Thorn strode through the streets of Fillydelphia, his lanky, teenaged-form legs carrying him a good distance with each stride. Around him, his signature gray robes obscured most of his features, making it easier for the spells he was supporting to convince others that there was nothing interesting about him, not even his glowing eyes with freaky, undulating pupils.
He turned the corner indicated in the directions he had received from a gray earth pony, and then stopped and stared. The boundary between the two districts was so distinct that Thorn could have sworn that it was two different cities mashed up together. Where the rectangular buildings of Fillydelphia's pony district ended, the irregular, carved-from-stone buildings of Dragon Town began.
Thorn stepped forwards and continued walking. He had no real destination in mind beyond this, his only goal being to find something useful. The dracolich wondered if he could find a dojo or a bookstore – someplace where he could get ideas to experiment with, if not actual instruction on his abilities.
Even if he didn't find anything useful, he was still enjoying himself. Compared to the garish, overly decorated streets of upper Canterlot, the simplicity and uniformity of the design of Dragon Town emphasized the few decorations there were.
And the dragons! Everywhere he looked, there were more of them in all sorts of colors and designs – similar to ponies, he noted. He also noted that, despite all the variations he saw, none looked older than young adults – less than a hundred years of age – leading him to believe that the dragons left if they grew too big. Their souls too, he noted, were different from ponies and from his own hybrid soul. While pony souls looked like small flames, dragon souls looked like orbs with two triangular protrusions, reminiscent of wings. His mouth watered slightly, his hunger for souls silencing any cannibalism-based objections.
His rational mind, however, silenced his ethereal hunger and decided to replace the sensation with physical hunger. As luck would have it, he could smell something delicious coming from nearby.
Following his nose, Thorn shortly found himself standing at an open-air stall. Glancing at the menu on display, he spotted several gem-infused noodle bowls for sale. Shrugging, he brushed past the overhead curtain and sat down at the last available seat.
No sooner had he sat down than the pink dame* next to him, likely in her teens, stopped eating, turned, and offered her claw in greeting. "Hey, my name's Mina. What's yours?"
Not used to being so casually approached for conversation, let alone at all, it took Thorn a minute to work out the appropriate response. He stuck out his claw and shook hers. "Thornecrovitar, Thorn for short."
"Ooh, that's a fierce-sounding name. Spear of death and life, I think it means," Mina replied before picking up a wad of noodles with her chopsticks and greedily slurping them up.
"Spear of undeath, actually," Thorn corrected. "Mom's a fan of creepy stuff like that."
Just then, the waitress appeared across the counter. "And what can I get you?"
Thorn blinked. "Never been here before. Water and whatever you do best, please," he requested.
"One miso-ruby soup, coming up," the waitress said before disappearing in the back.
"Creepy, huh?" Mina said to herself. "And what kind of things are you into, Thorn?"
To the dame, the drake replied, "Ah, you know, guy stuff. Hoofball, playing the drums, good food, murder, comic books-"
"What was that?"
"Comic books?"
She shook her head. "No, before that."
"Good food?"
"Nevermind. And for your information, comic books can be for girls, too, you know," the pink dame quipped.
"Never said it wasn't," Thorn replied. At that moment, the waitress brought out his bowl and chopsticks, for which Thorn quickly thanked her. He took one bite, his eyes went wide, and then he quickly began greedily slurping up the noodles.
"Well, as it happens, I work at a comic book store a few blocks down the road; this is where I come on my lunch break," Mina commented.
The purple dragon swallowed hastily. "Guh, mmm... Really? That's amazing!" he said, his already luminescent eyes metaphorically lighting up with joy. "I'll have to stop by before Mom and I leave town tomorrow."
"Where you two headed, if you don't mind me asking?" Mina inquired.
"North. We're kind of on the run," Thorn said. "We're just going where the wind blows."
It was Mina's turn to go wide-eyed. "That sounds like one of my adventure comics! Who are you running from? Why are you running? How are you going to stop them from catching you?"
"I'll let most of that stay a secret, no offense," Thorn replied. "As for how we're going to stay safe, I'll show you. First, describe my appearance."
"Ok, so you're wearing a disguise?"
"Nope. Just tell me what you see."
"Alright," the dame agreed. "You're a purple drake - late teens, early twenties. Green back spines, ear fins, and eyes. You've got a rather ordinary face, normal proportions, no distinguishing scars, no significant features. Honestly, If I hadn't just spent a minute describing your face, I'd say it was rather forgettable."
