Once everypony has gone to enjoy the rest of the night, the great mystery of Nightmare Night remains: what really happens to all that delicious candy when nopony else is around? Does Nightmare Moon gobble it up, or is there something even more sinister (and entertaining) at work?
Bloo knows. Bloo's mother knows too. And the problem is that once everypony else has had their fun, the other side of Nightmare Night has barely any leftovers of fun worth talking about.
Perhaps this year will be different. There's a special guest at this year's Nightmare Night: THE special guest. And in the gathering darkness, maybe Bloo will see the light more clearly than ever before...
Chapters (1)
This was wonderful. This is the most creative, haunting, and touching story I have read on this site in a long time. Thank you for sharing it with us.
How does Mac feel about this?
Ha! On that ending point.
Enjoyed the piece. It flowed well.
A "sweet" story! Although the name "Bloo" made me think there was going to be some sort of tie-in to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
That was a great story. Its been awhile since I've seen such a interesting Nightmare Night story.
Oh my god, this is brilliant.
You can has review!
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!
The story was wonderful and the payoff at the end was delightful.
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Basically, I saw your review, and I am flattered and flabbergasted in no short order. Seriously, though, thank you for that!
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Pull up a chair: this feast's right up your alley, Mr. Spooky.
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All that, and it comes down to the candy.
Nightmare Night in a nutshell, eh?
Can I be honest? Can I be really, truly honest? The biggest reason I put off reading your stories is because, as an aspiring writer, reading through them always leaves me with an inferiority complex. Take it as a compliment though! When I get through the obligatory angsting and moping and laying on my bed eating chocolate-covered-blueberries, I'm just left with admiration and a desire to be this good. Like, it's not just enough to be good at writing on a technical level, every sentence so bouncy and creative and filled with its own life... no, you just have to be great at worldbuilding and character drama and characterizing/contextualizing the parts of canon that you incorporate.... curse you!!! (With love)
That being said, it's incredible how you wrote a 15k word fic that didn't drag even once. I understand why it got the drama tag and not sad, but I did tear up a little at the end. Maybe mother-daughter confrontations hit home for me. Wonder why. Luna was also a fantastic addition!! I remember being like "Oh shit" when she showed up... and I love that although she was the snowflake that tipped the iceberg over, she didn't magically fix their problems with some sort of catharsis spell. That scene where Bloo wanders through her Mother's mind... absolutely beautiful. I want to keep it in my notes app and study it forever. I want to write it down and then eat it.
Surprisingly the part that got to me the most was the ending. The last few sentences. I read it again and I get emotional. I think it's something in line with the "flames of passion leave behind ashes" line. It was a really emotionally charged, fantastic (in the Olden sense) night, and then a kid who chokes on candy because it's too sweet is just so... normal. So plain. Things really do change, but not too much.
Mwah!!
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I have to admit I've been sitting on my reply to this comment for a while. Take it as a compliment I certainly do, but I'm saddened by the idea of discouraging rather than encouraging people to write their own stories. I think you mostly meant it tongue-in-cheek, but still, I'd like to offer my thoughts.
Really, what I do (or what others do: I've got my role models too, like Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books), it's ultimately about the methodology of writing, and I believe that shouldn't be inaccessible.
Take the current fic, for example: in the note-taking phase, Bloo was simply another background character I plucked out of a few frames and built up from bits and pieces (e.g. her fan nickname: "blue" as in depressed, "boo" as in ghosts and monsters). The explanation for the candy offering was one of those unsolved mysteries the show left behind for fans like me to pick up. And all it took thematically was the Pinkie association, and bam! I had the seed of a fic about the opposite of jolly indulgence. A lot of this is like designing crossword puzzles.
For me, the hardest part is going from notes to prose and sticking to the actual writing, because unlike taking notes, prose demands sustained focus. Constantly roping things in for tangential reasons is a handicap rather than a benefit. I'm working on that aspect at the moment, but it's heavy going for me (one reason I've been publishing less and less frequently, and also one reason why my longer fics tend to be incomplete).
Originally, Midnight Bloo was going to be a novel before I decided it was spiralling out of control and started again, hence its current incarnation as a shorter story. I do wonder if that distillation might have been to its benefit, but given I grew up on and enjoy longer, more involved stories, it doesn't come as naturally to me as I'd like.
I don't think there's ever really a "point" where it stops. At least for me, I'm always keeping an eye out for new tricks of the trade. It's like an endless mission pack. Strictly speaking, I'm only as good as what I find, including ideas as to how to use it.
Please trust me when I say this isn't as effortless as it might look.
I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to match what I do, or find your own tactics and advantages in the field. Fiction's a big field to scout, after all. Practically infinite.
Hello! You already know I loved this, of course, but as usual here's the courtesy note of my review -- and the like, favourite and five-star bookshelf add the fic deserves. Wonderful.