FiMFic Review: On a Cross and Arrow... Or, "How Rule 63 Made Me Love Bronies"

One thing I love about the brony community is how the surprisingly superior quality of the show has translated into the fans’ desire for higher quality fanworks. They may not be perfect, but I can say with certainty that fanworks within the brony community are easily, more objectively better than those from most other fandoms. Case in point: when I first became a brony, one of the first fanfictions I ever read was the Connor Cogwork classic, On a Cross and Arrow. And I remember liking it a lot, from the presentation to the storytelling to the smaller details. This was the fic that convinced me that fanfiction could be more than what I had read previously. And many other early fanworks are held in similar regard, almost eclipsing the show itself in terms of positive response.

That said, another thing I can say with certainty is that fanworks have gotten somewhat better since those earliest examples, making them retroactively worse off. Stories like Past Sins and My Little Dashie, practically icons of the brony fanfic scene, are now regarded with disdain as much as they are praised. And a similar thing happened with me as I went to reread On a Cross and Arrow; it soon became clear to me that the story I originally regarded as amazing did not age very well.

But does this make the story a bad fic now? Has age truly rendered a former masterpiece into merely a shell of its former self?

For those of you who don’t know this story, On a Cross and Arrow is considered the quintessential Rule 63 fic among the brony community. (Rule 63 of the Internet states that any character with a defined gender can and will switch that gender; no exceptions.) I can’t rightly say that this fic started the trends that contributed to the most common interpretations of genderbent ponies, but it most definitely solidified them; almost every instance of Rule 63 ponies usually has this story to draw its inspiration from.

For future reference, here’s a quick rundown of the Rule 63 Mane 6, with the canon characters on the left and their male counterparts on the right:

Twilight Sparkle :: Dusk Shine
Applejack :: Applejack (though a lot of folks seem to call him AJ)
Rainbow Dash :: Rainbow Blitz
Rarity :: Elusive
Fluttershy :: Butterscotch
Pinkie Pie :: Berry Bubble

However, this story didn’t originally catch my attention because the Mane 6 were now stallions. In fact, I’ll be honest; most Rule 63 stories are really boring to me because their only hook is that the characters are different genders and nothing else (it gets especially annoying when the shipfics come into play). In reality, the genderbent ponies aren’t even the real focus of this story.

The plot involves Twilight (the female, just so we’re clear) finding a new teleportation spell that will allow her to take herself and up to ten others across great distances. However, a slight miscalculation causes her and the rest of the Mane 6 to teleport not across distance, but rather space and time itself, to another dimension where everything looks the same, with the exception of everypony the characters ever knew being the opposite gender. As soon as they realize what’s going on, they try to spend the rest of the story in hiding, so as not to affect a world that is not their own.

But interactions with their other selves prove next to impossible to avoid for long. Venturing into this strange Equestria becomes a necessity for one reason or another, and each of the Mane 6 eventually bumps into their male selves. For the most part, the circumstances behind each meeting happen for fairly legitimate reasons, mostly shopping for food and supplies, though other reasons do come up (such as when Pinkie and Berry meet because of a combination of Pinkie/Berry Sense and excitement at meeting a new friend). And the interactions themselves all vary: Fluttershy and Butterscotch become attracted to each other, Dash and Blitz see each other as rivals of sorts, and both Applejacks come to regard each other like family.

Unfortunately, “for the most part” does not include everyone. Rarity may have gone out for a crucial component for the spell that would hopefully take them all home, but her ulterior motive is to actually meet with her male self, simply because the prospect of possibly finding her soulmate is too tempting to ignore. And their interaction is like every bad romance stereotype combined: love at first sight, repeating each other’s names, overly long kisses (note the plural), it’s all here.

But, if I had to defend this scene, the Rarity/Elusive interactions play out more like cringe humor, one of the most subjective forms of comedy. So it’s possible that my reactions were based more on my tastes in humor rather than anything actually wrong with the scene itself. This doesn’t necessarily excuse Rarity outright lying to her friends about her motives for leaving their sanctuary, but then, the whole segment is just that: a segment. It’s a small part of the whole story, meaning any revulsion is minimal and limited to just this moment. And I will admit, it was interesting seeing Rarity gauge Elusive’s actions as ones she would take herself.

Speaking of the Male Mane 6, one thing the story is very keen on pointing out is that each pair is really only different in terms of gender. When the story focuses exclusively on these characters, it’s easy to believe that they really are the Mane 6: Dusk is focused and anxious to understand, Blitz is brash and prideful, Berry is an excitable bundle of energy, etc. Each of the Male Mane 6 feels very much like the characters we’ve come to know from the TV series. There are even a few references and callbacks to previous episodes (FYI, this story was written after season one), letting the reader know that these characters are not only similar in personality, but also in history. Any real differences between the two factions are pretty much only in regards to gender, and even then, they are superficial at most. (e.g. Blitz tends to call his friends by the term “brony,” and Elusive hates the nickname “Lucy.”)

That’s not to say that the characters don’t discuss these differences from time to time. It may not happen often, but there are a few instances in which the subtle differences between genders are brought up. For example, after a scene in which Blitz chases Dash but fails to catch up to her, he complains to Dusk about how he essentially lost out to a girl. In response, Dusk comments that the smaller bodies of female pegasi make them more aerodynamic compared to a male’s more bulky frame. Admittedly, it’s a small detail, but it’s often those small details that make it clear just how much effort goes into such a work.

But while the overall presentation is pretty good, the same cannot be said for the writing style. The story has a tendency to switch between points-of-view with little to no warning. Changing viewpoints in a story told in third person is not an uncommon or even a bad thing, and to Connor’s credit, he does keep the narration focused on a single group of ponies at any one time. But which ponies in that group get the focus is subject to change at a moment’s notice; the story could spend a few paragraphs talking about things from Applejack’s perspective and then suddenly move on to Rarity simply because she was the last one to speak.

But by far, the biggest sin and biggest betrayer of this story’s age is that it suffers from Lavender Unicorn Syndrome. LUS is a sort of side effect to a school of thought where, in prose writing (such as essays or stories), repetition is something to be avoided as much as possible. In theory this makes sense; having to read a story in which all of Twilight’s dialogue is followed by, “Twilight said,” can get a little boring and speaks of a lack of creativity and writing skill on the author’s part. So what some authors opt to do is occasionally refer to characters by descriptives (e.g. “Twilight Sparkle” becomes “the lavender unicorn”).

However, “occasionally” is the operative term. A problem in a lot of early pony fics was authors’ tendencies to use the descriptives more than the actual names, thus circling back to the original problem of repetition, with the added problem of almost never mentioning the characters by name. And On a Cross and Arrow is one of those fics. In fact, aside from Spike talking to Twilight within the first few sentences, the narration introduces her as “the lavender mare.” All throughout the story, characters are constantly being referred to by their physical appearances or hobbies; sometimes, entire paragraphs will go by without a name. The only upside to this problem is that it seems to become less noticeable as the story goes on.

But these problems, while not easily overlooked, do not make this a bad story. On a Cross and Arrow may not be a shining example of aging gracefully, but I like to think it still holds up today. Even when I was rereading it for this review, I found myself drawn into it, much like I was when I first read it back in 2012. The world and characters feel familiar but fascinating. Just about every point in the story flows naturally, even the more questionable moments. On a Cross and Arrow was, and still is, a brony classic worthy of the name.

Recommendation Rating: : An enjoyable fic; an easy recommendation.