Thorn smiled. "That means it's working. Did you notice how much time you spent describing 'normal' and 'ordinary' features, and not identifying ones?"
She finished the last bite of her food. "Huh," Mina said. "You're right. Odd."
"And, you completely missed my most distinguishing feature while you were looking at me," Thorn added.
"Wait, what?"
"There is something odd about my eyes. Look closely at the pupil and concentrate on what you see; don't assume," Thorn answered. Opening his eyes wide, he looked right into her teal eyes.
"Hmmm... I don't see... Wait." Suddenly, she jumped back, slamming into the dragon behind her and knocking them both to the ground. "HOLY SHIT! What in Tartarus is that?"
Hopping off the stool, Thorn offered her and the drake she was climbing off of a claw. The fallen drake shot Mina a glare, but didn't otherwise complain. Once everydragon was seated again, Thorn answered, "Those are my eyes."
"What? No way! Hey," she turned and waved down the waitress. "Look at this guy's eyes. See anything odd?"
She looked. "No, they're perfectly ordinary eyes. Just a normal shade of green."
As the waitress turned away, Mina sputtered, "B-but How?"
"You only see what I want you to see, and I want to be seen as normal," Thorn answered somewhat cryptically. Then, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, he slurped down the rest of his delicious soup. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a claw full of bits, more than enough to pay for both their meals, and set them on the counter. "So, can I see that comic shop of yours?"
"Are you like a superhero or something?" Mina asked from where she sat at on the store checkout counter. "I mean, that thing with your eyes wasn't normal, either them or how you hid them. So is that your power? Illusions?"
"No, that's mom's," Thorn asked as he flipped through the comics. The two of them were in Mina’s store, deserted of all but them since the majority of the customers only came in the evenings and on the weekends.
"Really? How does that work? Does she just breath her flame on your face and BAM, illusions?"
"No, no magic fire breath**; Mom's a unicorn."
Mina sheepishly chuckled. "Oops. Didn't realize you were pony-raised." He waived his claw dismissively. "So? Powers?"
"You seem awfully convinced that I have abilities that I shouldn't,” Thorn remarked with a slight chuckle. He set down one comic book and picked up another.
“Of course. Mysterious past, strange appearance, cloaked, on the run, raised by somepony other than the dragon that laid you,” Mina said, counting on her fingers as she did. “You match a lot of the same tropes my favorite comic book characters have.”
“Hmm... Oh, wow, that’s stupid,” Thorn said.
Annoyed, Mina shouted, “HEY!”
“Not you,” Thorn replied. He held out the comic book and pointed out the illustration. “These zombies. These slow, shuffling, moaning things are hardly scary.”
Mina looked at the page. Then, taking the book, she flipped it over and looked at the cover. “The Trotting Dead? They’re not scary? If that’s not scary, then what would you call scary?”
“The ones that nobody - not even the zombie - knows is dead yet,” Thorn answered. At Mina’s confused look, he elaborated, “The dark sorceress sends her curse towards a group of adventurers; one of them is struck, but is apparently unharmed. The group drives the sorceress back and makes her retreat. They celebrate, but then one of their own suddenly is killed - a neck ripped open by teeth. The murderer is seemingly horrified about what her mouth did without her control, but then her mouth speaks on its own. ‘Two down, the rest to go. And don’t worry,’ the sorceress’s warped voice says, ‘I already consumed this vessel's soul. She’s been dead for hours, and now I’m going to kill you all.’ And then the dead body on the ground says, ‘A little help here?’”
Mina shuddered. “Wow, you’re right. A zombie that looks and act like your friend before it eats you - creepy!” Then she chuckled, “I’m glad that’s just a story.”
Thorn only smiled.
“My mom loves that kind of stuff,” he said. “Hey, have you ever heard of a dragon that can age backwards?” the dracolich asked.
She shook her head. “No, that’s silly. Why?”
“Because you were wrong when you guessed my age,” Thorn said.
“What, really?” She jumped up from her seat on the counter and walked over to Thorn. “Prove it.”
Thorn smiled. “Gladly.” He turned around and, mid-stride, aged himself up, practically doubling his height. Plucking a comic off the top shelf, he began to shrink back down, passing the height/age where he had met Mina, and shrank down to the size of a ten-going-on-eleven year old drake. “This is as young as I can get. Never bothered to learn how old I could get; I stopped when I was big enough to carry my mom on my back in flight.”
The pink dragoness stared at him, slack-jawed. “How? How did you do that?”
