FimFiction Link - Short ID: 536884/the-last-days-of-the-heartspire
Published: Jun '23
When 40197702 said
>drugs and slavery and orgies
I dropped what I was doing to read this fic.
>one of the least-pony ponyfics I've read
That was my reaction, too.
If this didn't claim to be a ponyfic, I'd think it had a strong start. The story so far is solid and the writing is good. Good characterization, good descriptive language, good worldbuilding, good pacing. But there's hardly anything ponyish about it. Yes, there are unicorns and earth ponies (and pegasi get mentioned); and yes, the story's description promises Celestia; but he could just as well have invented three new fantasy races and the effect would have been the same. Might have been better, in fact, because readers are going to expect MLP fanfiction, and this is not that.
So far only chapter 1 is available. It's been a couple months since publication, and I don't see any evidence that he's working on more chapters. I also don't see any evidence that he's not. There's no way to know why there's been a delay, but it's possible he's decided the story has problems.
(The Rubik's cube reference bothers me, too. He doesn't capitalize "Rubik" so maybe he doesn't realize it's someone's name?)