Paul's Thursday Reviews CCXVII · 8:16pm Aug 20th, 2020
Hello again, all you horsefans. It seems I’ve been losing a lot of time this month, with reasons ranging from burnout to vacations to a sudden onset of Starbound Obsession, but as of this week I’m finally starting to turn the ol’ grindstone again. My top priority remains BPH, but I’m also working on a few other projects. After much indecision and uncertainty, I’ve set my sights on finishing that ocean-bound story I started last year, Fortune, although I’m rebuilding the concept from the ground up. It’s not starting over from scratch, but in many ways I might as well be.
Not much else to discuss this week, so I’ll just move along and get to the reviews. Until next time!
Stories for This Week:
The Longest Night by spideremblembrony
he Equestrian Opposition Party by Chessie
No Foals by Flashgen
Twilight Tonight by Skylarking the Stargazer
The Perfect Gentlemare by Iris Heartfang
the light on The Other Side of the river by Hap
Fly Too Close to the Sun... She May Never Let Go by Spacecowboy
A Princess by Any Other Name by Skywriter
Look on Down From the Bridge by FloydienSlip
Discord's After-Mails by Lise
Total Word Count: 88,413
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 1
Pretty Good: 6
Worth It: 3
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
The Longest Night
29,168 Words
By spideremblembrony
Cheerilee is invited by her old foalsitter, Mrs. Winter, to stay the weekend at her mansion outside Ponyville. Even better, she’s allowed to bring some of her students with her. She decides to take the CMC.
This is an extremely direct horror, with no bells or whistles to speak of. Focusing largely on Scootaloo, it follows the CMC trapped in Mrs. Winters’s mansion while her son, a Michael Myers wannabe, pursues them. I specifically say Michael Myers because the story starts with an introduction where the killer’s father concludes his son is evil incarnate, and anyone familiar with the Halloween franchise will recognize that reference. We receive no motivations for the killer’s actions other than that he ‘is evil’, but if it worked for John Carpenter, why not spideremblembrony?
The story comes with what I suspect are a number of homages to movies of a horror variety, or at least action/thriller. The mansion the girls are lost in provides the same kind of feeling as the Grand Overlook Hotel, the killer’s lair makes me think of Jason Vorhees’ place in the remake (or, if you’re into obscure video games, Debilitas’s shack in Haunting Ground), and there’s a kitchen scene I swear is modelled after the raptor chase scene in the first Jurassic Park. References to dinner brought to mind memories of Sweeny Todd, and I’m pretty sure that crib with the shackles was a reference to something. Ultimately, the story feels like a giant love note to the horror subculture.
The catch is that, for being a horror, it is still a very direct and simple one. There’s no mystery as to who the villain is, you figure it out more or less immediately. So the vast majority of the story is just Scootloo, Sweetie, and Apple Bloom sneaking around a mansion feeling scared with occasional chase scenes featuring our lumbering Big Bad. While there’s nothing inherently wrong about that, it may not be enough for readers hoping for a bit more mystery and character growth.
If you’re looking for something more lethal, in this too you may be disappointed. There’s not enough bodies in this story to even get it into an episode of the Kill Count. This is one that tries to get by on suspense rather than deaths. Again, whether that’s a good thing or not is up to interpretation. Even so, I feel that if you’re going to make a story themed so heavily around the generic, murdery, seemingly invincible stalker ah la Halloween or Friday the Thirteenth, you should be prepared for an audience that expects kills.
The only major criticism I have that I wouldn’t consider subjective is that sometimes the author gets a little heavy handed with Scootaloo’s emotions. It’s one thing to generate atmosphere, and spideremblembrony does that decently enough for the most part, but sometimes they really zero in on it and just crank it up to eleven. It felt like the author was trying too hard, taking an already apparently bad situation and making it feel a little ridiculous.
When it’s all said and done, I ended up liking the story. It’s not a masterpiece of horror literature by any means, but I can appreciate the purpose behind it, and the author shows a lot of skill throughout in terms of helping us grasp Scootaloo’s fear (when they weren't overdoing it, that is). My only major regret is that the author left the site after this story, because that ending outright begged for the sequel treatment.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Why Earth Ponies Don't Fly. — Needs Work
The Equestrian Opposition Party
8,331 Words
By Chessie
Ink Blotter is a proud libertarian who just got his entirely justifiable new bill vetoed by Princess Celestia. When he learns of an “Equestrian Opposition Party”, he decides to attend the meeting they are holding that night to see if he can find somepony more reasonable to talk to about Equestria’s future.