“I’ll teach you if you’re willing to make a trade,” he replied. “I taught my twin brother how to do it; I’m sure I can teach you.”
“Oh my gosh. Whatever you want, just take it, on me.” She gestured to the store in general. “I have to know.”
“Can you teach me what fire magics you know?”
Sheepishly, she admitted, “I don’t know that much - my family’s never had much variety in our magic, and nothing really awesome like that.”
“And I never had a family to teach me dragon stuff. Spike and I had to figure it all out ourselves,” Thorn replied.
“Deal.” She stuck out her hand, which Thorn - now back at late teenager size - grasped and shook. “So, do you want to breath exploding gunpowder clouds or shoot fireworks?”
“Fireworks, definitely,” Thorn replied. “My own arsenal is dangerous enough. I want something fun.”
“Sure. Now,” - she practically jumped in his face - “tell me!”
“Greed.”
“Huh?”
“You have to imagine your size and age as intrinsically valuable. You have to hoard your own size, and yet maintain enough control to know when to stop.” He started growing slowly. “Picture the size you want to be. Make that the most valuable size, and take it. But, you have to force yourself to believe that being bigger devalues your hoard, or you’ll keep growing.” His growth stopped, and then reversed. When it stopped again, he was smaller than before, causing his robe to appear comically oversized. “To shrink, consider your size less than worthless. Convince yourself that small is valuable, and take it.”
When he didn’t continue, she said, “That’s it?”
“It’s simple enough to say, yes, but it’s really tricky to actually reverse the growth once it starts,” explained Thorn. “Give it two months of constant practice, and you should be able to at least move in the right direction at will. A year, and it will seem effortless.”
“Huh,” she said as she jumped up onto the stone counter. “I was always taught that a dragon who grew too greedy would never return, and you have to stay under a certain size to live in Dragon Town. I guess that’s why nodragon ever tried.”
“So, can I learn your fireworks trick?”
She nodded, but then said, “My boss would be mad if we did that in here. Flammable comics, and all. Come back here at six, when I get off, and we can go somewhere better, OK?”
Sparkle shuffled across the ash-covered field, following the lead of one of her specters, which slid across the ground. Her three functional legs were enough to get around, yes, but she found herself terribly unsteady without the support of her bones. The bones themselves were at the machinist's shop; she’d requested that they be integrated into the design of her prosthesis.
*FWEEEE-POP!*
The bright, colorful, screeching firework sailed over her head and exploded loudly. “Oh, hey, Mom!” The voice of her son called out. “Sorry about that. I got carried away.”
Sparkle looked and saw that Thorn and a dame that she didn’t recognize were sitting side-by-side, covered in ash. “What are you doing?” the unicorn inquired.
The pink dragoness looked her way, and Sparkle saw the dragoness’s eyes go wide at the sight of her missing limb. Recomposing herself, the dame said, “I was teaching him how to shoot fireworks from his mouth.”
Sparkle’s ears perked up. “I didn’t know dragons could do that.”
“Neither did I,” Thorn said. “Hey, Mom, can I borrow one of your specters? I want to pass some memories to Mina.”
“Memories?” Mina muttered.
Sparkle nodded and then tossed her head, shooting a tiny black orb to Thorn. The moment he touched it. The extra shadow on the ground - the specter - warped from being a pony’s shadow to a dragons. Thorn made a come-hither gesture, causing the specter to leap into his body.
Mina gasped, and then gasped louder when the inky dragon oozed out of Thorn’s body and sank into hers. Suddenly, images and sensations flashed through her mind. She knew she had never done the things she saw, but she could feel them as if they had happened to her some time ago and she was simply remembering. There was one commonality to all the memories - she could feel her flesh moving and rippling over her bones, changing her size, and she could remember her - no, the master’s - state of mind at the time.
The process didn’t obstruct her eyes, or any of her senses, for that matter, and she could clearly see Thorn’s index claw wiggling systematically, and feel her own index claw moving at the same time, digging into the ashen dirt below. The moment seemed to stretch on, but then Thorn drew the ink dragon out from under her skin, making her completely herself again.
“Do we have to leave now?” Thorn asked his mother.
“If we want a hotel room for the night, yes.”
“What in Tartarus was that!?” Mina shrieked, reflexively growing in size as she did.
Smiling, Thorn said, “I just saved you months of work.”
“What are you... Oh, wow!” She looked down at herself, admiring the sexy dragoness she had grow up to become. “I look good.”
