Not-quite-false advertising in,
>/FSBC/

Is it still shipbait when the official statement confirms that there will be no shipping whatsoever?
We got the bug into the cave! Hooray! Even if it's by a technicality, the fic avoids the shame of Shining in a Minor. More seriously, I just don't have too much to say about the story. As expected, it ticked off all the boxes it seemed to approach in week 1, resolved its conflicts in a decent way, fired off all of its Chekhov's guns, and even tumbled into an ending that almost wasn't too bad. All the while, it was being clearly puppeteered by the author, but at least there seemed to be some kind of a plan, and it was never a chore to read. Almost. But that's just repeating week 1 discussion, for the most part.
So, instead, I'll nitpick some things that seemed particularly weird. For one thing, the fic continues with telling the story in a way that falls apart under logical scrutiny, but that's OK—we already knew that. But by far the weirdest thing about this changeling redemption story is how it condemns them so much more than the show! This Thorax will be leading Equestria's SS into the hive in a few years, as one of the "good ones". It's crazy that the moral of the story was, "No, they're irredeemable". WTF? It's even crazier when considering the way the fic tries to retrofit itself into FiM's story. First it bends itself backwards to maintain some kind of compatibility with ACW, but then continues from that with "and Thorax tried, but no changelings ever bought into the pony ideals of harmony and being good", before finally making him more or less give up on his species.

It is even more strange due to the attempts to keep the fic's overall atmosphere and content close-ish to the canon show. Despite the threat of starvation and bug death penalties, nothing too bad happens. The technical side of things continued to be marred with the occasional errors and weird phrasing/word choices, but it's not too distracting. It gets a bit too emotionally dramatic near the end for me.
Twilight... doesn't do much. All she does this week is putting herself in danger at Thorax's call, only to later tearfully praise him for rescuing her. It's a Thorax fix through and through. Pharynx is the second main character, if anything. I don't think he's mischaracterized here, but I do think that all of the spotlight he gets on his and Thorax's relationship makes him look ridiculously soft. Oh, right, and Chryssie shows up for two scenes but then somehow ends up being somewhat passive, only doing what the plot demands of her. In short, none of the characters are *bad*, but I don't think you can praise any but Thorax as good—which is fair enough in a Thoraxfic, I suppose.

My one critique regarding the plot was the length of the "epilogue" section. Basically everything after he leaves Twilight takes ~75% pages too many. The fic really should've been finished in 10, not 40, pages.
This is the most "it's fine" fic I have ever read.