FimFiction Link - Short ID: 286337/babytails
Published: Sep '15
'Baby tails' is a ten thousand and one hundred word horror shortfic. It follows Sweetie Belle as she experiences "tail shading" that, according to adults, all foals around her age are supposed to go through. The whole process is accompanied by very strange and unsettling symptoms, and the fact that all adults act very evasive, only telling her that "it will end soon" and are being very adamant that she has to "follow the rules" also doesn't help to assuage her concerns.
I liked the suspense and the overall overbearing atmosphere of something terrible happening, however, i wasn't satisfied with some stuff in the ending. Spoilers ahead.
First of all, i have to agree with Celestia - adults didn't have to be so secretive about the nature of the unfolding events. I understand that telling children that there's some thing growing inside of them and it will have to be taken our surgically is not the best option, but if they knew what was happening and what the consequences of failing to follow the rules may be the chances of someone disobeying the rules like Diamond Tiara did could be diminished, so it would be better if they told the truth right away. And secondly, the nature of this whole thing. Why isn't anyone protesting or showing any kind of doubts that this should be allowed to continue? According to Celestia, Canterlot and the rest of the Equestria knows about these "farms", so why don't they act? If i understood Celestia's words correctly, these things are needed to assure Alicorns' continued existence. Very well, she also mentioned that the procedure can be performed on older ponies and there are volunteers, so why not let them carry out the task instead of subjecting children to such awful thing? All in all, this fic paints a very dark picture of Celestia.
To conclude, i wasn't really scared by this fanfic. As i mentioned before the story has some good suspense, but it wasn't enough to make me as unsettled and scared as some other horror fics did. Overall, it's an okay read, and if you're looking for some decent horror-suspence story consider giving it a try.