Thorn suddenly found himself glomped by a very huggy dragoness who was bigger than him. “Thank you! Thank you! AAAHHH!!! This is so cool!”
“Gah! Go on, Mom, I’ll - ACK! - catch up in a minute,” Thorn squeaked from the tight embrace.
“You sure?”
“I’m - ugh - fine.”
“If you say so,” Sparkle said as she faded into the shadows and sped away.
“Woah, your mom is cool,” Mina said.
Thorn muttered something, but the pink dragoness couldn’t understand it. “What?”
“AIR!” She let him go. He inhaled once... and then was perfectly fine, as if he hadn’t just been suffocating. “So glad I don’t actually need air,” he muttered. Then, at conversation volume, he said, “Well, it’s been fun. See you around, I guess.”
“Thorn, wait,” Mina said, grabbing his arm. “When that thing was in me, I thought-”
He pulled away. “Don’t worry about it.” Turning away, he started walking in the direction Sparkle had vanished in. However, he paused after only a few steps. Skeletal wings oozing black mist erupted from his back, fitting through slits in his robe. “Don’t chase the dead.”
His wings flapped once, spreading the darkness across his body, dissolving him into the shadows.
Mina, the pink dame, stood alone in the middle of a burnt field. By her feet, there was a message to her, written by her own claw. She looked down and read.
Dead dragons do tell tales.
-Thornecrovitar
Well that was awesome! I guess that ask page really helps you flesh out the world building.
Aw, how sweet. A Thorn chapter. Not really a fan of the dragon town they created in that comic book, but this was still neat.
This chapter was one of the most beautiful things I've encountered on this site. The description, the pacing, the interaction and banter between Thorne and Mina... Perfection, good sir.
I really like the world you've built up. :)
That was badass.
>What's your's?
*yours
5878113
Thank you.
5878095
5878086
5878081
Thanks. You know, I was actually rather worried about this chapter and whether or not you all would like it. To see such a positive response,
'being bigger devalues your horad'
I'd imagine you meant hoard.
Cute chapter on the whole. Really cute.
Thorn being flirted at like that was unbelievably disturbing, though.
5878144
Considering the comics version of her, its not all that surprising.
5878143
Thanks.
5878164
5878144
Thorn had perception filtering illusions on. She couldn't see most of his oddities until he pointed them out, and even then they were still suppressed.
I always had the small headcanon that Spike never seemed to age while in Ponyville because he was subconsciously keeping himself small to appear non-threatening.
The alternative explanation is that he is really young, like 8 years old or younger young. The Poisoned Barb highlighted the absurdity of having Spike be advanced enough to not need to attend school while still being a young age. In that story, since the protagonist is reincarnated into a female Spike, and Prince Solaris knows something is very unusual about Barbara, she is effectively both the ward of Dusk Shine and simultaneously his caretaker/maid/assistant (and evaluator for Prince Solaris on Dusk Shine's
maturity'progress'), and is a writer like she was before her reincarnation. That explains why she is effectively free from compulsory schooling or advanced education.Seriously, Spike is a kid yet he doesn't go to school. From S1E1 we know he isn't advanced enough to qualify dropping school, as Twilight's vocabulary is significantly larger than his. And even if he was advanced enough to skip school, he should at least attend the equivalent of a university or college. What's even stranger is almost no stories talk about this.
Secret of my Excess showed that he could 'poof' back to his tiny size at will. The controlled growth though, that's a new and interesting idea. It would make stories where a slightly older dragon would look like an Argonian instead of a quadruped more plausible.
5878221
I saw one story where Luna, back from her banishment, is so out of the new social norms that she mistakes Spike's upbringing with that of a slave, including the minimal, highly-specific education. Don't remember the name, but it was a one-shot.
5878255
What makes it weird is that Twilight Sparkle would get significantly more usage out of Spike if he were educated further. He barely qualifies as an assistant or a maid/butler either. Instead he could be her research assistant.
At least in this story Thorne is Sparkle's right hoof and enforcer/battery. And technically undead.
A lovely twist in a few adages. Very nicely done.
5878293
I guess this comes down to the nature of Twilight's and Spike's relationship in the show. And there she cares for the little guy beyond just the "services" he can provide to her. A mother/child relationship it certainly isn't, but something close to a younger/older sibling relationship might be there. She's emotionally attached to him in a family-ish sort of way.
