There are many drains on my productivity as an individual, but none so insidious as the amount of time I spend on Magic: The Gathering.

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The company you keep sometimes helps the first impressions of what you watch and read. Full disclosure, my favorite things ever I have ever encountered are special to me because my older sister* introduced me to them, and every time I read them I think of her. I'm going to stand up for the objective quality of these novels and I'm going to recommend them, but I'm also aware that I read them through the filter of transcendent, personal experience, stories outside the story that serve to enhance

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One of the issues I've had with myself writing Season of Spooky blogs is I feel like I have not done nearly enough in the way of making comparisons and callbacks to horror literature. I've referenced horror films more than once, and that's because I first became interested in horror because of film. Before that point, I had never really taken the time to immerse myself in the written end. At least, not until I discovered Steven King.

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You know, I am so glad I decided to write at least two non-pony horror entries for this series, because I'm afraid that I'm probably going out on a low note here. This is not a bad story, but in terms of actual horror potential I think it's weaker than both of the two stories I've talked about before. It was too interesting, however, not to write about, and since I only found it through the recommendations I got from my first blog, I felt it was only right to share it here. Plus, my

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"Biblical Monsters" by Horse Voice is just one of those stories that was not only hyped by more than one person when I wrote my initial Season of Spooky blog, but was genuinely worth all the hype. Most of my time spent making assessments of "Biblical Monsters" was specifically spent not in asking if the story was good but asking myself exactly why it was so good. Excellent prose? Yes. Unique premise? Yes. Interesting themes explored? Oh yes.

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First things first, I would like to address an author: Captain Hairball, you seem like a nice person. I've actually had a chance to interact with you before, albeit briefly, and I want to stress that I have no beef with you. Please don't hate me.

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I've promised this for a while, and I shall deliver. The Season of Spooky now continues with stories that are not full of fail!

I mean granted it was really only two out of three last time, but given Silent Ponyville hurt me enough to count for two I still count the last few blogs as an overall negative experience. That does present me with a problem, though.

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So I'm taking a break from The Season of Spooky for two reasons. First, I've been burnt out on a certain series of stories. Second, I've been planning on writing something about this for a while and after the summer season brought with it the revival of a certain cooking-themed animated series that helped me crystallize my thoughts on the subject. The stars have aligned.

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I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading the Silent Ponyville stories. After finishing Silent Ponyville 2, I happened to notice that not only were there several more stories set in the same universe by the original author, but there are high-profile fan-created stories as well. In a strange title-paradox coincidence, Silent Ponyville 2 may be the worst of the stories I've read so far but Silent Ponyville: Reunion - a story set in the same universe

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My readthrough of Silent Ponyville for the sake of this blog series took me down a series of paths I had not expected initially. No sooner had I begun to consume the story than I realized it was possibly worse in some ways than "The Rainbow Factory". At least "Rainbow Factory" contained horror motifs it invented, after all. At least it made the attempt at being a slasher chase. At least it didn't deliberately recycle "Cupcakes", lazily attaching a backstory to justify a blatant rip-off

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