Let me just get this out of the way. This is my favorite of your compositions this year and it's not even close. Definitely some of your best since survive the night. As time has gone on I feel like you're developing a better intuition for how and when to use the choir. Here it serves nothing besides truly elevating the piece and making it even more impactful. Monophonic choir can't really carry any section on its own, but put in this context it is truly incredible.
Each individual section is phenomenal. A genuine showcase of how much you've improved over time. Minor IV esque chords sprinkled throughout BUT changed enough to still have variety and bring that sense of longing. Really that and the instrumentation are the two main things going in that direction.
Issues begin to arise when you put them all together though. Namely that the order of sections is off in my eyes. I understand that with the sudden entry of the much more bombastic 2:24 section you're trying to depict the extinction event, but why does it have to be in the middle? Why not start us off with the event and then the rest of the song is the unicorn reminiscing? I'm sure there's enough creative juice to make that work too. Idk just feel like it would make a lil more sense and also help with the transition, since the sudden transition kinda does come out of nowhere.
Imma roleplay as an audio splicer for a sec. Splice out 2:24-3:38 and move it to the beginning. Then take 0:00-2:23 and move it to right after that first section before transitioning into the piano at 3:38 and leave the rest of the piece alone.To make that work you'll have to break up the main melody a bit more and add some variation, but I think it could work pretty swimmingly.
How I wish I could splice out Indiana out of existence. That song is on par with adventures of a lost clown. They even have similar vibes.
Anyway my favorite part is 3:14 easily. It genuinely feels like you've been transported into the artwork. I can't get over how awesome that and the following section are. Made me tear up a little and I've never met this poor unicorn.
Edit: the transition into the extinction event kinda made it feel like the event was happening at the moment rather than a flashback because of the suddenness. So maybe I just need to adjust my head canon. The first half is the unicorn frolicking with its other unicorn friends and reflecting on the good times. The extinction event happens, then the unicorn is reminiscing. This keeps the story and upholds the more practical reasons for keeping it in the middle that I didn’t originally consider lol.