Finally finished Murky Number Seven.
Great story. Lovable characters, strong plot, plenty of good narrative setups and payoffs. The one flaw is the author's style of writing - too many awkward or repetitive sentences and word choices. You could probably edit the word count down by half and not lose much.

Also I'm doubling down about Protege being the best character. Murky is innocent and endearing but at the end of the day he's still a runt who only wants freedom for himself and his friends. Protege had a VISION, he wanted to save and restore all of Equestria, and despite also being born a slave he had the smarts and fortitude to fight and earn his rank within Fillydelphia. He's the embodiment of any goodness and hope that could come from Red Eye's vision. And over the course of the story his vision is fucking crushed, both by Red Eye's slavers AND the slaves he fought for. All he gets is the hollow victory of 'freedom.' And he barely gets to savor it.

And on top of that he's the LONELIEST character in MN7; he gets no love interest and he has no friends except for Murky (for like one chapter). I don't think he even got a hug from anyone. It's painfully tragic. If there's any pony who deserved more exposition, more backstory, and a better ending, it's Protege.