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Blog / Ask Genie Twilight

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Ask Genie Twilight (AKA: I Dream of Twilight Sparkle, a Shout-Out to I Dream of Jeannie) is an Ask a Pony blog with the premise of Twilight Sparkle, the main character of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had been transformed into a Genie in a Bottle while on a trip to Saddle Arabia with her #1 assistant, Spike.

The events of the blog mostly mirrors those of all 9 seasons of the show (Chronologically, Twilight is genified between Seasons 2 and 3) with some differences here and there. Aside from all the EQUESTRIA GIRLS films not having happened (Though a Spin-Off blog by the same creator does include characters from an AU derived from the Genie Twilight's universe that resulted in the Human twilight (AKA Sci-Twi) from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games and onward getting genified). There are often also stories that took place between or after seasons in the blog's timeline. The biggest of them all, titled Secrets of the Dragon's Tear takes place not long after My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S9 E25 "The Ending of the End – Part 2".

The blog puts tremendous focus on Twilight and Spike's relationship as an adoptive Mother-Son, and as of Secrets of the Dragon's Tear, more recent updates have shifted to be about Starlight Glimmer. After Spike's dragon tear (A magic item created from his tears during an incredibly traumatic experience on a return trip to Saddle Arabia) was able to unveil secrets of her past even she never knew.

The blog also often has tie-ins with a Spin-Off blog called Ain't Never Had Friends Like Us that contains pony genies of parallel universes to Twilight's own where it had been Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, or Applejack who had been genified by the bottle that was meant for Twilight. There are also a few other pony genies (Such as the Rarity from Ask Generous Genie Rarity that are not related to the I Dream of Twilight Sparkle universe that have appeared, but for the most part their mods have gone inactive to said blogs.

Also co-headed by the same creator, is Geniequestria. A Darker and Edgier (With some mixture of Hotter and Sexier as well) blog centered around a story where the evil Starlight Glimmer from Season 5 of the show is transformed into a genie, with an entirely different lore and tone from I Dream of Twilight Sparkle.

