Who is Twilight Sparkle (RE Bookplayer’s blog post) · 5:56am Nov 10th, 2014
Done in response to Bookplayer’s excellent post on the topic, found here, with comments by Tchernobog, Bradel, and bats. Go read it first. I’ll wait.
Before I even start, be aware that I am taking this question from the point of view of two non-canon stories that I’ve written, primarily The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian, (with Sequel The Traveling Tutor and the Diplomat’s Daughter), and secondarily The Monster in the Twilight. The blog post by Bookplayer caught my attention because the third story, The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam, is about 75% done, and I’ve done a lot of Twilight Writing during it.
(Brief Summary: TTatL - Twilight X OC shipfic done the way I think a romance involving her should be done. MitT - An AU where Twilight loses control at her entrance exam, nearly destroys her mind, and winds up living a destructive life in the Everfree Forest as a semi-sentient monster. Who makes friends.)
Tagging (T) for TTatL specific headcanon, and (M) for MitT headcanon
Briefly describe Twilight as you see her:
Brief? You don’t know me, do you? :)
She is a brilliant introvert who burns with curiosity regarding all things. If ever given a box that says ‘Do not open’ across the front in letters of fire, the world will end. She wants to know what is under that rock, behind that book, around that corner, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? How hard do you lick? What flavor? Magic is her special talent because anything can be done in Equestria with magic, from raising the sun to making Winter go away, and the answers to her questions are inside those wonderful books. Quote from Yes Twilight Sparkle, There Is a Santa Hooves:
Celestia had recently discovered the little filly’s ‘few questions’ could easily be considered a thesis with multiple pages of references by others. In fact, given a steady supply of books and food, she was fully capable of vanishing for weeks if not a full year with the only signs of her existence being a trail of dropped notes between her hiding place and the bathroom.
(T) Trust is a key to understanding Twilight Sparkle. Twilight trusts Celestia to an extent that could be considered unhealthy for anypony else. Twilight trusts Spike, who she views as a younger brother, most probably in a transference away from her relationship to Shining Armor, who has ‘gone away’ for a period of years recently, and most likely at the same time Cadence left, giving her only one ‘sibling’ to focus on. This is unhealthy, which is why I gave Twilight Velvet a set of ‘Whoops’ babies. (Naa, I just thought it would be fun. Both of my brothers had a ‘we thought we were done’ child later in life, and it’s humorous, at least from a distance.)
As Celestia’s student, she would be approached by the most loathsome of social climbers who would be looking for a hoof-up with the Princess, and any ‘friends’ she might meet would tend to turn out to be seeking an advantage instead of a real relationship, therefore reducing her social circle (now that SA and Cadence are gone) down to Spike and Celestia. From TTatL:
When she was younger, there had been more than one young noble unicorn colt who had been supposedly quite interested in being ‘tutored’ by the Princess’ private student, when in actuality they had very different ideas in mind. Her youthful experiences had been educational, true, but even restricting study-buddies to only fillies had not been wholly successful in preventing that sort of imposition. Everypony in Canterlot had just seemed to want something from her, either physically or socially, and by the time the Princess had sent her to Ponyville, her social circle had shrunk to the only two beings who really cared about her. One of which had just hosed her down with a fire extinguisher, and the other of which had just ‘coincidently’ sent a young noble colt to town. Well, one of those two was getting a stern note, and the other was going into time out, she just was not quite certain which one was going to be which.
(M) Monster has much the same Trust issues, only worse. She’s tried to rip down the sun, burned out her mind with power, roams the Everfree Forest at will and heavens help any creature who crosses her path. Cadence and Shining Armor are trying to capture her in order to help her, but she only sees the trap and is willing to rip the entire forest to shreds to escape. The only creature who she trusts is Zecora, who saved her life when she was thrown into the Everfree and who is always waiting to comfort her when she returns from her rage-induced forest trips. That is, until she meets the Cutie Mark Crusaders:
“It’s okay,” whispered Apple Bloom. “You’re safe here.”
Of course, even after having her mind nearly destroyed, she still maintains Twilight’s base personality:
“Buks fuhhhhst,” said Monster firmly, sitting the book down on the ground and settling in beside Apple Bloom. “Buks!” She stared at the little filly, who remained sitting quietly and not moving until Monster suddenly blurted out, “Anks. Ank ooouuu.”
What is essential to remember about her that people might forget?
Spike, darnit. The little guy gets almost no respect, but that’s understandable. His primary reason for existing is so that Twilight can talk out loud without talking to herself in the cartoon, but he’s also her best friend and little brother, and just the least little bit of a child to take care of.
