Fanfiction Review: Infallible

It's been quite a while, but the reviews have returned. And let's get it started in here with the Pegasus Rescue Brigade's offering, Infallible.

SYNOPSIS:

Celestia is perfect. Everything she does ends up going off without a hitch, her beauty is never tarnished, and as the title says, she is completely infallible. And she hates it with every breath that passes through her body. So one Harmony Day, she decides to try her hoof at failing something.

REVIEW:

The core concept of “Infallible” is the idea of infallibility itself. In modern practice, the word merely means that one knows the truth with absolute certainty; that is, the person's choices are always right and you would do good to follow them. This...does not extend to Celestia within the canon, so the story opts for another route to make the title work. Namely, Celestia does make mistakes, but something will always happen that'll turn that failure into a success, to the point where it seems like the universe restructures itself any time she says or does something in order to ensure she's always right. Admittedly, I did get hung up on the title a bit, but it was never a huge issue.

That's really all there is to the story. Celestia tries numerous times to fail at something, only to have things right themselves in an infuriatingly convenient way. It's a simple premise, but the story has quite a bit of fun with it, and manages to pull it off without much difficulty. The comedy is further expanded upon by Celestia and Luna themselves, who both take turns snarking over the issue at hand, as well as the older Alicorn's increasing psychotic desperation to botch something. They even take time to comment on one of the old chestnuts this kind of story likes to pull, and why it makes no sense when you actually think about it in this situation.

As the Comedy tag implies, this story is pure comedy from beginning to end, and it works very well. If there is an issue, it's that the story tends to get a bit tell-y, especially from the parade onwards, but it works in a story like this. There's not much in the way of characters, with Celestia being the focus and Luna only appearing at the beginning and end, but both are able to carry the story on their own. Plus, some of the ways Celestia fails at failing are rather inventive in their contrivance, while also leaving room for speculation that Celestia isn't infallible, but rather just happened to have a very nice string of luck all day.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Infallible isn't the story you turn to for deep thoughts or messages, but if you want a laugh, this is definitely a great one. It's also rather short, clocking in at just over three thousand words, and moves at the right speed so that it doesn't even feel that long. If you haven't taken the time to check this one out yet, then do yourself a favor and fire it up.