TThe Haunting of Carousel Boutique

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Drama
• Horror

Rarity has been keeping to herself lately. Applejack is determined to find out why.

• Applejack
• Rarity

mushroompone · 33k words  ·  155  6 · 2.5k views

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. 

To speak of the plot in a great detail would serve to rob you of one of the most emotional, heart-pounding, and powerful fics that I think I have ever read. 

To reduce it to basics feels just as criminal, but it seems to be the path of less evils here. As a whole, the story concept starts off relatively simply: in a world where her friends and family have moved away or moved on, Applejack begins feeling lonely. However, it dawns on her that she isn’t the only one who has remained in Ponyville: Rarity has stayed local as well!

But it’s been a very long time since the two have seen each other. And when Applejack decides to stop by… 

Rarity isn’t quite herself.

Touching briefly, the themes are real and so wonderfully woven across the story and delivered. The ideas and constance references to love and loneliness are incredibly well-done, and the emotion is just so real and vivid that it bleeds off the page. It fills you with dread and with pain and with fear, flowing so so smoothly from one idea to the next.

As for the rest of the story, go read it! It’s fairly hefty at 33k words but believe me when I say that this story is absolutely worth every single bit. Seriously, I don’t say this lightly! This is a rare story where the word count flies by because of how well one event bleeds into the other. It’s incredible, and I can’t say that enough. 

This story is just phenomenally strong on every single front. The character work here is absolutely no exception. Applejack’s core here (which is not apples) really shines through: her strength, perseverance, and honesty mixed with some good old-fashioned stubbornness make her an excellent protagonist, and even her fears and doubts stem from absolutely viable threads left behind from her development.

What’s so prevalent for the both of them is the loneliness and how it's presented. Applejack and Rarity clearly go down paths here that parallel that of reality, and this entire story is built around issues that are so real and so prevalent to the real world. It lets us feel with them, hurt with them, and the relatability really speaks as to how very very strong this all is.

Even the prose of this story is something special. The writing is concise, tight, and solid, and beyond that the author does a tremendous job of conveying emotion. From fear to sadness to heartache, every feeling ripples through the words and right into my heart. The technique is flawless, and I especially loved the use of text 

Broken

In

Lines

Like so to provide a sudden and impactful punch right when you least expect it. 

The story descriptions are real, vivid, visceral, and just absolutely perfect for what the story wants to accomplish. It sets the scenes in a beautiful, inspiring manner and is able to describe every little act and motion in an astronomical detail. It’s beautiful, it’s terrifying, it’s inspiring. 

Hands down this is one of the best fics I have ever read on this site. This review can not do it justice because it is something you have to experience for yourself: I don’t want to spoil any piece of this! 

Why aren’t you reading this fic? Go read it! 

I’ve told you as much already but your writing is really just on an absolute other plane of existence, and this is probably one of your best works yet. Fantastic work you absolute legend.

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Oh yes, I remember giving this story a read and a review myself. Definitely an excellent piece by mushroompone, with evidently much care put into it.