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Anonymous /mlp/42347986#42376363
7/20/2025, 12:14:10 AM
Sometimes you come across an entry on the front page so strange that your mind cannot conjure any response other than to dive headfirst into it.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/580625/the-diplomat-with-the-shot-arm
6.3k words, part of the unusual "russian historical isekai" genre I've seen pieces of in memes, though I suppose this is actually a reverse isekai.

The story follows Alexander Griboyedov, who was...
>*googles his name*
A Russian diplomat to Persia in 1829, who was killed by a mob after granting asylum to 3 Armenians from the shah's harem, which was the tipping point to already high tensions caused by their country ceding land to Russia after being defeated.

In the fic, the eunuch he rescues mentions a curiosity among the shah's collection of exotic beasts: a mare unlike any from this world, with human-like intelligence. Griboyedov, though unsure if he believes this claim, decides that it's cruel for such a creature to reside in captivity, and resolves to free her; an act which becomes his undoing.

I'll say off the bat that this fic is very different from the usual horsewords I read, though I think anyone would get that impression just from first glance. It mainly follows the historical figure instead of Twilight, so most of the story centers on interactions between the human characters (is it right to call real people 'characters'?). Furthermore, it doesn't feel very pony-ish or crossover-y at all, written more in the style you might expect of an old tale of a man meeting a mystical creature, as if that creature being a cartoon character is entirely incidental. If not for a couple recognizable names, I wouldn't bat an eye if I'd found this in the yellowed pages of some old low fantasy anthology in a used bookstore. Something that's both a strength, and a weakness...

I wished Twilight had a bit more of a role in the story than she does. Although she's not entirely lacking in personality, she feels like more of a plot element than a true character, and I would've liked to see some more interaction between her and the protagonist that wasn't just about the situation at hand. The internet says that Griboyedov was a cultured man; a composer, poet, and playwright. There was certainly potential for some sort of interaction there, given Twilight's interest in literature. In the end, though, I still very much enjoyed the story, even if the pony aspect felt a bit secondary—perhaps this is merely an issue of expectations, given that while the English version was posted on fimfiction, the original Russian version is on a broader fanfiction site where readers are likely more open to more variety with these things.

The prose was pretty good, though I believe the author mentioned using MTL for a previous work, so perhaps that is at play here.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this story, even if I only clicked on it out of pure bewilderment. This was my first exposure to the Russian side of the fandom, so I guess it was a good first impression.