Sure, she has her scatterbrained and inattentive moments, but ultimately she cares for Spike in a way that has little do with him doing stuff for her. Sure, she gives him occasional chores, but that's typical and true of any household, and Spike actually likes doing stuff for Twilight and takes pride in doing the work she assigns him - see how poorly that turned out when he thought she was replacing him with an owl, heh.
Ultimately Twilight doesn't really need any of the stuff Spike does for her (except for making nachos, assuming she doesn't know how-to herself :P) - magically penning her own letters would take no effort at all on Twilight's part, and if she really wanted to she could probably learn the letter-sending spell Celestia uses as well. But that would be pretty cruel to Spike, given how much of his identity of self-worth is tied to the stuff he can do for Twilight, so she doesn't, because his happiness is important to her.
She doesn't need a butler or anything like that, she needs Spike, the little drake she is used to carrying around since forever, to whom she is emotionally attached to herself, for whom she would go to the dragon lands and race in to the Everfree forest, and whom she would let to drag her around all day, groaning along the way or not, just to buy him a new bed so he could sleep better (or so he claimed).
Yeah, Twilight could do a lot better if she wanted a butler or a genuine lab assistant or whatever else professional assistance you can think of - but getting maximum mileage out of him isn't what's ultimately important to her.
Obviously, the particulars of their relationship in this story are rather different :P
5878447
Parents and siblings can have the relationship you describe and still help them better themselves through education.
Spike is in a weird spot where he is effectively a mascot. Not quite a pet, but not treated like a normal sibling/child either. Because normal children have school and their own friends.
5878467
Homeschooling is a posibility. Unlikely, given what the show has shown, but possible.
5878477
Obviously he was homeschooled prior to going to Ponyville.
If that continued afterwards, and it may have, I don't think it's ever shown. Even still,
studentPrincess of Friendship sort of giving him only half a chance at a normal foalhood, even if he is a dragon, by not having him hang out with other fillies and colts at a communal location like school.There might be a story there, with how Twilight Sparkle was so traumatized by interacting with others at school (Magical Kindergarten) that she wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy, and so 'spares' Spike the 'horror' of public school. Yet, that just means he is isolated from other kids his age, which I've always found weird. I mean, we've seen from the very beginning that he was way more extroverted than Twilight was.
Then again, in general how often do fillies and colts hang out when not in school? The Cutie Mark Crusaders were shown to be a unique thing rather than something that was common.
5878255 you mean this one?http://www.fimfiction.net/story/224797/just-an-assistant
5878577
That's the one.
Wait, wait...
Age, as in a dragon only age spell?
Doesn't that mean that Thorn and Sparkle just thought a dragoness they've met for an hour or so how to turn herself undying,, because she spent about five minutes being nice to Thorn?
Because if so, damn, that's quite the thing to just hand out like that. No wonder Celestia is quite terrified of what Sparkle can do in that case if that's her version of a freaking friendly tip.
5878597
It's greed growth and it's reversal to the extreme. The catch is that the youngest you can grow is your true age. But, since dragons in this universe technically never stop growing bigger as they grow older, there's no true upper limit.
So no, Mina is not ageless. However, now the knowledge is public, I would expect age-shifting dragons to start appearing more frequently in the coming years.
5878655
Oh right, there's an universal part of magic in this setting that manipulating your age doesn't quite 'stick.' I'd forgotten that.
Still, that right there sounds like both a boon for dragon kind... and the type of knowledge so potent that Celestia is going to be tearing her mane out about how many complications it will cause her and her plans.
"But officer, this Tirek creep drained all the magic from my friend! Of course I grew to about ten tousend and stomped! What else was I supposed to do, wait for some destined champion to prove themselves against him?!"
Oh, the irony of the best emote to use on that...
Hmm, I thought the correct term for a female dragon was a dragonelle. Guess it's just opinion at that point.
To shrink, consider you size less than worthless
1. Your.
Ps. You also have an extra quote box at the end.
Well, seems like Celestia will get a headache later on and would most likely see this as oh I dunno, Sparkle being extremely bold in giving out dangerous knowledge. I say dangerous but it's actually dependant on who used it for what again.
I'm also curious about one thing last chapter, Shining Armpit was with Sparkle and Celestia when they talked right? Which I just checked and he is, how is he reacting to the conversation that his sister and Celestia had? You know, the sacrificing her, Thorn, Cobalt and her unborn child for the 'order' of Equestria? I do believe that sort of conversation will have someone thinking quite abit. Though I think I should stop there before my argument goes one sided to Sparkle's side.
5879802
Thanks.
