FimFiction Link - Short ID: 482610/worlds-apart-the-chosen-of-the-prognosticus
Published: Nov '20 — Apr '22
Worlds apart is a 261k word crossover fic featuring characters and locals from a multitude of franchises. The core plot is based off of that of super paper Mario. where a group of prophesied hero’s must travel to different worlds in order to obtain eight ancient artifacts called the pure hearts. In order to stop an all consuming void created by a man called count black. Made using knowledge from a book called the dark prognosticus, the void will obliterating all of existence if the hero’s don’t stop it. though with several changes to the main storyline and background lore. the most major change being that the worlds the pure hearts reside in are that of the crossover franchises, list provided in the story description.
I should probably preface that I’m definitely biased toward my appraisal of this story, given my love for both MLP and SPM, and the general lack of SPM fan content, the existence of such a longfic felt like a dream come true to me. Like the universe had conspired to create a fic that fit exactly to my niche interests. I definitely read this story with rose tinted glasses on. And with that out of the way…
This story is only a 5/10. 6/10 for me because of my investment in the franchises. If you don’t like crossover it’s probably not worth your time. Just getting that out of the way so that you don’t have to scroll a gorillion words to get to the point.
On the whole I did enjoy my time with the story and what it had to offer. The actual adventure itself kept be engaged throughout the story. Being tightly paced and engaging throughout. With the explorations of the different franchises worlds being fun to go through. Actions good, comedy is good, most things are all around not great but not terrible either.
The interactions between the main group of hero’s and any major secondary characters are for the most part executed well, and are all, to my knowledge, mostly kept on point with their characterization. Twilight and her motley crew of hero’s all bounce off each other well. though they are a bit simplistically written. for the rest of the minor characters it was a mixed bag as to weather or not how they acted or what they did was in character or compelling. I expected the main six to have more prominent roles but they were largely relegated to inter arc snippets as they were trapped in blocks castle. rarity turned full /k/ommando during that time and was the only one the story get any real time on. which was both funny and fucking retarded.
1/2
As I said before, the author made several changes to the background lore and major events in the story besides just the whole crossover thing. And sadly a good amount of it isn’t executed well. With said changes feeling like they water down the impact the story would have otherwise had. though that vibe I was going for when I delved into this fic and the effectiveness of the core super paper Mario story still shine through and hit you in the feels when it counts.
There’s a quite a few times in the story where shit just feel dissatisfying with how they play out. Things happening off screen, not being mentioned, characters acting in a way that’s convenient for the plot, or information and lore not being delivered in pieces and implied shit in a way that’s kinda irksome to put together. One being with how characters just to easily accept what the void is and what’s happening. And then just going along and working together in the hub world Flipside where the pure hearts need to be taken to go to the next world.
Though there’s a moment near the very end that I genuinely hate. The only time I think I’ve ever been able to say that about a fic. It made be in disbelief and bitterness when I read it. It just absolutely shits on everything that twilight as a character stands for. she fell in love with data from Star Trek and decided to live with him in and rule over flipside and a bunch of randos since the portals to the other worlds were closing. Leaving her friends behind. Except for rarity because she can’t go back to fashion because muh edge shit. Twilight strait up said that she didn’t regret her choice or feel any guilt or shame. God it was fucking awful to get to the end of the journey only for it to drop the ball so unbelievably hard.