[REVIEW] Break out the kleenex, boys... · 8:29pm Sep 19th, 2014

For those who may (or may not) have followed me all the way back during the halcion days of The BunnyCast will know that I've always been a staunch proponent of fanfiction, whether it be obscure gender-fluid anime martial artists (which was my obsession at the time), divergent timelines from a popular-yet-somehow-still-obscure-webcomic, to Star Trek to Xena to...well, you get the point. So it's no surprise that I advocate that fanfiction is NOT the festering heap of Intellectual Property Infringement that some ~~complete and total bleeding morons~~ otherwise clueless yet well meaning people say it is. Indeed, I consider it to be the Ultimate Test of a Writer. It takes real dedication to the art of what you are doing to write a good and engaging story for an audience that may appreciate you, but can NEVER pay you (mostly due to intellectual property laws, but in some cases it's people who read fanfics because they don't have money). This allows the author TOTAL creative freedom and limitless playgrounds to put their characters in.

Honestly, at this point I'm starting to think that ANY idiot can get a publishing deal if they write something bland and uncreative enough. (I'm looking at YOU Stephanie Meyer!!!)

So what comes next may not seem to be much of a surprise coming from me, other than the fact that I am trying to cut down on the foul language more that my daughter has gotten to the "repeat what the adults are saying" age.

To those who think that fanfiction can never equal or exceed a published work? FUCK OFF!

Of course, I'm kinda preaching to the choir on this one... ;)

So what has me feeling so strongly on the matter all of a sudden?

SweetieBot has become something of an odd fan favorite, the love and appreciation of the character even eclipsing the fan-series she came from, Friendship is Witchcraft. (Which I have heard from Jim Butcher himself say was, and I quote, "Seriously weird, man!") Various fan art and stories have come and gone, and while there's some that are cute and some that are funny and some that are touching...for this one, you're gonna want to avoid it if you have a heart condition. And maybe if you're pregnant. Or if you're going to be operating heavy machinery later.

Silicon and Fur: A Remembrance of Equestria is not the longest, not the most epic, not the deepest, not the...ANYTHING fic you've ever read. It won't leave you laughing at any point (well, maybe at one point...but by Celestia the laughter will be bitter-sweet!), you won't be stirred by any epic battles with evil...

In fact, there's really not much to this story at all.

OK, so for the next bit imma gonna have to throw out a big SPOILER ALERT. That's because without a SPOILER ALERT, I can't really talk about this story and give it the review it deserves. So for those who like SPOILER ALERT to keep you from having your story spoiled, I'm going to say go read it now (read the prequel first) and cue up the Sigur Ross and keep a case of facial tissue handy, 'cause this one packs a whollop!

OK, SPOILER ALERT over, are they gone?

...

*waits*

...

OK, good, now let's talk about them behind their back! Oh, wait, review! Right!

This is a VERY short story, in fact the entire contents can be summed up as follows: SweetieBot walks through a dilapidated Canterlot Castle while she hallucinates. However, as with any good story, the summary doesn't do the thing justice. The "hallucinations" are SweetieBot's processes replaying with creative modification her memories of the ponies (and other) she watched grow old and die. Considering that enough time has passed for the entire pony RACE to have died by the time the story starts, and indeed very likely ALL sentient life on the planet, I think ANYONE, even a robot, would be entitled to a little hallucination or three just to keep from going TRULY starkers.

What the story all comes down to is the choice that SweetieBot makes. While one can say she started the story with the choice already having been made, allow me some meta commentary for a bit:

Death is not something any of us take lightly. To put it simply, even those of use who are believers in an "afterlife" are going into the whole "death" thing just as blindly and, when we're completely honest with ourselves, just as terrified of it as everyone else. Facing such an event at ANY point in life is...horrible, but then to be at a point where one must CHOOSE to die, for whatever reason, requires levels of courage that are so insanely high that most people can't even fathom it. Rather like if you went to your average ER nurse who's moderately good at managing her less-than-adequate paycheck and asked her to help balance the U.S. national debt. The numbers are too big, the impact too massive, she'd just...not be able to even START to grasp it.

So taking a look at Death's nominal opposite, Life. Life must grow, or it ceases to be life. We must always be learning, doing, acting and reacting in order to be considered Alive. (Don't understand? Watch Shaun of the Dead. Hell, even the trailer makes my point for me) Without that continual growth, we're dead, whether we have a pulse or not.

So back to SweetieBot. There she is, BILLIONS of years after even the last other immortal bites it...quite literal eons of being the last sentient thing on a planet with no spaceport or access to a well travelled hyperspace bypass (and the last towel have LONG since gone, so it'd be a wash anyway) having done all that she can, experienced all that can be experienced, and now doing exactly NOTHING new...she realizes that to continue being Alive, she must Die.

And THAT, dear reader, pays lie to SweetieBot's telling Discord that she can't come up with a paradox without him.

The problem, of course, is that she not only must rely on the blind faith a regular pony must have in the same situation, she doesn't even have the confidence that, once her circuits shut off for the final time, that there will ever be a point where she ever wakes up again.

And that is truly terrifying.

And yet, she goes on, she faces her fear, makes her choice a final time, and...well...

I cried.

Let me explain this a bit. Thanks in no small part to my past, I usually don't cry for...well, nearly anything. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've cried in the past decade. Much has been made in the Brony community over the tear-jerking effects of stories like Past Sins (a personal favorite) and My Little Dashie (...no comment), but I read these stories and...well...I didn't cry. Yes, Past Sins was incredibly TOUCHING and IMHO is one of the best stories this community has ever put out and HASBRO WHY HAVEN'T YOU MADE THIS STORY CANON GNARARARARRRR!!!

*ahem* My point is, I didn't cry at Past Sins or, really, any of the points where Bronies tend to cry at their favorite beloved fanfics.

This one pulled the tears out of me like a pre-teen girl learning her favorite boy-band was breaking up.

And I'm not too proud to admit it!

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Oh, and one final nitpick...the author's sense of what will withstand the rigors of time is...well, I'll call it "WALL-E" on a scale of "Nailed it" to "Movie Science." (See Life After People for reference)

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