#genie twilight | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

geniequestria · 2 years

Text

Twilight lays prone on her bed, still so upset over everything that’s come to pass over the past few days. Her face is about buried in her pillow, by now it was pretty damp from the Princesses’ tears.

This had to be the most bleak situation Twilight’s ever found herself in. And unlike any previous situation where it seemed like all is lost. There was no easy fix that was just moments away from saving the day. Starlight is smarter then either Discord or Chrysalis were at the time of their defeats, there was no object like the Crystal Heart or locked box to unlock that was central to defeating Sombra and Tirek respectively. And the first time they defeated Starlight wasn't exactly giving any of the answers Twilight needs either. For everything that let them defeat Starlight back in Our Town has now been turned on its head.

Just thinking about the first time they faced Starlight doesn’t make Twilight feel any better anyhow for a few other reasons. As she now realizes, maybe she should have arrested Starlight when she had the chance. It was a bold move to let Starlight go, in hopes she’d reflect and come out a better pony. Only for Starlight to take advantage of Twilight’s mercy and plot her next move: Which ended up being the fateful confrontation they had in the archives while Equestria was already on pins and needles from the Storm King’s invasion where this whole mess started.

Now indirectly because of her inaction, the entirety of Our Town, the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadence, her brother, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and even Fluttershy have gotten drawn into vessels too. Everything has snowballed into an increasingly unstoppable force ever since her snap decision to use the lamp on Starlight in the archives, and the weight of her guilt was becoming too much to bear.

Not helping was the most recent event, where now none other than Mage Meadowbrook was genified. And her historic idol, Starswirl the Bearded scolded her harshly for reasons that even she had to admit had some truth to them at this point.

As she sobs some more, she hears a knock on her door. She raises her head up, visible tears streaming from her face. “T-t-t-the d-d-door i-i-is o-open…” Although she went off on her own, she didn’t lock any doors on the way in. As she very much needs some comfort from her friends.

Soon, every one of her pony friends for the exception of Fluttershy walk in. Though they are also accompanied by someone Twilight knows very well. “…Twilight?” A quite familiar young voice rings through Twilight’s ears.

“Spike?!” Although her face still ridden with tears she hops off her bed to see her #1 assistant. As it’s been a good couple of days since she’s actually seen him. The last she saw him was most certainly before any of this genie situation started. “Spike, where have you been?! I know I’ve been preoccupied with everything going on… but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t worried sick about you!”

Spike shrugged “Relax, Twilight. I was in Baltimare for the Comic book convention. You bought tickets for me in advance a little while ago for my effort to fill in while you were too sleepy in Canterlot, remember? It just so happened that… the date fell on some pretty troubling current events…

“It most certainly did! Why didn’t they cancel with the news of an impending invasion?!” Twilight worrisomely pointed out

“Well yeah, they certainly had a talk about canceling it. But right as the Princesses were kidnapped, the whole convention was practically ready to go. And so much funding went into this previously that it was hard to really not do the convention at this point.

And Baltimare was on the whole other side of the country from where the invasion was set to begin. So there was talk that even in the worst case scenario where the invasion got all the way there. Then the convention certainly would have ended before… Equestria completely fell to the Storm King… yeah… there were quite a number of ponies who were afraid this convention was going to be the last chance to have fun before we were all enslaved…” Spike crossed his arms though he perked up soon after “I got the news from the others here that the Storm King is no longer a threat! Which sounded like great news… but then I heard something worse has come up…”

“No kidding… but I’m glad you’re ok, Spike… though wait a moment… what about the whole younger ponies that are now full-grown thing? You seem unaffected, but then again… I guess you aren’t a pony” Twilight observed a bit obviously.

“Oh yeah… that was really weird when suddenly all the kids at the convention became adults… I got the gist from the others about what caused that too just now… but back at the convention where no pony knew what happened it was enough to pretty much abruptly end the convention. And that’s why I’m back here now, I still had fun though. There was enough time to at least see the Power Ponies creators for instance!” Spike put his hands on his hip and smiled.

“Well… I’m relieved that you’ve at least had some good days… it’s been nothing like that on my end…” Twilight lowered her head and sniffed.

“So I’ve heard, Starlight Glimmer has returned and now she’s an all-powerful genie, and she’s been transforming ponies into genies that for the most part follow her orders now… correct?” Spike telling the core of it all

“Yeah… that’s all true, Spike… but…” Twilight sits down and turns her back, as her eyes fill with tears again “It’s also all my fault!” She starts sobbing heavily again, as her friends and Spike quickly gather around her to comfort her.

“Now, now Twi… ya shouldn’t put all the blame on ya shoulders like that… not only ain’t it healthy, but it ain’t true. Y’all are not the one forcing ponies into bottles against their will…” Applejack tried to assure the Princess.

Twilight shakes her head “Unfortunately… that’s not entirely true, Applejack… for I pretty much did that to Starlight in the first place…”

Rainbow assists “But you didn’t do that on purpose! You shouldn’t let that bearded jerk get to you! You thought it’d do something else then it actually did, if you had known beforehand tha-“

Twilight interrupts “That’s just it, Rainbow Dash! Starswirl wasn’t entirely wrong about me… I should have not bothered touching any of the artifacts in there at all! There’s a reason items like Catrina’s Lamp were in the archives in the first place… they were never intended to be used again! Yet, I still went for it… Starlight really made her move at the absolute worst time… all of Equestria was depending on me after the Storm King kidnapped Princess Celestia and Luna…

I really didn’t want to have to try to deal with both the Storm King and Starlight at the same time… so I used the lamp in hopes of at least quickly shutting her up and/or make her powerless… but I didn’t realize I was creating a threat more dangerous than the Storm King ever could have been!

And now because of my failure to take Starlight to justice before her return, and rushing for a solution at the archives… Trixie… my brother… Cadence and the rest of the Crystal Empire… Princesses Celestia and Luna… and who knows how many more have been transformed by now… what if my parents have already been turned… or Moondancer… or any pony the rest of you really care about!

Starlight mentioned that aside from her move on Ponyville, she sent some of her genies to Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and Canterlot… Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity… there’s a real possibility that Rara, Babs Seed, the Orange family, Coco Pommel, Sassy Saddles, Spitfire, and many more may have already been transformed!”

Applejack and Rarity both gasp, definitely now worried about all of the names mentioned, whereas Rainbow reacts in surprise but quickly challenges the idea. “There’s no way the genies got Spitfire or any other member of the Bolts… those vessels won’t be fast enough to catch any of them, not even in 100 years!”

Twilight sighed “I would do anything to share your optimism, Rainbow Dash. But if even Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were captured and transformed. I’m not sure there’s any pony that’s truly safe…”

“But darling, aren’t WE technically safe? As well as the Pillars? Aside from Meadowbrook, of course…” Rarity pointed out

“For now maybe… there’s a reason Starlight is putting us through this game… she’s toying with us, she’s so confident she’s going to win… and… I can’t exactly say her confidence isn’t unfounded…

Starlight isn’t dumb, she made sure that we could only get our “unlimited” wishes from her, and no matter how much our genified friends like Fluttershy say they aren’t totally subservient to Starlight. They could still inform her of a wish they hear from us, and bring Starlight here to grant that wish because they want to see us become genies too. From this game’s point of view, every genie is against us.