And yes, while Shining Armor does have much to think about, I'd imagine he holds his tongue for a while. There's a definite conflict of interests going on in his head, considering that his sister is the of the group his culture, the military, and superiors have long considered the enemy. And while he is firmly on Sparkle's side, I'd imagine he'd keep his mouth shut until he got his thoughts sorted out AND found a time to confront them without completely sabotaging his career. (Remember, even canon TS, despite practically growing up with Celestia, still feared being banished for a small mistake, and the Cakes weren't much calmer.)
I don't know where I'm going with this...
Dang that's too cool .
5879874 Only one thing comes to mind for that: Fear.
Be it fear of failure, disappointment or etc. It all leads back to one pony. Celestia. Do they respect or fear her more in this kind of universe? I wonder. I also realised that autocorrect done misspelled Shining's name. It's hilarious so imma keep it there.
Though there is that out of the box cultural fear they're having regarding dark mages and their ability. One could say this matter would reflect racism in a sense for them being what they are and more to the point, of what they can do.
Though (again) this does bring the idea of many justice systems being flawed as they all need (by their defenition and standards) a monster (of sorts) to I would say... Justify their actions or beliefs. Meh, I dunno where I'm going with this either but hey, some discussion for fun.
5879914
I went through three different iterations of what was written on the ground. I'm glad this one works.
I liked the light-hearted break in the story. It wasn't too long but a nice touch to show it is not all doom and gloom.
I liked this filler, like the kind that's in food that's bad for you or something.
5880533
You know, I do that all the time while writing this. I keep having to change Spike back to Thorn and Twilight back to Sparkle while I'm writing this.
Is Luna able to make Blood wine for her Red Guard?
5880910
Nope. Blood wine is rather advanced blood magic, and outside of Luna's specialty.
5882369
No, she intended to do that.
5882414 Ah... alright.
5880577
It might turn out beneficial to try and make a routine out of using Search/Replace on every chapter that doesn't mention Twilight or Spike to get rid of the wrong names.
I guess it won't happen, but I think it would be nice if we could see Mina again sometime in the future. Maybe she learned a bit more about the strange dragon and his "cool mom" by then. I wonder what she'd think of Thornecrovitar then.
Or maybe, just maybe, she made her own comic based on the zombie scenario Thorn told her about. Which became an instant success, causing Mina to hunt down Thorn and Sparkle to extract more creepy stories out of them that she can work into the next issues of her wildly successful "Dark Sorceress" comic book series. She'd even give them cameos in exchange!
5887299
Get earplugs. Luna also has a few choice words for Celestia. *Hint Hint Spoiler*
5887496
Royal Canterlot Voice in all of its dreadful glory and a grumpy Luna? Color me itching with anticipation.
5888230
Savior was the pony Sparkle killed to give Card Gambit his new body. She used a reincarnation spell to become pregnant with a fetus that contains his soul.
5879922
Hilarious?
I almost died from my sides trying to achieve orbit!
For once, autocorrect does some good.
I almost thought you did that on purpose, which just made me laugh harder.
5892186 I actually saw what autocorrect did there and was going to correct it but left it there on purpose because hilarity. So yeah, I did do it on purpose
I'm trying to figure something out. What's the difference between a badness, like Sparkle in this story, and a Mary Sue. Mary Sue is usually the result of someone trying to create a badness, and did something wrong, right? That's the impression I got. So what didn't go wrong? Sparkle is totally overpowered and has most of the qualities of the typical written Mary Sue, but she's still fun to read. I don't get it.
5893994
A Mary Sue is about how the plot bends to the character. Let's say you have a powerful character. A Mary would just BE powerful, while a non-Mary would work their ass off to gain the power. Mary would be functionality flawless (her flaws don't hinder her) while a non-Mary has problems because of her flaws. Allies and neutral factions love Mary and enemies hate her just because she's MARY, while people react normally to a normal character. Mary always has to solve the problem, nobody else is allowed to be the hero. Mary can never be called out on her mistakes. Mary wins against people who, by all accounts, should wipe the floor with her. The entire world seems to bend to Mary's will, and everything is easy and perfect for her.
If you compare such characters to swords, Mary Sue, despite being the sharpest sword, has never been tempered in fire and is big and unwieldy, and thus is utterly worthless in the fight that is entertaining an audience.
By itself, power doesn't make a Mary Sue (although it makes it easy for a character to cross that line). What defines a Mary Sue is how the world around her reacts to her, and how and why the author created that character.
5894042
You've taught me something today, and I thank you.