Fear and Trembling

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/66330/fear-and-trembling#page/3

Honestly, its fics like this that make me question if you are really as insane as your blog posts attempt to make you out to be.
From the story description I had guessed what Twilight's task was from the first conversation, however, I honestly wasn't sure at any point in this story if Twilight would or would not kill the rest of the Mane 6. And that's what really struck me by the end, which really is telling of how damn well the characterization was of Twilight. I could see her torn. Is the good of the entirety of Equestria worth my friendship and my friends? To those that question whether or not Twilight would fall for it, there's no reason for her not to. There's absolutely nothing to question, and no reason not to trust a living Goddess when they tell you that to save the entire world you have to kill your 5 closest friends. And having it confirmed would only make it worse and more unquestionable. I could certainly feel the conflict and the suspense of it. First time in a while I've been on the edge of my seat wondering what choice the Hero would make.
Part of that was how quickly Twilight went from "I don't know what to do" to "We need to go to Mount Mare" to "I just can't do it". While it felt rushed in terms of storytelling, as there could have been a lot more exploration of how one step leads to the next and how Twilight pushes herself from one to the next so that the readers don't get lost; it also felt incredibly real. It felt a lot like how I make decisions under pressure, and how you can go from resolving to do something before you are faced with the consequences directly and you have time to compute.
Of course, I certainly agree that the dialogue wasn't as gleaming as the structure and premise, though given Twilight's state of mind, many of her lines are forgivable. Realistically, with the internal monologue we're given, we don't need much out of her lines in the first place. The rest of the Mane 6 didn't exactly feel natural or flowing in their speech; but, for the most part, it didn't detract from the storytelling and descriptiveness.
I must admit, that I agree with whoever said before me that this was a very poorly thought out plan by Luna, and even though Luna does straight up admit that, the whole thing rings impossible that Luna would risk all the elements of harmony to test Twilight's resolve. Honestly, from the start of the Luna conversation, I thought that we were dealing with a Nightmare Moon recurrence because the choice had such dire consequences that it could throw the entire kingdom into chaos. That being said, I do like the notion that the Lunar Princess is the one that knows how you sometimes have to get dirty to accomplish good and step outside the righteous path to do what is necessary, and by imparting that to Twilight she grows more than she could through Celestia's teachings.
At the end of the day, this was a fantastic, characterization felt really impeccable, and I enjoyed every moment of wondering what would happen next.
As always, looking forward to what you do next.
-Duskrider