I expected this to be a silly story in which a bunch of wannabe villains get together regularly to discuss their latest schemes and comfort one another about being pathetic excuses for bad guys. Chessie had far more… ‘grounded’ ambitions with this one. What we end up with is a small collection of ponies with vastly different ideas for how the government should be run. You’ve got the technocrats wanting machines to rule, the “might is right” barbarian, the avid promoter of absolute democracy, and even an anarchist.
As silly as it sounds, the story ends up being a satirical reflection of how governing a country is a lot harder than it seems at face value. That’s a message I can thoroughly approve of. What is particularly interesting to me is that the story depicts Celestia as a great ruler, bastion of peace and harmony, who is actively looking for a new system of government. Even stranger still is that apparently she has been permitting whole new governments to form during her rule – even within the events of the show – but has to keep coming back into power when things invariably go wrong.
It’s an interesting idea, one that I’d love to see explored in action rather than through the “those were the days” stories of the ponies who tried and failed to make those changes happen. Still, this does the job justice without making it into some overlong comedic saga, so I guess I won’t complain.
I think the only caveat here is that the story makes some claims about how the government of Equestria is run under Celestia, which in turns means assumptions about its politics. The only reason I bring this up is because Chessie makes sure to point out that Equestria is a land of peace, harmony, and good under this system. Some of its citizens are unsatisfied with it, but when you consider the metric of a thousand years it sounds like a perfect governing system. Which may rub some people the wrong way when they hear the specifics, if for no other reason than “not my government!”
We all have our own ideas for what would make the Bess Gov’ment Evah! It certainly says something about the author that the story talks a lot about failed systems of government that fall back to a certain specific one to keep things going smoothly in the interim every time. I encourage you not to let that get in the way of your enjoyment of this story though, as I don’t think it is the point.
I enjoyed myself, what with the silliness of the events masking a subtle discussion of the act and folly inherent in government. For my purposes, that’s all I need.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Rainbow’s perfectly happy with her marriage. Really. So she fights with Applejack occasionally. So it’s all become common and repetitive. So ponies think they have problems. So what?
This didn’t go at all like I expected. It’s a hard-hitting story about a Rainbow Dash who isn’t enjoying her marriage as much as she’d like, but also thinks that’s perfectly normal. The story delves into Rainbow’s mental battles, revealing some hard truths that make the married life harder for her than it has to be. Part of me wants to really feel for Applejack having to put up with it, but I have to wonder what this story would have been like from her perspective.
I think the most worrying part in all this is how Rainbow keeps insisting Applejack and her know one another perfectly at this point, yet her thoughts betray that she doesn’t know Applejack half as well as she thinks. At the same time, her actions are a strange mix of selfish and selfless; Applejack’s accusation that Rainbow’s only thinking of herself reveals how little she realizes that a lot of the elements passing through Rainbow’s mind are also for her sake. Flashgen produces an intricate web that makes Rainbow a complicated individual, and I love that about this story.
I found this one fascinating, and I like that it has an open ending. It feels like an important aspect of the story, that fear of the unknown future. It all culminates in heavy reveals and tense emotions. This one earns all the attention it’s garnered, and I highly recommend it.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
A FLEet|ng LIght |n thE DArknEsS — Worth It
Twilight Tonight
3,401 Words
By Skylarking the Stargazer
Apple Bloom arrives at the Castle of Friendship Friendship Rainbow Castle (had to do some research to learn that is actually an official alternate name for it, and I just WTF-ed). She’s come to ask Twilight how to read. No, not the act unto itself, but in terms of comprehension and self-enjoyment.
This story is all kinds of odd, and that has everything to do with the writing style. I’m not sure if this style is normal for the author or an intentional decision made to emphasize the story’s point. That point is an attempt to discover and understand what makes reading interesting to some and not to others. I am reminded, fondly, of the difference between myself and my younger brother. As we all know, I read with great consistency and tend to enjoy it most of the time. My brother, on the other hand, probably would only crack open a book if his life depended on it, and even then you’d never get him to actually enjoy it.
