The Arcane Papers: In the Spirit of Hearth's Warming · 6:54am Dec 27th, 2018
By Thoughtful Irony. Only a little late.
On the world of Arcanium, and especially in Equestria, we have very little understanding of how our world works. Magic fills every corner of our lives, from the weather to agriculture, machinery, transportation, and so on and so forth. But our understanding of it is terrifyingly minuscule. Oh sure, we know what things do. If you’re angry when you cast a spell, that spell will behave poorly. Breezies can control plant life, even if whatever they’re controlling wouldn’t be able to move on its own. But ask why a crying Pegasus will just make clouds appear from nowhere and the best you’ll get is an awkward request to change the subject.
The most mysterious of these mysteries is named the Winter Mage, an Earth Pony whose mission in life is to bring presents to foals in the winter. The mare tends to be subject to great discourse because she’s a magical mystery that’s never killed anything, and those are very rare. Every living creature has seen her at one point or another in their lifetime, and her power has never dwindled over the thousand years she’s been active. Her magic, whatever the origin, appears to have given her god-like power.
Her name is Pinkie Pie.
Her conversations with ponies imply that she can travel through time, which explains how she can give so much personal attention to each child across the world. It also means there are several incarnations of her running around at any given moment. She appears in three distinct categories: A filly, appearing predominantly to children and often bearing gifts, a young mare that often deals with cruel parents or other dangers, and an elderly mare that dispenses advice. Sightings begin after Nightmare Night and grow more frequent as Hearths Warming approaches.
On Hearths Warming Eve, every family in the world will receive some manner of aid, such as a repaired house, or a good meal, or toys. There’s some grumbling from entitled ponies about who gets what, sincere gratitude from those that aren’t terrible, and everybody prepares for next year. Sightings wane until the spring, and then she’s not seen until next year.
The most interesting, and I suppose most in flavor for Hearths Warming, are her Tokens. Once per lifetime, every child will get a small token made of ice with her Cutie Mark emblazed on it. They never melt until after one of two things happen. Either the child uses it to make a wish, or they grow old and no longer have a use for it. After one grows up the Tokens disappear on their own, though how the term grown-up is defined is still uncertain. There are many ponies with seemingly childish pursuits that no longer have tokens, and many ponies stuck with maturity still manage to have the ‘heart of a child’ or whatever saccharine haberdash they’re using this year.
At any rate, these Tokens are most likely charged with the same magic as Pinkie Pie’s, so learning their secrets is paramount. Once a miracle has been summoned, the Token melts and Pinkie will appear herself. You can only use the one that was created for you, and nothing can force the Tokens to work for anybody else. As a matter of fact, the Tokens are immune to magic of any sort. Most spells and wards aren’t even aware that they exist, and they never affect the works of the Token itself. Nor do they respond to Pinkie Pie’s presence, unless she wishes to cause a scene.
Pinkie Pie herself, as mentioned before, is three people because Time Travel means her past, present, and future are all happening simultaneously. Her filly self is incredibly optimistic and caring, and truly the most stubborn being in existence. Her entire life is geared to spreading happiness to others, and she pursues it with aplomb. Her next older self is often the one that cleans up her mistakes. She’s still odd, but she’s mastered the ability to listen and has a more nuanced understanding of the world. Her oldest self is very sensitive about her age, and a truly aggravating faunt of wisdom. She’s the listener of the three, and her other selves are very deferential to her. Ominously, she is blind and wears a blue blindfold over her face to conceal her sightless eyes.
While studying Pinkie Pie is an exercise in frustration, it’s still something all magical researcher pursue at one point or another in their careers. As mentioned before, Pinkie Pie is the only magical mystery that hasn’t gotten somebody hurt or killed before. Not all of her adventures are successes, but none of them end harshly. I’m not sure she’s ever harmed somebody before.
At the risk of sounding sentimental; she represents hope. And that’s something we need more often than we’d like to admit.
I suppose analyzing anything in this world is a dangerous business in and of itself. Especially since everything that isn't Pinkie carries a chance of lethality. Still, in a world where earth ponies embody their cutie marks to a terrifying degree, it makes sense that Pinkie would be an unearthly, almost eldritch entity. Very cool stuff.
Interesting. Pinkie seems to be as mysteriously strange as always.
Just a few typos i found:
Not sure what you're trying to say here.