Review: Outside the Reaching Sky, by: Karazor · 3:06am Jun 15th, 2016
This is a sequel to The Dread Chitin. Nearly a century has passed since Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash brought the alien Duran Thirk to Equestria, along with a library core full of instructions on technology centuries ahead of the Ponies’ own. Between the information in that, and the guidance of Duran Equestria has prospered, making incredible strides in technology, to the point exploring their own solar system is an almost trivial matter. With plans underway to soon begin the first mission beyond it, to take to the stars and explore the heavens. Plans that get expedited when a Warden patrol finds an alien craft lurking in their system, one that replies to attempts to talk with missiles. With the knowledge of a potentially hostile force somewhere out there that knows about Equis, The Dauntless is prepared immediately. The Mane 6 (Still alive thanks to the connection to the Element’s preventing them from aging) leading the vital mission to try and find out just who this threat is, why they were so aggressive, and above all else, to search the cold, dark reaches of space for the one thing Equestria needs most right now, friends.
Story: As said, this is a sequel to The Dread Chitin But not a direct one. It picks up long afterwards, showing how the events in that story changed Equestria. While the original was fairly straightforward, A to B to C story with no real twists or surprises, this one starts right off with a mystery that will drive the entire story. Who are these “Interlopers” that attacked an Equestrian ship, and why are they seemingly so hostile towards the Ponies? The answer to that question is amazingly well done, building things up to easily make certain assumptions about what is going on, only to toss in twists that, in hindsight, also make perfect sense.The entire thing being an exceptional case at playing to assumption, making things seem to be one way, only to bring out a twist at the end that totally changes how to view everything we thought we knew. It was a glorious surprise that I really do not want to spoil.
The rest of the story, is just as well written and superb as Chitin was. It handles the needed world-building and exposition to explain all the new technology developed and changes to Equestria over the last few decades extremely well. Not giving to much all at once, making most of it natural to explain when and where it does, and doing a great job of balancing simple telling with actually showing these things in work. Making it very easy to understand all these new things, every piece fitting into place and building off each other to create a very detailed, vibrant new version of Equestria.
The battles are also nearly as well executed as the action scenes in Chitin had been. The ones in that being maybe a slight bit more exciting, but only because of the difference in a personal, on the ground match where dodging and striking are more dynamic, versus a space battle between ships. But this story does make those battles incredible as well, you can feel the action, the tension, something as simple as point defense guns taking down incoming missiles is made into a breathtaking moment of suspense.
Not that the story telling isn’t without it’s flaws, a large part of them being in the character department, but the most major issue I have with the story is the pacing. (I know big shock) though only sort of. The pacing on the whole is beautiful, moving along at a good pace, while never feeling rushed. Always going, but taking time for some quite, character based moments, a wonderful blend of both. Right up till we get to about the 3/4 point, then it feels like the story gets kicked into overdrive and starts rushing to try and wrap things up quickly. Even then the pacing itself is still damned good, just noticeably faster then it had been. Which in and of itself is fine, you want things to pick up as you get to the end, things accelerating to the climax. The issue is this doesn’t feel like a natural increase, but like it, again, is being rushed. Mostly due to just how many lose plot threads are forgotten, or hastily wrapped up without the same level of detail everything till now had shown. Not to mention it feels like there are several Chekhov’s Guns that had not yet been fired off. Giving it the impression that there was meant to be more, that the story was planned to address more, be a bit longer, but near then end the author simply wanted to hurry up and get it over with, get to the ending, and so skipped over a lot of things that the story had been developing.
Even the final battle feels like this. While all the previous ones had been energetic, detailed, making every strike, every salvo matter, in the final one it’s all much more general, much less detailed. Simply “Missiles fired, missiles hit, damage done, ponies die, next salvo.” Now not to say that the battle isn’t good in it’s own right, and very emotional, very tense, it does work amazingly well. It simply does not feel like it holds up to the previous ones. Feels rushed. But only compared to what the story had already done.