Tropes

     General 

     Applies only to I Dream of Twilight Sparkle 
  • Action Mom: Genie Twillight herself applies to this after adopting Spike and saving Equestria a number of times afterward.
    • Also somewhat applies to the Sunset Shimmer of Genie Twilight’s universe. Even if she was only a living mother for barely more then 2 weeks.
  • Adaptation Origin Connection: Cozy Glow has no connection to Starlight in the canon show other then trapping her in the sphere of Magic in the Season 8 finale. But in I Dream of Twilight Sparkle, she and her family are the very reason for how Starlight’s life went.
  • Afterlife Welcome: Mentioned to be the case when spirits tell what of what happened when they first appeared in the soul shield. As the spirits in the shield are always closest to those they were friends and family with.
  • And I Must Scream: In Ask Genie Twilight's "Return to Saddle Arabia" arc, The genie mind control devices used by the Old Regime not only completely enslaves genies to their master's will, but leaves them fully conscious and aware of what they're doing, and in constant, agonizing pain. Notably, once Spike damages Zathir's device enough that Twilight is half freed from its effects, she immediately starts screaming and crying in pure agony.
  • April Fools' Day: The blog for a brief time jokingly became I Dream of Twi Dash where Rainbow Dash tries to claim she's the closest to a father Spike has given if it weren't for her Sonic Rainboom, Spike may have not hatchede. Hilarity Ensues before it turns out to be All Just a Dream
    • Also a little Hilarious in Hindsight for the Genie Rainbow Dash of Ain't Never Had Friends Like Us, who would eventually be a couple with her universe's Twilight.
* Back from the Dead: during Secrets of the Dragon's Tear Jennesis (Spike's dragon mother), Jinn (The first ever genie), Applejack's Parents, and most prominently this universe's Sunset Shimmer and more are summoned as spirits by Spike
  • Bathtub Mermaid: Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear has Scootaloo become accustomed to taking baths, as she’s trying to use her sea pony form she wished from Twilight as much as possible.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Genie Twilight is more or less her canon counterpart personality wise, but do not clop her off. And don't you even think about harming her adopted son. She is a genie Alicorn who has virtually no limit to what she could potentially do to you. When she finally gets her hooves on Vicegerent Zathir after his long list of atrocities, including nearly killing Spike, she gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves him leaves him begging her for mercy and unable to move. She only doesn't kill him because it's crueler to leave him alive.
  • Big Bad: Vicegerent Zathir from the 'Return of Saddle Arabia' arc in Ask Genie Twilight, who uses an ancient device to try and control Twilight and take over Saddle Arabia.
    • While there is technically no villain fought in Secrets of the Dragon's Tear, Cozy Glow is outed by the spirit of Sunset Shimmer as perhaps arguably the biggest bad of the blog's version of events of all nine seasons for her role in her murder. Cozy turning out to have been from more then two decades in the past, having been sent to the future by chance by the random effect of magic being blasted from Sunset's horn that had been broken by Cozy herself
  • Big "NO!": Twilight has one when Spike is stabbed in the eye in Return to Saddle Arabia.
    • Firelight has one when he finally finds out Sunset is dead, after she tells him as a spirit that she was murdered
  • Big Sister Mentor: Twilight to Starlight
  • Big "WHAT?!": The Sunset Shimmer of Genie Sci-Twi’s universe has multiple as she talks with the spirit of her counterpart from Genie Twilight’s universe
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: Starlight and Applejack have a talk on this subject at the Royal Ball in Chapter 17 of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Firelight does everything he possibly can to get out of telling Starlight who her mother was for just about all her life. He does it however out of fear that Starlight would be inspired to follow in Sunset’s footsteps, and end up becoming missing too
  • Chekhov's Gun:
  • Cruel Mercy: Genie Twilight decides to spare Vicegerent Zathir's life and no send him to Tartarus not because she's feeling kind (given all the monstrous actions Zathir has done, including nearly murdering her adopted son, she certainly isn't) but because he's a Fantastic Racist towards Genies that feels Genies should be slaves with no status, so spending his life in prison knowing Twilight is a Princess of Equestria is already an Ironic Hell for him in and of itself.
  • Curbstomp Battle: Implied to have been the result of Genie!Twilight vs Alicorn Amulet boosted Trixie. While Trixie was stronger than any normal unicorn, Genie Twilight was still far more powerful than her.
  • Dead All Along: Starlight’s Missing Mom (The Sunset Shimmer of Genie Twilight’s universe)
  • Dead Person Conversation: Spike’s spirit summoning allows for anyone to talk with a deceased relative or friend again.
  • Death Amnesia: Sunset doesn’t have all the details of her death the moment she’s summoned. She’s gradually reminded over the course of 4 chapters with a few clues and/or familiar names given before she finally regains full memory of what happened to her.
  • Death by Adaptation: While canon Sunset is alive and well, the Sunset of Genie Twilight’s universe isn’t so lucky.
  • Delightful Dragon: Spike, naturally. Though the spirit of his mother certainly counts as well.
