FimFiction Link - Short ID: 235758/the-element-of-surprise
Published: Dec '14
I'm not really a fan of most "bad future" fanfics. A typical "bad future" fanfic has two ways to go: straight full-on depression or full-on depression with a slight glimmer of hope at the end, and the glimmer of hope rarely compensates for reading through several pages' worth of sad violin in literary form.
This fanfic, however, might be the best feels-fic I have ever read. The story is rather straightforward: it's a "Twilight realizes she will outlive her friends" kind of plot, which is nothing special in itself, except that it comes with a mystery element, and waiting for the mystery to resolve is the main attraction here. Not that the lead-up to it is bad: everything before the big bang reads like a dark parable of sorts, the sadness is not overbearing, however, and unlike what I described above, the glimmer of hope actually goes through the whole story, preventing the "too dark, didn't care" reaction.
I think the payoff is really good. Not sure how easily someone else could predict it, but I sure couldn't. Could it be perhaps explained in slightly more detail? Probably. Does it take away from the impact? Not at all. Producing feels like this in a short story is hard, but the tone is perfect here.
Go read it.
I'm not really a fan of most "bad future" fanfics. A typical "bad future" fanfic has two ways to go: straight full-on depression or full-on depression with a slight glimmer of hope at the end, and the glimmer of hope rarely compensates for reading through several pages' worth of sad violin in literary form.
This fanfic, however, might be the best feels-fic I have ever read. The story is rather straightforward: it's a "Twilight realizes she will outlive her friends" kind of plot, which is nothing special in itself, except that it comes with a mystery element, and waiting for the mystery to resolve is the main attraction here. Not that the lead-up to it is bad: everything before the big bang reads like a dark parable of sorts, the sadness is not overbearing, however, and unlike what I described above, the glimmer of hope actually goes through the whole story, preventing the "too dark, didn't care" reaction.
I think the payoff is really good. Not sure how easily someone else could predict it, but I sure couldn't. Could it be perhaps explained in slightly more detail? Probably. Does it take away from the impact? Not at all. Producing feels like this in a short story is hard, but the tone is perfect here.
Go read it.