Fanfiction Review: Paradise

Well, it's Wednesday, and it's time for another blog post. So let's look at SlyWit's classic Paradise.

SYNOPSIS:

Long ago, a herd of Earth Ponies were blessed with two foals, sisters both: Celestia and Luna. In that time, the three races lived in isolation from each other, mistrusting and hating anypony but their own, and that has nothing on the various predators that hunt and kill the ponies. In this harsh world, however, the two sisters will begin to undergo a startling metamorphosis...

REVIEW:

First things first, Paradise is unfinished. It's been in production for years, and is updated at a snail's pace. Still, the seventeen chapters that are available can be reviewed, and they alone are worth plunging into.

Paradise is a relic of an older fandom, when Celestia and Luna were full-blown deities from ancient times, but unlike a lot of other stories from this same time period, canon hasn't totally destroyed the story. The way the tribes don't trust each other is echoed in “Hearth's Warming Eve,” and Celestia and Luna slowly turning into Alicorns is reinforced in a way through “Magical Mystery Cure.” About the only thing the story doesn't address is Discord, and SlyWit still plans to address him in time.

As for the story itself, what makes it work so wonderfully is the imagination placed into ancient Equestria and the characters of Celestia and Luna themselves. The world presented here is a dangerous realm, full of danger around every corner. One of the early chapters poignantly details how Celestia lost her first and best friend, and her mother consoles her by telling how she lost her best friend, too. The unicorns are basically elves, living with their noses in the air and wanting nothing to do with anypony else. And the pegasi...are pegasi. Everything in this world is much harsher and colder, where one unlucky step might end with you getting bitten by a snake or torn into by a griffin.

And yet, the story never becomes purely morbid. For as harsh as the world here is presented, there is always an undercurrent of hope and joy, a sense that life will go on for all these ponies, and that makes the story truly alive. Far too many times, an author will be so focused on how dismal and hopeless things are that they forget that the world truly isn't a big ball of hopelessness, and that even in the darkest of times, a small light will always be shining. The world has a long way to go before it reaches what we see in the show, but we see the first steps throughout the story.

As for Celestia and Luna, the two are wonderful throughout the story. Their relationship is well-realized, and the way they interact with the world around them and the different ponies make them some of the very best versions of the characters I've seen so far. And the way they gradually change and become Alicorns gives the story a sense of rising from the mundane to the fantastic. In many ways, it feels like a much more intricately-realized interpretation of what “Magical Mystery Cure” was going for, with the two being thrown into a new situation and having to adjust.

If there is a flaw I noticed with the story, it's that things kind of meander about throughout. There's no real set objective for the ponies; they're more or less just going from one race to the next, learning about magic and flying and having adventures along the way.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

My issues with the story's pacing aside, this is a wonderful tale that I highly recommend. It's still not finished, but with its slow updating speed there's plenty of time to catch up. If you want a unique, engaging take on Celestia and Luna's origins, then this is the story to read.