EMight Solve a Mystery, or Rewrite History...

• MLP: FiM
• Comedy
• Drama

Stranded on the moon thanks to her own recklessness, Della Duck is nearly at the end of her rope. But it madness setting in, or is she not as alone as she thought she was...?

• Crossover
• Alt. Universe
• Luna
• Nightmare Moon

The Bricklayer · 6.2k words  ·  289  7 · 4.6k views

"So, it's been a few months. I haven't heard back from anyone. I need to find some other way to call for help..."

Stranded on the moon thanks to her own recklessness, Della Duck is nearly at the end of her rope. But no matter, she will find a way back home to her boys! Oh, and her brother as well! ...wait, who's that mysterious figure watching her?

Is it madness setting in, or is she not as alone as she thought she was...?

Or where instead of a civilization, Della finds herself alone together with a fallen Princess...

Opening remarks

Might Solve a Mystery, or Rewrite History… is a comedy drama by The Bricklayer (Brick) that is a crossover with Ducktales. The story is focused around Della Duck and Princess Luna, which are two of my favourite characters.

I love Ducktales, and I look forward to seeing what Brick has done with the character in this short romp. Onward!

Technical

Some minor technical issues found with period/exclamation point placement, missing commas, and spacing around dashes. Solid writing overall. 

8.5/10

Character

The two main characters in this story are Della Duck and Princess Luna. Both are very well written and feel like their canon counterparts. 

Starting with Della Duck, she feels exactly as she does in canon. Her voice rings clearly in every piece of dialogue she speaks and feels exactly like the character based on her actions. She’s a get’er done type, an optimist, and adventurous. All of these traits ring through over the course of the story and paint a vivid picture of her personality. Her thoughts, how she sees everything around her, and her mannerisms are beautifully written in the text. A near perfect representation of Della from the show. 

Princess Luna is also wonderfully written. She’s just the right level of remorseful, so as to acknowledge her feelings of regret over her prior actions and not too much to take away the comedic feel of the piece. She’s an enjoyable character to read and close to what I’ve seen in canon. 

Both characters bounce off each other perfectly and compliment each other in such a way that I wish these two had interacted properly over the course of either of their shows. Their dialogue and interactions are a delight to read.

That all being said, I believe Nightmare Moon would have been better off not being included in this story. I feel their short appearance within the fic detracts from the initial rapport between Della and Luna and they play such a minor role overall that I think it would have been better to have simply changed Luna’s background to instead either have her own actions be the cause of the prior mishaps, or simply be a separate transformation. 

Overall, Della and Luna are excellent matches to their canon counterparts and make me yearn for more interactions between the two of them.  

9/10

Concept

This concept is super interesting. The rapport between these two characters is great and the idea of them having met each other is such a novel concept. Both properties compliment each other well, and by extension these characters. 

Both characters are different from each other, but similar in that they face regrets from their past actions that have directly led to their current predicaments. They bond and bounce off of each other in such a believable way and it’s a treat to see. 

I have also seen very few Ducktales and MLP crossovers before and even less that were of high quality as this one. 

The concept feels wholly original, the execution enjoyable, and the theming intriguing. Full Marks.  

10/10

Vibe

Firstly, the prose is stellar work. Brick’s writing feels very personable and intimate to the character’s thoughts. Every sentence is written to evoke the perspective of Della or Luna throughout the piece and makes a very cozy type feel to the proceedings. 

Dialogue is another strong suit. It leaks personality and the minor quirks of the character’s speech patterns. I felt that some of the flow between lines was a bit off. Specifically, some of the connecting pieces felt either abrupt when it switched over or disjointed from the next topic of conversation. Overall, an absolute delight to read. 

The pacing for the first two thirds of the fic is perfect. It was just fast enough not to bore the reader and just slow enough to get the full effect of both character’s impacts through the text. However, roughly around when the Moon Mites first appear, the story seems to pick up the pace and then rush to completion. I think it would have been better if either the following scenes were extended slightly to slow down the story or it was wrapped up with a heartfelt ending shortly after the scene. 

Another note is the transitions between story and character thoughts. The switch to the internal monologues of both characters feel abrupt and don’t ease the character into them. They fit, but they don’t quite flow into the text as well as they should. Mainly a minor gripe. 

The emotional crux of the story, the blossoming supportive friendship between Della and Luna is executed wonderfully, however, both of the character’s regrets feel resolved unsatisfactorily. This is specifically in regards to the mending of their friendship. Della’s side feels fine, bouncing back so fast is built into her character, but Luna felt rushed. 

Luna seemed to waffle the most over the course of the story, resolving her issue with Nightmare Moon very fast, and also getting herself out of her funk over Della much too fast. Her mental state seemed to flip on a dime in some cases, which made her emotional journey over the course of the story somewhat jarring. I believe some more time developing her struggle or handling her emotional baggage would have addressed these issues. 

That being said, this is also a comedy, so some quickness on emotional resolution can be forgiven.

Finally, to wrap things off, I absolutely love Della and Luna’s bonding point. I think it’s so appropriate that Luna takes to it as much as Della and they both live by those rules. It was absolutely an internal squee moment for me and well worth the read just for that.

Overall, the story is a banger with a cozy vibe and stellar character work. 

8/10

Closing Thoughts

Might Solve a Mystery, or Rewrite History… is a delightful fic to read. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time. I highly recommend it for its excellent character work and delightful interactions between Della and Luna.  

For those wondering, no, you do not need to have watched Ducktales to be able to enjoy this fic. The author did a good job of filling in any necessary blanks and can be read without that prerequisite knowledge. 

All that being said, I give this the full otter recommendation. 

8.8/10

<For archive purposes: 8.8/10>

Personal Score

I loved this. Della Duck was on point and her interactions with Luna were so good. So glad I read this one. 

9/10

7578021
Was in a bit of a writing slump at the time, and then I saw that ART. I knew I had to do something with it.