Twilight stared at the gun as if she had never seen anything like it in her life. Of course, she had – it was a standard-issue sidearm for pegasi, an unromantic lump of steel. Not at all accurate past a few tens of yards, but that wouldn’t matter here.
Fluttershy put it into her hooves. Twilight held onto it, albeit loosely, and didn’t seem to look at the gun at all.
“So,” Fluttershy said, quietly. “I want you to put this to your head and pull the trigger. Can you do that?"
"I'll die.” It was a dull, prosaic fact, almost without any particular relevance to Twilight. But perhaps it hadn’t occurred to the pegasus?
I’m not thinking clearly, Twilight thought, as she raised the gun to her head, her hoof tracing the trigger block. Another irrelevancy. Of course she would die. That was the point.
“Yes, you will,” Fluttershy said.
“I...”
“Do it.”
Twilight’s hoof pressed down just a little bit harder. Just a touch more pressure and it would be over.
“One less monster in the—”
There was an almighty thud from one side of the carriage. Everything tilted—there was a moment of flight, the tiny slot window, now showing nothing but gray pavement, rising up towards Twilight, and then darkness.
Shining Armor didn’t believe in paperwork, although it did have a way of condensing around him while he was in his office, and tended to stay there until Cadence or somepony else actually sorted it out. Administration was for other people. Shining’s job was to have the strategy, the plan, the vision for the future. He tapped the desk absently. “You wanted to see me?” he asked.
“Indeed,” Celestia said, voice level. “I have been lied to, Shining Armor. By you.”
Shining looked nonplussed. “That doesn’t—”
“Spare me. You told me that my sister believed me to be in the Badlands.”
Shining shrugged. “Well, of course that’s no longer the case, but—”
“It was never the case. Canterlot has been torn apart because of you, Shining Armor.”
“Because of the Nightmare!” Shining shouted. “I am not the bad guy here! She killed those ponies. Not me!”
“Those deaths could have been prevented.”
“This is a war! Casualties happen.”
“Of tens of thousands of innocents?”
“Nobody living in Canterlot is innocent.”
Hoping we get to see how it ends. Much as I may have harped on it in the past, this is one of the best 'what-if-Nightmare-won' stories I've come across, and I'd hate to see it just sort of drop away.
Dear Readers:
I'm sorry I've been neglecting this story so badly. The truth is that for more than a year, writing fiction has been much more difficult for me. I don't know why. Most of my friends on this site have gone on to other things, and without a community of fellow writers I like and respect, the magic has gone out of the process.
I'll have a blog post up in a day or two detailing the rest of this story's plot. I'm very sorry that I can't finish this. Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Sincerely,
SpaceCommie
7371762
I hate to explicitly say that this story will never be finished, because it's genuinely dear to me and I hate to leave it unfinished. But it's also not fair to promise something I can't deliver.
So yet another good story pointlessly abandoned. How utterly disappointing.
7371783 For what it's worth, if I weren't the worst possible person for the job, I would be totally willing to take on the responsibility of finishing the story on your behalf.
But I'll gladly settle for knowing the rest of the plot.
Best of luck in all future endeavors.
7371831
Guy with zero words published bitches at guy with over eighty thousand for not writing more.
7371783 No possibility of any more chapters?
7371889
What if a guy with over four hundred fifty thousand words wants to bitch?
Jokes aside, this is unfortunate to hear, but I understand and wish you well.
Well, the end is niegh. Farewell, author. Your story will be remembered.
7371930
I mean, yeah, it's possible, but I don't want to give anyone false hope.
I dunno. I'm thinking of publishing the first chapter of the rom-com I've been working on for a while and seeing if it gets a reaction. If so, I'll probably stick around on the site for a while and finish everything up.
7371783
I'm very sorry to hear that, but it's good you decided to simply cut the cord, rather than let the story hang in limbo forever. The upcoming blog telling us what would have happened is really nice too, but the act of just letting everyone know that it won't be finished is highly appreciated. Many don't even offer the courtesy of hitting Cancelled.
It was a good story while it lasted, and the only Nightmare Wins A.U. I ever bothered to stick with.
