ELearning To Feel

• MLP: FiM
• Overwatch
• Adventure
• Drama
• Slice of Life

During a routine trip into the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy encounters a damaged metallic pony that doesn't quite know what it means to be alive. While it's far from normal, Fluttershy would never abandon another pony if she could help.

• Alt. Universe
• Fluttershy
• Twilight

Mechawrecker · 1.4k words  ·  37  1 · 1.1k views

While gathering food in the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy finds a damaged metallic pony. Even though it's not quite alive, she still feels the need to help the struggling machine through its rough past.

As they form connections, can Fluttershy prove that there's more to this android than just metal and programming?

Opening remarks

Learning To Feel by Mechawrecker is a slice of life featuring Fluttershy and the character Orisa from Overwatch. I have only a passing familiarity with the crossover franchise, but will review based on the merits of the fic not the property is crossed with. 

Technical

No technical issues found. Full marks. 

10/10

Character

The main characters of this fic are Fluttershy and Orisa. Fluttershy is a bit pushed from her core personality to being overdramatically caring, while Orisa is a standard protective robot that follows protocol without error. Both are very typical characterizations of their canon counterparts.

There isn’t any new ground covered by these characterizations, however, it’s still acceptable overall.  

7/10

Concept

The long description is mostly a story summary, and the opening fairly basic plot setting. Nothing really stands out, all very typical faire. The execution is decent with good prose and technical ability. 

One problem, though, is that the story doesn’t really leverage its crossover property. Orisa could really be replaced by any generic robot with similar personality traits and the fic doesn’t really use the Overwatch property in any substantial way.

Overall, the concept is underutilized and the story itself isn’t very attention grabbing.

5/10

Vibe

The fic overall is acceptable. The writing is good in prose and readability. I would compare it to Archie Comics, easy to digest reading that you can go through quickly without too much trouble. 

Pacing is very fast, the plot points tend to come and go at a breakneck speed without spending time on the events transpiring contributing to a feeling of almost speedrunning the lesson imparted from Fluttershy to Orisa.

Additionally, nothing feels overly unique. The events feel like a very condensed version of a longer plot and seem to go through a checklist of a typical slice of life plot where one character teaches another character a lesson. The fic feels very trite in execution from a story perspective.  

On a minor note, the italics and bolding in the dialogue is distracting. Using  only all caps for Orisa, and italicizing Fluttershy’s thoughts and for emphasis would fix that issue. 

In general, the story is fine if rather rote. 

4.5/10

Closing Thoughts

Learning to Feel by Mechawrecka is a rather standard slice of life fic that feels very familiar in its trappings. If you want something quick to read I would recommend it, otherwise there isn’t too much here. 

6.6/10

Personal Score

The story is good for a quick read, but overall didn't really stick with me.

5/10