  • Dream Sequence: After receiving the egg in Saddle Arabia that would eventually hatch into Spike, Celestia receives a very vivid dream telling her to find the “Perfect Mother” who could hatch the egg. The voice (Who as Celestia suggests, was Jennesis. Spike’s birth mother that passed in the cave they found Spike’s egg in) even telling the Princess that if she can find her, she’ll also be able to fulfill some of Celestia’s own desires from freeing her sister, a new protege, and her successor. Naturally, this means that Celestia herself has prophesied and in a callback to the very title… she had dreamed of Twilight Sparkle.
  • Dropped Glasses: Moondancer amidst falling over in front of Prince Theandri loses her glasses. Twilight initially tries to help Moondancer get her glasses back on before the Prince himself signals to Twilight that he wants to be the one to help her instead/
  • Eye Scream: Spike getting stabbed in the eye after Vicegerent Zathir’s plan is foiled
    • Also Sunset shortly before her death, as the rock that breaks her horn also manages to somewhat scrape her eyes enough to give her a black eye.
  • Fond Memories That Could Have Been: Starlight laments about how her life would have been so much better had her mother was still alive for her childhood.
    • Twilight is even asked later if she could show a peek into an alternate universe where Sunset lived. Differences include Twilight not being a genie, Twilight and Starlight having grown-up together as duo proteges (And like an adopted pair of sisters) before Twilight even met one member of the Mane 6, and even Starlight ascending to an Alicorn princess.
  • Friendly Ghost: Just about every spirit summoned in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear and beyond
  • Fun with Acronyms: The club of mothers is named after a rather… infamous acronym in corners of the internet. But actually means something wholesome. Even the characters themselves lampshade if the club’s name (M.I.L.F.) means something questionable. But in truth, just means Mothers. In. Lovely. Families.
  • Ghost Reunion Ending: A rare case where the spirits appear for far more then just the ending, since it’s established as long as Spike has his dragon tear. Spike can summon spirits as long as someone who knew the deceased being were friends or family with them is also touching the dragon tear.
  • Grave-Marking Scene: Applejack and Apple Bloom come across Grand Pear visiting Pear Butter & Bright Mac’s graves at the Ponyville cemetery in a very sudden solemn ending to Chapter 2 of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear.
  • Hates Their Parent: Trixie never likes talking about her father. She tells Starliight and Sunburst a little later it’s because her father (A similarly colored magician named Jack Pot) abandoned her and Trixie’s mother when she was very young
    • A lesser case and more complicated relationship, is Starlight toward her father. Who’s hid the secret of who her mother was for just about her entire life. She lets him have it early on in Chapter 5 of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear, and becomes quite upset when he still can’t get an answer out of him Starlight however does learn the truth for why he hid it for so long later on, and the two from then on are able to reconcile. She even celebrates Father’s Day with him for the first time ever.
  • I Am Who?: Starlight finds out she’s the daughter of Celestia’s previous protege before Twilight. Her magic power having been inherited from this universe’s Sunset Shimmer.
  • I Am X, Daughter Of Y: Starlight proudly states this in a talk with her former villagers in Our Town in the Annual Sunset festival in discussing her motivation for the future.
  • I Have a Family: Sunset Shimmer pleaded to Glitterani this before she tosses herself and Sunset off the cliff in what would be their fatal plunge. Glitterani responding back that she had one too, before Sunset took that away. Given Cheque Mace was likely drowning, and Cozy Glow was sent through time.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Celestia tells Twilight that Sunset lost her drive to maintain wanting to be the main force saving Equestria as she reached adulthood. It would turn out she stepped down as Celestia’s protege in hopes of having a quiet, normal life in Sire’s Hollow with Firelight.
  • I Will Find You: Sunburst mentions his father has been looking for any trace of his long lost little sister for about a decade. This is why Sunspot isn’t present in the I Dream of Twilight Sparkle depiction of the Season 8 episode, The Parent Map. As it turns out, Sunspot’s little sister turns out to also be Starlight's missing mother
    • To a lesser extent, this is sort of Starlight’s feeling for her mother before she finds out she won’t have to travel long. Since it turns out her mother is deceased, so Spike can summon her to them.
  • It Runs in the Family: Starlight notes she has a good amount of similarities between her and the Sunset Shimmer that’s her mother from some personality similarities and of course raw magic power. Though one thing that particularly is similar to them, is they both at one time had enchanted bracelets that would warn them when somepony knocks on a specific door that was seen in the Season 9 episode Student Counsel. Though in Sunset’s case, it was usually when a royal guard had an urgent message for her.
  • Interspecies Adoption: Naturally, Twilight’s adoption of Spike as her son
  • Knight of Cerebus: Vicegerent Zathir from Ask Genie Twilight. He basically straps Twilight up to a combination torture device and mind control device to try and Take Over the World. Given the tone of the blog, this is surprisingly dark. He ups it further by attempting to murder Spike in cold blood for foiling his plans.
  • Last-Minute Baby Naming: While Firelight and Sunset did discuss names for their foal prior to birth, they didn’t decide on the name until the very night of birth. When Sunset looked out the window with her newborn foal in her hooves. The stars were shining some of the brightest she’d ever seen. So she named her Starlight. Firelight would at least help decide the latter part of her name by suggesting that it rhymes with Shimmer which is where Glimmer came from.