Starlight either wants us to make a mistake, give in to temptation, and/or surrender. She wants us to reach a low point, where almost every pony we know are genies until we feel there’s no way out both literally and figuratively from us finding our way into a genie vessel…” Twilight lowers her head again

Rainbow Dash puts an assuring hoof on Twilight’s shoulder “Well if you just sit there, you’re not exactly going to be able to fly out of that low point! It’s way too early for this! Come on Twilight, we’ve faced a number of moments where all seemed lost before. And the tougher the problem, the stronger we’ll be when we’re out of it!”

“Rainbow is right, Twi. Just because ya don’t have the solution right now, doesn’t mean y’all won’t find it later. Think about it, Starlight is so confident that she thinks she’s already won. We gotta try t’ prove her wrong!” Applejack tips her hat with a confident smirk

“Yeah, Twilight! Just think of it as if you’re Bat Mare, the big bad is making the mistake of giving you the prep time to save the day! KA-POW!” Spike punches the air, it makes Twilight giggle a little. Obviously it’s Spike still having the convention he went to on his mind. But she’s certainly needed some levity, the support from Applejack and Rainbow Dash helps her feel closer to a better mood. The thought of things getting worse and worse the longer it takes for them to find a solution still weighs on her mind. But her friends are right that trying to find a solution fast is not going to work…

After all, it was rushing to solve a problem that started this mess in the first place…

“T-t-thank you… all of you… I’ll try my best to think or discover something over time… Group hug? I could really use one right now…” Twilight’s friends waste no time obliging to her request.

“We love you, Twilight!” Pinkie manages to say. She’s been abnormally quiet, but Twilight knows this situation has also dawned pretty hard on Pinkie Pie. “I love you all too… thanks for coming to see me in my time of need”

“We’ll always be there for you, darling! That’ll never change, regardless of what happens.” A part of Twilight wanted to point out that Fluttershy currently wasn’t here for her. But she decided this was no time to ruin the moment.

As the group hug ends, Rainbow asks a question. “So what do we do for now until you come up with a new idea, Twilight?”

“I think we should probably just return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, then we’ll return back here. It hurts me that we won’t have any power to stop any more of the spread of the genifications, but we’ll have to grin and bear that reality until we find a solution.” The rest of the elements nod their heads. “Spike, do you mind staying here until we get back? We won’t be gone long, I promise”

Spike nods as well “Of course, I’ll wait here at the castle until you get back”

“And one more thing, Spike. Try not to interact with any genies you may see, even if they’re some pony you normally trust… I don’t want to return and see that they’ve genified you…” Twilight warns her #1 assistant

Spike nods once more “Of course, Twilight. If I see any genies approach, I’ll go hide”

“Thank you, Spike. Be back soon!”

Twilight and the 4 non-genified elements leave the castle to make the trek to the cave where the Tree of Harmony is rooted. The Elements are currently useless to them now, so they best put it back in the tree so that it can maintain its power.

Rarity and Twilight use levitation to put their respective Elements back on the upper right branch and middle trunk of the tree.

Rainbow Dash places her element on the tallest branch.

And all of them help Applejack and Pinkie Pie climb up by making a tower for them in order for them to put their own elements back in the tree.

The last one, Fluttershy’s element of Kindness is given to Twilight to fly up and put back in. Before she does, she takes a longing look at the butterfly-shaped gem of the Element of Kindness.

Twilight sighs, she's still not sure what to make of Fluttershy as a genie. She stood up to Starlight, which would indicate that genies aren’t totally subservient to Starlight’s will. Though at the same time, she’ll still be an active force that they can’t completely trust to not turn more ponies into genies as they saw with Mage Meadowbrook. And it especially hurts to know that if it had not been Fluttershy that was the first of them genified, they might have defeated Starlight by now thanks to Discord.

Not helped by the fact that Starlight herself wasn’t even aware of that, the musical chairs game they were forced through just happened to land on the worst possible scenario for Twilight’s hopes of bringing everything back to normal.

Even if she herself had been the first genified and had become a willing pawn on Starlight’s side. The others might have still been able to rally around Discord assuming Starlight would have still set up the game. She even thinks that Discord actually may have been compelled more heavily then for some of the others to get things back to norma,l if it had been her instead of Fluttershy. Cause he may think a genified Twilight would be a thorn in his side.

Twilight does remember that something had gotten in her way in the game, almost like something rigged the game against her. Perhaps Starlight was awa- No, that would be forgetting that she got worried on the subject of Discord the moment his name was mentioned. Discord wasn’t a factor in her decision to do the musical chairs. Which only begged the question as to why Starlight might have spared her from potentially being the first one of her six friends after she’s already gotten 3 of the 4 Alicorn Princesses of Equestria on her side.

Twilight does have a suspicion that Starlight’s probably waiting for the right moment to genify her, whenever that is. Perhaps she’s saving her for last, that said Starlight certainly hasn’t made that entirely clear. For all Twilight knew, Starlight may be plotting to entrap her next in this game. Whatever makes her more nervous and gives her more anxiety is what she imagines Starlight intends to do next.

Twilight then puts the Element of Kindness on the lower left most branch. The Tree of Harmony at full power once again as a glow shimmers from the tree. The rest of Twilight’s friends then start walking out, Twilight stays behind for a little while longer as she flies down closer to the base of the tree. She sits down and looks at her reflection on the Tree of Harmony’s crystal trunk, she closes her eyes and lowers her head with another drawn out sigh.

She pulled her head back up, and when she opened her eyes…

Her reflection was suddenly staring right back at her, the reflection’s eyes were smaller. Twilight’s own eyes shrink small as she gasps in fright. Her reflection was not doing the same action she was anymore. “W-w-w-what?! That’s not my reflection…!”

What Twilight thought was her reflection continues to stare straight at Twilight’s eyes. It was frowning gravely, and besides the oddity of it not following Twilight’s movement. Its tail was waving in a similar manner to Celestia and Luna’s tail.

“Har…

.......mon… y…

is…

at…

a…

cross…

roads…”

Twilight gasps and shrieks again as it seems to speak, echoing, and sounds much like her own voice. She looks away and breathes heavily, and wonders if she’s going insane.

She then looks back one more time. “Who… or what are you? What do you mean that harmony is at a crossroa-“ But then Twilight notices that her reflection is back to what it was. Twilight puts a hoof on her forehead and shakes her head. “Ugh, just what is with today… or this past week for that matter…”

Twilight finally turns away from the tree to follow her friends. She has some thought about telling her friends about what she just saw. But she’s afraid if they come to see, then what she saw won’t just appear for her. And they’ll think she’s hallucinating. The fate of Equestria is depending on her, perhaps more than ever before now. it won’t inspire much confidence if a number of ponies thinks Twilight mentally isn’t there.

