Pirene Epilogue

That's right - relatively soon now, Pirene will be coming to an end (for now). I know, I'm as sad to see it go as you are, but it's been an incredible ride the whole way.

You might have noticed that I include meaningful quotes at the beginning of each chapter, and the epilogue will be no exception. Often it's one of my friends who selects it, unless I already had one in mind.

This time, I thought I'd open it up to the crowd.
What quote best encapsulates the entire experience for you as a reader? Let me know!

Comments

[Solitair]

Oh, I'm not that good at this. The only things that come to mind are Kurt Vonnegut quotes, the ones that go "we must be careful who we pretend to be" or "above all else, you've got to be kind." I doubt their relevance to the story as a whole, but that's all I've got.

[RainbowBob]

Shit I should really get to reading it now. >.>

[metallusionsismagic]

I have a few ideas.

"When you live your life in a prison, freedom can be so dull."

"Unawareness is the only sin,
and if you were aware you would know."

"The moment truth is organized, it becomes a lie."

"A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence."

"'It's your birthday, Mateo said. I didn't respond. 'Are you not excited to be fifteen?' he asked. Reading my book, I utttered, 'I turned fifteen long ago.'"

-All quotes by Jaden Smith.

[Salen]

All I can think of is this segment from Freakazoid...

I'm weird though, so I might not be the best choice for a quote.

[hazeyhooves]

"Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story." - Peter S. Beagle

I hope that's not too trite!

[djthomp]

The only thing coming to mind at the World of Cardboard speech, but I'm not sure that it's particularly relevant.

[Rego]

I'm usually would want to find something more poetic or literary, but Never Say Never by Armin van Buuren sticks out in my head when I read this story.

"When everything seems lost, I'm stuck and falling down. You will guide me home, so promise me you'll stay with me. Won't you wait for me? Care for me, and Never say never, again."

Also, this song comes to mind when thinking about Amelia: Unforgivable by the same guy.

[TheStratovarian]

When you think about what started everything, what rent everything, what broke everything, and who fixed everything.. One thing comes to mind. The charlie chaplin speech.

The Great Speech

I know im slightly paraphrasing in this.
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Just the intro here, when you see what amelia went through out of the negative, to her views at the end. It fits. A later line in this easily describes the old wand king and morgwyn both.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost....

And where one side worked with machines, the other, moved to magic respectively.

[shutaro]

I'd go with a classic:

It's a dangerous business, going out your door.

[Alphaetus_Prime]

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

From William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. And if not that, then something from Gurren Lagann. Maybe this one:

Don't be held back by someone else's bullshit in fake memories.The one path you chose for yourself, is the truth of your universe.

[BritishToby]

"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day. And for once I'm inclined to believe that Withnail is right. We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell. Making an enemy of our own future. What we need is harmony. " - I (Withnail & I)

[Willmar]

2272015 I second that Julius Caesar quote; it's really fitting.

[Von Snootingham]

I've actually been compiling poetry and quotations for my own story, so I have a bit of a stockpile. Here's some good ones. (Prepare for Wall o' Text)

"But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends, stol'n out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

-Richard III, William Shakespeare

My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!

-Forgiveness, John Greenleaf Whittier

Head the ship for England!
Shake out every sail!
Blithe leap the billows,
Merry sings the gale.
Captain, work the reckoning;
How many knots a day? -
Round the world and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

-Homeward Bound, William Allingham

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

- O Me! O Life!, Walt Whitman

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me

-Hope’s the Thing With Feathers, Emily Dickenson

We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies—

-Emily Dickenson

I have lied many times
In my life
But I have always honestly kept to
The promise I made as a child
So that the world which cannot tolerate
A child's heart
Has still not forgiven me

Here I stand
Replacing another, who has been murdered
I have no other choice
And where I fall
Another will stand
A wind rests on my shoulders
Stars glimmer in the wind

-An End or a Beginning, Bei Dao

End is in beginning;
And in beginning end:
Death is not loss, nor life winning;
But each and to each is friend.
The hands which give are taking;
And the hands which take bestow:
Always the bough is breaking
Heavy with fruit or snow.

-Song, William Soutar

In my beginning is my end.

In my end is my beginning.

- East Coker, T.S. Eliot

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!

-Pippa Passes, Robert Browning

And of course, my personal favorite: Ode , by William O'Shaughnessy
It's full length is appropriate, just quite long. So here's just the first three stanzas.

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

[thedarksideoftheleaf]

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ― Buddha

[Emerald wake]

2272185 hope that first Dr. Suess quote gets chosen
It's very appropriate considering the story is coming to a close soon

[Rust]

"However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."
-Stanley Kubrick

[MD Webster]

2271967
J.R.R Tolkien

[Doppler Effect]

Regarding specifically the climax, and Amelia's decision not only to not make a decision, but to make it so that no single person could make such a decision in the future:

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
- WOPR, War Games.

Regarding the entire story, I see the biggest theme as Screw Destiny. Amelia stole the fate that was supposed to be Daphne's, and she was stopped in her tracks by Leit Motif, the seemingly least likely of ponies to go and save the day. So, in that vein:

"The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."
- John Connor, Terminator 2: Judgement Day

And, just because the parallel amuses me:

"I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"
"I missed you too."
- Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, S1E02: Friendship is Magic, Part 2 (Elements of Harmony)

[ConsciousHaze196]

Now, return to town and gather your troops. Come back when you're ready.

Shining Force 1 (gen)

You must learn the ways of the Force
if you're to come with me to Alderaan.

Star Wars IV

...idk