Characters: As I said the other major issue I have is with the characters. Or at least some of them. But let’s start with one of the good points. Twilight Sparkle. With the exception of the opening chapter that sets things in motion, and a few small cut away to set up some stuff about the antagonists of the story, this is told entirely through her POV. In the last story, one of my complaints was about how naive Twilight seemed to be when it came to the idea of ponies fighting. How the story seemed to make it out to be this huge, major thing that never happened, and ponies that resorted to violence were this weird outlier. This is gone, replaced by, pretty much what I think is a spot on way to look at it. Twilight knows violence is sometimes the only option, but it should be a last option, and only to defend yourself or others from a threat you can’t deal with any other way.
This outlook is the core of the place I think the story has issues, but later for that. I don’t really want to say the years have clearly ‘changed’ Twilight, she is still, at her core, the same pony. But she has noticeably matured. She is more level headed, better at dealing with stress, simply everything you would expect to happen to a pony after so long. But she’s hardly flawless, she is still a bit to trusting or naive about things, causing issues with the far more experienced RD when it comes to appropriate levels of precaution. All around, this is a flat out awesome take on Twilight. The same dependable, studious, determined, kind of nerdy Book Horse we love, but with an added layer of maturity and growth, but still with her flaws and blind spots, which when she catches she instantly works on fixing.
One of my two issues with the characters, come with the next two. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. More specifically the conflict between them. Now, this is not an issue of the ideas behind them, and there is a lot of good things about this conflict. The issues are more of execution, and a few points about how it’s set up and how it ends that just don’t quite feel right. But the overall ideas in it work very well. I admitted last story that I could see Fluttershy being of the “Violence is never the answer” type, and this is her showing that. The whole conflict is between Fluttershy finding the Wardens use of force and violence to deal with threats almost barbaric, that there has to be a non-violent option. With the Wardens, and Rainbow Dash, in turn feeling offended and insulted. Seeing her as naive, deluded, condemning them for acts they know saved lives, and she is just to foalish to see this. That overall set up works really well.
The first major issue is on Fluttershy’s part, when after realizing how far things are going, she comments she never meant to attack The Wardens, to call them out as evil, bloodthirsty murder-ponies. She just thought they were mistaken. And yet, the things we do hear the Wardens being called, the way it’s made out, how could Fluttershy be surprised they got the impression she hated them? How could she overlook all the negative press? All the articles using her own quotes to directly attack them? I could buy this, maybe, if not for one more thing. By this point, Fluttershy is Equestria’s top diplomat. How the buck is she supposed to me this great diplomat, if she is that damned blind to the impact of what she says? To be fair to the story, this could simply an issue of having to get almost all of our information second hoof. Only hearing what Twilight hears from other ponies, everything colored by the retelling, by not having a full picture. But in giving us an incomplete picture of what is going on, it means that things which might be able to be made sense of in the larger context, seem very out of place and illogical within the story itself.
Then we have Rainbow Dash. RD herself.. I have no problems with, I loved RD in this one. Her doubt, her inner conflict, her completely understandable resentment at feeling like her advice was being ignored when it came to keeping the ponies on this expedition safe, and how the majority of her advice was spot on. Not in any contrived, the story made it so she was right way, but in that her ideas for the most part were what to us would be common sense precautions against obvious dangers. Yet at the same time, there were moments she went to far, she was not always right, but when she did screw up, it was for understandable reasons and she realized she had gone to far afterwards. Her little talk with Twilight about how it felt to have lost a Cutie Mark was exquisitely evocative and moving, her entire arc in this story is simply masterfully done. The pain of being so hated by the ponies she as sacrificed so much to save, at her and her Wardens being so misunderstood, but never swaying in her mission to keep them safe. Everything about RD herself is phenomenally done and one of my favorite things about this story. However, it does bring in one of my least favorite, that the catalyst for a lot of her internal issue, for her pain and anger was a retcon about Duran having killed ponies he saw as a threat to her and Twilight.
