Rarity's talk with her human counterpart is a good talk overall. It calls back to how the story used to be before their banishment to Tartarus; involved, intimate, emotional, visceral, & not so afraid to talk about dark issues. But because of developments from literally just last chapter, it rings hollow.

Through Celeste's back story & explanation, you revealed that all humans are actually older than they are and were somehow forced to become counterparts of ponies in Equestria. Aside from the glaring flaw that these people have been alive for far longer than the ponies they mirror, not to mention the complications of how they eventually became the current reflections of these specific ponies now, this means that EqG Rarity isn't really a human version of Rarity, but a person with her own history and life superimposed with Rarity's memories. So when it comes down to it, she has no business relating to Rarity for what she did, other than the fact that the fashionista's entire character & history were forced upon her. In fact, it could have been any random person, but it was this nameless girl that became EqG Rarity. The life this person lived before has been essentially suppressed for a thousand years, which makes the talk seem superficial and a lie in spite of being heartfelt.

Then again, this is double 'in spite' of being heartfelt, because you set up the POV from EqG Rarity's perspective. One of the downfalls of taking a 'pony bad, every other creature good' stance too literally. Instead of wanting to see Rarity improve & get better as a pony and character, and sympathizing with her thru her perspective & thoughts, you framed it as a saint pitying a sinner. This is virtue porn, like 'oh, I'm so glad I didn't make that irreversible mistake and forever blemish my morality.'

But the even more damning thing this tells me, is that the bigger picture is a sham.

In spite of all they've built, the humans of EqG aren't really their own people, because it wasn't their decision to become mirrors of an entire other race or characters. While they were discussing how to get back in the captain's room, there was an off mention of other cities and places other than the main EqG city. You just bring that up now, then proceed to immediately gloss over that.

What's more is that EqG Rarity mentions modern tech and development that they have which Equestrians don't. These settlers could have easily had an entirely different history than what we have in reality--maybe continue being Amercian Midwest settlers with farms and horses and wrangling, maybe offshoot into knights or sailors, even all of the above plus steampunk, but no. For convenience's sake, they just took a thousand years to wind up in the same place as us with the same tech and modern conveniences we do. It took us the crusades, witch hunts, many massacres & atrocities, 2 world wars, and so much history to get what we have--no. Midwest settlers just became EqG. And they have our modern conveniences, because they just do. All for the sake of making these poor accursed people resemble some TV kids' movie that Greg and Jason know about...

Damn, that is 'ants burning under a magnifying glass' levels of divine cruelty and comedy.

media.tenor.com/iSNoHzLCqY0AAAAM/the-nerve-bill-burr.gif

This is just glossing over a lot of details and nuances, and taking things for granted to an excessive degree. This makes the human side of the mirror feel even more hollow. Like I said yesterday, you are just hogtying multiple plot elements across the show & forcing them into agreement with far-fetched explan---these aren't even explanations. You're just sticking them in close proximity and hoping the jump of 'logic' is short enough for a short circuit to sorta make sense.

Sure, you can just say that's all background stuff that definitely happened. But I'm also sure you won't go there, because that's too far away from the what the story is about AND making fictional history takes a lot of effort. Heck, you were already straying away after the Nor'wester! You had our heartstrings for 200k words!... until you decided, 'Nah, I'm not doing that anymore. Let's start this bloated sidequest.'

“When the horn is first blown, it sends one faction from the world into another, but when it’s blown again, both worlds would be connected in some way. It’s very vague on what that means.”

So Celeste, Selene, & Kane are the ones who know what it is? Not the Atlanteans who had libraries and a Pinkie turned Twilight clone, but a school principal, her sister, and ex with memory issues know? You're being roughshod MacGyver with the details again. Celeste just looks very hard at it, her eyes glow, then she can suddenly read the ancient runes which conveniently happen to be the horn's user manual and history of use? That's bunk. Just as dumb as Greg finding it on the top of the mountain for him specifically to find.

Also, why would a bunch of school officials, some random cruise ship crew, and their exotic menagerie of stowaways get to decide the fate of two worlds? This is BS for the sake of world scale drama. Escalating stakes just for the heck of it. Imagine if two sides of some big cross regional family had two completely separate D&D sessions at the same time that somehow reunited them at the border then somehow decided North & South Korea should be reunited after somehow finding a magic button in hell. The sheer audacity and height of arrogance to think you know what's good for two entire worlds in a snap. The correct answer is that they don't use the horn, take whatever trinket they can offer to Mayor Ivory or any high enough governing official, and arrange a clandestine & undercover VIP escort for the otherworlders to return home thru the portal, transfiguration consequences be damned... then maybe let the future generation decide if they wanna reunite the two worlds after some serious dialog and rigorous consideration, and definitely after the ponies shape up and the world no longer is dog-piling on them.

...

Man, I wish we could rewind back to chapter 30.

Getting ambitious, this story is. Hmmmm.

She saw that the other Rarity seemed to have some pieces of her mane that were being damaged by the story.

Getting a bit meta here, are we?

And yeah, if the Gjallarhorn could somehow fuse both worlds with no advance warning to their inhabitants whatsoever, then that would be a recipe for literally world-shaking disaster and the responsible thing to do should be to not use it even in the face of no apparent alternatives. If it were me, mind, I’d still check out the high school portal first -- we don’t know for sure what side effects it may have until it’s actually tested, and getting there without raising too much of a stir should still be viable as long as we’re not talking about a straight-up undisguised march of everyone at once in broad daylight. And there’s a way to get in touch with Equestria’s Twilight via Sunset’s journal, so they’re already not wholly cut off anymore...

This is going to be a difficult thing to deal with.

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equestria girls had dire consequences on the fandom

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oh hi again.

IMO I don't think it was a complete negative. The way I see the show, and most fanfiction, it's a clean slate platform for writing & creativity. I loved the 1st half of the story and Sunset's strong disapproval from another dimension lol. But yeah, this story as it is currently isn't proving to be one of the shining examples of fanfics taking what's canon (even wet noodle canon) and making something great of it. Still love the 1st 200k though.

Rarity's self-reflection is good. Who better to set you straight than yourself, right? But, you lost me with the rest of the stuff. I thought Geprgy and the gang would be out of Taratus by now.

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On top of all the issues I pointed out that ch42/43 introduced into the story in a cherry-on-top fashion, EqG Rarity isn't even a human version of Rarity. None of them are. Apparently, they are all +1000y.o. American Midwest settlers like the people from Atlantis. Some of them became demons in form due to staying in Tartarus, while random people were cursed to have their memories, personalities, & outward physical details replaced and made to resemble characters from a kid show. Which means she isn't truly herself and and she has no business being the pony seamstress's moral foil, apart from random happenstance to becoming EqG Rarity for some reason.

And yeah, how did you get lost there? They've left Tartarus for some chapters now. After emerging out of some random island with a gateway into Tartarus and defending the cruise from the generic vine monster, Celeste/EqG Celestia tells them they just have to blow the horn to suddenly reunite the 2 worlds. Because if they cross the portal at the school to return to Equestria, its magic might change their forms. So, either take the less consequential route of transformation that's more a small personal inconvenience that can be fixed with magic, or be drastic and the upheave the entire balance of 2 worlds that have been disconnected from each other for +1000 years without giving their populations prior notice or prep work for unearned drama? I have a feeling what's going to happen, and it's not very inspiring...

Morb

Well....this took a turn into the "I shouldn't have enslaved humanity" style.

Tough choice.