A Fashion For Nightmares (The Return of Nightmare Moon?)

fanreader999999

fanreader999999 #1 · Jan 1st, 2022 · 1 · 1 · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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Crackfic

RangerOfRhudaur

RangerOfRhudaur #2 · Jan 1st, 2022 · 1 · · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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Personally, the epilogue left me a little disappointed. Its jokiness was too big of a departure from the interestingly heavy story beforehand, at least for me.

Overall, while there are several tantalizing threads you show us (the tension between Rarity the Decadent and Rarity the Generous being the foremost), I feel like they don't get sufficiently tied off by the end of the story. You managed to set the stage for a deep ethical dilemma very well, without making either Rarity or Twilight stereotypical, but then it feels like the curtain never really came up. I really think you could make something fascinating if you expanded on this, but at the moment, it just leaves me wanting more.

hamster wizard

hamster wizard #3 · Jan 3rd, 2022 · · · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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Some interesting concepts thrown around here, but the overall vibe this gives off is more dystopian than anything else, or at least it feels more like that sort of setup. Even if something is created with the best of intentions, it's rarely left solely to the creator to decide its usage.

There's potential for frivolous body-swapping for the ultra-rich while the terminally ill are left by the sidelines unable to afford the treatment. Or maybe even potential immortality if one has the wealth for it. Also the idea is just really macabre to me, and the lighthearted tone of the writing adds to that a bit.

Mockingbirb

Mockingbirb #4 · Feb 5th, 2022 · · · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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11105758

Also the idea is just really macabre to me, and the lighthearted tone [...] adds to that a bit.

Yeah, I think you saw in the story pretty much what I was aiming for: an element of the macabre and potentially dystopian, reinforced by the lighthearted tone that Rarity takes (or affects?) about the whole business, a tone that hints at a lack of the concern which might help avert the problems.

(Edited about two hours after initial posting, to try to clarify and elaborate.)

UrsaMajor

UrsaMajor #5 · Mar 24th, 2022 · · · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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Hm. Feels very Twilight Zone in a good way.

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #6 · Apr 24th, 2022 · 1 · · The Return ·

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Twilight looked again. Something in the pony's tone of voice and way of speaking, subtleties of the mare's body language..hinted at familiarity. Old memories stirred. She said, "Rarity?"

yes, her voice would be quite familiar coming from that muzzle, wouldn't it?

"Yes, dear! Kisses!" The mare embraced Twilight, and air-kissed the purple unicorn on both cheeks. "Welcome to Upper Canterlot!"

la bise! love it

A steam-powered robot trotted on four legs, pulling a taxicab-coach along a smoothly paved road. Inside the coach, Twilight gawped at her transformed friend, taking only brief, occasional glances out the windows.

already a better steampunk Equestria than most 50kw steampunk Equestria epics, just for the mental image of using a steam pony to pull a carriage instead of just a steam engine to drive it directly

"As you SHOULD be, dear. But once a healthy body is assured...what more does a pony want?"

and yes, the fin de siècle ontology of civilizational progression with technology permeates this piece, starting from this little speech by Rarity! a great Rarity spin on this archetype, too, and a refreshing change of pace.

"Yes," Rarity said. "But beneath and behind those later items, in a few corners and long-collapsed chambers, a few genuine pre-Solarchy fragments remained. And among those fragments...enough grams of one ancient corpse to be useful. I started by taking the teensiest little cuttings from a few scraps. I applied just the right techniques of flesh revivication to those cuttings, and created my own special cell cultures. From those cultures, somepony with the right combination of rare talents can...create something truly amazing. A new pony body, grown from the flesh and bone of a legendary alicorn princess."

and there's something so wonderfully Victorian and Gothic about this. it tastes like that flavor of science fiction, you know? and Luna's aesthetic itself is serendipitously a great fit for these ideas. Lovecraft comes to mind here as well.

"Well, so far I haven't had occasion to try an earth pony brain, and find out what an earth pony could do as an fashionable alicorn."

well that just lays out the social hierarchy bare!

Twilight shook her head. "I've had a lot to listen to, tonight. The wild, absurd-sounding stories out in the provinces, about nobles in Canterlot dressing themselves in zombie bodies? Buying twisted, perverse, 'unholy' surgeries to turn themselves into...parodies of an alicorn? Those tales might not be TRUE, exactly...but there's more behind those tales than I liked to think."

well, when you put it that way, i guess it sounds pretty weird, Twilight!

"Maybe ponies should be free to choose the bodies they want," Twilight said. "Regardless of social pressure. And if it means looking like you have Princess Celestia on both sides of your bloodline, what's wrong with that?" She put one hoof over her mouth, feeling embarrassed. Had she accidentally accused Blueblood's entire family of being inbred? "I mean...everypony knows nobles look...noble."

hehe, that's a fun way to characterize it!

An hour later, Twilight complained, "These drinks are so weak, if they were an apple bucker, nopony would get to eat so much as a rotten cherry! Hey, bartender, where's the WET bar?"

brings to mind a guess at who at least one of Twilight's friends were on that frontier!

"Yes, Mare'm. And you wouldn't like to bring even the slightest disgrace or embarrassment upon your fine name and illustrious history, would you?"

"Mare'm" is always great to see

"No time to lose!" Rarity shouted. She opened several drawers, pulled out a thaumically powered saw, and started adding fragments of flesh and bone to the already spectacularly bloody mess on the carpet.

very fun mental image!

Twilight screamed, "Are you saying Canterlot high society is CRAZY?"

hehe, a fun twist on the canon line. and again, that feel of classic science fiction, of recontextualizing an event in the story by explaining what was really happening behind it by big brains who knew it all along. agh, i wish i could communicate what i'm talking about, but it's just that feel, you know?

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #7 · Apr 24th, 2022 · 1 · · Epilogue (The Morning After) ·

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hehehe, very fun!

for some reason i'm feeling very intertextual with this comment, though i'm sure none of these were actual influences. i really like Twilight's AU background here as a doctor returning home from the frontier, which reminds me of the standard introduction story in a Sherlock Holmes continuity, with Twilight slotting into Watson, the viewpoint character who provides the straight mare character to the eccentric genius.

i really liked Twilight's line about medical school showing her arrogance about Rarity's line of work as being less intellectually challenging, which was very classic Twilight. the irony that it was Rarity's fashion pursuits that unlocked this new technology instead of the more expected route of science-loving Twilight's reckless pursuit of knowledge was a great one, and the depiction of the first adopters being the social élite with their silly and inscrutable fashions and motivations really gives this story the feel of an Edwardian-era science fiction work.

Blueblood's complot reminds me of The Last Duel, and worked great on the multiple levels it was meant to.

and finally, the idea of culturing alicorn bodies from Luna's ancient buried remains to use as shells for brain transplantation is a really cool one! one of the coolest ideas i have seen on this horse fiction website, and just the kind of birb idea i read birb fics for. thank you for it!

Mockingbirb