An early yet confident recommendation · 9:03pm Apr 25th, 2014
The potion spills into my mouth and rushes down my throat. It’s neither sweet nor acrid, but very slightly tangy, like lemon juice in water. After so long next to my body, it’s warm, and it flows smoothly. It takes two good gulps to get it down, and a good shake of the bottle to finish off the last few drops. I shut my eyes and let out a breath as I lower the bottle, the potion’s faint odor filling my nose.
That’s... that’s it then. Time to die.
It starts as a chill—like a breath of icy air passing over me, the hairs of my coat going stiff as my skin goes taut. I can feel it, unnatural alchemy churning in my gut, working its way out into my body. Oh, Celestia, what have I done? What am I doing? I could have left. I could have gone back to the Princess and become an actor and had a real life. I could have...
No. This is... this is better. This is better. Siren Song won’t be around anymore, but Siren wasn’t a very good pony. She’ll be better. I’ll be better. Better.
--GaPJaxie, Daring Do
The story has just begun, so I can't say whether the story is any good. But it's told skillfully. It opens quickly. The descriptions are beautiful, but not flowery. It is concise but not thin.
Warning: It's a sequel to a 200,000-word story, which I haven't read. Its first two chapters are each over 10,000 words, so this may also stretch out into a long book.
Well, I had placed it in that eternal purgatory that is my 'Read Later' list, but if it's gained _recommendations_, and from such a fine author as yourself, I shall have to start on it right away.
Oh hey, I recognize that name! GaPJaxie is one of Bad Horse's fellow Royal Canterlot Library featured authors. If this is up there with Moments' quality, it should be just as worthwhile.
Sorry, don't take recommendations based on excepts.
I second that recommendation.
The story is about Siren Song, Twilight's successor, who finds herself in an enormous city that thought it necessary to abandon Celestia. This city has been very quickly developed thanks to the use of Mantles, potions that grant abilities, and the entrepreneurial ponies that were able to take advantage of this early on ended up becoming incredibly wealthy and powerful. Siren, being both very valuable and very much in danger as Celestia's pupil, is being smuggled out of the city by one of these ponies.
This fic hits strongly on the themes of both Pony and Bioshock, and it does an excellent job of sticking to its original guideline: "Siren is forced to look into a mirror, and she doesn't like what she sees." It's better than any other fic I've read at pulling the reader along for a ride and driving them through the peaks and troughs, from the horrendous, hopeless, and desperate epiphanies to the charged realizations and bouts of courage.
Siren Song (Book 1) has a slow first couple chapters on first reading, but it is unrelenting once it gets going. Its whole world is every bit as logical and intricate as it is mysterious, and every character is fantastically complex. It's a story you could read into indefinitely, not because GaPJaxie throws in connections, but because the tiniest details of story and setting are orchestrated by characters we see and hear of, and those characters were both thoroughly conceived and flawlessly executed.
If it isn't clear, this is my favorite fic. If you're looking for something exciting and thought-provoking, you should read this story. It isn't short, but it is worth it.
You haven't read Siren Song? I think you might like it. (And it's 200k words long rather than 300k).