Twilight Sparkle, now Princess of Equestria, discovers that Celestia and Luna are spending their retirement larping as powerful spellcasters in the backyard pine forests of Ponyville.

Cover image by Hispers.

R: In my culture, the pumpkin was always codified as something that happens when magic has gone, it's not about perspectives and such. Pretty clean message about 'grabbing it' while its hot, using your chance, or else the clock will strike midnight and you'll lose it all... I guess it colors Cinderella as a pretty opportunistic gal.

A: I think that works too. People often think of roleplaying and video games as a waste of time. We might say that people who have those hobbies live in a world of pumpkins, as C and L seem to do. But there is some different psychological need served in the state of play, some different mode, that is not just a poor substitute for having the real thing. If you look at Cinderella in a different way, her life was more 'human' when she was talking to mice and imagining dresses between the glares of her impenetrable stepsisters.