She finally walks away from the tree, though she certainly doesn’t forget the sight she saw. It might be important for later, and hopefully it shows up again at a time where she can prove it without making herself look crazy in front of her friends. It said Harmony was at a crossroads. that was sort of obvious already to Twilight. As she imagines the harmony of Equestria was in danger of being disrupted by this genie threat. But she wonders if by crossroads, if there’s more paths aside from Starlight’s Genie utopia or returning things back to normal. Though she doesn’t know for absolute certainty if that wasn’t just some odd fever dream she had suddenly or not. She shakes her head one more time and moves on. Finally catching up with her friends as they return to Ponyville.

They return to Twilight’s castle, and go to Twilight’s bedroom where Spike was. He was sitting on the floor with his back turned towards them. Twilight can see him from the back, thankful that the genies haven’t done anything to him while they were gone. “We’re back, Spike!”

The little dragon turns his head and smiles “Hiya, girls! Say check what I found!” He picks up something currently out of view from the girls and turns around. Holding something in his arms. It seems to be a fully grown pale yellow female cat with green eyes, and pink stripes along its back and its tail.

The cat purrs and lets out a quiet meow. “D’awwwwwww!” expressed Rarity and Pinkie as their hearts just about melted out of it’s cuteness.

Rainbow flies up closer to the cat. The cat then boops Rainbow Dash on the nose. Rainbow giggles and smiles “Oh no! Even the fastest pony in Equestria couldn’t avoid that! She’s pretty cute! Where did you find her, Spike?”

“I peeked out the windows in case any genies were coming in, when I found her lying at the front door of the castle, she seemed hungry so I let her in and baked the same cat treat recipe that I normally do for Opal for her” Spike then lets the cat down on the floor.

She approaches Rarity and Pinkie, rubbing against them as a show of affection for the both of them. Especially for the rather depressed Pinkie. Both of them pet the cat as it meows and purrs some more.

“She’s adorable, Spike! But er… did ya check fo’ ah collar o’ some sort? Ah gotta feelin’ this cat ain’t no stray from its behavior right now…” Applejack observing.

“But you’re more of a dog-pony, Applejack. Some stray cats can get quite comfortable with ponies if they’ve been treated nicely enough. What if it’s sort of like a town alley cat that goes around for temporary shelter and food from the nearest pony?” Spike notes, while Rarity the resident cat owner, nods.

The cat then heads back near Spike. She curls up on the ground, and lays her head against Spike’s feet. Beginning to get some sleep. Once again just about the whole room’s heart goes aflutter for the adorable animal.

Twilight figures the presence of a cute animal was great for every pony here as at least a brief distraction from the current state of the world. “That was nice of you to help her out, did you come up with a name for her?”

Spike puts a claw under her chin “Well, I don’t know if maybe some other ponies in town have already given their own names for her. For all I know she could have multiple names she goes by if I’m correct she’s a sort of town domesticated cat. But I do have something of an idea for a name we can all give her…”

“And that would be?” Rainbow inquired

“I… admit it might be at risk of reminding you of recent events. But it’s almost too obvious not to do, if you notice she has quite a bit of Fluttershy’s colors. Down to being yellow, those green eyes, and the light pink on her back and tail. But I won’t go as far as actually naming her Fluttershy… but how about something close like… Flowersly! Or something like that at least.” Spike suggests.

Twilight does frown a bit about being reminded about Fluttershy, though she does see that Spike’s observations isn’t wr-

Suddenly, a realization takes over her. “SPIKE! GET AWAY FROM THAT CAT!” She charges up her horn and teleports Spike to the other side of the room.

“Huh?! What?! Why?!” Spike incredulously asks.

“Spike… that cat doesn’t just coincidentally share Fluttershy’s colors… this cat IS Fluttershy!” She grimaced, while every pony else gasped.

The cat then opens up one eye, and seems to smirk. The cat is then obscured in sight by a pink magic cloud that gets bigger. When it dissipates, the cat is gone. But in its place, was Fluttershy who giggles having fooled her friends for a short while.

(Vector credit: cyanlightning)

“Hehe, that was fun! How’d I do? I was a pretty convincing kitty, wasn’t I~. Meooooowwww!”

“GAH! You were Fluttershy the whole time?!” Spike’s absolutely flabbergasted.

“What are you doing here, Fluttershy? I hope you’re not here to genify Spike… otherwise… our friendship really is over…” Twilight growls, Spike is very special to Twilight. If Fluttershy genifies him, she’ll know that her talk of not entirely being on Starlight’s side was a lie.

Fluttershy frowns, and waves her hooves. “Oh no no no no, I promise I wasn’t going to do anything of the sort! I was just having a little fun with all of you…”

Applejack raises an eyebrow “Ah don’t hear ah hint o’ lying from ya… though ya do know we remember what ya pulled on Meadowbrook when ya were ah flash bee fo’ ah brief time…”

Fluttershy taps her hooves “Yeah… I suppose that first time did leave you suspicious if I was planning on sneaking another genification in… but I promise I’m not shapeshifting just for the sake to be stealthy prior to a genification of mine…”

“That’s not exactly denying that you won’t exactly do something like that again…” Rainbow retorted.

Fluttershy does an admitting shrug and smile “Of course it isn’t, not like I could deceive you girls with Applejack here and all. I fully intend on doing that again for a fair share of my genifications. But I repeat, that’s not what I came here to do”

“Then what are you here for? And on a side note… what became of your conversation with Meadowbrook inside her vessel?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy answers the latter first “I managed to cheer her up just fine, she’s back in a decently good mood and is now roaming through town…”

“Please tell me she’s not…” Twilight’s ears droop

“…She’s probably genifying the doctors and nurses at the Ponyville hospital right about now.” Fluttershy bluntly said

“Ugggghhhh, of course she is… that’s just great… now if any pony in town suffers an injury or gets sick… their ‘prescription’ is going to be not any kind of medicine, surgery, or therapy… it’s going to be ‘genification solves everything’…” Twilight looks away in frustration.

“Not even Starlight would go to such lengths as purposefully hurting some pony or making them sick just to get them genified though…” Fluttershy replies

“Maybe not, but it’s certainly going to be a thing that any hospital taken over by the genies are going to do something of that sort… for just about any ailment known to pony kind! The excuse being that genification is the “ultimate cure” for everything” Twilight points out

Spike blinks “…I mean, is that not wrong? Genies are supposed to be immortal, even if they can still get sick. It can’t kill them”

Twilight is a bit surprised by Spike’s answer “Well… in a technical sense no… but Spike! You haven’t seen what happens when we tried ungenifying some pony when we got the elements! We blasted Sugar Belle with the elements, and it was successful at turning her back to normal… but then she freaked out and proceeded to just wish to be a genie again! That has to mean there’s some form of troubling effect on the mind from this that may take so much time to heal!”

“Hmmm… that does sound troubling… but this all depends on whether some pony is truly changed in a way they would never do normally. It could just be as possible that Sugar Belle simply found her life to be so much easier as a genie then as a normal pony. You have to admit that ponies suddenly gaining all that power gives a significant improvement to their life. I mean… imagine if some pony suddenly took your horn away, Twilight” As if on instinct, Twilight puts a hoof on her horn and frowns. Almost every unicorn feared losing their horn. Twilight and Rarity remember when Discord took theirs, they instantly freaked as well.