I hate retcons on general principle, they almsot always tend to be messy, ill thought out, serve to screw over established stories.... yes there are times that it can work, where they can actually change things for the better. But they are very very few compared to how often they simply screw it all up. This one... is not one of those times. But it’s not a wholly and utterly buck things up type deal either. Only in that it could be worse. Not that it actually did anything good. First is the fact it’s an additive retcon, not a alternative. It doesn’t take established past events and say “No no no, that’s not at all what happened, it was really THIS the whole time.” Instead saying “All you saw happened, but this other event you didn’t know about till now also happened.” The first kind is nearly always the result of bad writing. Either on the initial stories part being bad enough to require retconing, or the second stories part for doing it. The second can work, but not here.
Now, the actual idea, Duran killing ponies that he saw as threats to Twilight and RD in order to protect them. I could kind of see that working out. He’s been alone for so long on a Death World, forced to do whatever it took to survive, fighting for his life where every single other living creature is a threat. I could easily see that causing some severe issues, cause him to lash out at anything he perceives as a threat instantly, simply out of survival instinct. Especially near the end of his life, since what killed him was progressive neural degradation, it’s easy to see that possibly affecting his mind, causing him to do this type of thing. But the way it’s presented just does not work for me. First, we have no proof he actually did this stuff. Just a journal that vaguely alludes to it, and his words to RD, while he was in the final stages of the aforementioned death, where the impact to his reasoning, thoughts, all of it would be the worst, and might just be him having delusions or false memories of events. But also because, while I could see his lashing out at threats, the ones given simply are not the type of threats I could see triggering that response. They were not direct threats to their lives, in any way. The examples it gives of his killings simply do not work for the only way I could see him actually killing somepony in the first place. The threat is to indirect, to abstract to trigger the type of survival instinct that would make him do this without thinking about it. These took far to much reasoning to not be cold, calculated and that simply clashes so so so horribly with the character we knew. Ruins him.
Which brings me to the even bigger issue, why. The reason for the retcon. Of which there was only one, to give Dash something to angst over. Nothing else. It’s essentially a version of “Fridging”, just instead of killing a character for the sake of the emotional impact it would have in another, it’s retconing their character into being something it was not, simply for the sake of a second characters reaction to it. It’s that this is done, not to explore anything about Duran’s character, but just to make RD mopey and angry, while utterly ignoring the huge disrespect it does to the character in question. When there are any number of ways that could have come about. She has decades of fighting to get her Wardens formed, dealing with all the bad press, all the hatred, lead by a pony who was once her best friend, all the combat, the fighting, the losing ponies. She has no end of reasons to be angry, upset, bitter, broken. Giving this as the reason..... just does not work, and does a disservice to both character. Duran for what it retcons him into just for the sake of another characters angst, and RD by making all her issues (or at least the core of her anger) stem from this, rather then any of her own choices, her own mistakes or issues.
So yes on the whole, the RD\Fluttershy subplot has a lot of great ideas, a ton of thought, and really does have so much potential and so much going for it, but also stumbles on how it’s handled. But again, that could in large part be due to how little of it we see, just the very end, and only third hoof through Twilight hearing about it from other ponies. Meaning there could be a lot of nuance and details going on we don’t see that would make some of it work better. But it does not help the final issue with it, how it ended. We get to the point where Fluttershy finally realizes how wrong she was. (Another issue with it, at least as far as not making Fluttershy come off to badly, she was 100% in the wrong on all of this, and the story makes no attempt to suggest otherwise. So the conflict was entirely her own fault.) We see her and RD start to patch things up.. and then nothing. Their respective groups were at the point of literally fighting in the hallways over how bad things had gotten between them, and yet one little session of the two working together was supposed to fully fix everything? Fluttershy finally learned how wrong her view of the Wardens was, but that never comes up again, we never see that put into action, never get shown her trusting RD and her Wardens. It’s another place where the story feels rushed, like it ended prematurely, because this was a pretty major plot thread that feels like it did not actually conclude, so much as just peter out and disappear. It has no sense of closure
Now onto the other character. Not a whole lot to say about the other three Mane 6, they were competently done, felt real, just all the good stuff but, they got very little if any focus, most of them only actually having one or two scenes where they did anything outside the few group meetings between all of them. And I am perfectly fine with this, the story was not about them, and they had a perfectly logical reason for coming on the mission. I see “Why was X in the story” used a complaint so many times.. and have yet to see anyone actually explain “Why not?” when them being there makes logical sense as it does here. So yes I have 0 issue with this happening.