  • Mama Bear: Genie Twilight considers Spike her adopted son, and vice versa. So harming him is not recommended at all. Vicegerent Zathir finds this out the hard way when he came close to killing Spike. Twilight gives him a magically assisted No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves him unable to move and begging for his life. She only doesn't kill him or send him to Tartarus because he's worse off alive than dead. Don't buck with Twilight's son.
  • Memorial Statue: Firelight dedicates the new museum he’s building with Stellar Flare to his departed wife. When it’s finished, a large statue of Sunset is unveiled with a motto of “Before every Twilight, there is a Sunset”
  • Missing Mom: Starlight’s Mother AKA this universe’s Sunset Shimmer
  • No Body Left Behind: Of those who died in Sunset’s confrontation with Cozy and her family. The only remaining part of any of them is Sunset’s broken horn that Sunspot finds at Nightmare Cliffs. The rest of their bodies were lost at sea and/or eaten by aquatic predators like Sharks
  • Our Genies Are Different Genies on the Ask Genie Twilight blogs work under different rules than 'traditional' Genies. For one, they're mortals that are transformed into Genies by a magic spell and are at first limited in their power (though still far exceeding even Twilight's power to the point Twilight was able to defeat Trixie when Trixie had the Alicorn Amulet), but can perform any wish they've granted on whim at any time. The Genie also sets the number of wishes a particular master can have, even giving them no limits, and can refuse a wish if they don't want to grant it and some of the limitations they have can be bypassed by a wish (such as no longer being physically connected to their container and being able to grant wishes for beings other than their master, something Spike has wished for Twilight). They also return to their bottle if exhausted or in a deep sleep to rest, something Twilight considers a perk, as the rest is far better than normal rest. Also, if not wished free (which, in context, simply means returning the pony to normal) within three days of becoming a Genie, they cannot be wished free for a thousand years, something Twilight knew and accepted.
    • Secrets of the Dragon's Tear adds more details. It turns out genies are at least in part spirits themselves. Twilight's still alive in the normal sense, just her body and soul being absorbed by the dragon tear during her genification imbued her with pure soul magic. It's through this very soul magic that spirits are able to protect and serve the living planet through it's desires to be protected from outside threats in space, where as genies like Twilight are able to listen and grant wishes for the living. Both spirits and genies are also capable of transforming the parts of their body below their hips into a long, smoky tail and they also both have periods of time where they're in a blissful sleep. Twilight when she's inside her bottle, the spirits when they're circling around the planet in comet-like forms.
  • Parental Issues: In Chapter 6 of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear. Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst each talk about some form of drama between their families. Starlight’s father has held up on telling anything about her mother. Trixie’s father abandoned her and Dandy Lion (Trixie’s Mother) when Trixie was very young, and Sunburst’s Dad while not as problematic as Starlight or Trixie’s sitation since his father keeps up with long-distance communication. Has been gone for about a decade looking any sign or at least closure about his long-lost sister who’s been gone for more then 20 years.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Before Sunset knocks Cheque Mace off a cliff. She says “Check. Mate”. Though Sunset wasn’t actually trying to kill him, as she assumed Cheque would just teleport before he fell. However, he hits his head during his fall. So he’s unconscious when he lands in the water below. If the fall didn’t kill him, he most certainly drowned.
  • Related in the Adaptation: Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer are most certainly not related in the series. The Equestria Girls special Mirror Magic makes that clear. But they are in I Dream of Twilight Sparkle, as the events of Equestria Girls did not happen. And other differences about this Sunset compared to the Equestria Girls Sunset.
    • Starlight and Sunburst turn out to be cousins all-along. When it’s revealed that the little sister that Starlight’s father had been looking for turned out to also be Starlight’s missing mother.
  • Resurrected Romance: Firelight and Sunset after the latter had been summoned as a spirit.
  • Ret Irony: Sadly for Sunset, her demise came at the very last mission she set herself on before she’d retire from world-saving for good.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Zathir's Desert Dog Mooks from 'Ask Genie Twilight' perform this trope once Spike manages to free Twilight from their boss' control, meaning they're either about to face the wrath of a very clopped off Genie or be arrested.
  • Secret Legacy: Starlight being the daughter of Sunset Shimmer, Celestia’s former chosen protege before Twilight.
  • Shapeshifting: Genie Twilight’s used her genie magic to shapeshift into many things over the years
  • She’s Just Hiding!: Firelight vehemently denies that his wife is dead up until the very moment her spirit fades in
  • Silly Spook: Granny Pie (AKA Magenta Ruby) at the tail-end of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear and Pinkie Pear Pie. In the former she and Pinkie sing a slightly different version of Giggle At The Ghostly (Changing the at to a with). Sunset even gets in on the silly alongside Pear Butter for Nightmare Night