“If I may say, Spike, darling… While we did freak out immediately… I don’t think we reacted anywhere near like Sugar Belle did. During that whole time we were in that goose chase Discord put us through in the hedge maze we didn’t have our horn…” Rarity recalled.

Spike nods “Yes, but think about just how much of an improvement being a genie is compared to being a regular ol’ unicorn magic-wise. Perhaps at the very least there’s a power corrupts sort of thing that Sugar Belle did not want to let go of. But there’s a possibility that even if there’s a fair bit of legitimate addiction to this power, we have to factor in that there are real reasons every pony would suddenly like being a genie.” That leaves the others in some contemplation.

“I… guess you have something of a point, Spike… but even if you’re entirely correct… It's not helping that Starlight is forcing this on ponies. Her very methods are a huge factor in why I doubt Starlight is doing this for the betterment of Equestria” Twilight explained her position

Fluttershy chimes in “Mmhmm, both can be true at the same time. Starlight’s execution of her plan can be bad at the same time that we can have legitimate reasons for liking being a genie. You girls saw me when I was transformed, I feared the worst was happening and it was because of Starlight’s methods that I thought I was no longer going to be me. Though once I felt the transformation overwhelm me, I… started to understand what this truly meant for me. Starlight just needs to eventually approach this in a better way than she is currently. Even if is working out for her so far, she wouldn’t have to have so much hassle if she’d just be more kinder to her genies-to-be from the start”

Rainbow Dash deadpans “Yeah… but I’m not so sure she would really be Starlight Glimmer if she was nicer to us… it’d ironically be solid proof that it IS brainwashing ponies if suddenly Starlight had become kinder…”

Applejack nods in agreement “Starlight held ah grudge against us befo' all this happened. So her targeting us with this game o’ hers isn’t exactly out o’ character.”

Twilight sighs “I’d mention that Starlight wouldn’t have done the whole turn every pony into a genie thing. But I’ve already told you girls that wasn’t what the lamp told her to do, that was the Crystal of Corruption’s doing. Still, it’s a bit odd that every pony just goes along with a plan that wouldn’t have come about if Starlight had only been genified by the lamp and not combined with the crystal. Fluttershy, if you’re not corrupted like Starlight is. Why do you still want geniequality to come into fruition?”

Fluttershy pauses to think over an answer, before smiling as she’s got a possible explanation. “Think back to when Starswirl told us about Catrina. Her big mistake was being selfish, and convinced her power could never be taken away from her. If she had been more like Starlight, where genifying her assistant and spreading that wide to all Abyssinians. It’s very possible the world would still be ruled under an Abyssinian genie empire. When you empower the more good-hearted citizens of the world. They want to be able to share that joy with others. Equestria has a very friendly culture, and while we may have some of our own citizens that could very well be as greedy as Catrina was. By the time they’re genified, there will be too many good-hearted genies for them to do much about.

And while the meaner and/or greedier may be disappointed that they can’t lord over others like they used to. I have to imagine being a genie does at the very least give such greedier characters the means of satisfying themselves in other ways. Most that are greedy is because they love hoarding all the money. But what happens when money essentially becomes worthless… but only because any pony on their own has the ability to make any material possessions they’ve ever wanted. Or travel anywhere they want to go in an instant.

But my point is, I don’t want every pony to be a genie for the exact same reasons Starlight does.

For Starlight, it’s her desire to see ponies equal and putting you girls through a slow one-by-one “game” as revenge for foiling her original plan.

For me on the other hoof and probably a good majority of regular civilians and others we know, we want ponies that they know like our friends, our family, and more to share in our joy. I know Starlight’s making it look like a general takeover of Equestria, and by the end of today… Just about the entire northern half of the nation will likely be Geniequestria territory…

But I assure you it’s not because we’re in total agreement with Starlight’s views. But while she is offering this, we still want to take advantage of it for good purposes. Most of us aren’t compelled to be loyal to Starlight to a fault, but if it lines up with sharing what we love about being genies with others. That’s when we’ll still be willing to follow an order from her. It just turns out that for the most part until she genified me, her steps in her plan have done that for every pony genifying ponies with her. Almost every pony that helped her genify any pony in Our Town, The Crystal Empire, Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and now Ponyville is doing it for the benefit of their friends and family.

When you combine the allure of immortality, eternal youth, and the magic power being a genie gives you with the ability to give the same perks to those we know, never having to worry about the inevitabilities of a mortal life for ourselves and others… and the absolute pleasure just being genies give us… it’s hard for us to want to go back to the way things were. That’s all I feel you need to understand things from our point of view.” As Fluttershy’s answer finishes, the room is left quiet. Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack look down in a rather conflicted manner.

Rarity’s mouth is slightly agape, as Fluttershy’s words on the matter are giving her a better understanding. And maybe even a bit of dispelling some of her own fears. She almost feels like clapping for Fluttershy, but she doesn’t want her friends to think she’s becoming a genie sympathizer.

“I… uh…” Twilight’s initially struggles with how to respond. It takes some thinking, but she finally gives one more angle. “I… just don’t know… still… Starlight’s lamp had to have been in the archives for a reason. And before that, it was in an ancient temple guarded by all kinds of deadly traps before Catrina found it. There had to have been a reason it was kept out of any one’s grasp for so long. Because otherwise, if it was really this amazing power that all sentient life can receive and live peacefully together… why didn’t the ancients spread that power between them in the first place? The real origins of the lamp are so mysterious it comes before any sort of recorded history. We can’t be sure yet if there isn’t some catch to all this, maybe in the short term it looks perfect. But what if there’s an issue in the long term? I feel like ponies should get a full understanding of the magic they’re receiving. Literally no pony, including Starlight, and not even those who were around more than 1000 years ago like Celestia, Luna, or the Pillars know exactly how this magic came to be. And before Equestria falls completely to “Geniequality”, I feel like we need to make sure every pony, both genies and non-genies alike are well-informed of any potential consequences.

Cause as is, it almost seems too perfect for all of this to be true. It’s literally only been a few days since Starlight was genified. There’s no way anyone currently genified has considered just how much we don’t know about all this.

Fluttershy… Can you at least understand why I’m so concerned about the potential unknowns of this? Most society changing revolutions that promise to be for the benefit of all tend to have an underlying cost even if initially it seems like there’s nothing but pros, and no cons whatsoever. If anything the great power given by becoming a genie only makes me MORE concerned at the idea of what could be the consequences. I know the cons won’t be anything like Aladdin where ponies end up in caves for thousands of years. But just like how genie life is actually much better for real genies compared to the fictional ones, what if there comes a time where we finally learn the negatives about being a genie... and it’s even WORSE then fictional genies in some way?

I’m not sure what a worse fate would entail… but I almost don’t want to try to imagine it… I’d rather Starlight at least briefly stop her conquest and give us time to figure things out before she proceeds to genify more ponies. But she’s not going to listen to us, she’s determined this is the solution she’s longed for and isn’t open to contrary opinions on the matter. She’ll just guilt trip us as if we preferred the inequalities of our normal society, especially now that the genies are compelled to prefer their new lives over their old ones.