And the secondary characters, all the OC’s, another victim of the story being to good for it’s own good. Nearly all of them felt so damn good, were portrayed well, fleshes out, instantly had things about them that made them memorable, felt like fully fleshed out characters, just everything about them was so damn well done.... except for how the ending dealt with them. By forgetting about them. Not totally, but, all we get is a quick line or two about “So and so died/was injured” in the final battle, and then nothing. So many of the OC’s were so well done, had clear arcs they could have taken, and in some cases felt like they were going on, but it all gets forgotten once things in the ending push to “Just get it over with” speed. Adding to the feeling. If the OC’s were slightly less well done, fleshed out, real feeling, this wouldn’t have stood out so much. But they were, so the lack of a conclusion to them, lack of a satisfying sense of closure stands out and helps make the ending feel even more rushed then it already was.
Engagement: I mentioned a bit ago about how a certain story will seriously screw up your sleep cycle? Well having this be one you read right after it just ensures you are not sleeping regularly for quite some time.Everything is so engaging, so interesting, so gripping. The characters are amazing to read and see work off each other, the mystery of what awaits the ponies out in the universe, who The Adversary is, what they want, the drama between the ponies. The worldbuiding, finding out about all the stuff ponies have created. The changes to their society. Everything about this story makes you not want to put it down for a moment. And knowing the twist at the end makes spotting the tiny hints leading up to it well worth a second read through just for that alone, while still being an amazing read you can easily get lost in.
Ponyness: Yet another amazing aspect of this story, how well it did making all this extremely high tech stuff feel innately ‘pony’. Everything about it felt like something you could see ponies creating. The armor was well thought out, the weaponry, nothing felt out of place or like it did not fit in as something I could see being developed in Equestria. Arcane interfaces, including implants to allow non-unicorns to use them. The Holo-Daemons and Data-Daemons lending something a bit new to the mix. Arcane interface controlled waldo arms for delicate tasks that need fine manipulation. Yes they got a kick start and learned most of the basics from the Library Core and the stuff Duran left behind for them, but they adapted it to fit them. Took those notes, those basics, and grew them into what they have now. Something uniquely ‘pony’. Just an all around amazing job at worldbuilding.
Even just how powerful their tech was, already eclipsing the abilities of any other race they meet, even ones with centuries or more of a head start works. Ponies have three separate types of knowledge to draw on from three different universes. The NIAS database, a purely mechanical tech. Their own innate technology and magical abilities. And what Duran could share with them of the Tethinar Imperium’s tech, which was a blend of arcane and tech, giving them a way to further integrate the NAIS tech into their thaumic systems. Not only that, but these are ponies. Each one of them is essentially a savant in at least one area, whatever matches their special talent. Given a generation of two for ponies to become adjusted to this new tech enough for ponies to start getting cutie marks and having special talents related to it, it would almost certainly cause a massive boom in development, possibly at an exponential rate. More ponies gain tech based Cutie Marks, develop more tech, get more ponies interested in it, more develop special talents for it, etc....
And the entire aesthetic for how they made their ships also works. They are powerful, massively so compared to any other ship out there. The ONLY advantage the Interlopers had over ponies was shear numbers. What few they others they may have started with, the ponies were quick to adapt to. This is why I felt Twilight’s whole “Ponies don’t fight ever” line of thought made no sense and felt massively out of place. While this is right in line with how I see them. They will not start a fight, they will always try for a peaceful solution above all others. But if you reject that, if you refuse and start a fight anyway... they will defend themselves and take you down fast and hard. Then offer you another chance to take their hoof in friendship. And the Dauntless is built completely with this mindset in mind. It is glorious.