Therein lies a fundamental, but notably subjective, problem with this story for me: I can’t relate. Apple Bloom is shown questioning if the reading will be worth it, if she’s not wasting her time, if she’ll even enjoy it, and here I am being all “Book! Boooook. Bok. Buk. Biblia. Book!” (Casually waits for someone to get the reference.) It makes it hard for me to grasp Apple Bloom’s problem, and also hard for me to recognize Twilight’s proposed solution as effective in the real world.
Point is: I don’t understand the issue personally, so it’s hard for me to act as a judge over this story’s depiction of it. I’m not holding that against the story, I’m only pointing it out as my own shortcoming.
What really makes this for a challenge, however, is once again the writing style.
The alicorn noticed the strange aura growing around her. It was zero dark thirty, at least determined the wooden clock while oscillating through her brain.
Oookay… What is this aura that will never get mentioned again? Why the heck is Twilight thinking in military time? What the heck is with this weird sentence about wooden clocks that don’t exist while making determinations that wooden clocks can’t make? I get that second sentence is a metaphor, but wow is it worded odd.
Or how about this quote from Twilight:
Accents shouldn't judge you for your linguistic abilities[...]
Uh, what? Since when could accents cast judgement on anyone? Even if they could, an accent judging linguistic abilities.
Apple Bloom was awestruck by the scintillating shelves and the breathing of the pages on each and every sheet of innumerable books.
Since when did books glow and sparkle? Did Twilight cast a ‘Come to Life’ spell on her books, and if so did she also give them the requisite organs for breathing? At this point I’m starting to think that Skylarking is throwing around words from a thesaurus without bothering to check their actual definitions.
"Do you... really think so?"
"Of course I am!”
You might want to work on your hearing comprehension, Twilight.
Again, I can’t tell what’s going on here. Either the author has an extremely confusing writing style with a nonstop ephemeral meaning behind their word choices, or they very specifically picked one that they thought would work well with the story’s message. If it’s that latter one, either I don’t get it or they’re doing it wrong.
Couple these problems with quirky plot discrepancies, such as Spike appearing literally out of nowhere as if he’d been there all along and the author just forgot to mention it, or Twilight taking five minutes to walk to the door and back into the hall only for Apple Bloom to be more than halfway through a book she literally just started reading. I get the impression Skylarking has no idea how to handle the passage of time in literature. Then there’s the atmosphere, which goes deep into purple prose.
I hesitate to say that these are ‘new writer’ problems for a variety of reasons. I like what the author is trying to do, but I also feel they went about it all wrong. I want to be encouraging, because I feel like Skylarking’s goal is commendable, but I just can’t tell for sure how much of this story is error and how much is intentional. The time jumps, plot holes, and purple prose are probably mistakes, but I’m not so sure about the word play. In the end, I feel I won’t be able to grasp this author’s true capacity with this story alone.
I’m going to put this one on the middle ground, largely due to a feeling of inadequacy on my part for judging it fairly. I’ll let you folks give it a look and decide what you think for yourselves.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
The Perfect Gentlemare
9,115 Words
By Iris Heartfang
Rarity just got invited to the single biggest fashion event in the entire world. As intimidating as that is, she decides she needs a date to help with her nerves. In her mind, there is no pony more suited for the role than Pinkie Pie. But for Pinkie, the idea of going to a stuffy social gathering that could make or break Rarity’s career isn’t a great plan. She can’t go as Pinkie Pie. To not destroy Rarity’s future, she must go as the perfect gentlemare.
Let’s get it out of the way right now: this is 100% RariPie shipping, and nothing more. That’s both the hook and the catch, because there are very few ships harder to sell than RariPie. Even as someone who wholeheartedly believes any ship can be achieved with the right angle and talent, I have trouble accepting its potential. Making it work requires something complex, a story that delves deep into both characters to really show us what makes it work, probably over a longer period of time.
