FimFiction Link - Short ID: 18087/the-best-night-ever
Published: Mar '12
To cut a long story short (not that TBNE is terribly long), I'm pleased to inform everyone that this is one of the few pony "classics" that aged very gracefully and are still worth a read over a decade later.
So yeah, it's a Groundhog Day fic, it even says so on the cover. But it's a Groundhog Day fic done right. Every chapter serves a purpose in moving the plot forward, and you won't find any pointless power level jerk off filler that at one point must've been so common, that the writer felt compelled to mention it in the author's note.
Ultimately it's a pretty simple fic. Chapter one outlines the two problems that need to be resolved (one more obvious to the characters themselves than the other), and the rest of the fic follows Blueblood's character growth as he struggles to break the loop forcing him to endlessly relieve the Grand Galloping Gala day. It's written pretty well and -- more importantly -- the story approaches the goals it set with every chapter.
The characters are written well. I mean, it's mostly Blueblood, but the Princesses and the Mane6 are quite good in their scenes, too. You might be put off by having Blueblood star as the main character, but the author managed to make it work. I remember that, a decade ago, this was the fic that convinced me that a good enough execution of a solid idea can find potential in (almost?) any character without having to write them OOC.
I have to say though, the fic has more than a couple... surprising errors. Especially since the description claims that it was edited later on. It's not something that majorly impacted my enjoyment, it's just pretty odd. It doesn't have any issues with the prose
In summary, I don't really have too much to say about it, other than second the recommendation of seemingly every anon who has read it in the past. It's a great version of a solid -- albeit not original -- idea. A very fun read, too. That matters a lot, as some of the previous fimfic book club fics proved. Maybe nostalgia is somewhat influencing my opinion, but a relatively simple fic that's just the best of its kind deserves a very high grade. One could even say that it's the best of the early fandom popular fics, not that it has much of a strong competition there.
Definitely worth a read, and not just for the sake of it being a "classic". 9/10.
A good story, especially if you're into time loops like me. Probably the best exploration of Blueblood's character I read so far (yes, I did read Prince Blueblood Rules Equestria). I would say that the timelooping mechanism might be a little underused, as it doesn't take as much place in the story as it could have imo. Well, it's there from the beginning to the end, but somehow feels ignored by the narration most of the time.