But what about beyond just the tech? Well, the rest of the story matches Equestria so damn well. Everyponies’ attitudes.. yes even the friction between Fluttershy’s side and RD’s over the Wardens being a more active peacekeeping force. They aren’t perfect, but they are trying. Their entire mission is to go out, explore the universe, and make friends.And they succeed at that. Then we have the ending.... again no spoilers for the big ‘twist’ but.. it was GLORIOUS! After so much hardship, so much fighting.. it is the values Equestria was built on that win in the end. That are proven to be universal beliefs that are true no matter your species. If we ever do see Ponies venture into space.. this is exactly how I would picture it going, and want to see it go. (More or less, at least if it was I would be entirely happy.)
Now there is one other thing to talk about, if we are talking about how true it is to it’s source materials. It is not technically a crossover, and is is fully Pony, but it is also heavily influenced, with clear themes, tech, and other influences from another major work. Fallout: Equestria. The Armor designs, a lot of the tech, even the roles the Mane 6 have slid into over the years all very closely mesh with how they developed in FO:E, albeit without the War happening. Meaning thing proceed much more smoothly. And said War is even a major plot point, as we find out that starting a massive war between Ponies and Zebras was something the Interlopers attempted to do, trying to stunt the development of the civilizations on Equis. But they were able to smooth things out, keep things civil, even finding the agents sent to stir up things and case the War. Though believing them to have been Changeling agents at the time.
Now if one were to think it through, and have been paying attention to some of my points so far, one.. thank you for actually being into this review enough to be doing that, and for thinking that much. Two, you may ask “But isn’t that technically retconing the story in Fallout Equestria? Didn’t you just do a whole little rant about how bad that is?” Yes, yes I did, but this is not a retcon, rather it could be looked at as simply a divergence. Much like FO:E is a divergent timeline from Show!Equestria, where among other thing Twilight did not ascend (And I actually have a theory that explains all the major continuity differences between FO:E and Show canon with Twilight not ascending being the only needed point of divergence, but another time for that.) Where thanks to the events of Chitin the War was never started.
Mostly, it does still kind of retcon some things, like the War only being the result of outside influence, that does change things a bit, and I cannot say I am happy, at all, with the idea of things having gone that way. Now yes, having “The Stars” that the Zebras blamed for all this be just random aliens fucking with the ponies and zebras for some reason is a fairly common theory. But it’s one I do not like. Yes it fits the 50′s-60′s sci-fi aesthetic of Fallout, but the idea of them being Lovecraftain Abominations lie they re presented in story fits much better with MLP’s take on things. I just prefer a magical, fantasy based reason over a sci-fi one in this case and think it fits better. But the idea it was only because of these Interlopers messing with thing The War happened, not a result of honest mistakes. That is a retcon I don’t like at all. Fortunately, that is not what actually happened here.. As this ‘verse was never going to be the FO:E verse. It is not a divergence, but rather was always it’s own separate timeline, that simply developed similarly to FO:E. How do I know this for fact? The mane 6. In FO:E they aged regularly, were middle aged mares by the time of the War. Here, their connection to the Elements prevents them from aging. Meaning they were never the same verse. (And while a case could be made that the Mane 6 lost their connection to the Elements thanks to the events of the War and how it changed them, and that is an idea I’d enjoy seeing explored, it would not have happened until late enough along the timeline they would still have not aged as much as they did.) And, it may just be that it is the lack of the mysticism and taboo about The Stars in Zebra culture (due to them not being what they are hinted to be in FO:E) is why The War did not happen, as without that the Zebra’s would not have had reason to distrust and fear Princess Luna, one of the things that drove the War.
