweak Chapter Six before pushing it...
Wait, who's Firelight?
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Starlight’s dad.
Actually she didn't take over Our Town. She founded it. Meaning it didn't exist till she decided to build a town. She started building it and the ponies came to her of their own free will.
Remember, when the Mane 6 arrived, that one pony said he would take them to the town founder Starlight.
People keep saying she took over the town, when in reality it was her town to begin with.
9506753
Huh. I missed that. (My six-year-old decides which episodes we watch and rewatch!)
I’ll dig through the transcipts on mlp.fandom and find the exact wording and edit as needed.
Thanks!
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And you’re right! Thanks again. Chapter 8 corrected.
I loved this thanks for making it.
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Thanks for reading it! I appreciate the positive feedback.
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Nice!!!
Well... so long as they're polite
Oh jesus, I just did the math.
15 zombies from the graveyard, one undead flatyote, but the book said 17
the last one's in her mom, isn't it
Ehhhh, what’s the sex tag for? I haven’t read it yet.
This is my favorite version of a young Glimmer so far, nice work! Will you ever explore more of this verse in the future?
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Thanks!
"Unexpected Stories Over Drinks" is this same Starlight and Trixie as adults; I'm (slowly) writing a novel that will be sequel to this, "Princess Luna's Unconvincing Disguise," and "The Ponies in the Caves."
Blind?
I've thought for a long time that magic should be inherited mostly from the mother and have higher rates of infertility the more magic was concentrated, otherwise powerful spellcasters would out-evolve everyone else, but I'd just put it up to infertility. 18 miscarriages...
Read the first 2 chapters yesterday and had some time to think it over before continuing. I absolutely love the characterization of Starlight, her parents and the Necronomicon but I have 2 questions.
1. I'm skeptical that someone who was drinking from age 11 didn't have it affect their brain or that if Starlight was too drunk to cast a contraceptive spell earlier that day she's stone cold sober in the evening with no hangover. I'd assume she has some spell to zip past a hangover and since the alcohol wouldn't spend as long in her bloodstream maybe it would have less impact on her development. A sentence or two could confirm this when the parents talked but it's not certain.
2. Why is Starlight hiding her power?
If Starlight revealed her power, and chose the right jobs, she could do the work of 20 ponies and could easily pay for 5 years of liquor in a few months, which would very likely be quite good for her. Maybe there was some significant property damage like town fires or permanent injuries that would be harder to pay for? The big question is why not send her to Celestia's School? I understand wanting to keep your daughter close but they're not really seeing her as is and what she really needs is some peers and a mentor who get her power.
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Thanks very much for the comments, and thanks very much for reading!
At the end of the day, I'm not going to answer your questions and just apply some verbal judo to say that this was a "learning" story where I was in the early days of my craft, and I made a lot of mistakes. If I were to write this today, there are many, many things I would do differently, and everything you've commented on is part of that list.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Than
This seems like a bit of an exaggeration.
I'm confused. Wasn't the graveyard a 15 mile run from town, or did Starlight take a 15-mile run and stop at the graveyard on her way back into town?
Chapter ending
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^ that
Excellent last chapter.
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That would have been a horrifying twist, awesome if pulled off well
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Oof, fixed! Thanks
This is the only thing in the story that makes zero sense. Starlight memorized a book on mental disorders and can quote seven pages verbatim but can't remember the name of a medical condition that has deeply affected her family.
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Oh, Starlight new darn well, that was a conversational gambit to bring mom around to where in discussion she wanted. Perhaps I wrote that unclearly.
Gahd dayum. Even before the story gets into the horror stuff it just punches you with the drama stuff. And then keeps punching and kicking with more and more piling on before flipping the whole fucking table. Even if the horror of reanimated bodies doesn't get me all of this has been immensely enjoyable, and gives a great view of how messed up Starlight's life could be even before she became an 'adult' adult. I can't wait to read on, so I'm gonna do that now!
This was such a page turner. Just alternating between horror, comedy, and tragedy paragraph by paragraph perfectly.
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Thank you! This is probably the story I'm least proud of, being a very early effort and I've learned a lot since. Glad you still enjoyed it!
If this is your worst story, I'm gonna have to copy it down somewhere before it's deleted. legitimately one of my all-time favorites.
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I'm not going to delete it, I just pretend it doesn't exist.
Glad you enjoyed.
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If this is what you pretend doesn't exist, I have to know what you consider your best work. Your writing is phenomenal
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Well, thank you!
I could have written this bitching good right now; the idea is solid. I just see lots of rookie mistakes in the execution.