• Member Since 11th Oct, 2011
  • offline last seen 6 hours ago

Pascoite


I'm older than your average brony, but then I've always enjoyed cartoons. I'm an experienced reviewer, EqD pre-reader, and occasional author.

Sequels1

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This story is a sequel to In the Moon’s Platinum Glow


A special moment between sisters happened that first Hearth's Warming Eve. Star Swirl the Bearded saw the significance, but too late. Another will happen this year, and with his guidance, maybe Twilight Sparkle can make this the best Hearth's Warming Rarity ever had.

Featured on Equestria Daily!

Cover art by stabzor

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 33 )

Very interesting. Took me a bit of going back and forth through the story after finishing it before the whole picture formed, but I think it did. The one thing I am not entirely sure about is why Twilight ended up in that position with that wish. I guess its how the thing works or something.

Man, that was certainly different from most of the other Hearth's Warming stories on this site. It was still wonderful, though.

5416736 It was another twisted wish. For Rarity to be made a normal pony, someone had to take on her burden. Twilight anticipated that, and so did Star Swirl. But because of her alicorn magic, Twilight can break most of the rules to the point that it's not much of a burden anymore.

Well done, A +:raritystarry::moustache::twilightoops:

What an excellent story! Thank you for this!

That was a really interesting concept. It was quite dense? thick? No, none of those work. There was a lot to it? Yeah, I guess that works. Or maybe: This is definitely the sort of story you need to read closely? I dunno. Words are hard.

All I do know is that I really enjoyed it, and going back and rereading passages to try and figure out what was happening was still enjoyable.

I thought I had commented on this already... but anyway, I was absolutely enthralled by this tale. Great storytelling, unique premise, perfect execution. Well done!

What he said. Somebody please explain, because I have no idea what's going on here.

Where did you get the cover art?

Raise the bar, raise the bar
One, two, three, four
Pascoite sure raised the bar
One, two, three, four

There is one little typo I need to point out, though:

“[You] poor dear—you’re doubly cursed, aren’t you?”

5423953 Found it in a Google search. The only instance of it that turned up was an uncredited appearance in an image board. I tried searching on derpibooru for it, but nothing. I prefer to credit the artist and get his permission, but I couldn't track one down in this case.

5423915 Okay, the abridged version. Rarity's actually an immortal creature, the daughter of an ifrit (similar to a genie) and a pony. She's half-ifrit and her little sister is a normal pony. Like some genies, Rarity twists whatever wishes she grants into something bad. She doesn't like it, but she can't help it. When her sister got her cutie mark, she was so happy that she wished she could experience that moment forever, but she didn't realize what powers Rarity had. So the wish got twisted into them having to endlessly repeat that. Whenever the younger sister gets her cutie mark, they both disappear and are reborn in the future some time. So Rarity's been a lot of ponies, including Princess Platinum. Star Swirl figured it out due to the odd bursts of magic whenever someone made a wish, and when he realized she wasn't doing it on purpose, he used his wish to make sure someone in the future would be able to solve the problem, since he was out of time. That meant that in the future, Twilight would have the alicorn magic needed to do so, but that Star Swirl would never become one. Then in the present day, Twilight figures it all out and uses her wish to make Rarity a normal pony, but the bad part of the wish is that Twilight has to take on being the half-ifrit. But because of her alicorn magic, it's not much of an issue for her.

5416746

Impressive. You did quite well, and it all fits quite snugly.

I wrote a review of this story here.

This is an interesting concept, but to be honest, the execution was too vague for my liking. It builds up a lot of tension, leaving the reader in the dark like that, and of course that's good and one of the things the story lives from, but actually it got to a point where I was annoyed rather than entertained - too many questions with too little answers in too little time. I still enjoyed the story as it is, but it did give me a headache.

I'm finally catching up on my Hearth's Warming reading. Interesting that we both wrote holiday stories that weren't really holiday stories from Rarity's perspective about her having a secret.

This is certainly damn original, and that's a hell of an interpretation of Generosity, and it ties everything together nicely. That said, I felt off balance throughout the entire first half, and I'm trying to pin down why. I think it was a combination of seeing the scene from close third-person limited from the one individual who knew exactly what was going on; and having Starswirl come in with the "I figured everything out" speech; and still having everything confused enough such that most of the reveal had to be repeated by Twilight.