Yes that was a tangent, but a rather important one, as it demonstrates something at the very heart of what I mean by “Ponyness” or “Closeness to the Source Material” because it shows what the core of that is. Respect. Respect for the source material. You can get away with changing some details, so long as it’s clear you have an overall understanding an disrespect for the source. And this story has that in spade for both MLP, and from the inspiration it drew from Fallout: Equestria. Using both to tell a story that, is simply a grant testament to what both stand for.
Overall: Incredible: For all the praise, how much it did RIGHT, I really really really wanted to rank it as “Exemplary” What it does good is more then worth that and then some. It has so many powerful moments. Especially that ending, not just the reveal of what was really going on, but the whole way it’s set up. The story manages to take you right to the edge of despair, right to the the point it’s clear all hope is lost, to hinge on that single point where your emotions are at full bore, fear, anxiety, tension, begging for them to pull through, for this to all work out, but without any sign it will in sight. But keeping it to just that moment, that one crux of suspense and fear and despair. Just long enough for things to start to feel like this might just end badly, before taking all that emotion, all that fear and worry, and transforming it to shear, raw OH! FUCK! YES! Being able to do that, to get things that right, it takes skill, and I have only had one story I would flat out say managed to do it just as well, and in fact a bit better. Getting that much emotion at one point, without drawing it out and making it wear on the reader, but setting it up with such perfect timing. And it was, appropriately enough, Fallout Equestria. If you read the story, you now the scene. The final moments have every bit as much power and joy and impact as that moment in FO:E, with the addition to one of the single best Wham Lines in any story I’ve read. Just one single line, said almsot casually, that makes you double take.. re-read it... wonder if he had really just said what you thought he had said.. only to realize, yes.. yes he had, and it means exactly what you thought it did.
But despite that, despite how all around amazing the story is, and how powerful that ending scene is, the story simply has to many flaws to rte as “best of the best” the issues with the Fluttershy/RD fighting, the Duran Retcon, but above all, the rushed, truncated “Let’s just get it over with” feeling of the last 1/4 of the story. However, even it comes as close as possible to the rating as it could. if “Exemplary” was a 5/5, this story would be a 4.9/5, JUST shy, and yet so close. And yet despite those issues, it is still a simple amazing story all around, one that truly embrace the message of friendship Ponies embody, while being every bit as epicly awesome as they can also be. With some amazing worldbuilding that is far far to developed and grand for just one story. Definitely still a “Must read”
Interesting review. I'd have to reread this story again in order to discuss a lot of the points, unfortunately. Especially since, if I recall correctly, I read the whole story in only one or two sittings.
Regarding the "retcon" of Duran Thirk, I personally didn't think much of it, or even notice it, really. It's probably because I was thoroughly unimpressed by The Dread Chitin and thus didn't read much into any potential character assassination. Also, I think you may be overemphasizing any role that Fallout: Equestria had on this story. Where you're seeing heavy influence, I'm merely seeing similarities that could honestly just as well be coincidence (besides the reference, of course). Maybe you can give more specific examples?
I'd have to reread the story to be sure, but I'd really hesitate to call this a "major" plot point of the story. I honestly don't recall anything about it except rereading a one-line reference in "Aftermath." Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.
Regardless, I enjoyed the review. I really wish there was more good space opera stories on Fimfiction - I can hardly find any!
4025376 No causing The War between Ponies and Zebras was a major plot point. Well maybe not 'major' but a pretty big deal. It was the Interventionists plan to "Deal with" those primitives before the Council had to go and make contact. To keep them from advancing far enough to create space travel. They tried to foment a massive war that would knock them back down the tech tree a bit. It was only in finding out that plan had failed, and that Equis had leapt even further ahead in tech then they thought it would, the "Nuke them from orbit" option was put into play. And they bring this up many many time throughout the story, enough that it's clear the story wants you to be sure it is talking about the FOE war in how it mentions it. And how well it matches what happened in FOE.
