Pinkie Pie breaks her leg while hiking.

Twilight Sparkle falls in love with a mystery girl at a concert.

Sunset Shimmer carries on a long distance relationship with a magical pony princess from another dimension.

Multiple melodies, weaving in and out of one another, sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing, sometimes complimenting one another. Voices join in then fade away, adding to the collective whole. And in the end, maybe this symphony will lift the heart and dry the tears of an old foe.

Opening remarks

Consonance and Dissonance by applezombi is a romantic drama with a focus on a slice of life feel. It's an interesting premise with the main characters being Pinkie Pie, Sci Twi, and Sunset Shimmer, told in the style of “multiple interconnected stories” from what I gather at least in the description. 

I’m a fan of applezombi’s work, I do love me my romance fics, and look forward to seeing how this story plays out. 

Technical

Some missing punctuation, word misuse, and misspellings. Only minor issues. 

8.5/10

Character

The main characters of the story are Pinkie, Sonata, Sunset, and Human Twilight. Each character is very well developed and a joy to read due to their solid character arcs, which will be discussed later under Vibe. 

Firstly, Pinkie is a darling in this fic with a decent mixture of emotional maturity and childish joy. She’s a wonderful catalyst to the events of the plot and her unending empathy is a wonderful read. Most Pinkie Pies I’ve read, even in the EQG setting, tend to push on her more annoying and detrimental qualities, but here she is perfectly balanced making her a real standout character. 

As a quick aside, the use of Pinkie Sense in the story is well done. Utilized only when it's necessary and not used as a plot fixer or weird overpowered plot device. A respectable inclusion of it to a well done story. 

Sunset is also well written, hitting on long distance relationships and that heartwarming romantic connection with Princess Twilight. She has a solid post-movie characterization and, unlike most depictions in fanfiction, hasn’t had her rough edges completely shorn off, letting her keep some of the spiky edges that make her enjoyable to read. She’s empathetic, but not a pushover, which is the ebay way to write her.  

On top of these already amazing characterizations, Sci-Twi is expertly done. Sci-Twi lacks a lot of the stronger characteristics of the other EQG characters in the official canon and applezombi has done an excellent job in filling in the blanks to make her more interesting. Her bouts of embarrassment and interactions with her family are wonderful as well as her neuroticism and awkwardness in social situations. It also serves to really separate Princess Twilight from Human Twilight to make them feel like actual separate characters instead of a carbon copy.

Another special note about Sci-Twi has to be about the handling of Midnight Sparkle. Without going into spoiler territory, applezombi really nailed the use of Midnight Sparkle in such a way to tie in properly with the plot and fully realize Sci-Twi’s character arc by the end of the fic. Fantastic work.  

Finally, Sonata Dusk is perfect. I don’t even know what to say here because she is honestly just absolutely great from start to finish. The depth of personality that applezombi’s has given her in this more than goes above and beyond to make her both likeable and a thoroughly engrossing character to read about. If asked, I would 100% of the time point to this Sonata as a de facto fanon depiction of her because of how amazing it is. 

As a final note, the supporting cast is well done. The chemistry of the humane 7 shines clear in their interactions and really brings the story together. Sci-Twi’s family is also just the right amount of embarrassing and wholesome that you love to see. An additional special note to standout original character Still Waters who is excellently designed and a wonderful personality amongst the supporting cast. 

The character work in this fic is genuinely some of the best I’ve ever read. Full marks.  
 

10/10

Concept

I will admit that the hook in the long description could be better as it doesn’t draw the reader’s eye, however, the opening chapter with Pinkie Pie is solid and really immerses the reader in the world of the story. 

The intermingling of the three storylines (Pinkie, Sunset, and Sci-Twi) is very well done and does coalesce into a banger final act. That being said, Sunset is definitely the weakest link in this trio, but I will discuss this in more depth under Vibe. 

The themes of the story and overall messaging is great. The heartwarming romance was thoroughly engaging and applezombi has done an excellent job of depicting positive representation of recovering from abuse, mental health, and relationships. 

Though the hook could use some more pop, the factual story is well worth the read. 

8.5/10

Vibe

Firstly, right off the bat, the prose is excellent. How the story flows from sentence to sentence is great and feels very unique to the author. The writing is just super personality driven and makes it a truly different experience to read, in a good way.

That being said, there is a very big block text problem in the story. Characters are long winded and a single bit of talking tends to turn into a massive paragraph of emotions, descriptions, and monologues.

Now, the dialogue still flows well, and the story never feels halted by the block text, but it is very difficult to parse all of the information that is written due to the rather intimidating size of the paragraphs.

Another issue related to this is the use of redundant text. I found that a lot of the core emotions and thoughts of the characters at any time were repeated within the same paragraph block when it could be simplified down to a single sentence.

Another issue I found was the use of run-on sentences. There were several areas where commas were used as a crutch to extend a sentence past what it should. 

Most of the above can be fixed by adding more paragraph breaks, and using more periods over commas.

Moving on, the plot is solid. Pinkie’s and Sci-Twi’s storylines are great and both really play into each other to bring tension and drama to the final act, however, Sunset’s plotline is definitely the weakest of the three. 

One thing I like about this story is the very definitive character arcs set up for the three main protagonists. It all follows a very classical story structure where each character starts off with a goal and follows through during the plot to achieve it. 

Another strong point is that in the case of Pinkie and Sci-Twi’s main arcs, they both feed into the overarching narrative with Sonata, which creates a really strong feeling of cohesion. The pay off is phenomenal and just heightens the emotional results of their two character arcs. 

That being said, Sunset feels divorced from the main plot thread. 

To be clear, her arc is distinctive and well thought out. The setup and payoff work, however, unlike the other two, Sunset feels very tacked onto the finale based on her chosen arc. 

Sunset’s storyline doesn’t really feed into the main throughline of the plot and thus suffers a bit from being the “character that is present” by the time the final battle rolls around. She plays a good role in the plot and she does contribute, but when compared to the strong intertwining of the other two main characters, Sunset falls short.

Finally, I do not believe the ending works with this story. The following will be spoiler texted as it will directly talk about the end of the fic. 

So, the government bit at the end feels wholly unnecessary and disconnected from the character growth of the protagonists. The story had already brought together this powerful narrative of personal growth for the main trio, including Sunset, and supporting each other through tough times, and the government part of the story just feels out of place. As a sequel hook, it’s good, but I believe it sacrifices the thematic integrity of the plot of this story in order to have this almost strange bow tied around everything.

It also feels related to wrapping up Sunset’s story more than Sonata and Sci-Twi. Where Sunset felt disjointed from the rest of the story, the ending makes Sonata and Sci-Twi tacked onto the culmination of this storyline. The fact that Pinkie is also not included in the ending epilogue as a mainstay is a disservice to her character. 

I think it would have been better to remove the government aspects and have them present in a side story, or sequel instead. As is, the ending is fine, but muddles the themes of the story. 

Despite those last complaints, this story is still exceptionally beautiful and an absolute treat to read.       

7/10

Closing Thoughts

Consonance and Dissonance by applezombi is a fantastic read start to finish with strong character arcs and cumulative finish that pays off in dividends. The character work here is astounding and for Sonata alone it is worth the read. 

I give this a full recommendation to read it.  

8.5/10

<For archive purposes: 8.5/10>

Personal Score

Loved this. Really hooked me by the middle of it and couldn’t stop reading. Absolutely love the characterization of everyone in this story. Sonata’s character was also so good, I’m point blank just using that as my main head canon to what her personality is like. 

This story was a real treat.

9/10