Secondly is her ability to lock onto a problem until it can be dealt with, either by direct confrontation or by studying it to death. If Fermat lived in Twilight’s universe, he would be met at the breakfast table by a sleepy unicorn demanding that he provide the proof that he claimed for his last theorem, right here, on this piece of paper, and I’m not leaving until you finish so put down that piece of toast and pick up this pencil, mister. The only reason questions exist is so they can be answered, and if you have an unanswered question, that just means you’re not working hard enough on it. Need an egg unscrambled? There’s a spell for that, even if it has to be researched, which is fun! Come on, grab a book and help me look. There is no impossible, there is merely difficult.
(T) There was something in his own gut that twitched each time Twilight sobbed and hiccupped into her green pillow. Even in defeat she was undefeated, scheming out her failures through the tears and planning her next assault on the problem between hiccups. In some way, he understood the reason Twilight Sparkle had been the focal point in the fight against Nightmare Moon, for if he had been an evil goddess bent on revenge, the cute purple unicorn would have been the last opponent he would ever have wanted to face. Or maybe Pinkie Pie. It would have been a difficult decision: death by magic or death by cake.
(M) The force of destruction in her soul that screamed for release fought viciously as she began to force it down. Bit by bit, she wrapped the hatred in iron bands, forcing it to her will as she had never resisted it before. Erratic bursts of power slipped from her grasp and splattered fire across the chamber, setting the rugged cellulose of the walls smoldering in places and recoiling like a striking snake against one hapless changeling who decided to poke his nose into the chamber to find out what all the commotion was about. The fire ate him into nothingness, leaving only a few smoking limbs spasming in the doorway.
Monster clung desperately to the small frightened voice she had heard in the pod. To release her fury on the creatures who attacked her friends would certainly kill both the bugs and her friends. The glare of white power from her eyes slowly faded as she regained control, wrestling the changeling power under her will. The love of the changelings was powerful, but far too easy to convert to hatred, and impossible to change back.
Nobody told Monster.
Is there anything you like to add to her character that’s a stretch from canon, or totally your own invention?
Hm. Let’s see. I gave her a coltfriend and turned her into an elemental force of destruction roaming the Everfree Forest, both of which wound up giving her baby brothers. That’s a stretch from canon, I think. One thing I would like to see is a weakness that she cannot overcome, perhaps the inability to color coordinate wallpaper, or her fear of snakes and spiders. As a matter of fact, an entire story on trying to cope with her fear of spiders would be fantastic. Although probably not with this:
“Well, it’s like Granny Smith says. You can let a foal go through life afraid, or you can lock her in a dark room with a thousand spiders until she stops screaming.” Applejack put her basket under another tree and lined up for a kick. “She’s just full of folksy wisdom.”
(T) I added interpretations of her parents, making Mom the Dean at the High Energy Thaumatology Lab in Canterlot University and with a personality extrapolated from Twilight’s basic configuration. She’s very protective of her daughter (and yes, wince at this paragraph):
“Your father and I only want what’s best for our little princess,” said Velvet softly, chopping a cucumber into nearly transparent slices. “If that young colt of yours is giving you any problems at all...” She finished her chopping with one last solid whack, before spreading the finely sliced cucumber onto some nearby bread.
and she’s a researcher at heart, just like her daughter:
“Direct observation, although my sample size is pitifully small.” Twilight Sparkle tapped the table while looking off into the distance. “I suppose I could consult with Miss Cheerilee about names of his romantic interests while in college and submit a questionnaire to them by mail, but I’m afraid the error rate would be too large for sufficient accuracy.”
“Top of the left stack,” said Velvet, pointing at two stacks of paper on the table with her knife. “Due to the short notice, I was only able to interview a dozen young mares and have not yet correlated the data in any truly scientific fashion, but my initial observation is that you have what several of his previous romantic liaisons would call ‘a Keeper,’ although there is some discrepancy among the results that may be related to social climbing among the classes. You should be pleased that there is no real history of violence or anti-social behavior in his family other than what is normal for a Barony of his size. Few mental illnesses in his family comparatively, and he seems to have a nasty streak of honesty that would disqualify him from holding political office.” Twilight Velvet dropped the shredded onions onto the sizzling pan with a hiss. “In short, I like him. Other than his abysmal grasp of Physics, he seems to be perfectly normal.”
(T) And her father I made into an ‘anchor’ of the relationship, much the same as Shining Armor is going to have to be the sensible anchor of the crystal alicorn he married. After all, it takes a real stallion to throw your wife after the Crystal Heart like a javelin. Night Light is a little more understated. Ok, a lot more.
“It does you no good to take a trip if you don’t enjoy it. I have to say one thing about my trip so far: I’ve never been bored. Frightened, terrified, exhilarated, or ecstatic, yes, but never bored. Either way the two of you decide, make the most of it, and don’t let anypony try to tell you otherwise. Within reason. My wife still has her father’s sword hung up on the wall.”
