Ponyfic Roundup 414: Spotlight on Essenza di Amore

Read it Later story count: 91 (+3)

You'll doubtless already have noticed that this is the trailed Spotlight of Cerulean Voice's Essenza di Amore. That's because Real Life™ has ceased to get in the way quite so much over the past week, and I've therefore had time to finish writing this blog post. As such, let's have a bit less waffle than sometimes and let's get on with the job!

Essenza di Amore by Cerulean Voice
Cadance and Other [and a bunch of OCs]
G4 AU; Adventure/Drama; 54k words; Nov 2014–Jan 2015; Teen

Like Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was not born into her royal title. Follow a younger Cadance along the path to ascension, and her discovery of the true essence of love.

This RCL-inducted fic takes the fragments of Cadance's backstory we were given in Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, and expands them into something much more detailed. It's certainly an impressive achievement to make this work, and for the most part it does. The adopted filly Cadance protagonist, not known by that name yet, lives a region unknown to mainstream Equestria. After some secene-setting and a dramatic event from the past early on, the fic settles down and I found it fairly slow for a while, albeit not boring. However, a twist about a third of the way through (one which readers of the aforementioned book may see coming) also sees the story pick up the pace considerably. From then on it's an exciting adventure in which a very familiar face turns out to be the enemy. (I can see why this character is not tagged!) Storytelling is central to the fic, fittingly enough for a story inspired by a book. I'm not a big fan of the OC names (especially having a Stamska and a Samanka, which is occasionally confusing) but once the likes of "Kaviyayu" cease to grate they do their job. Apparently the author also loosely based this on a Nightwish album, but that's of no interest to me. The story is, and as long as you have patience during that early slow section, I think you'll find this rewarding. ★★★★

Come past the page break for more, spoiler-filled, discussion of this story.

Since I whinged gently about them a minute ago, let's start with the names. At first these really put me off, coming across like names in one of those stories whose authors really, really want FiM to be anime. I never really loved the likes of Kaviyayu and Kartanya as names, regardless of how hard the author tries to make me care with etymological notes about Hindi at the end of chapters. I get that their region is long sealed off from the rest of Equestria, but I still would have preferred the names to be more like you'd expect from Equestrian ponies. Fortunately the story as a whole is strong enough to overcome this.

Okay, on to something I really liked, and that was how Chrysalis was used. Having her trapped inside the Crystal Pendant was a nice touch, and I very much enjoyed her character in the story. She was deliciously evil, and also (not something every fic does well) clever with it, without being unbeatable. One little moment that was very satisfying was her little battle of wits with Kaviyayu about draining the other ponies' love. Chrysalis pointed out that she had no interest in ponies without love, and then Kavi triumphed by threatening to drown herself and make everypony else miserable. That was clever.

As I said in the main paragraph above the break, storytelling is at the heart of Essenza di Amore, and even more so than it at first appears. Celestia, for example, is only known as a legendary Sun Goddess to the forest ponies, the Princess herself tells a story to Kavi in that strange blue place (I assume the same one where we saw Twilight in "Magical Mystery Cure"), and the whole fic is framed by teenage Cadance telling a bedtime story to filly Twilight. Not to mention the fact that this sees the very start of Cadance and Shining Armor's love story, too. In this fic, stories are everywhere.

I mentioned Celestia, and for the most part I liked her characterisation here. Given when this story is set, it was appropriate that there was sadness in her as well as kindness and wisdom and all the rest. When she reminded her little ponies to appreciate the night as well as the day, I could almost hear "Lullaby for a Princess" playing in my head. I was never really clear why only such a drastic move as maintaining a magical barrier around Zahara for centuries was appropriate, despite the very brief explanation of this late in the story. I wish Celestia had been able to find something a little less extreme there.

Prismia was perhaps slightly underwhelming. As "Eva" she was a clever and manipulative villain, and it was genuinely unsettling to see how she managed to set pony against pony even within Kavi's tribe. Although she is canon (in Crystal Heart Spell, at least) there didn't seem to be a whole lot of depth to her, and after her relinquishing of the Pendant and turning to the light, she became a rather less interesting character who didn't stick in my memory all that much. Perhaps that's just that she had the misfortune to share the stage with Chrysalis, one of the greatest of all Pony antagonists.

And finally, there's Kaviyayu herself, the future Princess Cadance. The tragedy that brought her to her adoptive family, the way in which as a pegasus she was treated as something different and special rather than shunned as an outcast, her mostly loving relationship with her new relatives... all of these made her the sympathetic heroine that Cadance should be. Her extraordinary powers and gradual realisation of the true nature of love were nicely written, and I'm sure as an adult mare she has still not forgotten the tragic story of the Windigoes that Celestia related to her. (A nice little nod to Princess Platinum, too.)

A few other bits and bobs to note... the very brief mention of Trixie's origins was great, and indeed powerful. Technically the writing was fine, barring a very few typos ("reigns" for "reins" stood out). Apparently Artax's name is from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh. The Canterlot Rehabilitation Clinic for Wayward Ponies' name reminded me of the Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Boys and Girls. Finally: there are a whole bunch of links to music and pictures in the A/Ns. They're not necessary, fortunately for those of us who read fics offline, but they add some atmosphere.

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Next week, I hope that stories reviewed will include TheSlorg's Pinkie Pie and human story Imaginary.