Going to mix it up a tiny bit. The stories in this one aren’t in the exact order I read them. Mostly because three of them make up a continuous trilogy and I want them to be back to back as I talk about the whole thing. So a few short unrelated stories then the three that are long enough to be a entire novel when put together.
I didn’t really like this one. It was decently written, but there wasn’t enough here for me to really latch onto. Needed to be a little longer to expand on what the author was trying to communicate. Or might have just not been that good. It was so short it was hard to tell. This was by the same author as Words Failed Her, which was another one that needed more time to let things build.
By the same author as the trilogy below. This one is quite good. Another extremely well done story in non-traditional format. It takes the form of a romantic letter written by Twilight Sparkle to someone she’s had a romantic relationship with for quite a while. It implies the long relationship without saying much outright, and it never actually comes out to say who the letter is for. Not as good as similar stories, such as Yours Truly, but that’s because the bar for this sort of thing is so damn high.
This was a awesome story. I really enjoy stories with time travel of just about any sort. It is probably my favorite form of science fiction in fact, at least when done well. Times loops are a further favorite sub-category of time travel that lets an author play with so many different what-ifs in a single story. Really it is the very essence of speculative fiction distilled into a ultra-focused form.
This was a much longer story than a lot of the fanfics. It clocks out to about 40k words by itself, with a start, build-up, middle, end, and epilogue, along with a dark alternative ending. None of which seemed rushed in the slightest. The actual ending was excellently pulled off in that it highlighted the fact that being in a somewhat dark time loop situation like we saw in this story is not something you just get over because the situation is resolved. Deep trauma from events doesn’t go away, to use a metaphor, just because we are at the credits.
There isn’t any real big worldbuilding bits for this story. Given the majority of it is stuck in a three-hour time loop it is very self-contained. An interesting look at the changelings, and a very thought-provoking angle on the Elements Of Harmony. So I guess there was more worldbuilding stuff than I thought while reading it. Great quote: “Just another reminder that there’s a very good reason they aren’t called the Elements of Niceness.”
The shorter fanfics are nice, but a proper story like this one is very enjoyable. Next I’m planning on reading more from this author, including the sequels. Will give fair warning. Even apart from the alternate ending, this story leans toward the dark side of things.
I really liked that the first part of this story of this story is a straight continuation of the previous story. No ‘last time on’ or whatever, but also not just a new paragraph where the last one left off. Some time has passed, but nothing of major note has happened except more of the same of what was going on at the end of the first story. Really helps that things start slow, as well as reinforcing the idea that time loop truama is not something that can simply be walked off.
The intermission narration in the middle is the best 4th wall breaking by Pinkie Pie I’ve seen to date.
The ending actually reminded me of the Amber series by Zelazny.. Not anything specific to compare, just the idea that the events so far have been manipulated by vast cosmic forces and even the grand struggles we’ve seen so far are just pieces on the grand game of the cosmos. Not to mention a great cliffhanger moment.
Last story in this really excellent trilogy. It hasn’t been pushing my personal taste buttons quite as well as Eternal did, but I would put it in the same weight/quality class. All three of these stories put together are 160k words long which is a full length novel. Seems even longer with everything that has been happening.
Nothing really profound to say. Some cool ideas, some interesting metaphysical concepts, but the cool thing was that this was one of the first My Little Pony fan fictions that I was more interested in what would happen next instead of what ideas it was giving me. Which sets up a real interesting contrast. On one hand this could easily have been a original story with original characters and world instead of fan fiction. On the other hand it used the elements and themes of MLP so well that building an equivalent original world and characters would have taken at least two other full length novels to worldbuild.
Do have one small complaint. Got a bit too much like Doctor Who at the end, but I liked the story so much that it didn’t wreck immersion. Ditto with some of the over the top use of Pinkie Pie.
Nothing in this trilogy will get added to my personal headcannon. It is a bit too self-contained to grab stuff from. It is a wonderful example of a fully realized alternate version of the MLP universe.
Oh, and one more point in the story’s favor. I’m still not entirely sure our heroines were doing the right thing. Will be pondering it a bit more. Big picture cosmic forces versus small picture mortal ethics is always a fun conflict to roll around in my head.So tricky and no way to really find a solution.
The City of Doors 