I… just don’t want to see you get caught up in something that you’ll regret, Fluttershy… I feel there’s more to this than what we know so far… and whatever we find will shine a light on the truth of the matter…” Twilight finishes her response, as Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie nod with Twilight’s view on the matter.

Rarity on the other hoof felt half-conflicted now. The nuance that confused even Discord when he was here reared its head again as Rarity was back to square one. Not sure what she should believe in any more.

Fluttershy meanwhile has a neutral face as she listens to Twilight’s views. She frowns a little late into Twilight’s speech. But she closes her eyes, sighs. Before smiling again with an understanding face. “Well said, Twilight. I may disagree on some level, but you are right we don’t understand everything yet. I feel whatever cons there could be, there will be some kind of clever workaround we as a collective and powerful genie society could figure out. I respect your thoughts on the matter, and maybe I’ll try to see if I discover something out one of these days. I can see if I can be your girls’ informant for any new information we learn about myself and the other genies.”

Rainbow Dash lifts an eyebrow “An informant that still plans on adding more genies to the world, despite Twilight’s warnings of the unknown?”

Fluttershy smiles sheepishly “…Yeah, pretty much. But if I do discover a significant flaw in all this, I’ll stop and get in touch with you all. But in the meantime, I think we got really sidetracked from what Twilight asked me first… you all wanted to know why I’m here, right?”

Everyone else in the room nods. “To put it simply, Twilight. I’m still thinking about how upset you were when you ran away. I want to take this opportunity to give you something that will put a smile back on your face at least for a little while. You deserve something good to happen today.”

Twilight smiles softly “Oh… you’re always so thoughtful, Fluttershy… and that’s why I’ve always valued our friendship. But you don’t need to do anything for me… it’s true that the past few days have been the absolute worst… and there isn’t much hope for things to get better. But that’s just how it is being a leader of Equestria when the toughest villains to crack appear, it makes me wonder just how Celestia remained relatively sane in her long reign.”

Fluttershy nods “I get that, but I still insist. I promise what I’m offering will make you the happiest you’ve been in a long time…”

“Well, I guess can you tell me what it is then? …Though it better not be a genie vessel…” Twilight narrows her eyes at Fluttershy. She knows ‘happiest you’ve been in a long time’ could very much entail a transformation into a genie, given the instant gratification part of the process.

Fluttershy again waves her fore hooves “No no no, I promise it isn’t anything like that… remember, you’re off limits from any pony other than Starlight due to her game anyway. You’d have to make a wish to make that happen…”

“I guess you are right about that, ok… I’ll repeat… what is it then?” Twilight inquired once more.

Fluttershy nodded and gently smiled “Twilight… I’d like to offer to return the Golden Oaks Library to its former glory!”

Twilight’s eyes widened and gasped “Bring back Golden Oaks?! Y… y-you… you could really do that?!”

Fluttershy nodded her head “It should actually be pretty trivial to recreate. It may have been a little while since Tirek’s attack on Equestria. But I still very much remember the layout of your old home. I should be able to return it exactly as you remembered it!”

Twilight’s grin goes so wide “Oh my gosh! Fluttershy… you have no idea how much I would love that! I was really touched with your girls’ idea to make the roots a chandelier in the castle… but if you can really bring it back… it’d mean so much to me…”

Spike spoke up “But wait, will this require taking down the chandelier and reforming the tree? Or could Twilight keep the chandelier that’s left of the old Golden Oaks while Fluttershy creates a totally new one?”

“I could probably do either/or. I’ll leave that decision to you, Twilight” Fluttershy answered.

“Hm… well… on one hoof if the chandelier was rerooted then at least part of the tree will certainly be what it was, though we’d have to take down those beautiful jewels of memories…

And on the other… the tree would technically not be the original tree, but at the same time I think the chandelier added something to that room and it’d look so bare again if we removed it…:” Twilight takes some time to think it all over. She debates it with herself internally of how she’d approach the return of her old home.

She then looks in Fluttershy’s eyes to indicate she’s made a decision. “I think I’ll go with the latter, even if this new tree won’t technically be the real one. I don’t want to waste the effort you girls did making the chandelier. And if you can really make it as accurate as you say, then eventually it won’t matter that it isn’t the original”

Spike’s a little nervous about asking this knowing how much Twilight misses Golden Oaks but he goes for it. “Say… we’re not going to completely abandon the castle with Golden Oaks back are we? I… don’t exactly want to go back to sleeping in a basket… I like having my own bed and room in the castle…”

Twilight smiles “Don’t worry, Spike. We’ll still have both, it’s just uh… I might be rooming in there for a while until I get used enough to it being back… aheh heh heh…”

Rainbow Dash chuckles “Knowing you, Twilight. That’ll probably be 10 years… at the absolute earliest!”

The whole room including Twilight herself giggles at Rainbow’s joke, who rubs a hoof behind her back sheepishly. “Hehe, who knows! That may just happen!”

Fluttershy walks toward the door of Twilight’s bedroom before turning around “So, shall we step outside to where Golden Oaks once stood, and soon will again? I doubt you want the entire tree right here inside your castle’s bedroom.” Fluttershy giggles as Twilight nods, and every pony follows her to exactly where the tree stood.

“So uh… are you able to just make it as you are now? I don’t need to do anything do I?” Twilight asked

Fluttershy looks in Twilight’s eyes “Actually, you do have to do something for me, Twilight. I may be able to do many things on a whim. But specific stuff like this needs a worded enchantment of some sort. In other words… you need to wish for it.”

Twilight initially nods and sets out to do just that “I…” But then something dawns on her. “Wait… no…” She then looks Fluttershy very sternly. “How… DARE you…! This is a trap isn’t it?!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “What?! What do you mean a trap?!”

“I’M NOT DUMB, FLUTTERSHY! Genies interpret any wish how they want it, if I say I want Golden Oaks back… you know what you could interpret that to? Making a small model or snow globe version of Golden Oaks AS MY GENIE VESSEL! And then you could tattletale to Starlight!” Twilight stares down Fluttershy with angry eyes.

“No! I promise that’s not what I was going to do! I’m your friend! I wouldn’t betray you like that…” Fluttershy waves her hooves once more.

Twilight shakes her head “Why would that even matter for long! If you changed me, the magic would make it so my genie self forgives such a betrayal! You said earlier you’d need a wish in order for you to bring Starlight here to use a genie vessel on me… is messing with my emotions with the loss of my old house your way of baiting me to make that wish?! Just like how Starlight baited you with your dreams for your own animal sanctuary?!”

“Twilight, if I were to do that. I’d still be haunted by your inevitable reaction as I betrayed our friendship in the early part of the transformation!” Fluttershy defends herself

“Again, why would that matter? The genie me would forgive you, and you’d have me as your genie friend for all eternity and end up only remembering betraying my trust as a brief blip in time!” Twilight grinds her teeth, still on the offense in the argument.

“Twilight! You’re being completely irrational! If I was planning to get you genified, why did I agree to being your girls’ informant for if I discover any new facts about myself and the genies?! I'm the closest you have to an inside scoop on what's going on!”

“You could just say the best way for me to find out is to 'feel it for yourself!'” Twilight was not budging, this was more difficult then Fluttershy was expecting it to be.

