Review: Make a Wish. by: Perpetual Lurker

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What if you made a wish, and it came true? You'd be pretty happy right? But what if in order for your wish to come true, it had to rewrite the past, and alter the lives of nearly everypony you knew and cared for? Scootaloo has to face these questions when she wakes up to discover her idle wish that she was Rainbow Dash's sister came true.

Story: A very sweet, touching story, with plenty of feels as Scoots tries to come to grips with how her wish changed the lives of so many ponies. RD, her friends, her original parents, as well as her new ones. And one of the greatest (to me anyway) parts of the whole thing is how it's not made clear which is better for anypony, how they were, or how they are now. Their lives aren't necessarily made better or worse by Scoot's wish, simply different. Her original parents had been free to pursue the goals they had planned before they had to settle down when she was born. Yet it's clear that her parents never resented this and loved her and each other. That they were perfectly happy with the lives they had. And while her addition to RD's family clearly caused some strife, the wish didn't change who anypony was, how they acted, any of that. And it was her 'new' father's attitude that was the cause of all of the issues, and he'd be the same uncaring flank-hole without Scoot's there. Her being there allowed her RD and her mother to see what he was really like. And we never did see how close a relationship RD had with her parents before the wish.

The story is very quick, goes through a lot quickly, and yet never feels rushed. At least, till the climax. There the fast pace does kind of hurt the story a bit, if only because there is a lot of heavy emotions involved And while you can understand what the ponies are feeling, and see, logically, how they got there. It goes by so quick you don't really have time to feel it.

Then there is the flashback chapter told entirely in iambic pentameter. How you feel about that will be a huge YMMV issue. For me, it wasn't bad, and do have to admit it took some skill to pull that off and still make it work for the story. But the change in structure, and the rather odd (by modern standards and to the rest of the fic) structure was pretty immersion breaking for me.

Characters: A consistent strong point to the story is how well it explores and uses both the primary characters. Scoots and RD. Both feel very in character, very relatable, and you can't help but feel for both of them and empathize with them. Scoot's dilemma and worries over what she's done, how she's changed things. Trying to find a way to fix it, while also wondering if she had a right to change things again. And RD's worry and fretting over Scoots, and why her sister is acting so upset about something. Trying her hardest to figure out what is going on and how she can help her.

It's been well established that Lauren thought RD would be a pretty bad Big Sis for Scoots. And also that she did have a point. For Season 1 RD at least. As we've seen, after her character development, she makes a pretty awesome sister for Scoots. And The Wish made her gain this a lot faster. We see that while not perfect, she does care deeply for Scootaloo, and is trying her best to be there for her. And clearly has been for a long time. And another really great point to the story is what made Scoots make the wish in the first place. (Not having any idea it would come true of course). Not out of her own desire to have RD as her sis, not for herself, but rather her feeling bad for RD. Seeing RD off on her own, and simply wanting somepony to be there for her, the way AJ and Rarity had their sisters, or Twi had Spike.

And the secondary characters all shine as well. All the canon ones feel very in character as they try to deal with the insanity of everyponies' wishes coming true. And the OC's are all very well done.

Ponyness: Again, everypony feels very IC. And this is a really well done exploration of the relationship between some of them. As well as the very well done explanation for where the wishes coming true came from. Granted some parts of it were later invalidated by later eps, but not to badly, and still very great ideas for certain events in the past.

Overall: Great. A very fine, enjoyable read. With lots of feels, some good humor, and the only major drawback being the climax feeling a bit rushed. Sadly, the original plan for more stories showing other ponies perspective on events, and how other ponies (notably Twilight) were dealing with the chaos of the Wishes never came about. But this story stands fine on it's own. More a disappointment in there not being even more to it. Because this was a really creative idea, and some incredible writing to back it up.