Shipping and Handling by Pegasus Rescue Brigade

Shipping is perhaps one of the hardest things to get right in fanfiction. It is so hard, in fact, that you could say it is impossible, in much the same way that mathematicians say that .9999(repeating) is equal to 1. I would go so far as to say that shipping only ever works when you don’t do it. Here’s the logic: writing explicitly about anything almost never gets you what you want. Shipping for the sake of it is too shallow a reason to base a relationship off of, plain and simple. What Pegasus Rescue Brigade did with Shipping and Handling is write about shipping without the ships being the subject. Instead, he wrote a story about characters. I hold this story to be a prime example of how to write a wide range of characters in the most enjoyable of ways. The author’s take on lesser-known and unexplored characters from the show, as well as new, original characters to flesh out the world, is simply fantastic.

One of the things I like about this story is how the author crafted it to fit a very specific goal without giving away his plan. PRB masterfully paints a vivid world that is familiar but deeper in tone and even richer in color. The extended history for Ditsy Doo and the explanation behind her eyes is at once charming and heartbreaking. She comes into the story fully-fledged and realized, a character with feelings, faults and fortitude. She is easy to identify and sympathize with. Her struggle is very human and heartfelt. Seemingly inexhaustible optimism coupled with endearing humility makes her one of the most likable characters I have ever read. What makes “Shipping and Handling” really stick out is PRB’s ability to make a likable, relatable character not once, but many, many times. Each supporting member of the cast is superbly written and multifaceted. You can feel their motives and hear their voices; they are in every respect just as real and you or I.

The secret to this story’s success is threefold: the plot is solid and the premise is well supported by the narrative, the characters hold their own places in the story and don’t break down for the sake of drama, and attention to detail in presentation.

Because the story follows a single, very well thought out protagonist with her own set of shortcomings, the story is free to draw you in, unfettered by the limitations of an arbitrary premise. You immediately identify with her and further engage with the other characters, even the antagonist. PRB constantly pulls at those heartstrings just enough to give you a reason to keep going. The occasional sharp pull hurts just enough to give weight and value to the events and challenges the characters face. He does an extraordinary job of being the vehicle that lets you experience the story with the characters, rather than just telling you what’s happening to them.

The characters are very well defined. So well in fact, that the occasional brush with canon characters is seamless and natural. This story has the rare ability of seamlessly integrating into the world of the show. The author demonstrates an understanding of the characters and places to a level matched by few.

All of this is made possible by the author’s outstanding skill in presentation. His voice is very strong but not overpowering or distracting. The delivery of comedy, information, romance, sadness, friendship, malice, victory and defeat is so transparent that it is easy to forget that this is a story. The narrator is closely integrated with the main character’s perspective and so consistently wonderful that it invokes the feeling of watching the show but in a more immediate way that simply seeing could never reproduce. Formatting errors, typos and other surface-level mistakes were few and far between, never detracting from the moment.

What makes me recommend this story is the fact that it is very much an experience. The themes explored are deep and thought-provoking while the way they are presented is still light-hearted and satisfying. After reading this story, I felt that I had learned and grown along with the characters. It is very hard indeed to make growing, breathing characters, but Shipping and Handling is full of them, full to bursting. It may not be a sprawling, epic adventure filled with action and monsters, armies and rough-and-tumble heroes, but the journey is still one of the best I have ever undertaken.