Fluttershy sits down and lowers her head. Her eyes welled up a little bit with tears “I… guess I understand why you can’t trust me in that case… I’ll just leave it be, then… but... I truly was only trying to make you feel better, honest…”

As much as Twilight needed to tell her how she felt. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes compels her to sigh and apologize “I’m… sorry I had to argue with you… with this whole situation I really need to be on point whenever it comes to wishes, though it’s even better to try not to wish at all.

There’s actually a lot of wishes that can become genification wishes under the right interpretation. Heck, Starlight probably could have genified me with my 2nd wish earlier… by making a figure of Discord as my vessel… I have to think the reason she didn’t was because she was suddenly fearing her plans were about to be foiled by him. So she granted it legitimately to get that confrontation out of the way.

Equestria is counting on me, I can’t risk it all with wanton wishes. Even for something as dear to me as Golden Oaks…” Twilight turns her back.

Everyone else that was watching the argument just frowned, what was seeming to be a grand moment for Twilight, seems to have become a moment of some strife between two of their friends. The genie being the interpreter of a wish is a huge deterrent from granting the wishes if they’re trying to avoid genification. And even for genies that insist they won’t interpret it that way, who knows if maybe another genie will have been eavesdropping and did the genification interpretation anyway.

Suddenly though, Spike gets a determined look on his face and approaches Fluttershy. “Huh? Spike? What are you doing?” The pegasus genie wonders.

“Fluttershy… I wish the Golden Oaks Library was returned!” At that Twilight screamed. “SPIKE, NOOOOOOOOOO!” Spike has already fully worded it. A gasp from every pony else watching including Fluttershy herself.

“What have you done, Spike! You’ve left an opening to be genified by Fluttershy… or if some other genie was nearby!” Twilight sternly turns toward Fluttershy “Again, I repeat what I said earlier… if you dare genify Spike… our friendship is over! You may be a good friend, but Spike has been with me longer than all of you! Any pony who dares to bottle him up… I could never call them a friend!”

“Twilight… I said the wish so that I could test for myself where Fluttershy stands on such interpretations… if I get genified, then that’s on me as much as it is Fluttershy for being fooled. I have no role in this game of Starlight’s, it’s not a big deal if I’m transformed. But I also made the wish… because I think I trust Fluttershy won’t do it.” Spike’s determined face shines through.

“How can you be so sure?!” Twilight worriedly asks.

“Cause I know Fluttershy… she would not dare deceive you like that after the kind of days you’ve had. Heck, she didn’t even try to deny that she still wanted to genify more ponies. Fluttershy has not lied to us the whole time. And I don’t believe she will now”

Twilight gasps “Are you implying… that I don’t know Fluttershy as much as you do?!”

Spike shakes his head “Of course not, I think you know in your heart that Fluttershy wouldn’t do that. You just still aren’t completely sure that the genie Fluttershy is 100% the same Fluttershy you know!”

“But… but… she did kind of deceive you… pretending to be a hungry stray cat to let her in…” Twilight points out.

Spike crosses his arms “Maybe a little, but that was no more of a deception than a Pinkie Pie & Rainbow Dash prank. She meant no harm, and until I see anything of Fluttershy betraying us in a way that feels like something Starlight would do rather than Fluttershy. Then I don’t see any reason not to trust her.

And even if she does genify me now, then I’ll have done something in proving she truly isn’t the Fluttershy we knew anymore. Again, I’m not part of Starlight’s game... which actually puts me in a position to prove something. Fluttershy has the option to transform me if and when ever she wants, but that will mean she will have proper consequences of none of you girls trusting her word ever again.”

“Spike… you’re saying that within earshot of Fluttershy! What if hearing that… she does grant the wish legitimately… but only because she knows she’ll be caught! And she deceives us later!” Twilight incredulously worries about such a possibility.

“C’mon Twilight! Snap out of it and listen to yourself! Fluttershy wasn’t some deceptive mastermind before she was a genie. And I don’t think she suddenly become one either! I get these past few days have been stressful, but that’s no excuse to distrust our friends when they’re trying to do something nice for you!” Spike sternly stares up. There was a similar time where Spike tried to snap her out of a rather bad day when she was trying to find a friendship lesson to send to Princess Celestia. It didn’t exactly stop Twilight’s more regrettable actions that day, like trying to create a friendship problem. But Spike still expressed worry and supported Twilight that day. He’s doing the same thing here, and Spike’s matured by a few more years since.

And so has Twilight, as Spike’s words get to her this time. She’s finally left with not much left to say. Tears in her eyes, as she lowers her head. “Y-y-you’re right, Spike… I think I’ve really lost my touch… First, I had the chance to make Starlight face justice but chose to let her go, then I created our very problem when I used Catrina’s Lamp, I failed to protect all those already genified… and the next I can’t trust my own friend just because of my own failure… I’m starting to wonder if I was crowned a Princess too early… because besides getting supremely lucky against Tirek… what have I really done…?”

Fluttershy chimed in “Don’t think like that Twilight, it may have seemed like luck with how fast things turned around. But those keys that unlocked the power necessary to beat him were earned by all six of us. Our friendship beat Tirek, a clear indication that you really are the Princess of Friendship. And that’s not even counting your feats when you were still a unicorn! I think you just need to find a solution outside of the box.”

Something about the final words of Fluttershy’s statement gets to Twilight in some way. She doesn’t know if Fluttershy meant it that way, but Twilight nonetheless was glad to hear that from her. Fluttershy suggested a solution as specifically being outside of the box rather than being inside of it. Which would imply something as a genie. She finally looks into Fluttershy's eyes again “Alright… Fluttershy, go ahead and grant Spike’s wish… I really, really, really want to fully trust you again. But I don’t know what that’d take without stopping you from genifying more ponies… when I know that's not going to happen”

“Please, say no more. Trust has to be earned, and I fully understand that even if we’ve been friends for years. This whole genie situation has you confused if you can still trust me. I understand why you don’t like the idea of genifying everypony without first learning what we can about the magic we’re empowered with. But at the very least, you should be able to see for yourself the things we can do that’ll make you feel better. So just stand where you are, and I’ll bring your beloved library back… ” Twilight nods, then Fluttershy walks a few feet forward to give herself some space.

She closes her eyes, as she uses her many memories of her friendship with Twilight to remember just about every detail she can remember of the Golden Oaks library from the high up balcony where Twilight would stargaze from. All the way to the underground basement where Twilight would perform all her experiments whenever she needed a little more heavy duty science. Once she believes she’s got a good handle of the recreation. She flaps her wings and lifts herself off the ground. Her eyes are still closed as she moves upward.

It’s not long before she opens them up again and smiles as she lifts up one hoof. The hoof emits a pink magic aura before a seed is created in Fluttershy’s hoof. Fluttershy then chucks the seed into the soil where Golden Oaks once stood The seed lands on the ground and immediately starts to bury itself into the soil. Fluttershy then uses her hooves to levitate several clouds together until it creates a gray rain cloud. Using her own pegasus-born magic as opposed to genie magic to push it toward where the seed fell.

When Fluttershy believes it’s gotten enough water, she makes the cloud disappear. And then flies back down to where the group was watching her.

