Before I start, I'd like to say that I never heard of this story before it showed up in the Submissions folder. Apparently, it's something of a classic in this fandom, and has a rather large and devoted following. The fact that I wasn't in it is probably a good thing; it means my opinion is not colored by nostalgia.

So, on to the review! This story was pretty darn good. It was certainly one of the better ones that I've read; it's clear the author knew what he was doing. The world is beautifully fleshed out, revealing a much larger world than merely Equestria, but with the ponies playing a super important part without even knowing it. The characters are the focus of the story, however, and they are portrayed very well, and learn and grow in totally believable ways. The story draws you in from the moment the adventure begins (I'll talk about the beginning in a bit), and gets you really invested in their quest, not only to save their friend, but also to discover own inner strengths and become better friends to each other.

The beginning of the story is, to put it nicely, not it's strongest part. The whole set of circumstances that lead to Twilight's sickness, and the reactions of her friends in deciding who will go get the magic mcguffin flower, are kind of contrived, and exist only to make the adventure begin. The beginning feels less like a part of the plot, and more like an excuse for it.

The story is never that contrived or unbelievable again. From their first night out in the rain, to the trek across the mountains, to when they finally descend into unknown territory beyond, the individual strengths of the characters are very quickly revealed, along with their own weaknesses. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash get an equal amount of attention, with their own thoughts, fears, and worries being presented in a clean, well-paced format that avoids long exposition dumps, but keeps away from pure action. This is only the beginning, after all.

When they reach the plains of Gildedale, two things that will be constant for the rest of the story come up. One, it has many elements that are extremely similar to Lord of the Rings. I'm not exactly complaining about this (Oh, no, he took elements from the most well-read and probably best fantasy books of all time in his fantasy story! Gosh!), I just would have liked a bit of a heads-up. I went into this with the expectation of a totally original world, created by an author who is praised for world-building skills, and here I was reading about Rohan and Lothlorien. It's really not a big deal, just...knowing ahead of time would have been nice.

The second theme that comes up is the discovery, by each character, of some trait they never even knew they had, a trait which is extremely useful in their adventure, and absolutely vital at the end. During each of the overarching arcs of the middle section, one of the characters gains some new insight, and some new power, and an obvious outward sign that they have fundamentally changed as a person. As Rainbow says towards the end, "Now we all have cool stuff!". Yup, I was keeping tabs too, Rainbow.

This middle sequence is filled with character development and world-building, and is really what you read the story for. It is a dense, heavy read, that pulls you into the heroines' shoes, and makes you really care a lot about what happens to them, and very curious to see what's over the next horizon. The other creatures they meet along the way evolve into incredibly likable secondary characters, and you find yourself feeling sad that our three heroines must move on from each.

Another thing that is executed brilliantly is the time crunch. Their is a deadline imposed from the very beginning, and it's a pretty tight one, at that. Each reminder of how many days they have left brings with it a sense of urgency, and impending doom. The way the story is written, I honestly didn't know if they would ultimately succeed or fail. The characters' individual growth starts to overshadow their original quest, and it starts to become unclear whether Twilight will make it, as things worsen up at home, and our heroines find themselves continuously slowed down in their experiences. This does a wonderful job of building the tension for the finale.

The finale is...very good, just not exactly the best. I wasn't unhappy with the way it turned out, from a reviewer's standpoint (e.g. emotional experience aside), it just wasn't as amazing as the middle of the story. Although, it was a whole lot more epic than I expected, though I could have just paid more attention at certain points throughout the story. And that's all I'm going to say about the ending; I don't want to sabotage the surprise.

So, all in all, this is a beautiful fic that basically everyone should read. Be patient at the beginning, for it gets much, much better, and be ready to read Lord of the Rings at some points (oh, darn, not that book. That book sucks). It is a masterfully worked tapestry of a narrative that I am completely assured should, in fact, have a place in our archives.

-Mop

P.S. Sarcasm doesn't come through in text. I love Lord of the Rings. It's great. You knew that. I'm done now.

3287656 This is a story that I couldn't get past the first three chapters. (At least I tried) It just didn't hook me as a reader, then I got distracted before I could soldier on through it again. Which is a shame, since it seems like it would be a really fine read if I could get into it... much like with Lord of the Rings, actually. Those books are a trilogy I've tried to read a few times but never got past 100 or so pages.

Glad to hear it was a great read though, and its fandom-wide praise as the go-to adventure fic is well-deserved.

It's also nice to get a another fic onto our archives' shelves.