  • The Sociopath: A flashback reveals Cozy Glow and her parents Cheque Mace and Glitterani to have been this in Secrets of the Dragon's Tear
    • Also very much applies to Vicegerent Zathir in Return to Saddle Arabia. Both him and Cozy meet the same fate of being petrified and placed in their own pocket dimension in the final chapters of Secrets of the Dragon's Tear]
  • Sole Survivor: Cozy Glow was the only one who made it out alive between the confrontation of her parents and Sunset Shimmer. Though Cozy herself never found out what happened, as she was sent through time.
  • Stars Are Souls: Not stars exactly, but comets in the air that are normally called shooting stars turn out to be rare instances where the living can see spirits traveling through the air.
  • Struggling Single Father: Firelight unfortunately struggled very much as a single father for much of Starlight’s childhood
  • Super Mode: It turns out that this is what happens when A dragon creates a Dragon's Tear while still alive. Spike doing it gives him the ability to generate a forcefield capable of tanking genie magic, absorb attacks sent at him into the Tear, and use that energy to fire energy blasts.
  • Super Powerful Genetics: After the Cutie Mark Crusaders hear Starlight’s cutie mark story. They theorize that she inherited her magic power from somepony in her family. It’d turn out they would be very correct, as she inherited her power from her mother, who was none other then Sunset Shimmer.
  • Taking You with Me: Glitterani rolls herself and Sunset off a cliff to kill them both.
  • Terrible Trio: Cozy Glow and her parents. (Cheque Mace and Glitterani)
  • The Ace: Sunset Shimmer was this for Celestia during her time as her student.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Genie Twilight delivers one to her Discord after spending time being the butt of his (somewhat tamer due to his Heel–Face Turn but still cruel) jokes, finally having enough when he Discorded her at the request of some viewers, which she quite reasonably hates when he undoes it. It actually makes him feel guilty for once and is notably the only time in the entire blog to that point Twilight actually threatened someone with her powers.
    Discord: Twilight, I was just-
    Genie Twilight: SHUT UP! I've been badmouthed, laughed at, given dishonest suggestions, my horn taken away, annoyed by your idea of fun, and just overall had a bad time! And you just did the one thing I hated you most for when you were "still evil"?! If it weren't for the fact I'd be betraying Fluttershy's trust by doing so, I'd turn you to stone on the spot. Forget the Elements of Harmony, with what I can do now I could return you to a rather similar fate by myself. Just get out of here Discord. Leave my sight.
  • Thou Shall Not Kill: In the I Dream of Twilight Sparkle universe, the death of villains results in the magic inside them to become a devastating form of dark magic that impacts the planet. What this dark magic does can vary, though the most known example are the Windigoes of Hearth’s Warming fame. Who were once prehistoric horses that terrorized the ancestors to the ponies with rage and hatred. The impact of the death of evil beings is considered a reason why ponies try to find some way to reform their foes or at the very least use some form of magic that does not kill but still effectively defeat them in some fashion. Such as petrification.
  • Time Travel: In Secrets of the Dragon's Tear, Cozy is sent into the future a little bit more then 2 decades just by chance by magic sent by Sunset's broken horn, sending her to about where she mysteriously showed up in the canon timeline.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Sunspot finds Sunset’s broken horn sometime shortly before he’d see his sister’s spirit. That keepsake would be donated to Firelight’s Sunset Shimmer museum later.
  • Undying Loyalty: In contrast to the Sunset of Equestria Girls. The Sunset Shimmer of I Dream of Twilight Sparkle was loyal to a fault towards Princess Celestia.
  • Went to the Great X in the Sky: Shield in the sky in this instance. Around the planet Equestria is on, an invisible to the living shield contains the spirits of all those who lived normal or happy lives. They call it the soul shield in-universe.
  • What Is This Feeling??: Starlight asks this in a flashback towards the moment she and Twilight were up in the clouds during the I Dream of Twilight Sparkle depiction of the end of The Cutie-Remark. She realizes for the first time that Twilight’s soft-speaking is the closest she’s felt to having a mother figure.
  • The Woobie: I Dream of Twilight Sparkle's Starlight Glimmer, FULL STOP. Even with the knowledge she did everything the canon Starlight did in Season 5.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Vicegerent Zathir from 'Ask Genie Twilight' goes from a Smug Snake to a psychotic lunatic when his plans begin to fall apart around him.
  • You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When Starlight finds her father crying in his bed. Her father calls her by her actual name rather then a nickname like Sugarplum or Pumpky-Wumpkins. She realizes this definitely means her father’s uncharacteristically upset.
  • You Killed My Mother: Starlight’s rage goes over-the-top when she finds out it had been Cozy who was involved with her mother’s death. It wasn’t Cozy herself who directly killed Sunset (That was Cozy’s mother who had died with Sunset), but if had it not been for the rock that Cozy threw onto Sunset’s horn. It’s very likely Sunset would have survived, and she would have went on to take good care of Starlight. Despite also hearing that killing villains results in devastating consequences, Starlight tries to destroy Cozy while she’s still a statue. It takes both Twilight and her mother’s spirit to talk her out of it.

     Applies only to Ain't Never Had Friends Like Us 

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