Rainbow scratched her head “Um, no offense Fluttershy. But it’s going to be a while before the tree grows back to what it once was if this is going to take as long as a tree naturally does to get that size…”

Fluttershy giggled “Just watch, Rainbow Dash. This was a specialized seed, only possible with genie magic~”

Just seconds later the ground where the seed bury itself begins to emit a pink glow, and soon a sprout pops out. that quickly grows into a sapling, and continues growing at a rapid pace until it reaches the exact size the Golden Oaks Library was. The magic only grew the tree, but that’s when Fluttershy started working some more magic. With multiple magic waves sent to the tree, the balcony, the front door, the windows, magic to make the tree hollow inside so she could enter it. Where she then uses more magic to recreate the entire interior of Golden Oaks. The bookcases, Twilight’s starry bed, the stairs, Owlowisicous’s old perch, and even Spike’s little basket even though Spike himself prefers his bed in the castle. Just about absolutely everything that Fluttershy remembers of Twilight’s old home was brought back, as good as new.

Outside, Twilight just had her mouth agape for the entire time that gradually becomes a very happy smile.

(Vector credit: sketchmcreations [Twilight], daafroman (Golden Oaks)

Golden Oaks was being formed, she puts a hoof on her chest, or perhaps rather over her heart as she watches her old home she missed so much be brought back to her by Fluttershy’s magic. Spike and the other ponies are amazed by the magic as well. But for the most part, they’re just happy for Twilight that she gets to have this moment.

Soon, Fluttershy has finished. And she opens the door, gesturing to Twilight and the others to come on in. Twilight wastes no time, she runs as fast she can with excited glee.

(Vector credit: itv-canterlot [Twilight], oxinfree [Golden Oaks Interior])

She looks at every little nook and cranny of the recreated Golden Oaks. Seeing that it is very much what Fluttershy promised it would be, everything was accurate. Not even one book, plant, vase, and general aesthetic was out of place. Twilight goes up the stairs and jumps up onto her bed. The more simple bed design resulted in a harder landing than expected. Her bed in the castle is much more high quality and the mattress is of a softer material. But that didn’t mean Twilight wasn’t happy to see her old bed back anyway.

Twilight’s friends didn’t say a word. They simply watched as Twilight was still in a frenzy driven by nostalgia. “I… I can’t believe it! It’s real… It's all real! My first home in ponyville… so many precious memories flooding back… You even remembered how I organized the books, Fluttershy! I… I… I… can’t thank you enough!” Twilight’s eyes filled with tears again, but for once it was all tears of joy.

Fluttershy gently smiles and shakes her head. “You don’t need to thank me, you needed this pick-me-up. And as your friend, I’m happy to use my new power to cheer you up!”

Twilight flies back down to the ground in front of Fluttershy “Even so, I bet I still… owe you an apology…”

Fluttershy shakes her head “That’s not entirely necessary either. Starlight is the whole reason you have a hard time trusting us genies. And because we want to help her achieve her ultimate goal, you have understandable reasons to be skeptical.

But I did want to at least show you that no matter what, we can still be your friends. While Starswirl is the legendary wizard. You are already a better friend then he’ll ever be, you still gave me a chance while he threw away his friendship with Meadowbrook just about immediately. That’s why you were able to complete his spell when he couldn’t, before you became an alicorn.”

Twilight’s tears continue dropping as she just goes ahead and hugs Fluttershy.

(Vector credit: Cloudyglow [Twi hugging Fluttershy], oxinfree [Golden Oaks Interior])

“I’m still so sorry for mistrusting you at all… but I thank you very much for returning Golden Oaks… and being as supportive as you’ve ever been…”

Fluttershy charges her magic around herself and she shrinks and transforms. She’s suddenly back in her cat form from earlier, or perhaps rather she’d become “Flowersly” once again. She leaped up on Twilight’s back, purring and rubbing on the back of Twilight’s neck. Twilight uses levitation to lift Fluttershy off, but only to sit down and hug the cat form of her friend with her fore hooves.

Twilight then lets Fluttershy out of her grasp, the yellow genie changes back to a pony, winking at every pony behind her. “I must be going, soon I’ll be visiting my family and maybe a few friends here and there too!”

“…And genify them I presume?” Rainbow asked even if she already knows what Fluttershy’s going to say

As expected, Fluttershy says “Of course!”

At this point though their friends shrug, it’s not like they could stop her anyway. But the gesture she did for Twilight was so touching, they let it slide for now. “Heh… well… at least ya’ll are honest…” Applejack comments.

Fluttershy then waves before teleporting away. Leaving Twilight and her friends just outside of the renewed Golden Oaks Library. Twilight turns around to look at her old home once again, managing one more smile. A real act of kindness, to help her get through the rough days ahead…

MAIN STORY

START FROM THE BEGINNING

SIDE STORIES

FOLLOW FLUTTERSHY AS SHE VISITS HER FAMILY

#Geniequestria #twilight sparkle #spike #pinkie pie #pinkamena diane pie #rarity #rainbow dash #applejack #fluttershy #transformation #cat #treelight #tree of harmony #golden oaks library #golden oaks #genie #main story #mane 6

14 notes · View notes

literary-illuminati · 7 months

Text

Book Review 57 – Pale by Wildbow

I have been reading Pale as it released from the very beginning in 2020 until the end. As such I am clearly suffering from a severe and acute case of Stockholm Syndrome, and you shouldn’t trust a single thing I say. But to try and step back a bit – Pale is the best 4 million word serial I have ever read, and very nearly even good.

The story follows Avery, Lucy and Verona, precocious and for various reasons marginalized teenagers in a decaying Canadian ski town. They are recruited by a council of the various ghouls, ghosts and goblins who live in the shadows of the town to be its Official Witches and investigate the mysterious death of the Carmine Beast, the greater spirit who stood as judge over all contests of struggle and violence in the region (less in the hopes that find anything and more so that any nosy outsiders can be truthfully told it has already been handled). Being of a protagonist-ey bent, they rapidly exceed their new patrons’ expectations, especially the ones among them who had a hand in the murder. After that it’s basically just literally several million words of things escalating further and further out of anyone’s control.

Or, I kid, but it really is impossible to talk about Pale without forgrounding its length and medium, I think. This is a serial which ran continuously with at least one update a week for more than three years, and (to grab another story about child wizards to compare) is roughly four complete Harry Potter series’ in length. Beyond being an entirely superhuman accomplishment as far as writing productivity goes, this had unavoidable effects on the story as it was being told. It also makes it literally impossible to provide anything like a complete plot summary in a review short enough that anyone will read it. So just take my word that there’s a lot of it, and we’ll come back to the others length-related issues.

This is an urban fantasy book, and a kitchen sink one at that – it’s clearly one of the underlying principles of the setting that it should, insofar as possible, be able to fit every type of storybook monster and horror movie plot and twilight zone episode within it somewhere. Underlying and ordering it all is the axiom that (almost) nothing magical can lie. The world will only respond to your word if its actually worth something – contradicting or gainsaying yourself harms your karma and sets the universe against you, breaking a sworn oath is an open invitation to fates worse than death. The natural consequence of this is that every practitioner (wizard, basically) worth shit has been trained from birth to be an asshole genie and most of the really powerful Others (catch-all term for supernatural creatures) come by it naturally.