7371889
So because you cannot dispute the fact you are not continuing is utterly disappointing, you fall back to the ye olde standby of "someone with a lower word count has no room to talk"? That is disappointing in itself. I imagine if I did have a similar wordcount, you would not have bothered replying at all. That or gone with something along the lines of "someone with so few reviews/such a low rating/so few followers/etc..."
7371775
While I'm disappointed that this story well never be finished, you have my thanks for at least telling us how things would turn out instead of leaving us to wonder forever.
7372239 While the delivery of his counter may not have been the best, it can be difficult to stay dedicated to a story. So many factors in life have the potential to cause everything from tearing a story apart/making it void to simply no longer interesting the author, or even said author forgetting where they wanted to go with the story. I think what Commie wanted to say is don't judge others until you've taken some time in their shoes. You'll never know the struggle of writing until you've actually written. I'm not just talking a one-shot, or even stories that have chapters but only go up to, say, ten while only having an average of 2k words per. Bigger stories, or stories that go as far to be in "books," always have the potential of falling apart.
It's disappointing to have another fic plagued with essential cancellation, but at least the guy's going to fill in the blanks and give a layout of what was supposed to happen. Half of the cancelled stories out there are simply abandoned. And then you've got fics that are stuck in limbo, giving a false hope that one day it may continue, when most likely the author may just move on if they haven't explicitly stated that they will return to the story.
He didn't give that reply because you're underneath him; you were aggressive with your comment, and he was aggressive back.
In addition, since you're probably going to point a target on me for siding with the author, I'm not a fanboy. I simply saw the story in the featured box, took a look at the most recent chapter and questioned why it was barely under 400 words, looked at the comments, and suddenly, passive-aggressive comment against a guy who's probably already being hounded by readers invested in the story while promising a reconciliation for them. Just back off of him, dude. Sorry if I was kinda aggressive myself, but a friend of mine is going through something similar, so I sympathize with Commie here.
7372451
I would rather (and have) wait patiently for years to have a story update again than see the author bow out "because reasons". And I despise reading a story only to find at the end of the latest chapter "I've discontinued/abandoned this" (not all authors will use the hiatus/cancelled tags). Frankly if he has no intention of continuing the story then it should just be deleted outright rather then get people interested in it only to find out it'll never reach a conclusion.
I can't see the story.
It's too DARKLY.
I'm sorry to hear you're leaving. This story was a delightfully grim take on a NMM-run world without being maudlin or arbitrarily sadistic. It seems I never commented on it, but it was always intriguing.
7372462 I can understand your frustrations, but just deleting the unfinished story outright doesn't solve anything. It's better to keep this story alive with the cancelled tag, since others can read through and take inspiration. Heck, maybe the author might be willing to let someone "adopt" the story. Go ahead and keep festering in your anger if you wish, but in the end, you're just burning yourself out. I'll be going now, but please let this drop for the sake of not turning the comments into toxicity.
Bro, I like this story.
Sorry to hear your heart is no longer in it. I shall keep a hope you will rediscover the joy in your writing.
7372489
If it's got a cancelled tag, it's in no way, shape or form alive. It would be a rotting, festering corpse wasting space on the site. Best to dispose of corpses then let them stink up the place.
And you think I have been aggressive or toxic? Hardly. This is passive for me, merely stating a (blunt) opinion and nothing more. Aggressive or toxic would lead to proclamations of sociopathy.
You're back!
I'm sad to say i forgot most of the story....
Reread time!
7371783 I appreciate you telling us upfront and leaving us with a blog outlining the rest of the story, instead of just forgetting about it. Thank you.
Now that I've caught up, I really would love for this to continue. I also noticed the tags are adventure, au, and dark. You should put comedy in this because I find freakin hilarious. This story is insane!
Well nertz. I was so happy when I saw this had updated, and then I read the comments.
I understand life happens, and nobody should devote their finite leisure time to an activity they're not enjoying, but I'm sad to see this one go.
7377350
It's not even that I don't enjoy it; it's that I can't force myself to finish this story. I can't write just because I want it to get done.
7377395 Thank you for being upfront about it.
That being said, if I were you, I'd try and finish it, and just go through like 10 or 20 various drafts until I was satisfied with it.
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