Alas, The Perfect Gentlemare does not do this. That’s not to say the story is poorly done. On the contrary, Iris Heartfang does an excellent job writing a story about two crushing mares, one in denial and the other painfully aware. It’s got great atmosphere and excellent characterization of both the leading ladies. I absolutely adored Rarity’s little ego trip in the third scene, and the narrative in Pinkie’s scenes is appropriately whimsical even when she’s depressed. It all comes together to make for a delightful little romance filled with all the d’aww you could want by the end.
It just doesn’t sell the ship to me. It seemed less like Pinkie Pie and Rarity belonged together as a couple than it did that the author was pushing their pony toys together and making smooching sounds for fun. And while I can’t fault the author for that at all, to make this story really work for me there has to be the sense that the star couple are together for reasons other than the author wishing it were so. As presented, I would have bought this far more as a friendshipping tale than as a romantic one.
I digress. Iris Heartfang clearly understands how to write a romance in the general sense, and for the average shipper this will be a wonderfully endearing piece. Heck, it’s an endearing fic regardless. But to really appreciate this, you have to either already be firmly in the RariPie camp or, more likely, be willing to accept their relationship on the surface.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
the light on The Other Side of the river
1,394 Words
By Hap
A mare visits the edge of her town. The river. Where she sees a light on the other side.
I am fondly reminded of Thomas Ligotti’s The Town Manager, though I haven’t read that story in years and it’s hard to say why. This one is told with the curious effect of there being no capitalization, which was clearly an intentional decision. My theory is that it emphasizes how plain our protagonist’s world is.
There’s a lot of mystery to this story. Hap writes of the town in such a way that it’s easy to imagine it as not a mere location on the map but a lost universe unto itself. A hidden world where none can remember the when or the how or the why of their time there. It is, perhaps, a purgatory. And what, then, are the lanterns? Souls, perhaps? Or maybe what we are seeing is not so grounded in our real-world mythologies.
This is seeped in the Weird, and I love it for that. It’s mysterious, it’s subtly emotional, it’s thought-provoking. The only thing that hinders my enjoyment is the awareness that this did not need to be a pony story; it would have worked in any world under any medium. The only other thing to point out as a potential problem – not for me, but there are others we must consider – is that you have to come up with your own ideas of what’s happening here.
If you’re okay with those things, absolutely read this.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Donutier — WHYRTY?
Ship of Fools — Pretty Good!
Red Meat — Worth It
It’s the fifth year anniversary of the day Not You landed in Equestria. Not You has decided to commemorate the moment in the best possible way. But first, Not You has to get everything ready.
This is a project that took Spacecowboy three years to complete. Quite the surprise considering its length. As you might have guessed, it is written in Second Person, a perspective I have little love for.
That being said, I think Spacecowboy did about as well as could be hoped. Every effort was made to ensure that the reader knows nothing about Not You, from gender to name to – and this always struck me as the trickiest bit – background. By keeping things short, the risk of falling into the familiar traps are minimized as much as possible. As such, I dare say this is the closest any author has come to making Not You actually be you, at least in my experience. It still fails from the very beginning by giving Not You a specific ‘death’ and a personality designed around Not You’s reactions to Equestria and conversations with Not You’s friends (to say nothing of the fact of which ponies are your friends in the first place), but I appreciate the effort put in.
Setting aside the entire conceit that is Second Person, the only real flaw in the story is a consistent problem with grammar as related to dialogue:
"And you too, love. I'll be ending court at noon, I believe I have a reservation at a spa courtesy of a secret admirer?" you pulled your arms back as she lifted her head, letting your lips meet for one last kiss.
So Celestia’s speaking, but for some reason Spacecowboy is connecting the dialogue to Not You’s actions. Not only is this an incorrect formatting for dialogue use, out of context it would lead you to assume Not You is the one saying the lines. And Spacecowboy does this over and over and over again. The good news is that in the later chapters – the ones after the three year hiatus on updates – the problem is corrected, but it’s still frustrating to see in those first two.
Aside from that one annoyance, I’d say this is as successful an experiment in Second Person narration as possible. While it does have a few inevitable breaches from reality between you and Not You, it’s probably as close to achieving the reader-insert of being with your pony waifu as we’ll ever see in a story. So if you’re a Celestia fan looking to have some time with Sun Butt, this will probably work wonders for you.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Gateway to Happiness — Worth It
A Princess by Any Other Name
5,794 Words
By Skywriter
Requested by Altair the Dragon Horse
Princess Cadence has decided she needs a name change. ‘Princess Cadance’ sounds like a huge improvement, don’t you think? Dotted Line would have to disagree.
