AC97 
[@cdcdrr](/images/3170563#comment_10619489)
> But when she has to weight in the possibility of death, with Rainbow being on the verge, and the warning from Twilight that any stab wound can be fatal
That's another thing, nobody dared to think of "stab through the ear..."
> Having both Applejack and Twilight there to calmly reason everyone out of danger defeats the premise of such psychological horror.
||It's undermined if it's a tacit admission that there wasn't any buildup, and things just happened that way. It's a lackluster way to go about the genre if they're supposed to be heroes that can express a virtue well and spread it, yet it's so nigh-*effortlessly* undermined as *early* as the *very **first** choice*; it's not just the fact that Applejack died early on, it's the fact that she had *absolutely __**no**__ verbal or physically narrated reaction* to *any* of Pinkie's, Rarity's or Fluttershy's choices whatsoever, to scold, condemn for their selfishness, encourage selfless choices, comfort, whatever. This is uncharacteristically passive of her, and makes it feel like the author conveniently forgot she existed to further the plot, until she died (Rainbow Dash I could see makeing that reckless mistake, yes, I will say that).||
||It's a failing of the story that if Applejack is supposed to be their Team Mom such as that without her they fell apart without someone like her to help hold them together... she did and said more or less absolutely nothing meaningful, as portrayed, which if she actually did, it would better drive home the tragedy and horror of it all.||
||Rarity being the weakest link does line up with how easily she succumbed to Discord, yes, but Fluttershy is the one that he had to cheat with, and there should thusly be *some* tension in regards to that, to enhance the horror, take its time, not have someone fold on the *very first choice*. It leaves more doubt in the head of the reader if they manage to persevere through the trials for a time, before ultimately succumbing due to a multitude of factors (like Applejack's death actually meaning *something* other than shock value due to recklessness).||
To have it go to hell in a handbasket so *easily*, it's clear there are *no* stakes, and the outcome is predictable very early on, to put it another way.
||Also there was absolutely nothing clever about the Laughter test, regarding how Pinkie died; it was just a reaction to gas which doesn't even make logical sense in concept; the nose is a moist area, so why isn't it attracted to that? There's nothing in the way of a social/friendship component about it, it's just "if you have a physiological reaction, you die."||
> But when she has to weight in the possibility of death, with Rainbow being on the verge, and the warning from Twilight that any stab wound can be fatal
That's another thing, nobody dared to think of "stab through the ear..."
> Having both Applejack and Twilight there to calmly reason everyone out of danger defeats the premise of such psychological horror.
||It's undermined if it's a tacit admission that there wasn't any buildup, and things just happened that way. It's a lackluster way to go about the genre if they're supposed to be heroes that can express a virtue well and spread it, yet it's so nigh-*effortlessly* undermined as *early* as the *very **first** choice*; it's not just the fact that Applejack died early on, it's the fact that she had *absolutely __**no**__ verbal or physically narrated reaction* to *any* of Pinkie's, Rarity's or Fluttershy's choices whatsoever, to scold, condemn for their selfishness, encourage selfless choices, comfort, whatever. This is uncharacteristically passive of her, and makes it feel like the author conveniently forgot she existed to further the plot, until she died (Rainbow Dash I could see mak
||It's a failing of the story that if Applejack is supposed to be their Team Mom such as that without her they fell apart without someone like her to help hold them together... she did and said more or less absolutely nothing meaningful, as portrayed, which if she actually did, it would better drive home the tragedy and horror of it all.||
||Rarity being the weakest link does line up with how easily she succumbed to Discord, yes, but Fluttershy is the one that he had to cheat with, and there should thusly be *some* tension in regards to that, to enhance the horror, take its time, not have someone fold on the *very first choice*. It leaves more doubt in the head of the reader if they manage to persevere through the trials for a time, before ultimately succumbing due to a multitude of factors (like Applejack's death actually meaning *something* other than shock value due to recklessness).||
To have it go to hell in a handbasket so *easily*, it's clear there are *no* stakes, and the outcome is predictable very early on, to put it another way.
||Also there was absolutely nothing clever about the Laughter test, regarding how Pinkie died; it was just a reaction to gas which doesn't even make logical sense in concept; the nose is a moist area, so why isn't it attracted to that? There's nothing in the way of a social/friendship component about it, it's just "if you have a physiological reaction, you die."||