Tag Archives: sad

Ebon Mane’s “Tired”

27 Friday Dec 2013

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Today’s story is a moving look at what happens when the story’s over but the characters still remain.

tiredTired
[Sad] [Slice of Life] • 7,033 words

Though the distance between Pinkie Pie and her five closest friends has grown in the half-century since they claimed their Elements, she does what she can to prevent the others from drifting away. It’s small things, mostly: tea with Rarity, a drink with Rainbow Dash, a few words with each of the others. The friendship still makes each day together magic, and she works as hard as ever to bring cheer to all of her friends. When the smiles come less frequently, that just makes each one that much more precious.

FROM THE CURATORS: The fandom is thick with stories about the longing and loss that await the Mane Six with the passage of time, but you don’t have to read much of “Tired” to learn why it’s such an exemplar of the genre: it’s got rare depth and maturity. “There’s no trickery here, no overblown drama, just life’s changes and the difficulties those can bring,” Vimbert said. Horizon added, “I’ve never seen a sadfic so effortlessly sandwich smiles and saudade.”

It’s also packed with strong moments of characterization and exquisite turns of phrase such as “Trivialities move the sun through the sky.” Not a word feels wasted. “The story’s brevity heightens the impact,” Chris said. “It doesn’t weigh itself down … and as a result is utterly moving.”

Read on for our interview, in which Ebon Mane discusses when not to write dialogue, and the convention experience that led to a “grand reconciliation with his mortality.”
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Estee’s “Five Hundred Little Murders”

15 Friday Nov 2013

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This week’s feature bring us a heartwrenching look at what love truly means when you’re staring in the face of death.

Five Hundred Little Murders
[Sad] [Slice of Life] • 11,285 words

Flitter doesn’t like most ponies.  There’s hardly anything in the world Flitter likes, very few which she can even remotely tolerate, and only a couple which she truly loves.  Fluttershy is not in the last two categories.  Flitter sees Fluttershy as weak, and weakness disgusts her. 

But when you’re trying to help someone you love, you’ll look for help in a lot of places — including the cottage of the weakest pony in the world.  

And for those willing to listen past their pain, it might be the place where they start to learn what true strength is.

(Curator note: This story is part of a series set in the same continuity, but requires no knowledge of the series.)

FROM THE CURATORS: There’s so much that could be said about this story — the fantastic characterization of the appalling protagonist; the subtle use of unreliable narration; the haunting interpretation of Fluttershy — but we knew that this exemplar of sad fiction deserved inclusion when our collective reaction was simply stunned silence.  It passed with the shortest debate we’ve yet seen.

“This will punch you in the f*cking gut if you’ve ever lost a pet,” Horizon said, “but it will hit you 100% legitimately, and then give you a gentle hug and an apology for having done so.”

Present Perfect agreed. “Thank god I’m on a treadmill and can pretend these tears are just sweat.”

Read on for our interview, in which Estee discusses the implications of the Mane Six’s pet ownership, the tradeoffs of writing stories that share continuity, and creative character reinterpretation as an act of vengeance.
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Cloud Wander’s “It Is My Fate To Enter Every Door”

18 Friday Oct 2013

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This week’s story delves deep into the hidden mythology of Equestria to give us a touching, personal introduction to the monsters beneath its surface.

it_is_my_fateIt Is My Fate To Enter Every Door
[Sad] [Slice of Life] • 3,399 words

Blythe Hyacinth Pie, Blinks to her family, makes her annual pilgrimage to Tartarus to see her grandparents and hopes for their redemption.

FROM THE CURATORS: One thing that impressed us all is the economy of the storytelling throughout.  (It’s hard to believe the story clocks in at just over 3,000 words!) “One of the things I love about Cloud Wander as an author is how much characterization he can pack into the smallest spaces,” Chris said, “and Clyde Pie is an exemplar in this area; despite his presence being pretty much limited to the first few hundred words, I got a better impression of what he’s like from this story than from some that have spent a dozen times the verbiage on him.”

And it’s the interconnection of those ponies with the mythology that surrounds them that makes it such a treat. “This is a textbook example of how to do worldbuilding right,” Benman said. “Our glimpses of Tartarus tell us as much about the characters whose eyes we see through as they tell us about the underworld itself.”

Read on for our interview, where Cloud Wander — in his inimitable style — describes his own formative experience with a literary dive into monster-filled depths, and envisions Twilight Sparkle’s struggles with whipped cream.
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