Fandom Classics Part 93: The Writing on the Wall

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After being at a low ebb for many (well, several, anyway) months, the spam's coming back with a vengeance.  Luckily, the capcha seems to be doing a good job of keeping the comments from showing up where any of you have to see them.  And more good news!  If I ever get behind on posts, one "Suzlie" has offered to contribute some content from her advice blog, which I haven't checked out yet because the last thing I want to do is fill my backup computer with malware while the good one's still getting fixed I'm just so busy, you know?, but which she assures me is endorsed by Brigham Young University and is full of stuff related to my blog--you know, like templates to create your own family tree!  It's good to know I've attracted such attentive, helpful followers as Suzlie here.  For now though, I'm still on top of my schedule, so feel free to click on down below the break to read my review of Horse Voice's The Writing on the Wall.

NOTE: This review contains ending spoilers. Don't worry, they're behind a spoiler tag you have to click to read... but since I can't figure out how to put multiple spoiler tags into a single post, that means that today's star rating is unspoiled. Just FYI!

Impressions before reading:  I've heard good things about this, but don't know a lot other than that it turns into a horror story before the end--I've been informed that pretty much anything beyond that would be spoiler-y.  I actually hope that isn't the case, because if so, that's going to make this review a real pain to write...

Zero-ish spoiler summary:  Daring Do is called to assist an archaeological expedition investigating some ancient ruins, deep in the desert.  This doesn't look like your run-of-the-mill ancient tomb, however: it's far older than any structure yet discovered, and it's covered in writing in many languages--all of which seem to be translations of the same passage.

Thoughts after reading:  Well, dang.  This one is gonna be hard to talk about.  I'll give it my best shot, though.

The story does indeed strike a traditional adventure tone most of the way through, before earning that "dark" tag at the end.  That's a lot of what makes this work, in the end: the twist is something that should come (to the characters) out of nowhere, and Horse voice does a good job of obscuring it, even as he drops hints throughout the fic.  If anything, those hints are too obscure; I actually had to look up a key phrase (which looked familiar to me, but which I couldn't immediately place the significance of) before everything clicked into place, and a glance at the comments shows I'm not the only one who missed or almost missed just what the reveal was.  Incidentally, if you still aren't sure what was going on at the end, head down into the comments; you won't have to go far to find one of the posts that explains it.

To move away from that part a bit, though, let's look at the early going.  As mentioned, the author does a nice job dropping the details in that will all click into place by the end without making them stick out too much, and the early going has an easy charm to it.  Daring and her fellow archaeologists only have a small amount of dialogue to establish their characters, but all of the named ponies are presented vividly for all that.  A mid-story interruption by Ahuizotol heightens the drama nicely, though it does seem almost perfunctory; I was expecting someone in camp or whom Daring had spoken to to have betrayed the camp, whether deliberately or inadvertently, and the fact that he just kind of... shows up, does make his presence feel a bit forced.

...Aaand we're back to the ending.  I'm going to have to break out the spoiler tag to say all that I want to, so up here I'll just say that the ending is surprising in a good way.  It's clever, and it makes you think a little bit.  It also creates a bit of a disconnect between what the reader knows and what the characters do insofar as their last actions are concerned, and I found that a bit distracting, but ultimately not to be a flaw so much as "something to consider."  If you want the ruin-the-story details, click below (and if not, don't!):

 So, I love the idea that the ponies have stumbled upon a nuclear waste pile; it's incongruously terrifying, striking a great discordant tone with the earlier going.  I also appreciate that it's not explicitly human-made; while that's the most obvious assumption (and the one I'm going with personally), there's no reason this story has to be read as taking place on a far-future Earth, which I suspect will make it an easier sell for some readers.

As for the "disconnect" bit I mentioned above: on the plus side, it actually makes the ending a little less bleak, knowing that Ahuizotol and his crew don't pose any threat to the rest of Equestria.  However, it does make the ponies' decision at the end--to stay and carve warnings in their modern languages--a bit more tragic: while the readers know that radiation poisoning is (sort of, depending on the time frame involved) cumulative, the ponies are still thinking of it in sick-or-not terms, and seem to be putting themselves at further risk without even realizing it.  Since this isn't touched on in the story, it feels almost like an unrealized tragedy.  That said, I feel like this ultimately says more about how we might want to label our toxic waste than anything else: while clarity to a maximum range of possible cultures is obviously key here, something about "it builds up the more you're around the rocks, but can't be passed from person to person like a sickness" might be worth including.

Star rating:  ★★★★☆

Although it might err at times on the side of over-subtlety, this is still a haunting piece of work.

Recommendation:  If you like dark twists, definitely check this story out.  And although it's not marked as such, this would be a great choice for fans of tragedy, generally.

Next time:  The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds, by RK_Striker_JK_5