Aside form that is what I mentioned, the Power Armor designs match well, and most importantly the Mane 6 (Damnit that was something I wanted to add to the review!) The Mane 6 are all in rolls that fairly closely match what they were in FOE (At least as far s they can without a war to justify some of the things, like the MOI) Twilight.. is just flat out in charge of the MAS, just under a new name. RD leading the Wardens is essentially what she was doing with her MAW, just without the added red tape and hassle of a full Ministry. She was always the one of the Mane 6 that preferred to be on the front lines fighting with her special forces. Pinkie goes from the MOM, to still trying to spread joy and happiness to everypony, only through keeping them informed of all the great things going on, rather then propaganda like the MOM used. AJ was the reason Equestria developed Power Armor in FOE, so her working along side the Wardens fits well. Fluttershy goes from the Ministry of Peace, and being the only major pony in Equestria's government trying to find a peaceful end to the war no matter what. Not "winning' the war, simply ending it. And no, head Diplomat. The only one really out of it is Rarity, but nothing like the MOI would work without a war.
(wanted to add another bit, about how the single greatest failing of Equestria before the End, the thing that truly doomed them.. was splitting up the Mane 6, having each run their own branch, alone, each so busy with their Ministries they could not always be there for each other, leading to them making mistakes because they did not have each other to support. They were given the roles they had as the leaders of the country because of all they had done already to save it. But in doing so, Luna missed to most important aspect. Yes each of them was a hero in their own right, strong, brave, true examples of the best in ponies. But they were not perfect, and as strong as they each were, what made them able to make it through those trials was their friendship, was being able to rely on each other. Separate, they were string yes, but together, they were unbeatable. And the Ministries separated them.
And we see that same thing here, the 6 falling apart, breaking up, losing touch. Yes it does not lead to anything as bad as The War, or The End, but you can see how it could lead to a lot of hardship. However, this trip fixes that, brings them back together, makes them reunite and together... well.. they one more save their entire world. Yet another string influence from FOE.
With just how hard the story makes clear this is a verse where the FOE war nearly happened, yet was averted, it's clear the story did draw a good deal of inspiration from that as a source. But just inspiration, it's by no means a 'ripoff' or anything, more an homage, and stands well and beautifully on it's own.
And yes, we need more epic ponies IN SPACE! There was one series that was looking amazing... but it seems to have died....
4025562
Fair points, through and through. It seems like a subject where I'd have to read the story again to argue against.
And gee, when are you going to give us your review for Fo:E? I mean, I love the story (it, along with the story in this blog post are both among my top 15 favorites), but your enthusiasm for it is downright infectious!
4025667 Actually planning been planning on something on that topic..... It's way to big and I have WAY to much to say about it for just one review.......
Glad to see this one reviewed. And I agree with your assessment; I pushed to add it to the Royal Canterlot Library for a reason.
The Awakening series?
4040709 Yup
4040725 For what it's worth, this puts me in mind of another one I read recently, The Termination Shock. It kind of feels like the sequel to another nonexistent story (one much like this one), and it probably didn't get nearly long enough to review, but still, quasi-immortal, spacegoing, older and rougher but still tight-knit Mane 6.
4040725
4040709
Uh, which one?
4410361 This one. Though its prequel was recently completed after all.
4410361 Awakening. It was a set up for a huge series, the second one has recently finished "Planet Hell: Redemption of Harmony" but the author has said he's pretty much lost motivation for finishing the series.
Idea was this is far, far future, Equiss and Equestria are just legends, lost to the ages, ponies have lost their Magic, replacing it with Science, the tales of the Elements of Harmony, and the Royal Sisters are seen as little more then bedtime stories for foals.
Until certain ponies start having visions, being guided to specific places, and not only relearning how to unlock their connection to their lost magic, but also become new embodiments of the Elements, and hints of some greater threat looming they will be needed to stop. However, only got 3/6 Elements discovered.
4410392
Huh. Kinda sounds like Equestria Exiled, though with more gambit pileup.