Story Review: Trinkets

Trinkets

Description (from story page):
Side-story to Past Sins - Slowly, the wounds inflicted by Nightmare Moon's reign heal. Ponyville is being reconstructed, and the last refugees are leaving the castle. Nyx is with Twilight. Celestia and Luna rule Equestria and guide the sun and moon once more. Everything is as it should be.
But some things are never washed away. These are the things that remain to remind us of the past. They remind us of the good times we've had with friends and family. They never let us forget the mistakes we've made. Everyone has them. Twilight has them. Nyx has them. And, on occasion, when you share your scars, your photos, and your trinkets with another, they just might share theirs in return.

VISION (Does the work present or reflect a point of view, theme, or idea?): A (excellent)
Trinkets manages to capture perfectly the overall theme of Friendship Is Magic. That is, the importance of friendship. In this case, friendship is either gained or strengthened through the use of objects (or "trinkets") as mementos of the past. The idea of using objects of sentimental value to evoke memories, and then sharing those memories with others, is a very old, very well-worn idea. However, Pen Stroke uses his skill to weave this idea into the FIM theme, and he does it flawlessly. Twilight's friendship report to the princess provided an explicit moral while maintaining the atmosphere of a typical canon episode.

ORIGINALITY (Is the work fresh or new in its style, execution, or approach? Is it something you haven't seen before in its genre? Did it surprise you?): B (above-average)
Although the story is fresh in its approach, it does bear a familiarity with other stories which incorporate the same (or similar) theme. The idea behind the story is already well-established, and there isn't a whole lot an author can do with it that hasn't been done before. That said, Trinkets takes the idea and merges it with the universe from Past Sins, introducing a challenging contrast between the story's moral, and the history of the filly who learns it. Normally, something like this would earn an "average" mark for originality, but there's enough new material generated through the Past Sins connection to warrant a higher grade.

TECHNIQUE (Was the work skillfully created? Does the author exhibit advanced knowledge of storytelling, plot-building, grammar/spelling, etc.?): B (above-average)
As I've come to expect from Pen Stroke, the execution and language use was flawless. I found no major grammatical or spelling errors in the text. The narrative flowed smoothly, and the dialogue and action took centre stage from the exposition. Unfortunately, the plot line was very weak. There was very little action to speak of (aside from the standard foals-doing-cute-things repertoire), and the dialogue seemed somewhat forced at times, especially from Twilight. Even so, the story never failed to maintain my focus, and my suspension of disbelief was never interrupted. Additionally, the story, while not at all exciting in its own right, provided some useful universe-building information as a side story to Past Sins.

IMPACT (Does the work resonate with you or evoke strong emotions? Does it make you think?): C (average)
It's always nice to read a new story that features familiar characters. Trinkets features only two characters, both from Past Sins and one his OC, Nyx. The characterization of Twilight was spot-on in terms of canon personality and changes she experienced in Past Sins. Likewise, Nyx received a boost of character-building in this side story. What disappointed me, however, was that the characters seemed so two-dimensional. Perhaps it was because of the short length of the story, but I finished the narrative feeling like I hadn't gotten to know the ponies any better than I did when I began reading. The story was good, and it read well, but I just didn't connect with the characters personally. In this respect, the story seemed almost like an afterthought of Past Sins, almost like an extra epilogue. I give Trinkets an average grade in this category, since it, like almost all stories on FIMFiction, leave me feeling no particularly strong emotions

Overall: B (above-average)
Trinkets was an above-average story in comparison to the database of FIMFiction. The quality of writing was exceedingly high, as is typical of Pen Stoke's work, and the story itself was able to hold my attention despite its lack of action sequences. It is independent enough to be enjoyable to those who have not read its parent novel, Past Sins, but it contains enough references to said novel to not disappoint those who fell in love with the Past Sins universe. Emotionally, however, it left me feeling like something was missing, as if I didn't get the whole picture. I recommend Trinkets to anyone who enjoys Pen Stroke's style, but it isn't one of his best works.