This, ladies and germs, is what happens when a competent writer combines Ghost of Heraclitus’s ceaselessly entertaining Civil Service-Verse with Skywriter’s own Cadance of Cloudsdale series. I have to question whether Ghost and Skywriter collaborated on this, because it blends the two wondrously.
We’ve got nonstop narrative wit. We’ve got the horrors of government bureaucracy. We’ve got (potentially disemvoweled) horrors in book form. We’ve got an (almost) unflappable and beloved head bureaucrat who doesn’t have enough tea. We’ve got a gleefully trolly Celestia.
Seriously. This story has everything I need to keep me smiling for the rest of the week.
If you have a beating heart, you’ll probably enjoy this. Best of all, it requires zero awareness of its source material to be endearing – although you should read said source material anyway, because both are exemplary in their own ways.
Bookshelf: Why Haven’t You Read This yet?
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
How to Remove a Unicorn Tooth — WHYRTY?
Wassail, Wassail! — WHYRTY?
Martial Bliss — Pretty Good!
Look on Down From the Bridge
1,881 Words
By FloydienSlip
Requested by Cynewulf
Vinyl stays in her room, moping, while Octavia plays her cello in another room. Octavia, who is no longer hers. That fact makes the whole world feel worse.
This is a story about recovering from loss. Octavia has moved back to Canterlot, and that makes Vinyl miserable. Yeah, I know those feels.
There’s a lot going for this one. It’s got a strong atmosphere and sense of presence, doing an excellent job of getting into Vinyl’s misery. I also like how Vinyl never says a word, and yet it’s not a given that she’s mute. Floydien hints at the possibility without ever confirming or denying it, making for a bit of subtle mystery. I enjoy seeing people try to write her as mute, and Floydien’s clever refusal to acknowledge it one way or another plays well for me. Then there is, of course, the ending, which hints that maybe things are finally going to get better.
I thoroughly approve. It’s a brief glimpse into a common agony, and made surprisingly real for it. You might think Vinyl is being melodramatic, but if you’ve been there, you know. Give it a read if you’re interested in sadfic or want to explore a story with some mood chops.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Chill — Pretty Good!
The Division Bell — Worth It
Discord's After-Mails
10,165 Words
By Lise
Sequel to Seven Scrolls For Discord
Life just keeps getting crazier for Discord, in ways he both loves and hates. He’s engaged to Octavia, both his ex-wives and one ex-mistress have thoughts to share on that, and his daughter Screwball is getting married to Rainbow Dash. It would be easier to handle if his new fiancée weren’t getting in the way of his letter addiction…
Lise just keeps cranking up the crazy factor for this series. While the central focus is still on letters, there’s also a lot more ‘real world’ stuff happening in the meantime, which only adds to the fun. Rainbow Dash becoming addicted to Discord’s letters (in what I’m convinced is intended as a nudge at the readers regarding this series), Octavia getting an unorthodox pet, his younger daughter Deliria becomes the target of romance from a pony I would think Discord would actually approve of, Twilight realizing she’s not the target of his affections, time-travelling ponies with time-travelling shenanigans, the secret identity of Mayor Mare… heck, we even have him getting told off in an awesome way by an already awesome filly.
Seriously, this story is all kinds of WTF-ery. What makes me love it all the more is that, if you’ve been following along with the previous stories, it’s all starting to make a certain chaotic sense. When we began these stories, I was starting to think it was all nonsense. And, to be fair, it is. Yet at the same time, Lise keeps things interconnected so that the nonsense is beginning to make sense within the series’ overarching continuity, which makes it more digestible as time goes on. With that, this truly becomes something to enjoy.
