FimFiction Link - Short ID: 62331/to-change-a-heart
Published: Nov '12
To Change a Heart is a 26k word story. It's neither an adventure, nor really sad for the most part. I'd call it a drama. And not only is this story mistagged, the cover art lied to me, too.
I mean, look at it. The cover art makes you think this is going to be a Spikebloom fic where she gets turned into a dragon. And for the first chapter, that's where I thought we were heading. However, what the story REALLY is about is draconequus lore, and Luna and AJ performing a ritual. Also, failed grooming.
To make it short, there used to be dozen of draconequuses back in the day, but they all went beyond their mortal coil and became aspects of reality. Except for Discord, who remained physical to sow chaos and paid the price by getting stoned. One of them was Lord Chance, who was a godfather to Luna and Celestia. Now, Chane was in love with Luna, but she didn't return his feelings. He couldn't let go, but wasn't a dick about it. He ended up sacrificing himself to help defeat a foe who threatened Equestria.
The only thing he left back was a memento that would preserve his soul and would let him be reincarnated into a different being, with the idea Luna would choose a stallion for him to inhabit and they could finally be together. And that's how we circle back to that initial premise. The CMC are crusading around Canterlot with Spike trying to control them. They find the thingamajig, Bloom gets wrapped in its aura, Spike tries to help, but Bloom gets turned into a dragon and her pony body is sent to Lord Chance. Seems kind of a roundabout way to get things going, but at least we finally get to see that Spike/Apple Bloom action we were promised... for one scene. 80% of the remaining story is AJ and Luna going to see Chance to get Bloom's body back.
Honestly, I can't say the story we got was all that good either. Instead of feeling we're getting a glimpse of this grand pantheon of old gods, we just get some name drops and hints at what could be interesting lore. It's all so surface level I found it hard to be interested.
A shame, really. I think this may be the first Descendant fic I didn't really enjoy. I suppose it was bound to happen.
One thing I did like was how Luna referred to Applejack as "Honesty". I think it was a nice touch.