Actually ... Rereading, the clues are all there, but what threw me was that from the very first paragraph, it's signaled that Pallas is the magical one. Which is true insofar as she's the source of the repetition, but not true in a way that helped me understand. Platinum knowing she would arrive, Starswirl deducing that Platinum was cursed, and most importantly Platinum saying that Pallas was named after a goddess, which A) from the Twilight scene, appears to just be a lie, and B) from the context of the half-deity offspring thing, implies the boringly-named Platinum is normal, while it's exactly the other way around. Meh, I don't know, I think I just have a track record of reading the wrong things into your stories, like Chris has a track record of reading unintended subtexts into mine.

Also, this might just be a goof: you explicitly state the wisher has to touch the lamp, but Pallas doesn't. (Star Swirl is left ambiguous as to whether he did or not, which might be playing your cards too close to your chest.) I know it's not the first time she made the wish, but rules are rules, and you don't want to set one out only to break it.

5431031 Pallas does touch the lamp. For her, Star Swirl, Sweetie Belle, and Twilight, Rarity feels them reach a hoof out while they're hugging her. They're reaching for the lamp. And she is named after Pallas Athena. The bit about palladium is true as well, and it's probably why their mother chose those names as a pair, so that it wouldn't be immediately obvious that they're coordinated. As to Platinum's being more ordinary... well, their mother didn't necessarily know how they'd turn out when she chose the names. She wasn't trying to show favor to one over the other.

I actually don't mind a reader being off-balance in the early going since there's a lot going on, but take your confusion versus Titanium Dragon, who claims he had nearly everything figured out very quickly, and... I guess I hit in the middle somewhere?

And once again, you've blown my mind with a story.

I don't understand it completely yet, but what I read was amazing and magical.
Only you can write like this. Only you.
If I wouldn't do it already, I would follow you now. And I regret that I can't follow you twice. But this story will get at least a favourite.
You're a wizard of words.

5450862
Thank you for linking that. I've added credit for the artist and asked his permission.

I figured it all out, piecing it all slowly form the beginning until I hit the end, at which point everything made sense. Especially liked the touch of Rarity being Generousity tying into the genie wish-granting business.

I loved how engaging it was from the get-go. I was actually looking for "something that would have a good setup", rather than something to read specifically, to brush up my conceptual editing, and, well, I ended up hooked. The light touch of imagery is yet so vivid, the characters play well within and around the conflict, and really is just the right length. This was a good read, and thank you.

5416746
Wow. Star Swirl probably rose even higher in Twilight's esteem after this- and it's always nice to see that one's heroes really did live up to the myth of their greatness. I really liked this portrayal of him.

I very nice sweet and sad story.

i.imgur.com/od0xMCF.png
Shhh... I'm not late for last Christmas, I'm just early for the next one! :raritywink:

5793407
Very early, in fact! :pinkiehappy:

I'm curious—are stories that were added to Twilight's Library ineligible for Tag-a-Long's Book Club, is there a plan to include them eventually, or are they just not treated differently than any other story?

5793988
I'm pretty sure we just hit the reset button essentially. We could go through the TL archives, but that's literally thousands of stories, if I'm not mistaken. (Otherwise, we sure did a lot of work for not a lot of stories.) I don't know if anyone has the time, energy, or motivation to specifically go through and add absolutely everything.

That said, we have a suggestion thread and a self-promotion thread. I think it's usually the admins who check those two (I stepped down to contributor so I could just add stories I read and like), but I don't really remember. Either way, it'll end up gone over at some point, especially if it garners votes. More than likely, it'll all be added eventually, especially since it was included in TL.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

whaaaat the hell? that was nuts! :D

That was awesome.

“Salaam,” she said between sniffles. “It means ‘peace.’ And I have never had a day of it.”

And doesn't that take on another layer of meaning in the wake of the prequel?

In any case, fascinating concept and excellent execution. I wish I'd read it years ago, but at the same time, I'm glad I waited.

Also, Nummy is a hilariously undignified nickname.

9943731
You have a sharp eye! Yes, there are a number of details that get added context when you take both stories together.

I came here from In the Moon's Platinium Glow, and they're both quite alot to digest, but worth every bit.

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