Recommendation: Quantum Castaways

I'm writing this blog entry because I need to talk about what these stories mean to me and I don't have anyone else I can talk about this with.

The vast majority of stories where humans and ponies interact can be divided into two categories: Human in Equestria or Ponies in the Real World. Quantum Castaways does neither. This story takes one pony and one human and throws them both into an incredibly hostile environment with no immediate explanation as to why. And they're not the only ones there; some incredibly powerful force has been kidnapping people and monsters from various universes. Finding out who is doing this and how and why is the primary mystery that drives the story forward when the protagonists aren't simply trying to survive the creatively terrifying creatures they encounter on a near-daily basis.

But the heart of this story is the friendship that develops between the protagonists. Two people--one a sheltered purple unicorn, the other a Navy pilot, learn to watch each other's backs and survive everything the island can throw at them--from predators the size of trees to desert heat to the bleak hopelessness of knowing they will never, ever be rescued. Not only do they survive, they forge an inseparable bond. Each of them learns what it's like to have someone who would die for you without blinking. And as they ferret out the island's secrets using a combination of magic and military technology, they come to the certain knowledge that whatever godlike intelligence is responsible for this situation, someone has to stop it, and since they're the only people on hand it will have to be them.

Quantum Castaways is like if Robert Heinlein became a brony and rewrote Robinson Crusoe. The tale is still in progress; when a new chapter comes out I drop everything until it's read. This story is one of a kind.