None of which is new – this is the second serial Wildbow has written in the setting – but they do combine to make a bunch of amateur detectives investigating a murder really, really fun. The heroines POVs also offers a great way to introduce the setting to the reader, or, at least, provides an excellent justification for in character exposition dumps – and to be clear, this is a series with lore. I consider this an absolute win, but if you don’t like elaborate asides about random monsters or marginal otherworlds that clearly exist only because the author thought they were cool, then this is not the series for you. (On the other hand, most of them are absolutely cool). The world is vast, and the story is full of asides and tangents about things that could easily sustain a novel in their own right.

The other way the exposition is provided is through occasional Extra Materials mini-chapters (quite regular during the beginning of the story, less so as it goes on), which are just excerpts of in-universe documentation – specifically things that the protagonists or occasionally another major character would have been reading. Everything from class notes to chatlogs to investigation summaries as written by one of the girls to local social media posts to a dozen other things. Surprisingly good graphic design on most of them too, which really helps sell them as in-universe artifacts and as ways to characterize the implied authors/readers. It’s very much to the serial’s detriment that these fade away as it goes on.

The series has three protagonists, and chapters alternate between each of their POVs and internal narration. It actually does an excellent job differentiating between Lucy, Avery and Verona and giving them their own distinct voices and making each compelling in their own right (not that I don’t have my favourite, but). While the book’s not perfect about it, on the whole they mostly feel like unusually bright and dedicated teenagers (and increasingly incredibly traumatized child soldiers with variably healthy coping mechanisms), rather than short and legally disabled adults.

As is fairly common with web serials, the normal chapters are intercut with interludes from the perspective of some more minor character. Across all Wildbow’s works, these are honestly where he really shines most, I think. They’re each essentially short stories introducing and providing the history and characterization of someone from their own point of view, in the process more often than not totally recontextualizing their role in the story so far, with how they advance the actual plot almost incidental half the time. If I wanted to sell someone on the setting with as little investment as possible, I would probably just link them the first interlude – the first 90% of the chapter is a really quite good standalone horror story about a totally normal kinda shitty kid getting drawn into and being consumed by an occult living ritual (with its own creepy song! And cannibalism!)

Wildbow is actually an incredibly gifted character writer - both as a web serial author (but on the whole that’s not really any great accomplishment) and just, generally. Despite having an absolutely comically sprawling cast (like, dozens, minimum. If you told me hundreds I’d believe you), he manages to give the vast, vast majority of ones that matter their own distinct aesthetics, voices, and even their own little character arcs and plotlines. Even as much as I complain about bloat and pacing, it never stops being a joy to just spend time in any of the three protagonists’ heads, and I was deeply invested in them achieving their dreams in a way I rarely if ever am for fictional characters.

Now, the complaining. Wildbow is, as I said, one of the best character writers I know working today. The same cannot be said for his skill writing action scenes – which is incredibly unfortunate, because there are so, so fucking many of them. Some serve a real narrative purpose or showcase some bit of characterization, but most could honestly be cut by 90% and you wouldn’t lose anything except wordcount – even the ones which should be there tend to drag on past their natural end because of the book’s love of making things as desperate and hardwon as possible. Which I wouldn’t necessarily mind but like, there are individual action set-pieces that are longer than some published novels. At a certain point exhaustion sets in. If I had to guess, I’d put this down to the fact that when you’re writing 10k words a week and don’t have any concrete ideas of where to go next with the plot worked out, just extending the action scene and throwing some new monsters or puzzles or reversals of fortune at the heroes can eat up a chapter and buy you some time – but just because it’s an understandable consequence of the serial format doesn’t mean I need to like it.

Perhaps reading far too much into it, but if I had to guess, I would say the story’s more structural issues stem from the same thing. Pale was originally planned as a (relatively) short and (relatively) light serial, but in the process of writing rapidly ballooned past all planning and expectation. Which like, as I said, I just enjoyed spending time in the various protagonists’ heads and seeing them develop, but at a certain point you can absolutely start to see the plot starting to outpace all planning and spinning off in multiple entirely new directions that were pretty clearly informed by whatever idea Wildbow was turning over in his head at the time. Sometimes this worked out very nicely – I still love Avery’s whole Thunder Bay/accidental love triangle arc. Sometimes it’s a bit mixed – Wonderkand is a very fun idea, but tonally and aesthetically is kind of a mismatch with 90% of the rest of the setting. Sometimes, well – did anyone like the extended Aurum/Dark Fall trial sequence? But even aside from individual arc quality, if you are someone who cares even slightly about things like ‘pacing’, ‘narrative discipline’, or ‘plot points/foreshadowing not going in weird directions or fading in the background because the author just forgot/kind of lost interest in them in the course or writing a novella weekly for three years’ then oh boy is this not the story for you.

A similar sort of thing happens, I think, with the story’s themes. Pale is from the beginning very explicitly concerned with ideas of punitive versus rehabilitative justice, an already slightly fraught use of the subjugation/binding of magical creatures as a metaphor for oppression and colonization, and just generally with the idea of building a better world in the hidden corners of the current one. The story, well, remains very interested with those subjects, but having any coherent viewpoint on them falls to the wayside compared to coming up with ways to advance the plot or dilemmas to throw at the protagonists or just vivid bits of imagery in the moment. This more or less generalizes – I kind of get the sense that Wildbow set out wanting to write something that goes against his narrative reflexes/habits, but as the story went on and the writing piled up they just kind of crept back in. Certainly for a story that take pains at first to emphasize how hellish and cruel long term binding and confinement are, the happy ending involves a lot of various cruel and torturous prisons that are portrayed as somewhere between necessary and just. The big final villain also more or less works on a character level, but thematically is basically the single worst choice of anyone the protagonists faced down across the entire story.

I’m accentuating the negative here, and part of that is just because I’m a miserable husk of a human, but it’s also just that Pale’s real problems tend to be structural, while its high points are much more particular and specific, and hard to sell without immense amounts of context – there are so many random side characters who get more compelling stories than the actual protagonists of some books I’ve read this year, and a half dozen scenes that are pretty permanently burned into my memory. My favourite dynamic involves a character whose only present for, like, 3% of the story max.

At one point the story was intended to end with Arc 13, followed by a hiatus and then a sequel. I still think this would have been the correct choice, even that ending would rip my fucking heart out and also possibly get Wildbow literal bombs mailed to his house. Still – if you can stand that sort of ending and also are the sort of person to read million-word web serials to begin with, that would be my recommendation. Get to that point, and then decide for yourself how invested you are in spending time in the heads of the protagonists and in the world. Or read Pact, which is like a fifth of the size and ostensibly set in the same setting – though leans so much further into horror than urban fantasy for tone that functionally there’s a lot of discrepancies.

All of which said, Verona Lucy and Avery are going to live in my head for the rest of my life and I make no apologies about this.

#book review #web serial #pale #parahumans #wildbow #sff #urban fantasy

86 notes · View notes