>>42448106
(2/2)
That's not to say ponies are just set dressing here! The shift to more and more Celestia was a welcome one as well. The fic delves into worlbuilding for the setting's past and present, most of which is at least decent, though some points are... unconventional, to say the least. I'm still not a fan of Equestria that deviates from the show—especially since this is done here just so Voltaire's ideas can shine, as he couldn't be a champion in anything close to "the best of all possible worlds"—however having the full picture presents this as a consistent, well thought-out setting, and I cannot criticize it in any way. For a pre-show story, the way it ties to FiM is handled well, and the story's attempt at justifying and connecting various events in the show is among the more competent ones I've seen. I also really like this Celestia. If I were more critical of the story, I'd wonder if she's been nerfed for Voltaire's benefit, but at no point did she feel OOC, and that is usually a great sign of a story daring to go for pre-show character development of such a monumental character. Her friendship with Voltaire was also really nice to read about; I know that the fic wanted to stay accurate to real world history, but I'd have preferred if they were allowed to keep in touch afterwards. I liked Blue Belle and the other unicorns, too. There wasn't much done with them (and I expected more of Blue Belle, to be honest, but I won't go for the obvious joke) and this post is already getting long so I won't say more.

Oh, right: The fic gets -1 point for calling a group of ponies "men" at one point, but +1 point for making them get drunk on salt (but not Voltaire).
And then there was the finale. I didn't really like it too much. I will say that it makes thematic sense. Of course the villain for Celestia and Voltaire to deal with has to be both a rogue god and a degenerated religious organizations! Well, some of the parallels were in poor taste, imo, and the story's "serious" parts were in general among the weaker portions. Much more ideologically-tinted, too, though the author did everything he could to make Voltaire the good guy. Going by that A/N, it's wild that this fic was originally published under the E rating. However! I don't think the ending was horrible, just kind of mediocre, and the post-finale parts returned to the enjoyable quasi-SoL with Celly and Anon. Riding Celestia, though, wtf. In general it was admittedly kind of indulgent in that exact AiE fashion—the time-fixing section especially—but I think this is what that genre could be like if its authors and readers both didn't suck [each other off].
I didn't read the acknowledgements section, so maybe I missed something there, but I leave this fic with a pretty high general impression of it. Maybe I'm too much of a HiE hater to add it to favorites, but I wouldn't blame anyone for doing it. Is this the fabled "good HiE" we've been looking for? Maybe?

[Voting]
Later!