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My Little Apprentice #1
My Little Apprentice
Twilight Sparkle learns that the trust and goodwill of the Princess isn't always a good thing as she's given the trust of an important assignment. When that assignment turns out to be long-term, how will she handle taking care of a filly of her own? How will she handle this strange new filly, who proves to be much more than she appears. As a matter of fact, she seems to be from an entirely separate universe.
Meanwhile, Second Chance has kept only enough of her memories to know that she isn't what she should be. The wonderful world of Equestria has its own dangers, and she seems to have a knack for attracting trouble. The more of her memories return, the more she wishes she could just forget. But you can't forget when all of Equestria depends on you remembering.
Only one thing's for sure: The longest Twilight keeps this strange filly in her care, the stranger her own life will become, and things she thought she knew about Equestria will unravel before her eyes. Strange ancient devices, an eccentric mint unicorn and her so-called "Equestrian Precursor Society" are only the beginning for Twilight Sparkle as she begins a journey of her own. She too may wish she could simply forget.
Unfortunately, it's too late for either of them.
Meanwhile, Second Chance has kept only enough of her memories to know that she isn't what she should be. The wonderful world of Equestria has its own dangers, and she seems to have a knack for attracting trouble. The more of her memories return, the more she wishes she could just forget. But you can't forget when all of Equestria depends on you remembering.
Only one thing's for sure: The longest Twilight keeps this strange filly in her care, the stranger her own life will become, and things she thought she knew about Equestria will unravel before her eyes. Strange ancient devices, an eccentric mint unicorn and her so-called "Equestrian Precursor Society" are only the beginning for Twilight Sparkle as she begins a journey of her own. She too may wish she could simply forget.
Unfortunately, it's too late for either of them.
509 pages, ebook
First published March 4, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 9, 2015
This was pretty good, despite my somewhat middling star rating (it lost stars mainly as I sat here pondering some of the details of the story, I'm often very detail-focused).
The slow reveal of the protagonist's background is nicely handled, with ambiguities arising and then being resolved only for new ambiguities to arise. Over the course of the story it's never quite clear who exactly the bad guys are - there's several factions and they do various acts of "villainy" for various reasons that might or might not really be all that villainous. That's a good thing, IMO.
It's also quite neat that we get an outsider's perception of Alicorn Twilight that puts her on the same "tier" as the other princesses - she's a demigod and the protagonist is able to sense that, putting her in a different class from the rest of the ponies around her even though she still acts humble and Twilightish as ever. Pinkie Pie was interesting too, she seemed to have a feel for some of what was going on without doing any of the silly fourth-wall-breaking that wouldn't have really fit the mood of the work.
The story was not without some flaws, though. Much of the plot hinges on how the "physics" of magic and trans-dimensional travel works, and while there's nothing wrong with making up complex rules for these sorts of things I don't think I followed them very well - the implications were hard to predict. For example, I didn't realize the protagonist's "pseudo-alicorn" nature until very late in the story. This could be partly my fault - I read the whole thing in one sitting and it got a bit late by the end, I was a little tired - but I get the impression that the author only planned out the story in broad strokes and then filled in details like this as needed later on. An editing pass could probably do wonders here, "backfilling" the details that would become important later on.
Several characters seemed needlessly mysterious when it came to relaying important information, too. I know that fits with the established character of the show, but it can be frustrating when overused. Celestia should be a bit less focused on helping Twilight learn by "figuring things out for herself" in situations like this, especially now that Twilight is more of a peer than a student.
And finally the story left a lot of stuff unresolved at the end. This is not inherently bad since there's a sequel in the works, but until the sequel is finished I have to consider this story in isolation. I'll probably bump my review up a star once that's done, assuming it satisfies the dangling threads.
Overall, a worthwhile read.
The slow reveal of the protagonist's background is nicely handled, with ambiguities arising and then being resolved only for new ambiguities to arise. Over the course of the story it's never quite clear who exactly the bad guys are - there's several factions and they do various acts of "villainy" for various reasons that might or might not really be all that villainous. That's a good thing, IMO.
It's also quite neat that we get an outsider's perception of Alicorn Twilight that puts her on the same "tier" as the other princesses - she's a demigod and the protagonist is able to sense that, putting her in a different class from the rest of the ponies around her even though she still acts humble and Twilightish as ever. Pinkie Pie was interesting too, she seemed to have a feel for some of what was going on without doing any of the silly fourth-wall-breaking that wouldn't have really fit the mood of the work.
The story was not without some flaws, though. Much of the plot hinges on how the "physics" of magic and trans-dimensional travel works, and while there's nothing wrong with making up complex rules for these sorts of things I don't think I followed them very well - the implications were hard to predict. For example, I didn't realize the protagonist's "pseudo-alicorn" nature until very late in the story. This could be partly my fault - I read the whole thing in one sitting and it got a bit late by the end, I was a little tired - but I get the impression that the author only planned out the story in broad strokes and then filled in details like this as needed later on. An editing pass could probably do wonders here, "backfilling" the details that would become important later on.
Several characters seemed needlessly mysterious when it came to relaying important information, too. I know that fits with the established character of the show, but it can be frustrating when overused. Celestia should be a bit less focused on helping Twilight learn by "figuring things out for herself" in situations like this, especially now that Twilight is more of a peer than a student.
And finally the story left a lot of stuff unresolved at the end. This is not inherently bad since there's a sequel in the works, but until the sequel is finished I have to consider this story in isolation. I'll probably bump my review up a star once that's done, assuming it satisfies the dangling threads.
Overall, a worthwhile read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review