A tiny smile crept onto Green Grass’ face. “I think it can stay there.”
How does Twilight’s academic interest affect how you write her in different situations?
In TV terms, she is, in effect, Eddie Albert in Green Acres. She possesses vast sums of knowledge about things outside of Ponyville, and very little about what actually goes on in town, the inverse of the traditionally folksy country character who goes to town and proceeds to show how small town values work so much better than big city methods, as The Beverly Hillbillies did weekly. In most sitcom settings, this would be played for laughs as the small town hucksters proceed to take advantage of her naivete, and they do a little, but I like to show her love for learning exceeds nearly any of the small incidentals.
(T) Green Grass coughed also, looking carefully around the floor for his common sense, or what was left of his wits. “Yes, it does. I think I’m ready to continue...” A quick glance at the clock dropped his heart into his hooves. “Darn. I’ve got a lesson in a few minutes over at Roseluck’s.”
“And I’ve got an experiment running in the basement that needs feeding,” mumbled Twilight, looking at the clock as if sheer willpower could make it run backwards. “I really wanted to increase my sample size.”
“Increase the confidence interval,” murmured Green Grass, trying to keep his eyes off Twilight and failing.
“You know what I want to do,” breathed Twilight, looking Green Grass straight in the eyes. “And I know you do too.”
“It’s been a long time,” admitted the tutor, nearly touching noses with Twilight.
“I’m certain you will remember just how,” whispered Twilight, gently bumping noses with him. “How about we meet back here after your classes are over? And we can work on continuing our... little project.”
“A date?” asked Green Grass, taken aback slightly, only to relax as Twilight’s entire face seemed to glow with a joyous smile that nearly blinded him.
“A study session. Now come on, let's get going. The sooner we get done with our projects, the sooner we can get back here.”
(M) “We shall never understand modern music. In any case, can you tell me what it is that you did wrong, so that you might not repeat your folly?”
“Well.” Monster considered the issue briefly. “When I was doing the space-mass tensor deconstruction, I think the rounding errors on the formula added instead of cancelling each other out, giving me an energy imbalance across—”
“No.” Luna placed both of her forehooves over her face and sighed. “No,” she repeated, slightly muffled. “Just… No.”
Do you think becoming a princess has changed Twilight’s perspective? How?
Well, I’ve soft-shoed this in (T) to a point, since only the third story takes place post-wings, and in the sequel to (M) she’s still pretty flightless, although Scootaloo is giving her lessons in crashing from tall buildings. I think in canon, she’s got a pretty good case of imposter syndrome muted only because of her close friends. In short, she’s the same Twilight inside, only with wings, and a whopping lot more things to learn. Please note, almost the first question she asked after alicornification is if there was a book she could study about what to expect. So now she has to learn about flying, about earth pony magic, and an entire new scale of things she can do with unicorn magic. She actually has raised the sun now (although a little wobbly), transformed along with her friends into Breezies, defeated an ancient evil that had defeated all of the other princesses, and has a bright new castle. But still, inside her heart, there’s still that little unicorn who wants nothing more than to curl up in a sunbeam with a good book.
If Twilight was in our world, what would she study in college?
Well, my knee-jerk reaction is ‘How to get back.’ Seriously though, her instincts seem to be ‘whatever looks interesting’ with a good dose of ‘helpfull’ that can be considered good or bad, depending on how much the help-ee wants help. Certainly the Math and Science section of the university would see frequent visits, as well as the sorority rushes, student get-togethers, and an endless number of meetings with foreign students of many types. Somehow I don’t think the ‘Studies’ sections would get much attention, or any of the political rallies, and the campus ministers who try to chat up the students for converts had better know their source material backwards and forwards. Certainly the Higgs Boson had better find a new hiding place, and several mathematical theorems are going to be rewritten.
And, of course, she’ll make lots of friends.
I thought this myself too, and in part as an explanation for why she's so uninterested in making friends in Canterlot. This doesn't mean that Moondancer and her friends were purely trying to take advantage of Spike to get to Twilight Sparkle, though -- they may have been sincerely friendly, but by that time Twilight was prejudiced against anypony coming out of nowhere and trying to befriend her.
Though, noticeably, we don't see her in any episode trying to make friends with Moondancer's crowd, even after she's made friends in Ponyville.
From a distance being the key phrase, huh?
That was a lovely bit of work, Georg. I don't know about anybody else, but I think your main text really shows an understanding of the canon Twilight that a lot of fan-writers lack!
I love seeing different interpretations of the characters, and getting to see the curtain peeled back to show the thought process behind those decisions is always a treat. Thank you for this.