I’ve bought my ticket on the crazy train. There are no intentions of getting off before the end of the line. I happily endorse this one, with the caveat that you should read through all the prior ones in order so as to fully appreciate (to say nothing of understanding) what’s going on.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
I Drain Fillyfoolery?! — Pretty Good
The Love Life of a Secret Murderer — Pretty Good
Dear Discord, I hate you so much! — Worth It
Dear Princess Twilight, my name is Spider Web, and I am a changeling... — Worth It
Dear Someone, I Discord you so! — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
Fadoodling by ShiveredTimbers
Laughter by Distressing Prose
Royal Expectations by Westphalian_Musketeer
Little Octavia and the Breezies by DoubleDeadline
Limestone Pie Meets Petunia Paleo by Impossible Numbers
Melt by ambion
The Necromancer's Ambition by KuroiTsubasaTenshi
A Message From Nobody by DaWhirlhoof
You Call That A Costume? by Eddy13
Reformation of the Hives by law abiding pony
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That Skywriter rec is lich discrimination.
Simply unacceptable.
I know your RIL is so stupidly full that you haven't even gotten around to reviewing Operation: Replace despite adding it to a folder like last month, but now I kind of want you to read this bit of lunacy from me to see how you react. I was playing on some fandom stereotypes and the inherently weird nature of second-person narration:
- MLP: FiM
- Comedy
- Random
You are a filthy degenerate. Suddenly, you are also inexplicably a tiny female horse. You then begin to argue with yourself.(I guess this is a formal review request.)
Wow, I've read two of these, a total unprecedented in some time!
Flashgen originally wrote "No Foals" for a /fic/ write-off I was also participating in. I want to say I had some further involvement in it, like maybe he dropped it off for a review in The Training Grounds or with WRITE or just asked me personally.
"Look on Down from the Bridge" is also one I read a long time ago under circumstances I no longer remember, but I'm more sure about this one that Floyd had asked me to pre-read it through some means.
I rather enjoyed both stories.
Yeah, Skywriter doing Civil Service was a real joy. :D
*inhale*
boi
Thank you for the review! I'm glad you found it worthwhile.
5339711
I believe I submitted this story to EqD several months after I first posted it. It's possible that that's what you're remembering.
5339711
I believe it was the training ground. It was one I really wanted to spruce up, given it's like the only non-horror thing I did back then (let's just ignore that one hiatus fix that never got finished).
I really appreciate the review, Paul. While I'm still unsure about it and the other romantic sort of stuff I've done, it's good to see others enjoyed it and found something worth reading in it.
5339621
What? You want lich rights? Give them the chance to vote for Sombra? Come in and have their legions of zombies take over our jobs while they collect the pay for nothing and destroy our economy? Screw you, lich stooge.
5339651
On the plus side, if it's on a bookshelf then that means I've already read and reviewed it and it's just waiting for the publication date. Shows how far ahead I am!
Also, your story has been added to the queue. I needed more small stories, so I am glad for it.
5339711
If ever my RiL runs out of smaller stories, I might finally take you up on that offer for recommendations you made ages ago. Maybe. Depends on how things look when that happens.
"No, I'm... doesn't!"
5340058
I dare you to say that again when the Skeleton Wars are upon us once again.
5340077
We all know the truth is that the Skeleton Wars never ended.
5340132
Don’t tell the lich-hater. He’ll find out when they come for his calcium.
5340137
5340132
Of course the Skeleton Wars never ended! They're liches, they exist to spread death. The only difference between how it used to be and today is tactics; why send legions of easily killable undead you have to keep re-raising when you could have them go in and passively destroy our economy and, subsequently, everything else? The liches don't need to kill us, we'll do that to ourselves, thereby creating more undead to further wreck and dominate our culture and society. It's not a conspiracy theory if it's true!
5340144
Bold words for someone within marrow-snatching distance.
5340154
We are all in marrow-snatching distance. That's the whole point! I for one do not welcome our potential, maggot-infested overlords.
5340160
Then you're a bigot, sir. And that really rattles my bones.
5340164
I interpreted that in entirely the wrong way at first.
5340168
Better get that out of your skeletal system.
5340351
But I like my bones just the way they are! Don't try to turn me into someboney else.
5340351
5340385
There's an MLP fanfic to be made out of this conversation. I just don't know what it is, yet.
5340385
5340386
Pinkie Pie gives a friendly undead pony a pun-filled tour of Ponyville. Naturally, seeing a big scary lich around REALLY RATTLES SOME BONES and conspiracies break out.
Lore, giggles, and friendship happen.
5340390
Alternatively, it's a scaredy-lich.