FimFiction Link - Short ID: 372368/time-of-death
Published: May '17 — Jul '17
Time of Death is a 20k word story about the M6 dealing with the fallout of having defeated the latest baddie. However, he had the last laugh. An ancient ritual managed to go off, and it caused one pony closed to each of the M6 to die in one year. The story follows how each of these ponies deal with their fate as the date of their death nears.
I liked the way the fic tackles this concept. Dirge's deeds are completely irrelevant anyway, so we focus entirely on how this curse has affected the girls and the ponies chosen to die. Still, I think what we have is very surface level. With only one short 2~3k chapter for each pony, we don't really get a lot of time to explore how they feel in depth. What's there is good, but it's very surface level. "I feel this way. Let's go over things that show this is how I feel. Okay, bye". It needed more time to dwell on those, but since this was just made to fill a Patreon request, I think it did alright. It's still enjoyable, and I would recommend it anyway.
Also, the alternate ending was good, but once more, it presented an interesting concept that doesn't get explored at all, and I wonder why Starscribe bothered, other than to have a happy ending.
Oh, right. It's a Starscribe fic that has no tranny stuff. I know that ruined some stories for some people, so rest easy.