Horizon recommends: Around The World in 81 Days [Update: Complete] · 5:01am Dec 7th, 2016
So, here's the deal: I've plugged this story twice before — in my two review posts about my '80 Days' writing challenge — but now that GaPJaxie has posted the last chapter, I can give it the full-throated praise it deserves.
This is not an '80 Days' fic recommendation. This is a general recommendation, because this fic is great in a way that transcends its source. I may go so far as to call it the best story published on FIMFiction this year. [1]
When Twilight and Celestia have an argument about the existence of leap years, there’s only one possible way to settle their differences: a race around the world!
With the full benefit of hindsight, there may have been other ways.
The description is a little sparse, so allow me to expand on it. What is it that makes this story so great?
1.
This is a story about place.
Equestria is just a tiny part of a wider world here, and Twilight's journey is a glorious travelogue littered with the thousand thousand stories that accrete to build up cultures and nations. From the blooming jacarandas of the Palace of Shadows, to the permanently vacant palace of Marwari, to the timeless streets of ancient Tampuli, the world here is alive and growing, old and new, beautiful and ugly. We see a world gently touched by immortals but hammered into shape by progress — seared by fire and forged and reforged and weathered and dulled.
2.
This is a story about history.
Although the steampunk aesthetic of 80 Days is visible here alongside the eclectic magic of My Little Pony, those are both backdrop. The real story here is a powder keg of competing national interests through which Twilight and Spike are swept like a cork bobbing in a turbulent ocean of fuel. As they — and we — start learning more about the complexities of global geopolitics, a spark ignites.
Things get dark. Things get dark fast. History is like that. As GaPJaxie said:
One of my editors commented on this chapter: "I just realized, this story started with jokes about prime numbers and griffons in sunglasses, and somehow it ended up at genocide. I swear every step along the way made sense."
But this story doesn't lose touch with its fundamental poniness. Twilight never bends in the face of the horror.
Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can give this is that this successfully tells a My Little Pony story about World War I — a monument to the best and worst of the sapient experience.
3.
This is a story about principle.
Competing principles, to be specific. Friendship and power: The juggling act of being Equestrian and responding to looming global conflict. Duty and morality: How to do the right thing when you have multiple problems to fix and only one solution. Progress and tradition. Love and loyalty. Nearly every chapter poses a big question. Some of them don't have answers. Some of them have only bad choices, and doing nothing is a choice.
It will make you think. But it won't drag you kicking and screaming to any conclusions. Heavy on the hammer, light on the anvil.
4.
This is a story about growing up.
Spike starts out as Twilight's valet — her traveling companion and loyal servant. He doesn't end up that way.
He makes decisions. He solves problems. He screws up. He screws up bad. (Oh my gods, the catharsis of day 53.) And then, in the end, he saves Twilight from herself.
I so desperately want to give spoilers. I know I shouldn't. But if you like Spike at all — or want to like him, or are prepared to like him — this turns him into one hell of an adult.
As of this writing, Around The World in 81 Days (And Other Problems Caused by Leap Years) only has around 81 upvotes [2]. It deserves so much more. Look past the Crossover tag — everything you need to know is baked into the story itself. Right around Day 12, this story is going to punch you square in the feels, and it's not going to let up until Twilight Sparkle's safely home.
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[1] Its only serious contender for first place — among the stories I've read, anyhow — is MrNumbers' The Mare Who Once Lived On The Moon. I'd say that I want to throw those stories into a two-enter-one-leaves cage match just to watch the quality of the resulting fight, but really, I'd much rather throw the two stories into a cage until they start mating and we get to read their glorious offspring.
[2] Ninety-two, but it sounded a lot catchier that way.
I gotta finish my first play through of the game and then read all the stories your contest generated. Time has traveled swiftly, I'm afraid.
Given that I'm on a fic reading kick again, though, my hopes are high.
I think he did a really good job :D Glad to see you recommending it.
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Totally worth it.
This is #2 on my to-be-read list. I've always thought it sounded good, but you've made it sound even better! Bumped up to #1.
I actually help out with this story. Let me tell you it's amazing!
Gotta love that Read it Later list.
Approval.
Now that he has it finished I will put it at the top of my read later list.
Then its a matter of making the time for it.
And I really would like for MrNumbers to finish that story. I really want to read it.
Yeah, this is a criminally underappreciated story. Definitely one of the best ponyfics of 2016, no matter how you rank them!
4331532 I don't get how they managed to make this look exactly like an anime.
I'll be honest, I went a few chapters into 81 Days and I hesitated to continue. I wasn't sure if I would like where it was going. Still, based on your recommendation, I'll give it another go. Especially if you're comparing it to The Mare Who Once Lived on the Moon.
Well, on that basis I about have to read it.
I'm looking forward to reading it and finally finishing all the 80 Days fics. :3
Oh, good! I was just wondering what to start reading next!
4331658
Concerned about the upcoming content, or bouncing off the (lighter-in-tone and less-dramatic) first few chapters, or what? If you dislike darker fics and are worried about your upcoming reading, well, that's certainly a reasonable worry. See quote in original post.
The early chapters' worldbuilding stays pretty consistent throughout, but the story deepens as it goes. Although you see some of the themes early on which drive the later arcs, Day 12 (Chapter 7, about 1/4 of the way in) is the first major tonal turning point, and it starts accelerating from there.
If I could breed stories instead of having to write them, don't you think I'd have worked that out by now?
Honestly.
Unless when Hollywood executives say a story is "X meets Y" they actually mean... shit that would explain a lot.
Well, that made me read it. It was totes worth it, yep. Thanks for recommendation
4331501
At long last I return, my own journey complete. Hot damn was it worth it these eight stories are some of the best writing I've read in a while, and this fic in particular was gut-wrenching. Talk about excellence.
4379958
Glad I could give you some good recs.
Awesome!
4331532
I'd like to belatedly note that I was doing some research last weekend for a script I was writing, and just realized why you used "Orlovia" for one of the major players.
Horse breed puns, man. They're everywhere.
Good story!
5476876
I certainly agree