Title: Sunset and the Missing Christmas Tree

Age rating: T

Author: The Blue EM2

Status: Complete

Words read: 2,541 (all)

Tags: [Equestria Girls], [Adventure], [Comedy]

Description:

It is winter in Canterlot. Anon-a-Miss has been defeated, and all seems well in the buildup to Christmas. Sunset Shimmer has been given the honour of helping plan the festivities, namely the decorations. Just one thing fails to arrive, something rather crucial.

Now it is a battle against time! Will Christmas be saved? Can Sunset save the day? Will the obesity epidemic amongst geese be resolved? Find out...in Sunset and the Missing Christmas Tree!

Takes place during the penultimate chapter of Anon-a-Miss.

Initial thoughts: Given the recent uptick in stories revolving around the Anon-a-Miss canon from the Equestria Girls canon, I may have slight bias against the trope simply out of annoyance. Nevertheless, from the description alone, I feel like this story should still fare well.

Things I noticed, and opinions on things throughout: A few spelling/grammatical mistakes here and there, but nothing major that would halt the story’s flow thus far. Having grown up with Thomas & Friends train sets (and still having them to this day), I certainly enjoy the sudden entrance of steam locomotives into the story, if not simply for the surprise value in it. Then again, I probably should’ve expected something like that, given The Blue EM2’s train avatar and Thomas & Friends crossovers. The caroling, in my opinion, was a bit awkward, and seemed to be written somewhat as an afterthought, as it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the story.

Full review: Cumulating the thoughts above, I’d say that this was a nice story to read, especially given its focus on the holidays. The surprise feature of trains in the story gave the whole thing a nice twist, and the focus primarily on inter-character bonding and relationships made the whole thing rather heartwarming.

However, the moderate awkwardness in the story’s flow, especially during certain areas regarding the harmonious Christmas caroling, somewhat derailed the reading experience. Being a short story with focus primarily being on canon characters, I’ll give the characterization a pass.

Overall, this story is quite obviously something that isn’t meant to make readers invested, but rather instead to leave them with a lasting impact and a warm feeling.

Applicable ratings:

Grammar: 9/10

Plot: 8/10

Interactions: 8/10

Total rating: 8.3/10